I had no idea this would be such a bad movie.
The direction is awfull (Quickly jumps from scene to scene after very short dialogue).
The plot is very dull and annoying. It's to complex for the average kid and to stupid for the average adult.
The special effects are reasonable, but somehow after seeing "Final Fantasy The Spirits Within" two days ago this doesn't impress me much...
Ouch. 25 out of 26 reviews on Rottentomatoes.com are negative...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kaena_the_prophecy/
The visuals look interesting though. If it airs on Scifi I might watch it.
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"It's Coily's army of darkness, look!" - mst3k
Good idea.
shareActually, I found that this movie out does Final Fantasy in every single thing. The CGI is much better and not as annoyingly exagarted as in Final Fantasy. The story though lame, is a typical fantasy story and is somewhat better than FF. In fact, the visual are the best I have seen in a while, not just quality but also intresting. It doesn't try to fake reality like FF did and failed, it takes itself for what it is, a CGI movie, and this is why it out do FF in every single way.
This movie is butifully done, just probably not for every one.
p.s. it is not special effects, it is a CGI movie, you can't really call it special effects.
um... the movie sucks.... this was horrible... they spend alot of time on texturing, rendering, and modeling, but the story, dialouge, direction, and voice acting is bad... this is an example of what "Delgo" is going to be like....
sharefind it quite funny in your first post you say there is nothing wrong with the cgi its everything else that sucks so whats you being an animation student got to do with your judgement on anything but animation and it dosent really matter what your qualifications are films are about opinion and not what you know about the film industry.
LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHILE YOU ARE MAKING OTHER PLANS
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This definitely does not out-do Final Fantasy, not by a long shot. If you are evaluating from a technological standpoint, it pales in comparison.
KAENA isn't bad, but it is just not what is considered "ground-breaking." It's impressive considering that it was done on a low budget, created with public software (3DS Max), and dreamt up by people who at the beginning of the project had very little knowledge of filmmaking. KAENA is a great example of how a little resourcefulness can pull the rabbit out of the hat, but overall it certainly is not a revolution in CGI animation.
This is why it is not a CGI revolution:
-Sometimes they had to cut corners by reducing the frame rate to 12 FPS. Ugh. I would've just cut the shots out altogether.
-The character models often did not deform right. For example, if a human model lowered his arm, the skin would fold like clothing. Sometimes this would lead to noticeable distortions in the characters. Maybe they didn't care too much for painting skin weights properly.
-The animation was very linear in some places. Objects and characters would basically switch between poses one at a time, a problem especially noticeable when characters are talking. You can almost see the animators pulling the sliders for their blend shapes! Here's an "O", here's an "M"...
-Weight and inertia problems. Often people and objects did not move as they should under certain stress conditions. For example, Kaena landing on the floor after a very long jump. Not enough emphasis was put into the animation to make her landing credible. Or, when a huge sap monster stomps around, the camera shakes, but it does not seem as though the monster has as much mass as the screen area he occupies suggests. This happens so often, it's hard to buy into most of the character movements throughout the film.
-The texturing was really monotonous. Most of the humans were very smooth-skinned, the wood texture for the roots was used too much (why couldn't they have something grow ON the roots? Or at least do something to give the surfaces more detail...it's almost as if they made a single NURBS surface for the floor in some shots), and sometimes, bump mapping was used very little on surfaces that were immediately noticeable to the viewer. It serves for some really dull and monochrome backgrounds.
-Design inconsistency. This is a huge problem. Some humans looked more proportionately accurate than others, for example, Kaena had a somewhat realistic human body design, and others would be drawn more distorted, like cartoons. In addition, the sap monsters have really detailed models and effects, where many human characters were smooth and cartoonified. The animation was also inconsistent this way-- sometimes Kaena would have more expression in her face than her body, and sometimes it'd be the opposite. It's almost as if, wow, many different artists worked on this film (but, we aren't supposed to know that, right?).
-Motion blur. Please, if you aren't going to use deformations, turn up the motion blur. It seems as if the animation is STROBING. It would really help in those low frame rate shots.
But... there are some good things about the art of Kaena. The fluid effects were nicely done, although they did not often interact well with other objects. The lighting was well done, in somewhat of a chiaroscuro fashion. Some of the models are convincing, mainly the sap monsters because of their amount of detail. Bravo in these respects.
