Creative Question

A few years ago I was invited down to DreamWorks to see if there was any potential for collaborating on something non-Dilbert. Nothing ever came of that meeting, but in the process I learned something fascinating that I’ve been puzzling about ever since. Maybe you can help me figure out something.

The problem with creating a G-rated CGI blockbuster, like Shrek, or Cars, is that all the obvious categories have been taken. Kids are interested in only a few things in their movies:

1. Other kids
2. Creatures of any kind
3. Princesses
4. Magic and super powers

Shrek III, for example, has all of those elements. It’s no surprise it’s a huge hit. So here’s your creative question for the day: What subject and setting hasn’t yet been done as a kid-oriented CGI movie?

Here are some that HAVE been done:

Bugs
Monsters
Super heroes
Cars
African animals
Suburban animals
Robots
Toys
Fairy Tale creatures
Fish
Dinosaurs
Ghosts

Pixar has a new movie coming out about a rat that works in a kitchen. I’m sure it’s a fine film and will do well, as all other Pixar movies have. But honestly, my first reaction on seeing the rat in the kitchen trailer was “they ran out of creatures.” It’s no one’s fault. There are only so many types of creatures in the universe.

I’ll get the ball rolling with a few types of creatures that haven’t been in recent kid-oriented CGI blockbusters as far as I know:

Aliens
Birds
Angels

Now it’s your turn. What creatures are left for the next movie?

[Update: Okay, okay. Penguins and Chicken Little and Valiant were birds. See how hard it is to come up with something new?]

Comments

[appoixevipusa]

new super sites
good worck baby
senks

[Jeremy]

How about a cartoon about office supplies? It could be more like paperclips vs. staples gang war. Then they team up against the evil rubber bands, who are trying to take over, while the 3-hole punch is trying to keep the peace. We could also do punctuation mark adventures for the toddlers. The poor semicolon tries to find his place in the world (sentence).

[Marklar]

CGI with more aliens: Final Fantasy, Titan AE

Toy Story did not have aliens in, it had toys in which were manufactured in a factory on Earth.

[Anon]

Dragons
Griffins

As the *heroes*. For max effect, have an approximately humanoid dragon (reasonably close to human sized) as the hero, and the hero succeeding depends mostly on brains, like in Sherlock Holmes. By "close to human sized", I mean closer than Shrek is.

Other than that, the Spellsinger books (by Alan Dean Foster), and the Dragons of Pern books (by Anne McCaffrey) might make good films, although you might have trouble making a reasonably good adaptation that gets even a PG rating, let alone G.

[Mov]

What about a futuristic setting where planets are run like corporates and the CEO of one planet trying to take over another?
There will be a lot of scope to show takeovers in a new light.

[Melanie Nadeau]

A movie about talking vegetables would show kids that eating their veggies is cool! Therefore their parents can stop nagging them.

[LateRain]

Okay. I saw the rat movie on Friday night with my best friend's two kids. I live in the midwest now, but am from New York City originally. The rats were KIND OF cute one-on-one, and the story was entertaining enough, but I almost tossed my cookies whenever more than half a dozen of the rats were in one place. (SPOILER) The scene that almost did me in was when there were forty or fifty of them WORKING IN THE KITCHEN.

anyway, my point is: I basically left there thinking, "Cockroaches. They might as well have done a movie featuring cockroaches."

I still feel vaguely ill when I think about the movie.

[Tmac]

Ever seen pictures of microscopic, dinosaur-like parasites that live inside one's eyebrows? I can see a whole series of movies based on friendly, jingle-singing body bugs ala "The Little Mermaid." Now, that's cool. Hollywood, give me a call.

[Terry]

How about whatever Disney scrapes up from the bottom of the barrel this fortnight, thats got to be interesting for a movie trilogy

[jczubach]

I'm showing my age here, but does any one recall
H.R.Puffinstuff, or the Banana Splits? not usually one for rehashes, but in my child's mind's eye there is some nostalgic appeal. Zany Pandemonium, musical, colorific...

[kat]

Furniture that comes to life?

[loupgarou]

cthulu for kids....

invader zim = aliens...

