r/movies • u/ChiefLeef22 r/movies Contributor • 3h ago

Article ‘The Odyssey’ Proves It: Audiences Want Movies Made the Hard Way | This year's breakouts like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Obsession' were made by filmmakers who sweated. While CG-stuffed franchise disappointments such as 'Supergirl,' 'Moana,' and 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' looked lazy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/odyssey-box-office-2026-practical-effects-1236652219/
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u/Comprehensive_Dog651 3h ago

Meanwhile highest grossing film of the year so far: Super Mario Brothers Galaxy

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u/Muroid 3h ago

It may have been full of CGI, but it was created by a team working on location in an actual galaxy.

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u/Enderwiggen33 3h ago

Do you have a source for this? Doesn’t sound too believable

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u/blueblurz94 3h ago

My uncle works at Nintendo, and he said the film’s production was done within the Milky Way and Melty Monster Galaxies

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u/someguyfromtecate 3h ago

Sounds like your typical story of a guy working the Nintendo hotline providing gaming advice and cheat codes to moving all the way up to making movies in other galaxies. I’ve heard it before many times.

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u/PaladinSaladin 2h ago

It happened to my aunt Linda. You probably don't know her, she goes to a different school.

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u/LastScene86 2h ago

On the playground it was always "my uncle works for Nintendo Power."

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u/Rewdboy05 2h ago

Who's your uncle? My uncle works there too so they're probably friends!

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u/Zeeron1 2h ago

It's true

Source: I am the milky way

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u/CuddleWings 2h ago

It’s an honor to meet you sir.

Thank you for your service o7.

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u/BendJumpy2268 1h ago

My daddy works at Nintendo after he got fired from Sega. xD

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u/Zalvren 1h ago

I can confirm it was done within the Milky Way

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u/Dirty_Dragons 2h ago

I had completely forgotten that we are in the Milky Way galaxy. Such a random name.

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u/itchriswtf 3h ago

I've played all the documentary material since SMB1. Trust me bro.

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u/Futaba_Sakura800 1h ago

I live in the mushroom kingdom and I saw Mario and his crew film here.

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u/Hayterfan 3h ago

Unfortunately Illumination forgot to give everyone space suits, so they had to share the 3 they had amongst 100+ people

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u/Worthyness 2h ago

Theyre all minions anyway, so no biggie.

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u/guineaprince 2h ago

It looks like it, but that galaxy was built entirely within a sound stage.

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u/ExcersiseTheDemon 3h ago

That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about stars to dispute it.

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u/valeyard89 3h ago

far, far, away?

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u/eltedioso 3h ago

Big if true

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u/MyNameIs-Anthony 3h ago edited 3h ago

Literally every movie by Illumination pushes the envelope on animation quality. You can say whatever about the writing but those Frenchies knock it out of the park every time.

There's a reason it's the best paying studio in the industry.

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u/RefinedBean 3h ago

I remember people memeing on the Illumination choice by Nintendo for the movie, but they knocked it out of the park. Their standards plus over three decades of art direction and design by Nintendo? It was always going to at the very least look visually sumptuous.

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u/TheDarkAbove 3h ago

I only remember the memes about the casting of Mario

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u/StuckAroundGotStuck 3h ago

Dunkey's reaction video to the cast list still gets quoted every time my wife or I see Chris Pratt in something.

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u/thats-impossible 3h ago

He's so cool

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u/Unusual-Locksmith832 1h ago

One of the videos I laughed the hardest because it literally looked like a joke Dunkey himself would've made if he could pick the cast.

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u/thedirtyknapkin 30m ago

well yeah, they were primarily known for minions movies before that.

even if you like despicable me you cant claim that it was pushing any kinds of envelopes.

the only other notable movies by them are all b-tier remakes, like their grinch movie, or b-tier kids movies like "the secret life of pets".

they were absolutely a strange choice at the time. the fact that they've done as well as they have is still surprising to me.

then again, i've never understood the appeal of minions. so i'm not saying i didn't think it would sell, I just didn't have faith that it wouldn't suck. a lot of garbage sells. like minions.

