Animation Source Forums

Well, I guess you don't always get what you like then? I liked the film, end of story. Why should I have to justify a simple opinion on a film? Yeah the graphics sucked, but I enjoyed it.

No need for an attitude. As a matter of fact I'll even say what I liked and disliked about the movie. It'll be easy.

It was...yea. Lemme tell you, those who care about my opinion.

Starts off with Kate and Humprey. Apparently in the beginning of the movie they were kids, but I couldn't freaking tell cuz they looked exactly the same when they grew up a whole season later. Humprey, now with the voice of Justin Long, is still riding down hills in logs with his forgettable friends and for about the next 20 minutes he fawns over Kate, who is now voiced by Hayden Panettiere, who also played Red Riding Hood in that stupid Hoodwinked sequel. (Not even the original movie, so that ought to tell you about the wonderful performance she's about to give us with her wonderful acting skillz.)

Kate was by far one of the most boring characters I've ever had the misfortune to sit through. Not only was her acting bad (geez, her SCREAMING... UGH) but she had zero character development and her personality was one-dimensional and bland. She said nothing witty, nor did she do anything worthwhile. Even when she ninja-ed all over the place, she was boring to watch. Among all the cons, her singing was good at least.

Thankfully, there was not as much toilet humor as I thought there was going to be. Don't worry, folks, they used all of THOSE in the trailers. Bad for their advertising tho, I must say. Because believe it or not, I actually laughed.

And I didn't just laugh at the awkward movement, the flapping rubber jaws, or the serious lack of effort. I laughed at some jokes and slapstick too.

Now I don't wanna SPOIL IT for whoever may not have seen it yet, but trust me, I won't be ruining anything for you.

So SPOILER ALERT.

Hidden text : click to show

Hey I thought it was funny. If you didn't laugh, then you'll love the amount of bird death in this movie.

There really wasn't that much innuendo. There was some that was funny, but usually it was awkward.

It was especially awkward whenever the wolves stood on two legs (it made me really uncomfortable). Or danced. Or sang. Yes, there was singing in this movie. And by some good voice talent. HOWWWWWWWEVER. (Now, seeing as this is a BSer movie, I definitely wasn't gonna bash on it for its lack of realism. Hidden text : click to show )

HOWWWWWWWWWEVER. Now, I DID like that they treated wolf howling like human harmonizing. I liked that, okay? I liked it in Happy Feet. And as a matter of fact, this situation made more sense in which to put singing animals. HOWWWWWWWWWEVER. It was a very. Very. Very...very...very... very... very... poor delivery. WOULD have made an entertaining concept. IF they didn't suck at any kind of delivery.

One other thing that made me laugh was Eve, Kate's mother. She was a sadistic little... She was funny. She reminded me of a Kiona parody.

One other thing that bugged me was how much the animals knew about stuff. Hidden text : click to show

Upon that, the plot is beyond weak. I don't have to say that twice. I ended up giving a bigger crap about other things. Like Lily and Garth, who always managed to randomly pop up.

My overall rating? Even tho it made me laugh more than I thought it would, it's not even worth a rent. Sorry folks. Maybe see it online for free if you're curious, but maybe you should just watch something else. Like the Secret of Kells.

Oh did I mention that this movie was in memory of Dennis Hopper? Sucks to be him right? No one will remember him cuz of this movie, that's for sure.

Well noted, cat. I shall advise my family against it. I kinda figured that's how it would come out.

I don't know about you all, but the movie isn't all that bad compared to what people are saying.
But that subject is like beauty, it in the eyes of the beholder. And I would like to remind everyone about that fact.

That is why I encourage people to try things out for themselves if you are really interested in the thing in question. And not take the hearsay and gossip from others as the defined description.

Now, to Alpha and Omega, I'm not going to say too much about my personal opinion because I've already said them. There is a segment in Episode 4 of the Sourcecast where do a review of Alpha and Omega. If you're interested, I encourage you to the sticky Sourcecast topic in the "Other" Forums to get to the episode. Feel free to start a conversation if you want to talk my opinions.

In the end, the movie has it's big problems, but it's also a cute movie, and you can do a lot worse with your money on other movies. I'd say it really isn't worth a cinema visit, so I suggest waiting until it releases on DVD to rent it at least.
Personally, I'd buy it. And the soundtrack too, because the score really wasn't that bad. ('sides the howling scenes ('sides the last one; that one is not that bad))

xDDD That movie was one of the furthest things from my mind, but its mostly cuz at some point in time every BSer has a character or a dog with the name Maya or the name "maya" in it. They think it's clever or pretty or something.