[Matt]

How about an animated remake of Caddy Shack?

There'd be lots of dialogue about that they could use for the lines of Rodney Dangerfield :)

[Kenneth]

you don't need creatures, as such. all you need is imagination. the Proboscians, for instance, might make a good kids' movie.

okay, true, they're creatures. but they are somewhat different from the norm. like Froons, for instance, or even the Matrix Hedgehog.

it's always possible that there is currency nowadays for illogical ideas that might not at first make any sense.

[Roby Bang]

Depending on who you talk to, there are anywhere from eight to thirty-six different plotlines, everything else is some sort of take on something else. CGI is relatively new, but if you rolled in the entire history of animation, then you have even less options. A cartoon about a mouse who wants to do something bigger could be Steamboat Willy or Felix the Cat. Tex Avery made cartoons about cars, jets, and airplanes that could talk WAAAAYYY before Pixar ever made Cars. Even you should know that, considering you said once that Dilbert was the name of another comic strip character that you discovered acidentally. So, it doesn't matter what characters you use, it's how good the story is that makes something a hit.

[TMS]

Search Engines + Tron

Search engines imitate intelligence. That makes for the perfect adventuresome playground. You could have characters like searchers and search optimizers and queries and results. Add in a Google colored landscape and the kids will be squealing with joy.

[Dane Cofer]

I would like to reiterate the request for a story about dirt. the same entry above had a great idea about the beavers/otters. But I think something oriented towards the innate love and fascination li'l boys have around plain and simple dirt and mud would be amusing.

Of course a movie about the secret society of li'l girls and all the mischief that girls get boys into would be funny... ;-).

[Montoya]

Aliens haven't been done? Did no one see Jimmy Neutron?

[Dalebert]

How about an alien angel animal? Combine all three for extra marketing potential!

[Paul C]

Serious suggestion.

The ancient Welsh and Irish myths: Disney has had a go at everyone else's, and while the Celtic mythos has already been commited to film, both as live action and animation, it's been either in Welsh or Irish Gaelic and therefore doesn't travel well.

These stories have everything:

Legendary heroes;(Cuchullain, a sort of proto-Conan)
Gods;
Dragons: (satisfying the monster theme)
Love interest (the classic star-crossed lovers theme)
Lots of sword-and-sorcery action (a la Lord of the Rings)

And for Hollywood, the Braveheart theme of valiant Celts taking on the nasty evil English, or Saxons as they were called in those days.

As long as Disney isn't allowed to stink it up with too much sentiment, this could be a winner...

[Bruno Berthold]

Flesh-eating bacteria
Blood-thirsty zombies
Disease-filled genitalia
Money-hungry Real Estate Agents
Drug-using Beauty Pagent Winners
Women-lusty Porn Tycoons

I think Pixar still has a few options up their sleeves...

[reeverse]

Umm national monuments?? I know it sounds weird but I thought I’d pick something that you would have to work on.. I’m not going to give you all the answers!!
All the monuments congregate say in Australia (you'll need lots of space for all those big monuments plus the added bonus of Australia jokes/accents etc) near Ularu (aka Ayers Rock) for a big party or some other purpose. With multinational theme and lots of strange accents cue the Eiffel tower “Zis Reverse! She is ow we say Brilliant!”

[Paul]

Something has just struck me. This meeting with DreamWorks that (ahem) nothing came of - are you sure this isn't a kind of brainstorm session or focus group on their behalf? ITWSBT

[Jonna]

When I was a little girl, I really loved a series of books by Mary Norton called the Borrowers. The Borrowers are a race of tiny little people that live in the walls of regular people (us), and when we lose our things, it's actually the borrowers that have taken them, and used them to build their world. They are very creative books, with charming characters. Would make fantastic CGI films.

[Chris Benson (Asparagus Pee Guy)]

I'm going to think about your question, but in the meantime, I think the whole new Disney/Pixar/Rat thing exists only becuase of that old sitcom guy from Busom Buddies who was the original of the Jack character from Will & Grace used to get a huge laugh whenever he said "rat-a-tat-tat-a-too-wee!"