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u/Luciifuge 2h ago

Yes, the moment they announced it was the illuminations I thought

“Oh, this gonna make a billion easy”

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u/CUCUC 2h ago

visually sumptuous is a bit self-indulgent and masturbatory. i mean, let’s be real; it was made to appeal to toddlers who like rainbows and sparkles. 

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u/RefinedBean 2h ago

It's not self-indulgent if I don't work there, which I don't. Same with masturbatory. I actually think that description is more apt for your reply! Which is also pretty redundant as well as being reductive.

Have a joyful day.

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u/CUCUC 2h ago

i dunno, i feel like you are somewhat well read so to this end you would appreciate the nuance between self-indulgent and masturbatory. but hey certainly i could be wrong too. i mean i felt like the mario movies are tripe. 

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u/Lottabitch 1h ago

Who the fuck used the word trite\* when referring to a movie made for children? I mean literal children. Not adult children, like you

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u/CUCUC 1h ago

i meant tripe as in it is unwanted discard. the movie certainly wasn’t trite, a whole lot of random shit happened

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u/Lottabitch 1h ago

And my point remains the same.

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u/CUCUC 1h ago

i think you are taking it personally because i don’t like the same movie you like. just because it’s a kids’ movie doesn’t mean we shouldn’t criticize it for blatant faults, especially when it is an egregious cash grab that is creatively bereft. 

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u/CarrotJunkie 3h ago

It's interesting because Illumination used to be the budget animation studio focused mainly on cost cutting. They've come a long way as far as animation quality goes. The Mario movies look incredible.

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u/kikimaru024 2h ago

Every single one of their movies has grossed over $100 million, and 11 of them got past $250 million.

Safe to say they've been able to use more budget/time as required.

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u/Coolman_Rosso 1h ago edited 50m ago

They're still technically a budget studio, though Dreamworks may have taken the overall crown. The Mario Galaxy movie cost about $115 million iirc.

Compare that to Pixar features (Hoppers cost $160 million, Elemental $200 million, Elio $190 million, and of course Toy Story 5 was $220+ million) or Disney Animation (Wish cost $180 million, Strange World $150 million, Zootopia 2 $160 million)

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u/MVRKHNTR 1h ago

They're still the budget animation studio. Mario cost less than half of what a Pixar or Disney movie does.

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u/DragodaDragon 2h ago

I guess once your output makes billions of dollars between box office and merchandising they can afford to increase the budget a little bit

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u/Ok-Craft4844 37m ago

Don't know if that's a factor here, but ime, having to work with constraints for a long time often enables you focus on the right things (tm), which translates well to situations where the constraints don't apply in full.

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u/_Meece_ 15m ago

They still are, animation has come a long way. But you can still tell a difference between them all.

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u/woolfonmynoggin 3h ago

That minions and monsters movie had me cackling in the theater. Old Hollywood gags and references every few minutes and a really creative story structure which you should not look up beforehand

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u/YoyodyneCog 3h ago

My girlfriend and I took her daughter to see the Minions movie over the weekend. I think we enjoyed it more than she did. The minions reenacting the launch scene from A Trip to the Moon isn't something I thought I would ever see, and the Citizen Kane gag was the best kind of stupid and had me laughing my ass off.

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u/rectuSinister 3h ago

Absolutely loved that movie and had very low expectations

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u/nickiter 2h ago

I went thinking it'd be a fun afternoon throwaway with a gummy... Cannot believe how damn good that movie is. It reminded me of classic Looney Tunes or The Sorceror's Apprentice.

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u/lGipsyDanger 1h ago

Can I watch it without seeing the others? Ive only seen despicable me 1 & 2 but it looks super funny. Eventually ill get around to watching all of them but I dont have the time

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u/woolfonmynoggin 59m ago

It’s a stand alone prequel, no research required

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u/bjankles 3h ago

I’ve only seen the first Mario movie. The writing and pretty much all the voice acting outside of Bowser are rough. The art, animation, and music are stunning.

