I have a rule about avoiding movie trailers when I can. On the one hand, it does mean I miss out of exciting trailers, but on the other it also means that those exciting trailers can't give me high expectations. It also helps that frankly, most movie trailers kind of suck now (add that idea to the list of potential topics to write about) and it does help to know that I'm not missing anything really. That being said, the Minecraft movie has had its trailer drop recently, and boy did I miss something... I missed the ugliest attempt at realistic CG I have ever seen. The attempt to mix the very notable look of Minecraft with the same kind of CG that was used for Sonic the Hedgehog works about as well as... Well the first design of Sonic the Hedgehog in the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie. I remember when I first found out that the Minecraft movie was gonna be in Live-Action, and I just immediately lost interest in it, and now seeing what the movie looks like, I just have to ask, why are we making Minecraft into a live-action movie.
I should start with a minor disclaimer here, I am, like most people, being very loose with the term "Live-Action" here, because I am aware, frankly I'd be concerned if people weren't, that the live actors of the movie are set in an animated world. Really, most modern movies are no different than how Blue's Clues was filmed, so we do kind of have to pick and choose what makes a movie a "Live-Action" movie. This is a discussion I should have with other animation fans.
To start this, I'm gonna defend Minecraft a little bit. I've seen Minecraft appear on lists of "The Worst Video Game Graphics" and I just think that Minecraft isn't bad, in fact, I'd argue that the graphics are really good. The thing is, Minecraft has a stylized look to it, obviously, no other game looks like it save for the potentially hundreds of Minecraft knock-offs. However, when I say "Stylized" I mean something different, and it harkens back to the twelfth principle of animation; Appeal.
The basic idea behind appeal is that what you create will have some appealing quality behind it, which is a very subjective thing, but it does influence a lot of character design. If you look at some early versions of characters, like Scrooge McDuck, Garfield, Ronald McDonald or even Batman, and compare them to their modern or even their most recognizable versions, you can see changes made that would make the characters more appealing. This principle also applies to basically any art-form as it is a simple thing to understand; your work does have to appeal to someone, and the great thing about having to appeal to people is, not only do people have wildly varying tastes, but some people are also unaware of what they really like.
Minecraft's visual style works because it was unique compared to what else was going on at the time, and it worked for the kind of game Minecraft was, a survival game where you build things, there is a reason people were comparing it to Lego at the time, a game with piece-by-piece building gameplay would work fantastically with a cubic visual style, not unlike how games evoking retro-style gameplay also use retro style visuals. Of course, after several Minecraft knock-offs, like Cube Life: Island Survival, Cube World, Block Craft 3D, and all those dozens upon dozens of games made by repackaging UnitZ as an entire game, we really did see how badly the Minecraft style of visuals could be done, at least... we thought we did.
So this all begs the question, why are we making a live-action movie based on one of the most visually unique video games of the past few generations? Well, I have theories, and I blame Sonic the Hedgehog. After Sonic the Hedgehog was released and became a shocking success, it may have started a trend of this live-action animated hybrid movies of video games, because executives don't see quality, they see gimmicks, because that's how they sell things. Alvin and the Chipmunks did well, so let's do more live-action animated hybrids based off nostalgic properties, Batman '89 did well so let's make more comic book movies, oh hey, Marvel's cinematic universe is doing great, let's make our own! Of course, time still has yet to tell on whether I'm right, and I wouldn't think this entirely thanks to the success of another video game movie in recent years. I can't believe I'm about to throw praise on this studio but, Illumination's Super Mario Bros. Movie should have been the template the Minecraft movie followed.
Which brings me back to a point that I, and most animation reviewers, have been beating into the ground, there is still a stigma against animation. Thankfully, this stigma is becoming lesser thanks to multiple animated projects that are trying new things, mostly online, but we do have to also acknowledge the Spider-Verse films and Smiling Friends. However, it is very clear that this stigma still exists, because Disney is still making live-action remakes, because animated projects are still being tossed aside for no reason, because a movie that should have been animated based on the source material alone is being made in live-action. It is very clear that there is still a stigma against animation, and I'm as tired of talking about it as much as some people are tired of listening about it, no judgement.
In addition, seriously this part is being added after the rest of this blog has been written, it's bringing back the age old argument of "It's meant for kids, don't take it too seriously". Honestly, I think that reinforces my point, but it brings something else into sharper focus, there is a stigma around animation because there is a stigma around children's media as a whole. Frankly, this is a conversation literally everybody who is a media reviewer or analyst be they amateur, like myself, or professional is tired of having. Just because something is meant for children doesn't mean adults can't criticize it, because that's how we end up with Elsagate garbage.
It is a shame too because we've seen how Minecraft would look as an animated feature thanks to Telltale's Minecraft: Story Mode, if that is the style the movie wanted to emulate, they could have done that easily. Really, the trailer for the Minecraft Movie fails because it is in service to a terrible idea. I wasn't kidding when I said that I immediately lost interest in the movie when I first learned it was gonna be live-action, because half of what gives Minecraft it's identity is the visual look of the game, and when you strip that away, what do you have? You have a survival game where you build things, or in this movie's case, you have something really ugly and I would much rather take Ugly Sonic over. Could the movie still be good? Look, trailers give terrible expectations and impressions of movies so take everything any movie trailer gives you with a grain of salt, but I think we can all agree, this is not the Minecraft movie we've been wanting.
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