15 January 2009

Delgo

This bumbling feature barely qualifies to be called a "film".  It is an animated tale about lizard-like people whose two races (one with wings and one without) have declared war on one another.  It's kinda like Pocahontas & John Smith meets Star Wars, with a little Lord of the Rings mythology mixed in.  (And if you are going to yank from Star Wars, why do you include Jar-Jar Binks?) But for all its liberal borrowing (some might say stealing) it shows none of the heart, depth or even interest of any of these classic stories.  The plot is Saran Wrap -- transparent and disposable -- but less reliable.   It would seem that since there was no effort spent on dialogue or character development, someone would have had time to notice the giant holes.
Perhaps it was due to the several years (I've heard anywhere between 6-15) in production but the animation is well behind the times, worse than films made 10 or 15 years ago.  It makes Betty Boop cartoons look ground-breaking.  It would be barely be a passable video game. If only the animators had opted for hand drawing style featured in the final credits.
There are two things that make Delgo of note, however.  One - how they ever managed to get such a long list of notable voice actors is a miracle.  The cast includes Freddie Prinze, Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Anne Bancroft, Chris Kattan, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Louis Gossett, Jr., Michael Clarke Duncan, Eric Idle, Kelly Ripa, and Burt Reynolds. I wonder how many of them even got the entire script, or saw a frame of the finished animation.  
Secondly, Delgo has the distinction of being the worst-performing wide release ever.  Opening in 2160 screens, is barely broke half a million dollars.  Since the next-worst opening record was $2 mil, they should have this record in the bag for a long, long time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HEARTBREAKING that this was Anne Bancroft's last released movie. I mean, that's just AWFUL. Poor Anne.