This past week, I've been seeing commercials for a new live-action movie coming to theaters soon. No, it's not a new action flick. No, it's not one of the many new horror movies coming out soon. And no, it's not one of the thousand sequels coming out this summer. No, it's actually....Underdog.
Now, growing up I was (and still am) a huge fan of the Underdog cartoon. I've always loved the humor that runs throughout a typical Jay Ward cartoon, the absurdity, the artwork....pretty much everything! However, when I first saw the commercial, I thought it looked a bit goofy. When I realized it was an Underdog movie, I wanted to cry.
Why does Hollywood have such a penchant for taking great childhood cartoons and ruining them with bad live-action movies? Flintstones, Dudley Do-Right, George of the Jungle, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Inspector Gadget....each one a childhood favorite, and each one turned into a bad live-action movie. And that's just to name a few.
As a child, watching these cartoons, I wasn't sitting there thinking "Golly, I wonder what this would look like if it happened in real life?" Instead, I was sitting there, simply enjoying the cartoon, enjoying it for the inane action, the plot hole riddled story lines, and the bad animation. Apparently, simply enjoying the cartoon for the cartoon's sake isn't enough for some people, and so they have to take the cartoon and turn it into something it's not!
Granted, there have been a few successes when it comes to bringing cartoons to the big screen in a live format. Look at the current Transformers movie. Now, I haven't seen it yet (believe me, I will see it!!), but by all accounts, reviews, etc., it is absolutely an incredible experience. However, for every good Transformers, there's ten bad movies like Masters of the Universe (did we REALLY need Dolph Lundgren as He-Man?!)
You would think that the sheer volume of bad movies, bad reviews, bad numbers would discourage Hollywood from doing this sort of thing. Unfortunately the occasional blockbuster like Transformers only encourages them. Hence the Underdog movie. Hence the upcoming G.I. Joe movie that I've been hearing rumors of. Hence the endless parade of live-action cartoons that I'm sure we'll be subjected to in the future.
Remember the catch phrase "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!"? Well, when Underdog is arriving as a computer-enhanced talking dog, teamed up with Jim Belushi, maybe there is a reason to fear...
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I guess Disney wanted to jump on the superhero movie bandwagon, but couldn’t quite manage to buy DC or Marvel… Yet… (Could you imagine? The Green Lantern, Disney style!)
I honestly think the Bratz movie will be better than this one.
Oh my goodness, i forgot all about the Bratz movie. Well, it certainly can’t be much worse than this one looks! And now I can’t get the idea of a big, goofy, smiley happy Green Lantern fighting a big jowly unshaven cat out of my mind…
The studios all believe they’ve “discovered” that remakes of stuff the “late 20’s” demographic grew up with is a great market. Sure, early on some of them were kinda good, but as they start remaking EVERYTHING the quality… well… goes down. The first remakes were “trying to do the old show justice” or “keep in the spirit of the old comic”… but now it’s just about milking old shows for more money.
That’s it exactly! Look at Underdog, or the most recent TMNT movie even. For my money, the very first TMNT movie was great, being that it was based on the original Eastman and Laird Comic, and NOT the horrible 80’s ‘cowabunga, it’s pizza dude!’ cartoons. Then they did the sequel with Vanilla Ice. And now, they decided to do yet another TMNT movie, figuring the 20-somethings would feel a twinge of nostalgia and spend a ton of money going to see it. Gee, notice how that movie disappeared from theaters pretty quickly? The only thing I felt when seeing commercials for that one was a twinge of nausea! And now I’m hearing rumors of a live-action G.I. Joe movie….what next?! Live-action Peabody and Sherman? Rainbow Brite? I won’t even get into the comic book-into movie craze…
CGI Smurfs! We’re gonna hear about it any day now, Im sure, just you wait!
LOL! At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised. And that, of course, would be followed up with CGI Snorks…
I have always been a huge fan of the Thundercats. I’ve recently heard that a studio has gained the rights to make a movie and they have a script in hand.
I’m torn about this because its something that franchise has been lacking all along, however if they get a treatment similar to ‘Underdog’ then I will be disappointed and disheartened for the rest of my life.
They’ve got a lot on the line with that one…
I’d be wary of a Thundercats movie. One of the biggest problems with these movies, particularly movies based on action-oriented cartoons like Thundercats, is the fact that they usually concern themselves more with ‘Well, with our CGI and special effects technology we can make it look big and awesome and have lots of explosions and people will love it!’ than with an actual story. More often than not, the movie winds up a story-less explosion-fest. I hope it’s not the case with Thundercats, but if recent trends are anything to go by, then I’d be a bit worried…
If I hear anything, I’ll let you know!
I wasn’t too sure about Transformers going into it, but it turned out VERY impressive, def. the most pleasant surprsie movie of the summer. Underdog is def. skewed more towards kids/families, but as a fan of the cartoon, I’m going to see it and give it a fighting chance. Plus Jason Lee is great.
Jason Lee is in Underdog?! Man, that’s almost a shame, I loved Jason Lee in all the Kevin Smith movies. If he’s in Underdog, then I don’t know what this world is coming to.
Jason Lee is Underdog’s voice, he doesn’t actually appear in the film. I love the guy, think he has a great voice for something like this. He could bring some wise-ass, clever wit to this movie. I’m not writing it off, Lee has done nothing but entertain me since Mallrats, I’ll give all his work plenty of love.
I just remember watching the 300 PG trailer online and I thought for a minute was that a live action Underdog they just showed??
When I saw the commercial, I had to pinch myself, in hopes that I was dreaming. Alas, the movie is a reality…