The Joylessness of Illumination Entertainment

Illumination entertainment has been one of the bigger names in the animation industry since the release of Despicable Me in 2011. Their debut film was not bad, but it seems like everything since then has been soulless cash grabs. Illumination entertainment's line up is far from impressing: Hop, The Lorax, The Secret Life of Pets, Sing, Minions and most recently The Grinch, are all incredibly average movies. I would almost prefer if they were worse, but they are all so safe and so boring. The worst part to me is how much money Illumination puts into their marketing. I saw the face of the new Grinch everywhere for the past three months, and even though I had no interest in seeing it I knew when it was coming out. This strategy of making sub-par movies with an emphasis on wide scale advertisement and merchandising obviously works: even though everyone I know agrees the Secret Life of Pets and Sing are both crappy movies they are both slated for sequels in 2019 and 20120 respectively.

Why does this bother me? I think Illumination movies confirms the stereotype of animation being solely for kids. Unlike their contemporaries (pixar/disney/weta) Illumination is fine with putting out films with simple/quick animation styles and surface level plots that are filled with middle school humor. I think Illumination has a right to exist, but I do think they represent what I don't like about the american film industry: profit over everything.

Illumination Entertainment has been chosen by Nintendo to make a Super Mario Bros movie (for whatever reason). Maybe nintendo's influence with push Illumination to put more resources into this project, or maybe 2021 will bring another joyless movie.

Do you folks agree with me or do you think Illumination puts out good content?

Comments

  1. Em ZarabetDecember 9, 2018 at 6:17 PM

    congrats on your first blog post. I never realized all these movies came from the same studio, but I'm not surprised. They definitely all share that same dumb kid aesthetic where it seems too bad for even kids to enjoy. I do think some of their stuff is cuter than others, but for the most part their movies seem exclusively like money makers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Diego A. MedinaDecember 9, 2018 at 7:47 PM

    I feel like the problem is that the studio really has no creative identity, since Despicable Me, their movies have been basically walking with crutches. Those being things like retelling stories from other animated films (Secret Life of Pets vs Toy Story), on preexisting IPs like their Dr. Seuss adaptations, preexisting music in Sing, or just common folklore like in Hop. It seems like their only original idea was Despicable Me and that was unfortunately run into the ground.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bratz: Rock Angelz is the movie I didn't know I needed

Image
This weekend, I watched the hit 2005 animated movie Bratz: Rock Angelz. This movie was one of the first Bratz films in CGI, and let me tell you- the plot is ALL OVER THE PLACE. The girls start a fashion magazine and use stolen passes to get into hot London punk clubs, but when they lose their passes they decide that the only way to get into the gig is to become a rock band? This movie can be considered capitalist propaganda- the Bratz shop in order to destress about their problems, and it's an implemental part of their lives. They don't have jobs either- Jade has an internship, but only for three hours until she is fired. Chloe meets a TRASH British prince and ignores her best friend Yasmin who finds celebrity judge Byron Powell's (I don't make this stuff up) dog, Ozzy. Jade and Sasha try to do a photo shoot for the magazine, but Sasha micromanages the whole thing and makes her friend feel bad! And this whole time, there's these two evil blond twins (Kaley Cuoco PLA...
Read more

The New Spider Man!

Image
Yesterday I saw spiderman with some buddies and we all walked out absolutely giddy! This animation is the best animation to hit the theaters in 2018. Period. I remember watching it and as I was watching it thinking, "thank god I already finished all my reviews because I don't think I can put into words how good this movie is in just a page". The style of this animation is something you have never seen before from Hollywood. It is absolutely stunning. It follows traditions of comic book artists with bright colors, dark lines on the face, and a pop art texture overlayed on top of everything. My breath was taken away during the final fight scene: it was gorgeous , emotional, and the stakes were made clear in every shot. Not only was the animation fantastic, but the story was also so well told. Every character had a meaningful arch or something you didn't expect from them. Every relationship and turning point felt genuine and earned. And you didn't have some v...
Read more