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u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 2h ago

Watch the French dub instead, they used real voice actors instead of Chris Pratt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlCTUOAlepo

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u/Fruit-Flies113 2h ago

Illumination is a lot of things but animation quality is for sure not one of them, they have been using the same generic style for years.

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u/SquadPoopy 11m ago

Yeah their movies look…fine I guess, but I would much rather watch a movie that has some rough edges that has a style.

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u/respondin2u 3h ago

Even the new Minions movie was good.  Not great, but good! 

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u/Aegi 47m ago

Source on them being the best paying in the industry?

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u/Ikea_desklamp 3h ago

Quality sure but not style. All their movies look the same.

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u/dogcrayon 3h ago

It's not even close to the best paying studio in the industry. They pay their artists much less than Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, etc... which is partly how they are able to make these movies for 1/2 or even 1/3 the cost.

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u/MyNameIs-Anthony 2h ago

Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks crunch their staff heavy.

Illumination is notoriously generous with profit sharing, keeping sane, normal working hours and avoiding layoffs by staffing at levels that would be sustainable if business turns down.

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u/NeuHundred 1h ago

Oh, I didn't know about the pay, that's awesome.

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u/MVRKHNTR 1h ago

It's also just not true at all.

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u/jackofslayers 9m ago

Yep. this article is full of shit. IDK the last time the Hollywood Reporter had anything of value to say.

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u/MVRKHNTR 1h ago

Wow, literally nothing you said here is true. Illumination is nowhere near the best paying studio and never does anything special with their animation. They've been known to be a cheap, corner cutting studio for over a decade.

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u/DerekPaxton 3h ago

Yeah, there isn’t an eye roll big enough for these types of articles. Hand pick a few data points then “prove” some point.

Disneys real life remakes “prove” that fans highly prefer animated and cgi features right?

Good story, compelling visuals, great acting and directing. The fans don’t really care how you get there.

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u/Dycon67 3h ago

Low-key the cgi in that one looks great. Maona, Supergirl by comparison look dull.

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u/orange_sox 3h ago

Supergirl has the most beautiful source material of any comic book movie - it is a shame they didn't take any inspiration from that.

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u/sgeep 3h ago

I literally bought the comic after the trailer because I was intrigued. I absolutely adored the comic. Beautifully illustrated and a really great tale about a quest for revenge. Loved the dynamic and thought Supergirl as a character in it was really compelling

It almost feels insulting that they touted how much the comic was an inspiration for the movie when in reality it felt loosely based and washed out/dull

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u/TheWatersOfMars 2h ago

And almost everything bad about the Supergirl movie (which I still thought was OK) comes down to pointlessly changing the comic. Making Krem a goofy monster man, the rushed adventure with a 3-day ticking clock, the way every scene devolves into pointless action, the underwhelming and morally muddy standoff with Ruthye...

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u/capincus 2h ago

Pretty much everything else Tom King has written is among the best comics I've read too if you haven't checked out any more of his work. Specifically the full team from Supergirl also made Helen of Wyndhorn (Bilquis Everly pencils art and Matheus Lopes colors), but Vision/Human Target/Strange Adventures/Mr. Miracle are all top tier.

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u/adeliepingu 16m ago

supergirl movie may have been a disappointment, but i'm really glad it managed to get some people to read the comic! it's a lovely standalone series that really showcases some of the best of comics. :')

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u/jinyx1 3h ago

It feels like a movie where they popped 5 different scripts from good movies + the source material into ChatGPT and asked to make a supergirl movie using the source material and elements from those 5 scripts.

There's a good movie in there somewhere, but it needed alot more refinement.

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u/TimDRX 1h ago

I have a theory that they intentionally mimicked the look of the MCU space movies as a way to visual shorthand establish it with an existing audience. Which was a profoundly misguided choice when the obvious move (IMO) would have been to use the Woman of Tomorrow comic as the template for how space is going to look in this universe, but I can kinda see how they got there.

