For those who have not seen it:
My quick thoughts:
1) Yay stop-motion!!!
I like how we're seeing more and more stop-motion these days. Seems that many animated films are avoiding the whole "hand-drawn vs. CGI" debate (which, in case I haven't mentioned it yet, is stupid; especially when it is erroneously called "2D vs. 3D") by taking a third option. So far, they've inadvertently proved that normal people (by which I mean people who are not themselves animators or animation fans) don't care what kind of animation you use as long as the characters are interesting and the story doesn't suck.
And I like how the animation in this movie looks a lot like Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion (go add "Jason and the Argonauts" to your queue if you don't know who Harryhausen is). It's hard to explain; I'm old-fashioned and I really like old-school animation techniques, especially their low-tech hallmarks. (And I'd love to do stop-motion animation myself; sadly God did not see fit to bless me with the 3D design talent, but that is a tale of woe for another day.) The fur on the Furries is messed-up slightly in each frame and it looks all the more awesome for that.
What I'd really love to see at this point is a big, mainstream summer action movie done in live-action/stop-motion a la Harryhausen. (A few years ago, there was a rumor of a "Sinbad" movie with animation by Harryhausen himself... but... yeah...)
2) With all this in mind, however, it makes me very, very sad to see many comments already online to the effect of, "NOT ANOTHER CGI AMINAL MOOVEE!!! >:( "
Sometimes, I hate people.
3) Open letter to people in charge of making trailers for animated movies: Unless, say, George Clooney sculpted the little wire skeletons or manned the camera or sewed the intricate little costumes or, you know, animated the movie himself, he has no business being listed in the credits. (More of my thoughts on the "Will Smith is a fish and he quotes old movie lines LOL" school of animated film voice casting are here.)
