Delgo
Movie Review
"Delgo"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: C-
Rating: PG
Released: Friday, December 12, 2008
Directed by:
Cast:
Work on "Delgo," an independently produced animated film, began in 1999. Here's an article from CNN in 2004 saying it was "due out in the spring of 2005." And now here it is finally being released at the tail end of 2008. It features voice work by Anne Bancroft, for crying out loud, and she died 3 1/3 years ago.
I wish I could say that all the time and effort put into the film had resulted in something special, but that would make me a filthy liar. It's an exceedingly generic fantasy adventure that borrows from the usual sources ("Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars," etc.) to tell a forgettable story involving the expected mix of usurped thrones, double-crossing royal advisers, cross-cultural romances, brave young heroes, and Jar Jar Binksian sidekicks.
It's set in the land of Jhamora (no relation to Sodom and Jhamora), where there is an uneasy truce between the two major races. The Lockni are reptilian folks who use the Force to move rocks telekinetically, while the Nohrin are winged (but still kind of scaly-looking) people who are a little haughty toward the down-to-earth Lockni. Sedessa (Bancroft), the exiled sister of the Nohrin king, is plotting to take over by fomenting war between the groups.
Meanwhile, the Nohrin princess, Kyla (Jennifer Love Hewitt), meets Delgo (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a Lockni boy whose parents were killed in the Lockni-Nohrin wars years ago. Romance blossoms between them, hampered only by the fact that Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt are among the two least interesting voice actors of their generation. Well, that and the cut-rate script, which doesn't give them anything useful to say anyway.
Eventually there is war and treachery and treason and stuff. Val Kilmer voices a noble Nohrin warrior; Malcolm McDowell is a traitor; Michael Clarke Duncan plays Delgo's Obi-Wan; and Chris Kattan is Delgo's craven, whining best friend and alleged comic relief. It's all been stiffly animated in a way that probably wasn't even state of the art when they started, let alone now.
You're probably thinking: Why am I ignoring this film in theaters? Shouldn't I be ignoring this film on the straight-to-DVD shelf? Probably so. While it's not aggressively bad, it is vapid and unimaginative, the type of thing you'd let the kids watch on TV for free, not in theaters for an arm and a leg. It's terrific that the filmmakers were able to get the funding necessary to make their movie outside the Hollywood system. Unfortunately, money isn't all it takes to make a good movie -- you gotta have a story, too.
Grade: C-
Rated PG, some action violence and mild crude humor
1 hr., 28 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 9 comments
December 12, 2008 at 6:57 am
The CNN link is broken. I think this is the correct one:
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/04/30/delgo/
Interestingly, it looks like the studio was primarily making e-learning software before they attempted a big budget animated movie.
December 12, 2008 at 3:01 pm
The fact that this was started in 1999 totally explains why the animation looks like it was from a PS2 game. It all makes sense! Also: An UGLY PS2 game.
December 13, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Personally, I stand up and applaud what they've done. Only an independent film maker would truely recognize the colossal tasks of attaining budgeting, assembling a small, capable team, and producing a feature film. Let ALONE, finally getting a distributor (who won't rip you off entirely) to show your film nationwide in theaters. If nothing else, they are gods among men - how many other animated feature films do you remember being released in the last 5-10 years that didn't have Pixar/Disney/Blue sky/Dreamworks attached to it.
It did have the unfortunate luck of not snagging a distributor for almost a decade, giving it a slightly dated feel, but I blame the big guys for monopolizing what we as an audience are supposed to expect from "Animated Feature Films". And only in America do we have such a stuck up system of measuring "good animation".
Anyway, I'm not saying your points are wrong Eric - a little harsh, but not untrue. What I am saying, is you're denying this film a WHOLE ton of credit that it rightfully deserves in the industry we work in today.
December 14, 2008 at 1:24 am
I think you're missing the point. Movies are part of the entertainment industry. It doesn't matter how much effort was put into it, if it does not entertain, it's a failure.
It's not a Christmas present, it's not the thought that counts.
December 14, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Adam's comment might apply if an independent feature was a little rough around the edges but still managed to do some really relevant things that the big studios never bothered to try. It doesn't look like "Delgo" fits that mold.
December 14, 2008 at 7:23 pm
This first time I heard about this movie was when I read your article. I checked out the trailer and was honestly, a little unnerved. As a fan of the sci-fi and fantasy genre, nothing about what I saw in that short clip interested me in the slightest. I would almost go as far as to say it was a little disturbing. I agree with Rachael's comment; "If it does not entertain, it's a failure" Without actually seeing the entire movie, I will still go ahead anyway and judge it by it's trailer, because trailers are usually packed with what the creator's deem "the best clips of the movie" therefore, drawing their core demographic in.
Besides appearing eerie, the first minute left no desire to sit through even the entire trailer. And Adam, they may have spent a lot of time making it, but really, "Gods among men?" Really? it took Zemeckis how long to make The Polar Express? And it was still absolutely terrible. With it's desperate attempts to pull at the heart strings with the same , predictable song playing repeatedly through the whole movie made me want to pull my hair out or possibly kick a basket full of kittens half way through. Seriously, can you possibly add, just one, one more song to the soundtrack and maybe, just maybe come up with an original story, or a story at all?!
But I digress ... Crappy movies are crappy movies no matter how long they take to make and no matter what talented actors, directors, producers, etc. are involved. Along with that useless animated Star Wars movie that came out in theaters earlier this year, “Delgo” belongs, if anywhere, on late night Cartoon Network.
December 17, 2008 at 8:05 am
I read a statistic from ropeofsilicon.com yesterday that said Delgo was the biggest wide-release flop of all time. It raked in $511,000 while screening at over 2,000 theaters. I don't remember the exact figures but it rounds out to $237 per theater in ticket sales over opening weekend... ouch.
December 17, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Adam's comment misses one important fact, before they were bought by Disney, Pixar was an independent filmmaker. Their first movie, Toy Story, was considerably better than this movie.
December 17, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I'm pretty certain I wrote a short story with the exact same plot as this and almost exactly the same names.
I was nine.
Just sayin'.