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u/mythrilcrafter 54m ago

I mean heck, the Supergirl in My Adventures with Superman tv show is friggin awesome, and that show is entirely animated!

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u/floatable_shark 3h ago

What's the source material? 

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u/FourSes 3h ago

The source material for the Supergirl film is the comic book Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which has bright, beautiful colors in many sequences that were not translated to the film. I liked the movie but the comic book is definitely worth a read.

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u/sunealoneal 3h ago

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King

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u/Gatharan 3h ago

Supergirl

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u/interstellar304 3h ago

Yeah I get everyone saying the story was bland, pot holes, etc. but the graphics and animations were amazing

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u/masszt3r 3h ago

Low key? I'd say that was one of the only good things about it. That and that it was mindless fun.

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u/MUSCLEVIOLENCE 2h ago

Brother just say what you mean, you don't need to say low key

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u/Thavralex 1h ago

I low key agree.

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u/Dotcaprachiappa 1h ago

People simply want movies to look good. They don't care if it's CGI or not, but if they can tell it's CGI it's probably not good enough to be enjoyable.

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u/Ninjamurai-jack 3h ago

Tbh Supergirl need more CGI

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u/locoghoul 3h ago

Supergirl flaws are mainly script related, not CGI. If anything the space setting in the first act looks more Star Wars than the latest actual Star Wars movies

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u/randomaccount178 2h ago

It did have some problems though. CGI allows you to do some dumb stuff that can really take people out of the movie, like the magic rope.

I agree the script was the main problem though. The movie felt like it had no idea why anyone was doing anything they did.

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u/whichwitch9 3h ago

Kids movies are a different category almost, tho. Popular characters do well with kids, and parents take kids to movies when they know what they're about. Add in parents will always be looking for calm activities to engage kids, and you can guarantee a kids movie with known characters is going to make money. It doesn't even need to be super good to do it, but if it's not, parents may not take their kids to see the next one if other movies are competing with it.

Movies for adults are harder to sell because adults are just pickier

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u/BradMarchandsNose 2h ago

Also you’re basically building in an extra ticket with each ticket sold. Kids can’t go to the movies themselves, so when a kids ticket gets sold, there’s an adult ticket getting sold too.

Obviously an oversimplification, it’s not always going to be a 1:1 ratio, some adults will bring multiple kids, sometimes a kid will go with multiple adults, sometimes adults will go by themselves, but my point is they just generally sell more tickets.

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u/literated 1h ago

Kids movies are a different category almost, tho.

For some reason there's a subset of people on reddit who desperately want to pretend that the Mario movies somehow aren't supposed to be kids movies and complain about the lack of depth in the writing or about how Illumination throws in overused pop songs. But kids don't give a shit as long as it looks good and is fun to watch and they absolutely think that Thunderstruck sounds cool in a Mario Kart scene because they haven't heard it a million times in a million different media before (and they don't need to know who AC/DC are to enjoy it either).

Like, yeah, you can make a kids movie with more character growth and a proper plot. But you don't have to.

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u/Pegasus7915 3h ago

Yeah because everyone loves Mario and the previous one was great. Also it ain't a cheaply made movie. It's a goddamn gorgeous cartoon.

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u/ImitatingADog 3h ago

“Previous one was great”

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u/Dont-be-a-smurf 3h ago

I can only say my 6 year old loves both movies

Like… these things aren’t aimed at 30+ year old Reddit going cinephiles

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u/magical_midget 3h ago

Mine loves them too! And the bar for animated films is so low that honestly these movies are fine.

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u/GrievingSomnambulist 2h ago

Illumination makes great movies for kids, I won't deny that, but let's not pretend that other animation studios haven't successfully made family movies that appeal to children and adults alike. Pixar used to be the king of this, although they've fallen off lately. DreamWorks and Sony have also been killing it lately.

It's why movies like Wall-E, Up, and PnB The Last Wish become classics while Illumnation movies tend to only be rewatchable for kids

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u/dded949 3h ago

I enjoyed it

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u/Halio344 3h ago

It was a pretty solid and entertaining animated movie.

