I just noticed the budget for Sing was (only) $75million. For comparison, the budget for Moana was $150million.
I know animated films are very expensive, but how the hell did Disney spend so much for Moana? Sing not only boasts a whole bunch of A listers,but the licensing for the songs used must have cost a fortune.
The lack of Sing budget was very obvious songs really mostly blah. Very second rate compared to masterpieces TROLLS and MOANA. Sadly money talks.
shareTrolls and Moana were not masterpieces! LOL! They were two of the dullest and dullest looking animated films this year. The songs in those (unmemorable ones at that) could not possibly cost as much as the licensing on Sing's greatest hits. That was a sizeable cut of the budget.
There was only one animated masterpiece this year and that was Kubo and the Two Strings, stop-motion, magnificent and it only cost $60 million.
What the hell is Disney spending its money on? Obviously massive advertising but that isn't included in the original budget.
Art is relative. And I don't agree that Kubo was "the only masterpiece". I've seen several journalists call Zootopia a masterpiece also! And besides that only one animated film made it on AFI's Top Ten (a very well respected film-school and conservatory) and it wasn't Kubo!
shareMainly the shading of textures, water animation, and a american production in Hollywood with some expensive PIXAR softwares. Disney 150 millions for each animation movie, whatever it could really cost.
shareCrazy. Look at Kubo - maybe the most beautiful animated film ever made. Its budget was only $60 million.
shareBeyond the quality of animation being better, Disney spends a lot more time (and thus money) on development. This film feels rushed, not only in how each character's emotional journey is handled perfunctorily, but also in how there's basically no world-building at all. It's just sorta Los Angeles with a lot of different-sized animals thrown in.
shareI found that with Moana. My kids went to sleep during it! I was bored out of my mind. The "humor" was how dumb is a chicken, The Rock's undulating tattoos and Moana falling into the water repeatedly. Can't tell me those many screenwriters broke a sweat writing that thing! It was like a generic "stick in a girl from an ethnic minority (in the US) and portray her as a hero-princess" and the critics will lap it up (and they did) claiming it's a great step forward for humanity. I'm all for diversity but that wasn't diversity it was pandering and manipulative.
I particularly loathed the visit to dying granny (or whoever it was). There was zilch payoff emotionally. It was so gratuitous. Compare that to Kubo's acceptance of his grandfather. Wasn't a dry eye in the house. As for the world building, compare Moana to Kubo once again. Did that give you an idea of Polynesian culture? Come on. Kubo got us and the kids fascinated with all things Japanese, even to an introduction to Shintoism.
I can readily understand why Disney pays a fortune for marketing but really can't see how they justify such enormous budgets. But compare them to Sing (which for all its rough edges has a vitality and a charm - not to mention A list voice talent and pricey licensed songs - totally missing from Moana) and Kubo and you really wonder where does the money go.
Totally agree with you!
.....just prestige expectations by some of the called critics.
First, water animation is really expensive. Moana also has main characters with long curly hair which looks fantastic and moves very naturally, they must be using extremely powerful computers to render.
Licensing music maybe costs a lot, but Moana actually ordered musicians to create music specifically for the movie, I guess the later is more costly.
They also hire experts on languages and cultures of pacific islanders to be as politically correct as possible (which critics rave about). So, it's kinda marketing. No wonder which one wins the critics' heart.
I personally like Sing far more than Moana. Moana feels generic and trying to hard to be Frozen. Even the main song is obviously Frozen-esque. Sounded too out of place alongside the rest of the more ethnical music.
Sing on the other hand looks cheap by repeating most of the animal models. After a while you'll notice that there are only a very few species. Not only that, but there's only one model for dogs, one model for monkeys, buffaloes, etc. It really shows how they cut the corners.
I don't care about the budget but I loved Sing and liked (so so) Moana.
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