Toon Zone Talkback - Imagi Animation Studios Shuts Down

I've got the Astro Boy DVD, and after watching it a few times, it just seems really tragic that it was so ignored by moviegoers. It's excellent. And everyone I've shown or lent it to likes it too.

BTW, looks like the film's going to be re-released on 3D Blu-Ray DVD for the new Sony 3D television: http://3dvision-blog.com/tag/astro-boy-3d/

I bet if the movie had been shown in 3D at theaters, it would have done a lot better at the box office.
 
I'll admit that the trailer in 3D looked great but the film's a bore. It wasn't ignored by moviegoers. Simply put, it wasn't a great film. Sure there wasn't a lot of potty humor, but the robots besides Astro weren't too special, Samuel Jackson didn't get a lot of time with his character (and I felt was a big waste in the movie), and there's the unneeded political propaganda in the film where, as discussed in the official Astro Boy thread was supposed to mirror Sen. John McCain and what, if I recall, was supposed to be John Kerry/Barack Obama because of their differences relating to coming up with resolutions to their problems that affected Earth and Metro City hovering above it. Add to the fact that it was released in the month where everyone was seeing Saw VI and it was a sure bet that the film wasn't going to reach audiences.

Gatchaman would have had the same problem. Besides the fans of the series, I don't know if it would had picked up some newbies who would ocme out wanting to invest their time and money wanting to watch the original TV show. I think, for now, Imagi, if it was still alive, should have had their films on DVD/Blu-Ray. That way they wouldn't look like embarrassments financially and would be a great way to see whether the films are good or not without worrying that if you wasted your money or if it was money well spent.
 
NewcomerDC said:
I'll admit that the trailer in 3D looked great but the film's a bore. It wasn't ignored by moviegoers. Simply put, it wasn't a great film.QUOTE]

It had a very weak opening weekend, which indicates that the public overlooked it. If it had gotten a decent opening weekend, and then dropped like a rock, then yeah, I'd agree that the public decided it wasn't a good film. FWIW, it got a B+ score from user reviews at Yahoo movies.
Click to expand...
 
It looks like from IMAGI's website and this story that IMAGI has re-structured, their US office has shut down, and they are trying to finish their projects like Gatchaman. The impression I've gotten is that they would have to indeed outsource the movie to other production companies to get it finished.

Sounds like they would have to HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER Gatchaman.
 
Back
Top