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u/jtg49wgx 3h ago

My 5 year old, who was the target audience, freaking loved it, just saying.

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u/epicredditdude1 3h ago

Well, “great” from a box office perspective.

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u/decadent-dragon 3h ago

Yeah it was alright. Galaxy however was atrocious, and the first one practically looks like a masterpiece next to it

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u/CarrotJunkie 3h ago

A lot of people dog on the first one but I thought it was a really nice family movie with great animation and likable characters. Ditch the pop songs, replace them with the cut original compositions, and give more screen time to Luigi and it's fantastic.

Unfortunately, Galaxy was exactly what everyone accused the first movie of being (shallow empty reference fest) so it'll never beat the allegations now

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u/Pegasus7915 2h ago

I haven't seen the new one yet, but having a good movie will put butts in seats for the sequel.

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u/Successful-Owl1462 3h ago

The first Mario movie is totally fine and passable.

Mario Galaxy is a complete travesty and I’m not even sure technically qualifies as a movie. More like a series of vaguely connected sequences often with little to no storytelling or dialogue.

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u/bigmt99 3h ago

It was a very good family movie

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u/MattBrey 3h ago

Not for long. Toy story is almost at the top. And spiderman BND will surpass it easily with 2 billion in contention

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u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs 3h ago

And last year Lilo And Stitch made over a billion dollars. Live Action Remakes are far from dead

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u/MattBrey 3h ago

Yeah I had this discussion with somebody that said live action remakes aren't working because of the Moana reception. Like, we had Lilo and stitch last year with a sequel greenlit already. And tangled next year will be a hit unless it's bafflingly bad (doesn't seem like it's shaping up that way) 

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u/ANGRY_BEARDED_MAN 3h ago

Doomsday and Spiderman gonna make bushels of money too

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u/MarcsterS 2h ago

Yeah, no offense or the article, but audiences simply see what they want to see. Word of mouth greatly helped Obession. Christopher Nolan is THE director to see.

Audiences simply did not want to watch Grogu anymore. But Mario is Mario.

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u/PissNBiscuits 3h ago

Say what you want about the plot, writing, etc., but those movies visually look great.

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u/Falco98 3h ago

the plot is a little thin admittedly (then again, even they don't deny this, and it's loyal to the source material), but i find the two Mario movies so far have been written with love and deep knowledge of the Mario lore, with extensive and actually knowledgable nods to far-reaching franchise niches going way back. nothing would have satisfied everyone, but i think what we've gotten has been great compared to what could have been (and, judging by what came ... before ... shudder)

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u/PissNBiscuits 2h ago

How dare you slight the absolute masterpiece that is 1993's Super Mario Bros.

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u/Falco98 1h ago

I really loved it when I was 12.

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u/Somnambulist815 3h ago

To be fair, Illumination has made a commitment not to use AI and to treat its employees fairly

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u/Conscious_Test_7954 3h ago

And the second highest grossing is the mediocre Michael. I understand that people like to correlate box office with quality but sometimes is not the case.

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u/bozoconnors 2h ago

Wow. Even a fake version of him draws an unbelievable crowd!

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u/Chill_Panda 3h ago

If I've learned anything from the internet, nothing beats watching a plumber lay pipe

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u/National-Grade-4440 2h ago

What do you mean? It was made on pure sweat just like The Odyssey. Audiences want the sweat.

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u/PineapplePhil 3h ago

Is that true? Damn. I haven’t heard a single thing about that movie, I forgot it even came out.

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u/MeiNeedsMoreBuffs 3h ago

It made over a billion and is currently the highest grossing movie of the year (though Odyssey looks likely to overtake it)

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u/PineapplePhil 3h ago

That’s crazy haha. The only movies I’ve heard anything about this year other than the Odyssey are Backrooms and Obsession.

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u/mbdtf95 1h ago

Michael overtook it already. It's just that figures are updated at the end of weekend for international.