On the whole, I'd give the film a 6. It is impressive that so much was created with so little (they should get some sort of award for their resourcefulness, actually), but in the end, it doesn't come close to rivaling the big-wigs of America and Japan, and it's astonishing that people continue to boast otherwise about this film.
Hmm - You´re right.
But the thing I miss the most - THE STORY!
Exactly the same Problem with this german movie...
http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0498525/
Liked the graphics - but what helps it with a boring story...
Have a nice Day;)
Robert Hirschbeck
www.CleanMachine.de
Here I am 4 years after this post. I just "bumped into this thread.
"...created with public software (3DS Max),"
What do you mean by "public software"? Is this the 3DS Max by AutoDesk? What software is recommended if some one wants to try their at a computer animated project on a loooow budget (free to $400 USD)? Much appreciated. Regards!
Dude, what the hell are you talking about? This is one of the best anime movies out there. It's is awesome. You must have bad taste or something. Maybe your blind.
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Just wait till I get my hands on you...ain't no f*cking thing you can do
... no am not Blind.. am a senior animation major, and i've had 3 teachers from Fathom studios as animation structures in the last 2 years who are working on Delgo(doesnt look too promising), and one from pixar, so i know a bit about animation/CG....
..like i said, the texturing and lighting is okay, the usuall "everything will look good if it's shiny and blurry" (which is so overused)... but aside from all the technical stuff, you would think if people wanted to make something independant, away from the hands of major studio company's, that they would actually go for a story a bid more creative and unconventional... not the same "Gods this and Gods that" ... "The Prophecy must be fullfilled" and "One Girl must save us all"///... how *beep* Redundant.....
...i guess i have bad taste if bad taste means i dont like this crappy excuse for a movie...
I have to agree with wrongchord on this one. Artistically, the movie looks good; to a point. Some of the animation is choppy; due to whatever reason you want to use, beit time restrictions, cpu load, etc. so I give visuals a minus point for that and the ultra shine. I didn't mind the overuse of pillow lighting, but that could just be me.
The biggest problem, and I base this one on just the first 2/3rds of the movie (I couldn't watch the whole movie due to a R1 defect, at least in the Canadian pile of dvds), is the storyline. From what I've read in various reviews, it picks up a bit near the end, but sometimes a person's interest in a movie is based on the first half, not the second.
Bad.. or maybe bland would be a better word.. storytelling seems to be a common theme among CGI sci-fi/fantasy movies. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Kaena, that Bionicle movie (I know its a kids movie.. but it's still CGI) all suffer from bland storylines. That's why I'm waiting for Advent Children with semi-high hopes, instead of "ohmygosh this movie is gonna blast me outta my seat" hopes.
I like the movie, well.. What I've seen of it. So this isn't a bash post. But it's also not the movie it should have been.
Kaena might not have made it big, but that's something a post release, director's cut redeux could fix. If only to make the movie a little more enjoyable.
Wrongcord, just because youre instructors are animation professionals does not make you one. So stop sounding like you know what you're talking about.
I've been in the game industry for 2 years, and this film looks more like FMV than an actual movie. And really, I found out later that it is a game! (released under Namco in Japan right now)
Anyway, I read up on it and found out that this movie was originally supposed to be released as a game. In fact, it was started up by a garage team of less than 10 people, who by the way, have little to no experience in making CGI, and eventually grew to 200 people during the project. Another interesting note is that the entire movie was rendered using A GAME ENGINE. That's not an easy feat.
Considering the limitations in hardware and staff and funding that this team had to go through, I think it did a very excellent job. If you watch a lot of animation-shorts, then you'll get the idea of the standard this movie was set at. It's not a full budget, lose-all-your-money-and-merge-with-Enix Final Fantasy movie. So don't judge it as if it was.
Kaena was originally envisioned as a 'complementary media interaction', it was intended to tell its story and present its world through film, games, and comics.
Kaena was rendered using Discreets 3D Studio Max 2.5 (animation started in 2000), not a game engine.