I haven't seen the movie but I'll chip in my review of the soundtrack, which is more my thing.

When it comes to animated movies, it's not bad. At point it's actually quite lovely, utilizing flute and piano pretty well and the strings are pretty good, but they do use classic rise-and-fall melodies for scenes of tension. It's not new and fresh. Certainly, it's hard to match up to the big-name players, but A&O doesn't fall flat on its face in the media department.

A few tracks come out of the left field (Track 4 was like WHOA WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN USING ORCHESTRA WHERE'S THE RNB AND JAZZ COMING FROM) but overall it's fairly consistent. It's not like Spirit, Balto, or The Lion King where they had one recurring melody present in most of the songs, it changes throughout the soundtrack.

The one thing I can nitpick is that the "howling" which as Cat pointed out works like harmonizing, was a little disjointed at places and not really in sync. It came across as slightly messy.

Shockingly, and maybe I'll take back this statement once I see it, but I feel like one or two of your classic kiddie animated animal songs rather than harmonizing wouldn't have detracted from the quality of the soundtrack. It actually would be fitting. If you're gonna have a choir, use it.

Overall, the soundtrack is really nothing new when it comes to animated movie music. If you're looking for unique amazing Prince of Egypt levels of awesome, you're not gonna find it. If you're looking for things more on par with a decent sequel's soundtrack, pick it up. It's worth a listen because it's not that bad.

Yea I see where you're getting at. Unfortunately the soundtrack can't really save a movie, unless its a musical xDDD Its like when Hans Zimmer did the music for Sherlock Holmes. The music as awesome, and the subject (Sherlock Holmes) was classic. But it still wasn't a great movie xDD

And yea, the "howlinng" was sloppy. That's the best word for it. It would have worked, but it didn't.

But a bad soundtrack can ruin a good movie. While not all that inventive and 'new', at least Alpha and Omega's soundtrack is contributing to the enjoyability of the film.

My major problem with the howling scenes was that there was too much going into the sound of the track. When it comes to harmonizing, I think less is more, and these scenes are proof of that. When all of the wolves end up howling together, it just becomes a train wreck.
Worse yet, is that everyone has a go at being foreground. When that happens, there's not enough support from the background. I would have liked the scenes better if they let more of the primary characters in the foreground (depending on the scene, I believe that was Kate and Humprey and then Lily and Garth (after he learned... ><;)) and keep the secondary characters back in the background. That would have strengthened the support and allowed the main characters to shine. But that would have been probably too much organization for this movie.

Were I think they did pull it off was the final howling scene with just Humprey and Kate on the train. I'm not remembering too much detail from it, but like I said: less is more. The were letting each other shine while supporting with their own voice, and then I believe when they were both in the foreground, background instruments came into play to support and close off the scene.



Overall, I think one of the movie's biggest problems was that it did absolutely nothing new, which does nothing to work against all of it's other problems. Clearly a "B" movie. But "B" movies are not terrible.

I'm going to stand my ground in defending it that it's at least worth a rent.




And Fahu is another example on where I come from.
Really though, you've really got to try the movie for yourself to find out where you stand.

Lionsgate isn't new. They're known to make really GOOD movies. Saw, Kick-Ass, The Haunting in Connecticut, Waiting... Okay so those are the only good movies. Their bad movies are more widely known, Drag Me To Tell, Bratz: The Movie, turning Saw into a franchise...Happily N'Ever After. So, I guess no one should really be surprised now that I look at their list of movies.



True that. Balto 3 anyone?

And yes. Just as you said. Its nothing "new". So why is everyone LOVING this movie? Cuz there's wolves in it. Its your stereotypical romance where there's only two outcomes. Will they get together? Or not? Its boring.

Why does it seem so?
I'd blame why it seems so to the location you are asking that question. XD

And being a mass cliche, doesn't mean it doesn't have it's perks. XD

If I may interject here, studies actually show that the majority audiences want to see things and storylines that are familiar to them, something they can relate with. That's why filmmakers don't go for original, not because they can't come up with a good idea. People actually like seeing the same things over and over in situations just different enough that they're relatable, but not exactly the same. And apparently, if the movie is making money, then that fact has been proven again - even if they didn't do it well, which is the idea I'm getting here, having not seen the movie myself.

It's nearly impossible to really scale that out to the general public.

The movie did actually make money against its budget. Not much, but it still made money.

But that mean more people went to go see it than one would think.

Like, I said, you can do worse with your money.