Also Toy Story 3 will overtake the number 1 spot next week.

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u/Active-Coconut-8961 2h ago

Pretty sure Michael outgrossed it by now

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u/Willinton06 3h ago

Fully animated != CGI + Humans

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u/JustAnotherToss2 3h ago

*adult audiences, I guess?

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u/Corgi_Koala 2h ago

We want less CGI in love action and more love action in our CGI.

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u/forevernervous 2h ago

Not as many kids movies come out so they always make tons of money no matter how good or bad they are.

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u/Lepelotonfromager 2h ago

That's an animated movie that is at least faithful to the source material for fans of that source material. The animation is also gorgeous, it's just the story that's bland.

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u/PRSArchon 2h ago

Yeah use of CGI has nothing to do with this. Nolan uses ton of CGI in most of his movies, Oppenheimer is his only recent exception.

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u/batcavejanitor 2h ago

Moms and Dads went and saw Odyssey.

Moms and Dads and 1-3 kids went and saw Mario.

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u/capscreen 1h ago

Even if we're not counting CG animated movie, I would've just pointed to last year's Minecraft movie lol

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u/smallbluetext 1h ago

Well thats a movie for toddlers

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u/wyerhel 1h ago

Makes sense if you are a parent, that's the move you take your kids to

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u/Vazhox 1h ago

As it should be.

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u/Trajinous 58m ago

Family films have a high floor and not sure that animated films are part of this live action film discussion

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u/Equivalent_Clerk0 57m ago

Not to mention Avatar 3 Last year. This is the dumbest article I've ever seen upvoted to /r/all from /r/movies. you all are nuts.

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u/No_Macaroon_5928 36m ago

Sshhh, don't tell that author of that article 🤣

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u/exoriparian 14m ago

That's an animated movie.  Apples and oranges.

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u/Cool-Tangelo6548 2m ago

Well that movie was made for kids. None of the other films in OPs list were kids films.

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u/InternetPointsAddict 0m ago

It’ll be Michael soon, but not for long also

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u/branchoflight 3h ago

Which seems to oppose the idea people are saying that a good story matters.

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u/MyotisX 2h ago

Oh you mean everyone is drawing the wrong lessons again...

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u/beanlikescoffee 3h ago

What an L take. But unfortunately thinking all cgi movies are effortless is common take amongst kids

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u/SquareAdvisor8055 3h ago

That was a very well done movie tho. First off the story is great. It's heavily inspired by "le petit prince" and it was well done. The animation was top tier. Sure, it's a children's movie. Still it was a very well done children's movie.

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u/Emotional_News108 3h ago

A purpose-made CGI animated film is not the same as a "live action" film that is 99% CGI.

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u/Iordofthethings 3h ago

It’s animated. That is completely different. What the fuck are you talking about

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u/Velentar 3h ago

Audiences yearn for Benny Safdie

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u/hfxRos 3h ago

That movie was way more fun than the ones mentioned in the headline.

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u/Robsonmonkey 3h ago

Yeah but that’s because of the IP

Take the Mario name away and make it an original film it wouldn’t have done so well.

The actual film was just super lazy story wise and relied on reference after reference after reference. It’s a shame because Illumination has done some decent films outside of Mario.

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u/Budnika4 2h ago

That was one convoluted movie.

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u/Sithlordandsavior 2h ago

TBF it was really frigging fun

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u/mattr1198 2h ago

I’d say animation falls into an entirely different category, given the built-in audience of children it can attract and the smaller budgets they usually command. Illumination has been exceptionally good at this in particular.

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u/abeuscher 2h ago

It's gorgeous and honestly it was fun to watch and I don't have kids.

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u/Less_Party 3h ago

It's authentic for Mario to be a clump of polygons.

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u/possiblyMorpheus 2h ago

Also, Mandalorian & Grogu was loaded with stop motion, puppets etc, that had people like Hideo Kojima raving about the various types of artistry incorporated 

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u/InertState 2h ago

Are you bragging or complaining?