[paul thorogood]

parts of the human body

[J]

I don't think it is just about doing 'new' characters. Different flavors of the same characters in an entirely different scene would work as well.

Shrek was a success because it hit on an entirely 'new' story in that it borrowed from many, many old Mother Goose tales and encorporated the characters into a new story from a different perspective.

Finding Nemo is about a fish but the same story could have been told with the main characters being bunnies or other such creatures (read: creatures that have an appeal to kids). Disney's Robin Hood (animated) would probably do well as a CGI production because it has been long enough that the generations who enjoyed it as kids would see it for nostalgic reasons and new kids would find the story totally fresh and exciting.

But then I am a programmer so what do I know about making films. =)

-J

[Meow]

Ok all you people who are listing things like "rocks" and "raindrops" and "snowflakes." Were you ever children? Have you ever met a child? Their visual attention spans are zilch. A movie about raindrops would be entirely blue, gray, and white. And the movement would be very one-sided unless you count Forrest Gump in Vietnam rain. A children's movie needs to have lots of color and interesting noises.

[Bill]

Vegeteles has already been done as an animated story about vegetables, Hercules has been done with mythical greek creatures. How about a movie with other mythical creatures, like those described in the Bible (Revelations) or some eastern mystical beings.

[Johnny Ouais]

Trees.

But unless animals, this theme could be use only once. If a cat or a cow is not the same from our point of view, different kind of trees aren't.

I'd like to see a movie whit lots of big trees talking, moving, singing, dancing and loving each other. Lets imagine a good plot and a very predictive happy ending.

Hollywood here I come!

[Julie]

Don't think I've seen this yet. Polar bears coping with global warming. It would have to have some sort of happy ending though.

[M]

But both Toy Story and Chicken Little had aliens in them, or are we only considering main characters? Because the aliens were pretty central to Chicken Little's story.

What about pet rocks? Weren't they fascinating at one time? Everything does come back in style, after all.

[Eros]

How about a cartoonist whose cartoons come alive and then ..... may be playing pranks on the other employees of the cartoonists office.
May be it's not for kids but then even elders enjoy cartoons.

[Cristiano]

Superman IS an alien!!!

[Mike]

A piece of Poo who fights for his rights to be called a real "sausage"!

[Stu]

Poo.
As in faeces.
All kids adore bodily functions and products thereof, particularly if they’re 'naughty' ones. And with the exception of South Park’s Mr Hanky, I can’t think of any other turd characters in popular children’s(?) programming. And I’m sure Pixar can produce a more interesting and more compellingly repulsive (and less irritating) character than Mr Hanky.
Only problem is it’s the parents that choose which movies small children see, and (apart from the ones with a sense of humour) most adults would probably prohibit their kid from seeing a naughty talking poo – so you better make the promo ads real attention-grabbers, so the kids can grind their parents down with unceasing nagging.

Or maybe a talking snot, or a loogie …

[lateDude]

Forget the kids. They don't have anymoney. Sherik made money from the adults that went, not the dam kids.

CGI movies just for adults would work well.....they do work well

[Matthew Polk]

Remember the movie Osmosis Jones? I thought that was a good movie. It touched the edge of CGI, but stayed within the tradition animated zone. Maybe Cells would be neat characters. Plus you would get the support of the educational community with something that appears 'education' in a biological aspect.

[Kevin Kunreuther]

I'd say earthworms, really paranoid earthworms (oh darn Eddie Fitzgerald already did that!) This IS tuff ...

[Anonymous Ex-Dreamworks Employee]

Hm. I can say with authority that several of the "haven't seen that yet" ideas above were in the planning stages or later at DreamWorks already. If Scott's Steve (Catbert) Jobs connection expects me to say more, he's sadly mistaken.

[Jessica]

I think you have totally forgotten a very rare specimen that children:
a) devour
b) fear
c) challenge
d) totally ignore de motifs that move them

Im talking about "adults" but the way a children sees us more specifically, parents. Have you ever seen a cartoon named "Kids next door"? something like that

[Yusuf]

1) Pirates
2) Snowman
3) Goats
4) Aeroplanes

[Rus Howser]

How about teachers. It could be the Schindler's List of children's CGI animation

[agent 54]

hmmm.....vikings! so much cooler than pirates yet so under appreciated.

