I did something I didn’t think I’d ever do – I wrote a review on Amazon.com for a movie. Typically there are far too many reviewers for movies that overshadow others, but I finally felt strong enough about a movie – and noticed a huge gap in the reviews – to justify it. At the same time, due to the controversy of the review, I knew I’d take a beating.
I saw a stop-motion animated film called “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” with the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep. It was nominated for Best Animated Film and Best Original Score at this year’s Oscars.
And it was the worst animated movie I’ve ever seen.
Yet, everywhere I look, I see nothing but praise, and there were almost no negative reviews on Amazon. So I wrote one, outlining why it is bad.
- The story was predictable.
- The voice actors were bland (unlike, say, Shrek).
- The characters aren’t memorable (and there are no toys – which animated films bank on).
- Stop-motion animation is creepy and parts of this film looked like a bad Saturday morning cartoon.
- There were no original songs… just The Beach Boys (for a movie about foxes stealing chickens)
One last thing ace in the hole for my argument: The film flopped at the box office, which almost NEVER happens for GOOD animated films these days. GOOD animated films make HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS without fail.
I was the only one to give it one star on Amazon.
Almost instantly, the boo-birds came to me, marking my review as ‘not helpful.’ One guy told me to go watch Transformers again and leave this ‘intellectual’ film alone. Another argued with me that it wasn’t ‘animated’ though the term ‘animated’ can refer to stop-motion as well as drawn.
While I’ll never say someone is wrong for liking the film, I feel I gave good reasons as to why many won’t like it. Regardless, when you trash a film that several like, you’re opening yourself up to criticism, and that’s just what I did. Unfortunately, in this day and age, any moron has a platform for opinions and criticism, and poorly-written articles and baseless criticism is given the same megaphone as anyone else.