It's "story" is a complete rip off of a book written in 1989 by Larry Niven called the "Integral Trees" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345418166/103-1373233-1464638?v=glance. As well as a Vancouver Film Students demo reel called "Ankhenna". This film is more than just crap it's a total compilation of other peoples ideas. Guess they were desperate for a story so they stole from a bunch of different sources. Lame.
shareIntegral Trees is a pretty good book, read it about 10 years ago... I would LOVE to see that as a movie, if done right.
So this Kaena reminded me of Integral Trees and so I was checking it out. Another movie that is KINDA strange that way is Dragon Hungers, recently released in the USA... easily a bigger budget than Kaena.
After reading the limited budget and staff experince, I think these guys did a good job. Work on the script is important first. Its not close to FF:SW, which is a movie I DID LIKE very much. Not a great story, but a good ADULT sci-fi movie... after a while, I did forget that the movie wasn't animated.
One of the advantages that movies like FF:SW (and SciFi anime in general sometimes) is that the human characters don't look like they are surrounded by special effects... blue screen. The 3D engine/artist makes the world and the characters in it look "together". Even well done special effects can sometimes look wrong... oh well, I'm tired.
Wrongcord: 1.
Vihena: 0.
Boo ya. Don't mess with the animation majors.
First of all, this is not anime, it's western CGI. Second, it is not awesome, it is somebody's overdone attempt at making an computer-animated sci-fi film that did not turn out so well. Combining the ugly animated Kaena (due to the rolled-back hairline and the weird cirles on her forehead) combined with the dumb plot (spoiler--alien energy source creates a planet-between-planets and is going to destroy it, but then this chick Kaena can save it ...) does not make for that great of a film. Sorry.
If you liked it, then okay; whatever floats your boat.
Personally, I agree that it sucked.
France is considered Western now? Let's see here...
*pulls out a United States map, you know? That country that is usually considered the 'West'?*
I fail to find France on this map. Japan & China are Eastern, the US is Western, France is neither.
Get off your insular ass, please...
When normal people talk about the "western world" they mean not only the US but also Western Europe (France, Germany, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and a few more), Australia, New Zealand, Canada & even South Africa. Even though Oz, New Zealand, & South Africa are not in the west from a geographical standpoint, they are western nations with western ideals and whose main culture is of European descent. In fact, before the Americas were colonized the term western world pointed only towards western Europe... Europe is the cradle of western civilisation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_culture
You almost made me barf...
No way. As every American knows, "Western country" means "a country inhabited by cowboys and indians", while "Eastern country" means "beware, there be the ninjas". :-)
shareWhat an idiot! "Kaena: The Prophesy" is perhaps one of the most entertaining and well made animated films I have ever seen. I have seen it about six times in the past few days and I have not grown tired of it.
I personally think that Chris Delaporte did a wonderful job at directing this film. He created a world that takes the viewer away from the mundane aspects of life and into a place unlike any other I have heard of. I am glad that he chose to make a film rather than a mindless video game.
As to the plot, I find it highly entertaining. The fact that the "average kid" finds it too complex is extreamly disappointing. The "average kid" is incredibly stupid. My youngest brother (whom just turned seven) understood the plot almost flawlessly and enjoyed the film greatly. Plus, every other adult I know who has seen "Kaena: The Prophesy" considered it to be rather enjoyable and inventive film. Not at all stupid.
I personally have not seen "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," and nor do I care to. The movie trailer was enough for me to stand.
By the way, the special effects were amazing.
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This is a decent film with some pros and cons. Loved the dark bits and some characters, was confused by some of the plot's gaping holes. (Why did the blue ball-thing 'create' axis, and how? What is the relationship btw the 'gods' and the sap? Why did the blue ball 'forget' the old guy who makes those cool prosthetic worms?) Definitely worth seeing, though. Very atmospheric.
share[deleted]
I found the movie very good.
The graphic is near excelent for my eyes (tho in Final Fantasy when I first saw Aki Ross, the first few seconds, I thought I have been tricked about being an animation, cause I thought its a real actor).
The story is very interesting I could say and even better than the one in Final Fantasy.
The humans tho are quite ugly except Kaena witch is cute.
I for one had a much harder time to understand Final Fantasy than Kaena plot. (probably because of the subtitles?).