[Cliff Mansfield]

Given your list, I see that several people have still suggested things already done. There was one exception which I noticed and it aligned with some of my own thoughts. Plants was mentioned--I was thinking about more of a global approach to include plants, H2O, clouds, earth, wind, and fire. In other words, the elements and the movie could be called "Elementry Elements"; for kids.

[jerry w.]

There's gotta be a case for CGI lawyers!

Imagine scenes where they are dropped into a log chipper, and while the kids are going "Ewww, Gross!", the adults in the audience would be holding back from peeing their pants from the laughing.

I know they look almost human from time to time, but if you can remember the "Lil' Abner" comic strips, they could be the new "Shmoo" of the 21st century. Beat them, kick them around, bone 'em up the butt, and no one would care.

http://boskolives.wordpress.com/

[Dave A]

I've always wanted to build a composite character that is essentially a community of its anatomical parts. For instance, the kneecap can speak and move around on its own (within limits), the eyes are each individuals, etc. Together they make up a community of the being. This would allow for all sorts of interesting twists, from species morphing, to superhero-type capabilities, to intra-organism social models and satires, puncturing of stereotypes, etc. Kid pleasing gag shots could be the vertebra left behind, running hard to catch up, etc. Just think of the number of celebrity voices that could play. You could even, gasp, put in a little education about anatomy and biological systems (as long as it didn't get in the way of the mindless entertainment).

At least its out of the standard box.

Cheers.

[JT]

I like kids, but I am too absorbed in my own adult world to come up with something that a kid would like. I talk to kids like they are retarded adults, not with a cutesy wuvvy duvvy voice, but with slow patience and a hint of condescension.

[Wayne Kartchner]

Since this is late I doubt you will read it but hear goes.

A musical about African dung beetles. You have the young hard working beetle that can't get a big enough pile together to marry his sweat heart. The young girls parents who think he will never amount to a pile of stuff. The business man beetle that has a huge pile but has forgotten that the reason for it is to raise a family and bring joy into the world.

It all ends up happily with a thousand kids popping out of the roll of dung.

Never ever have any word harder than dung in the scrip. Lots of euphemisms.

[Joshua J Scheid]

Since Pixar is with Disney now, how about remaking some classic Disney movies with the new computer/3D technology. I think that certain Disney movies could score huge box-office profits this way.

(I only ask for a trip to Disney World/Land for this idea!)

[D. Mented]

Slime monsters.
Angels(the G-rated kind)
Kids who actually do their homework (like Willow in the Buffy series, or Hermione in Harry Potter)No one has EVER made a kid like that into the main character, and they're rare enough in support roles.
Frogs, newts, and a host of other amphibians
Tigers (yes, lions have been done, but that only adds to the ease with which tigers can be marketed to producers)
Housepets.(Living their own lives and interacting with their neighborhood community of animals all night,while their owners think they never do anything but sit around.)
Elves of the prankster variety (Keebler types being obnoxious and ubiquitous)
Trolls are too much like Shrek...you'd have to wait a while after that franchise fades.
People with the power to be invisible/ or to not be noticed, which amounts to the same thing, and no other special powers.
Planets with personalities.
Tools (garage and kitchen variety) taking on lives of their own.
Anything at all where the cutest ones are not the best characters and the plain, or plain ugly ones are... Especially ifit's made obvious in the story but never spelled out in condescending talk "you see, dear, looks aren't everything...Even somebody who ISN'T good looking can be a nice person..."
Hobos (the old-fashioned travelling kind)
Bank managers (with a secret identity?)
Tibetan Dakinis (no- there's really no way to make them even PG rated)
Houses that talk, and can open secret passageways if they feel like it)
Elemental spirits dumping trash and pollution on the doorsteps of executives whose companies pollute (maybe in cahoots with the prankster elves)...Would have to be marketed to the hardcore environmental market, but it could be done.
Any story where somebody defeats "the bad guys" without resorting to physical violence - direct head-bashing or booby traps (this would only sell as a G-rated piece)
ALL the old Russian folk-tales that involve talking animals. Every single one of them.
Kids learning and actually having to practice to develop super powers (never been done. It's always something they were born with, found lying around, got infected by or some other way of getting powers without effort...And don't say "Harry Potter", he never studied or practiced to accomplish a damn thing, it's always from his parents, and it just comes to him, or somebody does the work for him)
A community of werewolves that live in a secluded forest and don't want to make a go of being Human the rest of the month - not because they're bad, because they don't like the lack of manners in the Human community.
I could go on.
Others have already pointed out that originality isn't necessary at all. I would suggest that personality is. It's almost the only common factor of the successful kids' movies - the characters have to make you feel something.
D. Mented

