Why couldn't this movie have been done in live-action? The film itself wasn't terrible but man the animation was just cartoony. It reminded me of Shrek. Not to disparage the animators, because I'm sure this movie was a lot of hard work. I know this technology has advanced a lot since 2007 but it just looks goofy.
shareDoing it this way cut down a lot on building sets, location shooting, props, costumes and the like. Since almost everything was entirely computer generated, they didn't have to put money into making physical items or using physical locations.
I actually thought the animation was great, and when I saw the trailer, I had to do a double take because I thought it was Live Action at first. When I took a closer look and saw that it was all computer generated, I was really impressed.
I really liked this style of filmmaking and hope they can do it again. Except for this movie, the other motion capture films were for christmas (Polar Express and Christmas Carol). I'm hoping they can use this for more adult oriented action / fantasy films like Beowulf was.
I think using the animation approach for myths and legends works well. You get an almost lifelike performance while still getting across the idea that this is not, and never was, real life.
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