Oh and I watched the french version, wich I think its giving that originality plus than watching it in the english version.
And yes I did observed some staccated frames some of them being only in background, but its ok.
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I actually find that this movie was quite good. From a professional standpoint. Its a ground breaker for the French Visual Effects/CG Industry. From a story stand point I thought it was wonderful. Yes they did go a little easy for rendering purposes, but for what this movie represents, for the society of film making for France, thats ok.
As for everyone comparing it to final fantasy... thats just not right to do. Different countries made the movies, different studios, different budgets... The only commonality is that there was a female CG main character... From the CG aspect. Final Fantasy was more advanced then Kaena, but... you have to remember again, the studios, the production....the budget..
There both great movies... at lest Kaena didnt jump the gun build a studio in hawaii and spend more then they had the ability to for it. It was a persons dream come true, and they did a wonderful job with it.
Oh Geez!! This thing must have been created by a group twenty-something teenage boys with more hormones than god! Give me a break...the whole film was nothing more than an excuse to show Kaena's artifically elevated silicone breasts, her "I'm ready boys!" puffed up labia, wide birthing hips, and oh yes, panty lines in every conceiveable view. Panty lines?! Yup, big prominent panty lines. Methinks someone has a fetish! The whole thing was so oversexed that it was an embarrasment to watch with others. I laughed out loud when Kaena was given "armor" that showed a prominent bare midrift, was carefully cut out to accentuate her abdominals and added padding to her already generous hips. I'm not exactly sure what enemy she was supposed to be protected from in that getup and I don't think that the producers were either. I think that the carefully enshrined and exposed naval says it all-whatever that is.
The dialogue and plot? Don't hold your breath, no Oscars here. Its always clear where the money is spent in these productions. Nothing was left over for the script writers so they must have gotten a group of high schoolers to write this drivel as punisment for skipping classes. I HATE future/past worlds where the young thry to be hip in, well, modern teenspeak. If you want me to suspend belief and think that I am somewhere else, you gotta take me somewhere besides the local mall for dialogue. The whole thing wheezed along a tired and worn plot line remarkable only in the fact that it was completely forgettable. I could have cared less about these annoying people and I was actually rooting for the Queen to do them all in about two-thirds of the way in.
This film takes cg animae to a new low level-and I thought Final Fantasy was bad. I am sure glad that I saw this on cable and didn't pay for it in the theater.
Bleah. Don't waste your time 'cause you can't get it back afterwards and I sure wish that I had chosen to watch something else.
Thanks for this post..it saved me alot of writing..I am a mother of four and it is so hard to find anything decent to watch...so much great movie technology now and then, unfortunately, with it, just crap plots and filth intertwined in it, so that you once again cannot watch it with your kids or else it is just EMBARRASSING to watch it with your kids, i.e. a 12-year-old boy!! I can't count how many times Kaena's crotch was in the middle of the screen, as a focal point. Or all the hinted-at sexual positions. I almost called my kid into the room when I saw it on as I didn't know what movie it was and now I am glad I didn't!!
Plus the anti-god theme seemed to be the only thing bigger in the story than the crotch scenes. Not everybody that believes in a higher power is a deranged greedy "Catholic Priest" like all these movie makers would like us all to believe. (referring to that priest dude at the beginning that kicks Kaena out of her village). All the liberals in this world like to talk alot about racism..well THEY are the racists...they constantly make movies that refer to make fun of ANYBODY that is a dedicated homeschooling or involved mom, religious person or similar, etc., and infer that these are people who are always a certain way, STEREOTYPED. You watch, the next thing coming is child molestors are just another lifestyle too...there already is a group fighting for their rights. (SIGH!) Thanks for letting me rant!!
Anyway, I didn't even get halfway through...it isn't very entertaining either.
I've just seen the movie and in overall I would say it's a pretty good one. Yeah, the story was not incredible, and I found myself too being surprised several times by the shortness of some scenes and the low development and explanations of what's going on. But I thought, eh, this is not meant for adults basically, so it's kind of normal to have basic vocabulary and ideas, not to overwhelm kids with complicated stuff.