[Andrew]

A family of beavers.

[bcammack]

I always wished they'd done a movie of the collection of short stories called "The Mad Scientists' Club"

[Chaundra]

I would LOVE to see a film based on the Robert Aspirin's MYTH series. That has magic, and a demon, and deevils.. and, god, I've tried to deny it for so long... but I really AM a nerd. *sigh*

[Chaundra]

Erm... the lowly platypus deserves some attention. As does the spiny anteater: both monotremes. Look it up... ewwww.

[Jay]

2 words ... Encyclopedia Brown.

[Jay]

Dilbert should be a CGI movie so that kids can see what their moms/dads/guardians go through every day to ensure they have food, shelter and toys. Would a little appreciation kill them? Huh?

[Russell Heimlich]

Kenny the kickball who always seems to get bossed around takes things into his own hands by kicking the kickballers!

[Karl H.]

Raindrops and snowflakes.

[michele]

I remember being blown away that there was actually an animated cartoon movie called "The Brave Little Toaster", and I was still a kid when I saw it. I was also surprised that it was good.

[John Marshall]

"Have you ever seen the old (Tex Avery??) cartoon where a line is in love with a dot? But the dot wasn't interested int the boring line, she was enamored by the squiggle
Using just geometric figures they were to tell a story and express emotions (without faces!). CGI could bring that up a couple levels. And of course gives opportunity for some horrible puns ("to the vector goes the spoils")."

ATTN MARK: That movie was not made by Tex Avery; it was made by Chuck Jones (who's most well-known for Loony Toons). The movie was called "The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics", it is brilliant, and you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmSbdvzbOzY

CGI probably couldn't bump that up too much, though. What would it be, "The Sphere and the Cube: A Romance in Basic Geometry"? Sounds like one of the biggest Electric Boogaloo sequels ever.

I'm totally going to do a CGI movie with angels! I'll put you in the Special Thanks credits when it's released, Scott. :)

[Will Von Wizzlepig]

Subject: Scientists

Setting: MIT

Vehicle: in a tiny-toons-like way, several "child prodigy" kids are brought on at MIT. Havoc ensues.

Spin: cartoons meet historical fiction

Add a bit of dark humor, a Thundercats Snarf charater, lots of flashy special effects, mimic Clone High and Invader Zim.

When this hits theaters I expect some royalties and a credit.

[PeterH]

A variety of birds live in a suburban area with a gangsta in the hood type setting. Hedges are apartments and other trees are other standards of living. They have squabbles and territory wars. Then in the end they all have to band together to ward off invading _____ <- insert hawks, crows, bluejays, squirrels or something.

[Debra]

I don't recall a childrens film with a bull. They could have a western horses & bulls.

[Heather]

In response to Mark's comment about dots, lines, and squiggles, "Flatland: The Movie," http://www.flatlandthemovie.com/ deals with life in a 2-D world and is alleged to be coming out sooner rather than later.

[AZW88]

Here's my idea for a CGI movie..... how about a mongoose that battles an evil cyber-snake via web-based tools....

It is called: Wiki-Wiki Tavi!

(this is what you come up with while sitting in a tech conference (NECC) listening to a guy from India explain mind-mapping...)

[BoltBait]

Ok, how about TRACTORS. I know there's Bob the Builder, but I think you can do better.

My son goes nuts whenever we drive by a construction site with tractors. He loves them.

