pretty ballons ala cgi

Normally I do not go in for the CGI. I think my main problem is that there are too many movies or what have you that are made solely as a vehicle for the technology. Maybe that is the only way it can develop. There are certainly bad movies that have nothing to do with the technique so they have no monopoly on my disfavor.

I do enjoy animation and try not to be too critical. I think though I was stunned by the ubiquity of the usage of computers. As is often the case it was used like a blunt instrument rather than the oft better choice of subtlety. However, either I am getting desensitized or there seems a better use of it to be found these days.

This posting springs from my seeing a preview for the movie "up". It isn't the movie itself, though it seems fun and well made it is probably par for these types of movies. It was a second long scene as a large mass of balloons float past a girls window and we see the effect of a deluge of color as the sun light is filtered through the balloons. I though found the scene charming and recognized that the effect would not be easily done any other way. In other words, it looked good. It seemed to hold its own as a piece of animation outside of the fact that the whole of the movie was an animated feature.

Couple this with my recent watching of Lemony Snickets and the remake of Charley and the Chocolate factory. Particularly with the former movie, I felt the mood and scenery really added to the movie. There are of course other ways to accomplish such things but the point is that the CGI was used to add to the movie (in my eyes) successfully. It wasn't annoying, disjointed or obnoxious it simply was part of the movie.

Pax