I just want to note that this movie was made by French, and this country is laic. Yeah, zealous believers will "obviously" find a way to discriminate everything that is against a religion, but that's basically the eternal combat between atheist and believers, so let's be open-minded and accept movies showing an obvious sign of the presence of gods, and other contradicting it, like this one.
I must agree with mtbedwards on that point, where you saw her crotch all the time? I never noticed a scene that they are focusing on that, except if YOURSELF you focused on it, and in that case it's not the movie's problem. You can bring your kids anywhere, at the restaurant, on the street, and they have the freedom to look where they want for the time they want, so don't tell me that's new. Kaena is well proportionated, really, like a normal person. Would you hide your child's eyes with your hand everytime *you* find a woman too attractive?
I can't count how many times Kaena's crotch was in the middle of the screen, as a focal point. Or all the hinted-at sexual positions."
You exagerate. Yes, it is obvious that the creators of this film wished to portray Kaeana as a sci-fi Amazonian. Other than the overt sensuality of such a natural human condition, there were no sexual themes, hinted at or otherwise, in this film.
"Not everybody that believes in a higher power is a deranged greedy "Catholic Priest" like all these movie makers would like us all to believe"
You should see this film again. There was only one "deranged greedy Catholic Priest" in this film; "everybody" in this film were not thusly portrayed, as you suggest. Oh, maybe when you said "everybody" you meant "certain specific individuals". The rest of the god-fearing villagers were quite calm, if under duress. Do you deny that there are fundamentalist lunatics in prominient positions in real-world religions? In fact, I don't think the priest was greedy at all. What did he stand to gain by worshipping the sap monsters? My impression was that he feared for the safety of himself and his people; if they were to disobey, the consquences were severe. Carrying this burden himself hardly makes him "deranged".
"All the liberals in this world like to talk alot about racism..well THEY are the racist" blah blah blah
What are you going on about? You bitch about liberals stereotyping your fringe lifestyle, yet you had just commited the same fallacy in your previous sentence! And what the hell does racism and pedophilia have to do with Kaena, or anything you just bitched about? Liberal Hollywood is the root of all evil, is that it? Please cite the movies that feature stereotypes of "a dedicated homeschooling or involved mom, religious person or similar, etc., and infer that these are people who are always a certain way". Yes, you are indeed so very oppressed and persecuted; the pedophiles (with a stange conflicting fetish for mature female crotches) who made this film should suppress their creativity and freedom, and instead conform to some white bread, moraly stunted world view like yours. Gah, never mind, that would suck, and regardless, you're not being persecuted by some French filmmakers anyway. All of that noise exists in your own mind.
dear angry mother,
did you at least got the message of the film, or you were to busy scanning for crotches? because that's by far the best part of the film.
can you find yourself in it? you're right there, between the worms and the pityful priest! like all of us.
this movie isn't about bodyparts or anti-god, it's about US! about hte humanity and the state we're in! i wonder if any of you highly trained critics saw that.
i really tried to give it a 10, but i had to settle for a 9/10. it has it's oopses and if you compare it to FF of course it isn't too impressive, but we're not all kids to look at the cool picture stuff, right?
admite it that the designers were very creative if we can ignore the small technical problems.
could we all agree that people who didn't watch it all the way shouldn't have anything to say about it?
oh, and by the way, it's rated 13+ and you, as a descerning mother should know that!!!
I just saw this movie a few days ago and I thought it was amazing. To all of you who didn't like it, you're obviously mentally unbalanced. I had this big rant prepared to show all of you who hated it how wrong you are, but obviously you're minds can't be changed. Plus, some of the criticisms are just too stupid to comment on. It's really sad when movies like this get shot down and crap like Dumb and Dumber, Scary Movie, Final Destination, etc. not only do well but get numerous sequals. I really pitty those who can't recognise a good movie when they see one.
Oh, and to those who didn't like Kaena being "sexy", what do you want, all female characters in movies to be covered head to toe. Considering the climate and technology level of the setting you're lucky she wore clothes at all. Focussing on her crotch and showing panty lines, when the hell did it ever do that? Obviously Kaena's crotch had to be in some of the shots, but unless they only film people from the waist up that's kind of inevitable.
P.S. Amazon.com gives it 4 out of 5 stars from 19 reviews.
The film has some good points, but it has an average raitng for a reason.