Of course, if you use my idea, I'll just take a small percentage of the back end. ;)

[jane]

Aliens were in Chicken Little as well by the way...pixies...as in pixie fairies other than tinkerbell. My daughter loves the little hos and all other girls do as well.

And as I think about it, I haven't seen any pixar movies about cockroaches or plants (as in feed me seymour!)

[Gremikin]

A proboscis monkey

[Gandalf]

1. A movie based on The Black Tiger series of books about a boy who races a car called the Black Tiger. The books are by Leonard Wibberley, the same person who wrote "The Mouse That Roared".
2. Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave series. Stupendous books! Only placed #2 because Hollywood would undoubtedly screw them up.

[McGurker]

Well, how about a kids movie about Dilbert? Haven't seen one of those in awhi*ever*le...

[LVMarcus]

"What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs
Rolls over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack and fits on your back?
It's Log, Log, Log!

It's Log, Log, it's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's Log, Log, it's better than bad, it's good!
Everyone wants a log! You're gonna love it, Log!
Come on and get your log! Everyone needs a Log!"

[Iñaqui Medina]

Also remove aliens from your list since Lilo & Stich and even Chicken Little already cover them :)

[Mark]

Have you ever seen the old (Tex Avery??) cartoon where a line is in love with a dot? But the dot wasn't interested int the boring line, she was enamored by the squiggle
Using just geometric figures they were to tell a story and express emotions (without faces!). CGI could bring that up a couple levels. And of course gives opportunity for some horrible puns ("to the vector goes the spoils").

[Bill Johnston]

How about a cartoon story with humans as illegal immigrants to another more advance planet.
The aliens could be Dogberts.

[Scott Brechmacher]

I don't think anthropomorphic garden shears have been fulling explored yet. Would need to be a musical of course...

[gr8hands]

Scott,

Please check this out: http://www.giantmicrobes.com/

[RC]

Oh and how about a story about a GIRL for once.

[RC]

Personally, I think there's been so many animal/creatures CG films because of the difficulty involved animating humans (though they're catching on, and Pixar seems to be the only CG studio that has the money to do it well).

I think they've run a lot of things into the ground. Maybe clouds, stars, molecules, and strands of hair will be the next trend in characters.

These studios just need good stories and characters, though they seem to forget that.

[Diana W]

This would never fly, but I wish it would. A story where a maternity nurse switches babies born to families of warring groups, and then reveals the switch when the children near adulthood. The kids who've grown up hating "the others" find out they're one of them, and after being swapped back, learn that the differences aren't so big after all.

[Dave]

Naked Mole Rats..... I suppose they could always be features in an R or XXX film but getting them into a Family film would be a test.

[BG Bear]

I am a subscriber/member of a couple of skeptic societies. How about a film based on all unsubstatiated beliefs: Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster etc, UFOs, various urban legends, phychics. Could be done like X files/Men in Black, with kids, tabloid reports, Oprah types the whole works with all the critters and monsters.

[Joshua Jacobsen]

There are a lot of professions, like firemen, police, soldiers, dancers, construction... that kids are interested in. You could probably do an adventure with some of these.

[Joemer]

Super Walter Konkrete. A news superhero that uncovers local mysteries and encourages kids to look beyond popular perception at scary and sensational topics. He has a sidekick named Squib.

[Almost Lucid (Brad)]

There wasn't anything I loved more than my bicycle(s) when i was growing up. I think a talking bicycle adventure would rock.

[Matt]

Um ...

Since when did Hollywood care about doing something that hasn't been done before? Screw originality. Just find a successful formula and water it down till it's bland enough for the lowest common denominator. It may not be comedy gold, but it's well on the way to the most important half of that phrase.

[Alicia]

Maybe someone already said it, but Stitch from 'Lilo & Stitch" was an alien...

[Joshua Jacobsen]

Pretty broad stuff. Bugs = what? Worms, spiders, insects? Fish = what? crabs & cephalopods, as well as sharks and guppies? fairy tale creatures is super-broad. You could probably pick up a Dungeons & Dragons monster manual and find a hundred creatures which haven't been featured in a movie. Robots & cars... leave aircraft, boats, construction vehicles, space ships, and submarines for vehicular stuff stuff.

