Here is an LA Times Feb. 2013 article on how Dreamworks wrote off $87 million for "Rise of the Guardians".  It's failure also led to layoffs.  No question, the movie was a solid box office failure, given how much it cost to produce.  We can talk about WHY it failed if you want.  I agree that it is gorgeous to see, but that is not so unusual any more for big budget animated films.  The audiences will not start raving on Tweets because a movie is gorgeous. 

A major problem, IMO, had to do with the target audience.  Forget about all that "movie for the whole family" BS, when you tell a story, you tell it to an audience.  "Guardians" was not for little kids, we can be pretty sure of that.  Teens?  Maybe, but it is not a good date movie.  Adults?  Okay, but what is really in the story for adults?  What's the point once you get over how gorgeous it is?  Nothing sticks with you after seeing "Guardians".  It is an extremely light weight high-concept, high-gloss-production kind of Hollywood film, designed purely to get the rubes forking over the box office bucks.  It didn't work as planned, that's all.  We are likely to see more and more of these big-budget foul balls because the big studios have stopped being creative and are into re-treads.

I don't know why but in my opinion Bryan Cranston has a great voice for Kung Fu.

Really ?

Television Craft | Visual Effects And Graphic Design in 2013
Titanic
WIN- Tom Turnbull
The Psychology of Winning
Robin Nurse, Julian Gibbs, Richard Gort
Parade's End
Rupert Ray, Benuts
Doctor Who
The Mill

Tito Ortiz? the MMA fighter? Well, I guess I know who will win in studio arguments. Bravo Illumination!

Like most of other cases, an undisclosed settlement took place.

You are Crazy,..where the hell are come from ...all of that VFX skill :)
I can not wait anymore,..just please release this olympus. :D

Please note that the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize is changing for its 10th year.

The prize will only be open to students enrolled at the University of Oklahoma beginning in 2014.

The whole style of this movie seems very interesting.  I will check this out.

Your comments about Ray Harryhausen's films are spot on. They were alyaws great fun to watch and their effects never distracted from the unspooling of a good story. Peter Jackson's King Kong had the advantage of millions of dollars of visual effects and yet it was a long, boring film. Even Ray Harryhausen remarked in interviews to me and others that it shouldn't take an hour to get to Skull Island. Something else that bothered Ray about Jackson's film was that it spent far too much time on the Ann Darrow character. She is neither the focal point of the film nor the reason anyone bought a ticket to see King Kong, but Jackson apparently didn't understand that.For excellent background on Ray's early career, I recommend Arnold Kunert's two-disc DVD, Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection and Mike Hankin's amazing books, Ray Harryhausen: Master of the Majicks.

Great giveaway and a great blog.

Awesome....

"Chinese culture and values"? Not Tibetan culture or values? Katzenberg has sold out to the Chicoms.

This is nauseating. "Help export Chinese culture and values to the world"? Katzenberg is being played by the Chinese government -- and aims to profit from this.

Tibet is NOT Chinese! It is a nation invaded by Chinese military, forcibly annexed, with its own language and culture being destroyed by communist controlled assimilation plans. 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed and nearly a tenth are in prison right now -- and in the past couple of years over 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire -- all protesting the fiction that Tibet is somehow "Chinese"! Are you not aware?

Why do the 3D character models lack the appeal of the 2D drawings? This has *long* been a problem at Dreamworks.

Hi, in the past Combustion was available as demo on the Autodesk wesbite, now it is no more available, so I think you can't find it. You can be sure that we'll start to use other compositing software in coming videos, something like Composite and/or Fusion.

If they know whats good for them. They won't send it to China. The wages are increasing at an indriceble rate. It is just a matter of time before the wages are the same or more than US wages. People will only be fooled so long.

Dear God.....please make it stop. This is the worst show on Television. Ever.

The cg dragon was great, wonderful !...very good vfx.

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