In terms of digital filmmaking, this is mediocrity at its finest (for the reasons I posted above). In terms of aesthetic choices, many people believe it's unoriginal and too video-game-like. It has imagination, but on the whole, it's not outdoing other major computer animated films out there.
The film is quite average.
P.S. Most amazon.com buyers wouldn't know a good movie if it jumped up and bit them in the ass.
By the way, the movie was *beep* Typical Western CGI, IE Choppy animation. Hell, MOST CGI movies over here pretty much suck. Except Pixar's work, they actually KNOW what they're doing.
PG13 = bent-over crotch shots.
There is truth in saying that part of what motivated these animators was to render booty. It is plain silly to deny any of that. Someone suggested that elements of hard-sci-fi plot were borrowed from other stories/publications. Well if this movie started out as an interactive gaming venture then that is probably forgivable. Kaena was still a creation by artists - French artists at that. Americans should keep that in mind.
Art can be terrible, juvenile, and ugly - but still be art. Kaena has flaws, mostly technical in nature, but high budget CG block busters have the wrinkles removed in post-production. Loads of cash go into correcting exposure, implementing scene transitions, etc. etc. In other words, after rendering, they get the full Hollywood treatment just like a normally shot film. That is what makes big $ CG easier to absorb: they look more like a movie than a computer game because a lot more work than just CG went into them.
So even though the transitions were annoying, the timing and meter seemed all wrong, etc. etc. - it was a good film for what it was; keep it all in perspective. If the crew had gotten a Hollywood production studio to do post production, then 50% of the criticisms would have disappeared. Have the screenplay Americanized by Hollywood and another 30% would go.
Crap is in the eye of the beholder. But you will see more than crap if you try to look beyond what you believe to be [simply] crap.
Great movie. Graphics are mind-blowing, story is well above average, symbolic undertones are enjoyable, voice acting was great.
It could be a little choppy SOMETIMES when it changed from one scene to the next, but if you have at least an average intelligence, it's not like you need to strain your brain trying to follow it.
i liked this movie, i liked the story and the cgi quality was very good. i may b sumwhat biased as i prefer animation/anime/cgi over "traditionally" movies/tv. they move is far from being crap, and while not the greatest it duz stand out from other cgi movies. i mean, what other completely cgi movies r out besides the two ff movies, and anything older than 2000 duznt really count, cause cgi wasnt nearly as good as it is now. if u want a crap movie, whatch galerions:rion, i consider that to be poor cgi and sum of the worst i hav ever seen, reminds me of crappy transformers cgi shows
I just wonder how many of those who criticised this film have ever rendered an animation sequence, and conversely, how many just sat and watched them and assumed that they know all there is know about 3D assembly.
So many raging egos! There can't have been that many 3D artists in this list, or the discussion would have been more enlightened. Those who can't do don't teach, they criticize.
this movie turned out a lot better than i had expected it to, so i was pleasantly surprised. both me and my boyfriend enjoyed it very much. we're both artists (painting, drawing, illustrating and designing...) so that is part of the reason why we got the movie. i'm not a big fan of CGI but over the years i decided to stop being stuck up about it and accept the fact that this is were we're heading. i also accept the fact that some CGI studios are better than others, and some are just VERY bad and those i can't stand. i'd rather watch average CGI with a good plot, storyline and cinematography over a very good CGI wity no plot and stupid storyline (like the newest Ninja Turtles gaah!!)
Kaena has slightly above average CGI. but it's a nice, heart warming movie with a simple story line that yes we've probably sorta heard before, but some of us like these types of stories. i love the fact that the heroine was so shapely and beautiful in a strange way. it felt very indigenous and primitive. those who whine and cry about her exposing her croth too much or not wearing enough clothes need to watch documentaries on indigenous tribes around the world and particularly in the Amazon, Africa and Papua New Guinea... a beautifully shaped body isn't something to be embarrassed about and hide your children away from. this was NOT pornography this was a female body, nothing else, doing nothing suggestive, offensive, or provocative. should she cross her legs when jumping from tree to tree or sit a certain way just cuz some are waaaay TOO easily excited by the site of a CGI female's crotch? this is why children shouldn't be denied to watch what is natural and turn red at the site of shapely hips........