I would go for an amorphous kid as the main character -- some kind of shapeshifter. It and a few human kids go on an inter-dimensional adventure. They explore worlds where grass is red and skies are purple, and try to help the shape shifter find his home.

[scotty]

I know my son'd love a sequel to Cars, named Trucks. Just a movie about trucks building/breaking/carrying things would be a hit with most of the boys I know.

[Trickypickle]

I think if you want a good film, you need to start with a good story first. Forget casting the characters until you have something that is gripping in text. If you can hold a child's attention through a spoken story, you will hook them hard when visuals are applied. This doesn't just apply to kids either.

[Erik]

I haven't checked the other comments yet (no time), but has the Marsupial market been tapped yet?

[Ronan]

Plants.

[Seadrive]

There's this girl who falls down a well, and she finds a tea party with a rabbit and a dormouse, and there's this funny cat that can disappear....

Naw, it'd never work.

[Real Live Girl]

Sloths
Barnacles
Yaks
Fleas, Ticks, Mosquitos, and Leeches
Moss
Schizophrenics

I would salute the creative genius who could animate these subjects to churn out a captivating story with a lesson for us all.

[ocd]

Couldn't... stop... myself...

Shrek is not rated G, it is rated PG.

[Susan]

The office supplies that live in Dilbert's cubicle.

[Oddity]

I was thinking about this exact topic after being forced to watch some dumb Disney movie with the kids Friday.

One issue is they've run out of marketable characters. I mean - Finding Nemo must have been the worst marketing decision ever. A clownfish, easily reproduceable without breaking any copyright laws, as the main character? My son still has a "Finding Nemo" lunchbox without any trace of character trademark on it.

In either case, they're not running out of ideas, they're running out of people with good ideas.

"Cinderalla 3"? Someone needs to be shot.

[Roman]

Butterflies, I am sure that either Butterflies or Bees will be the next big thing... But wait a second, bees are already on the roll

[QwkDrw]

Subject for REAL LIFE (and congress):

Securely controlled borders -- THEN --enforced legal immigration quota procedures. Zero amnesty.

[Brad]

I would always say do something that kids can relate to in their imagination, such as toys coming to life and wild adventures starting from their rooms, monsters at night. All of that has been done. Boys do like rocket ships and outerspace, but all of that has been done.

They could adopt a children's adaptation of "Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold" by Terry Brooks, or "The Practice Effect" by David Brin. Both have a unique storyline and a way to make the magical almost seem plausable. Once you have that, the rest is (almost) easy.

I am sure there are a ton of books already out their with great ideas that can be turned into a CGI blockbuster if done right. I am sure there are a million ways to do them wrong.

My son had me come up with a cute story about a hungry piggy. Unfortunately, the story is only a couple of pages long. Not much for a CGI blockbuster.

One thing I really enjoy about being a parent of young children, is their imagination and the ability to merge fantasy and reality. Magic is alive and well in the mind of a young child.

[squigs]

Ahhh... so this is why kids movies are so dull and unimaginitive. They think the type of character is more important than who the character is.

Kids don't care what you make a cartoon about as long as it's cute and recognisable. What they do care about is whether there's a good story (yes, really. Kids are quite discerning), and plenty of action and comedy.

[Drew]

What about the 3 billy goats gruff? I know farm animals have been done, but you could get some good humor out of a few goats and a troll. Plus, everyone loves a remake of an old fairy tail. Vegetables have been done already, too, so no go there.

ok, so here's my list
goats
Lifeguards
Rocks
Planets
Trees (plantlife)

Maybe they could do a homeward bound rip off using whales? It would be contemporary, and little kids could sympathize.

just a few ideas...

[curmudgeon]

I don't care what the illustrations portray, as long as they come up with a plot other than "father and son come to terms with their relationship".

[TJP]

How about a movie based on "The Great Brain" series by John D. Fitzgerald? They are a great collection of children's books, set in Utah in the late 19th century about the adventures of John's older brother, Tom. Tom, the "Great Brain" was always setting up one scheme after another, clever, adventurous and very sneaky. They'd probably make great films!

[ShaunL]

Polar Bears? Small bear in the Big City, a culture clash comedy of manners and misunderstanding.

"Martin...No! What did I tell you about eviserating seals at the opera!?"

[Frizzell]

Was All Dogs go to Heaven CGI? Didn't that involve angels? How about Chicken Little, that had aliens.

[dwhuntley]

Comic book writers. :P
Vampire monkeys from outer space
parasites
Minks living on a fur farm
Sherpa's

[Randy Hare]

Musical instruments: guitars, saxophones etc. Ooh, pianos and cellos already have legs!

[bobwool]

"Lilo & Stitch" - not CGI, just old-fashioned animation.

"Chicken Little" - has both 'Bird' (father and son Little) and 'Aliens'.

And enough with the penguins - they're everywhere now.

[Winstom Smith]

How about children lining up to keep some crazed adults at bay?
Something like Chaney's grandson going Macaulay Culkin on his ass, with a requiem for a dream finale.
I know I'd watch that.

[Lego_90]

A lot of people have touched on it by mentioning Shrek's humor was more adult oriented, but that is the key.

The movie and sequels are a smashing success because they appeal to kids AND to adults. The characters are cute and do funny slap-stick things that kids like. Their language and humor appeals to adults. When you can appeal to and entertain a whole family at one time, you've got a big hit.

[Joelle]

Scott, I am surprised! You mentioned aliens as creatures, but there have been aliens aplenty in CGI films, only they were the enemy. Perhaps you meant that Aliens as the hero have not yet been done, but both Jimmy Neutron and Chicken Little had aliens.

I know for sure that my kids would love to see movies starring dragons and other mystical creatures, however this has been done by the Barbie folks in a fairy-tale sort of way. If Pixar could work out a new story involving dragons that would be cool.

What I want to see is a story that makes humans the bad guys, or makes americans the bad guys. Why does Hollywood always have to feed the arrogance of humans and americans?

[HAW HAW]

Liberals.

[amona]

Life in a tree.

Some big old Brazilian fain forest tree and all the comings and goings. Spiders and bugs of all kinds, panthers, leopards, snakes and sloths. And the family of wildly colorful tree frogs in charge of it all.

[Colin]

Amfibians?
Molusks?

Why are all my ideas slimey?

You said dinosaurs... Would that be "Land Before Time" or are thair newer ones too?

[Andrew]

There were aliens (sort of) in Toy Story, too. (The claw is my master! The claw decides who should stay and who should go! OoooOOOooooh. Also Buzz, arguably.) The problem with aliens is that you either end up with the revamped version of ET, or everyone compares the result with Jar Jar Binks.

If it's going to get made, thinking of the product tie-ins first and the characters second is probably not a bad idea (with a cynical hat on). Maybe that leads to animated cigarettes and beer, though. There's always that CGI coke advert, which could be expanded into a story.

Re. the porn comment, a CGI version of Avenue Q could be good...

First, find a good story. (Do kids still read?) Then make a film. Characters are incidental - although almost anything is easier to animate than a human.

[CDriK]

Planets, comets, asteriods -> already done in Titan AE

What would be really new is a movie about Gods.

It's like starting on Angels but with more power.

You would see the jew god trying to mark points against the christian god, Allah and Vishnu.

They would only interact using their people on earth. And miracles would cost a lot of power.

You can also take ideas from japanise mangas.

[wernman]

"Kids are interested in only a few things in their movies"

I disagree. The same idiots said American kids only wanted to see American kids in movies. Because really THEY only cared about seeing Americans in movies. But Narnia (and Harry Potter and LOTR) proved them wrong again.

What matters is an engaging story, not a new little talking fuzz ball.

[jay]

HUMAN

[Paul]

Sheesh. You have a really cool idea for a post about children's movies, and somebody else had it already. Unusually, it was me. However, entirely usually, what you said was more interesting and funny.

Sigh. Did you ever know that you're my hero?

[charlie pye]

Maybe they could start just making up fictional animals.

[HarryM]

Seriously dude, you think Shrek is a kids movie???? I think you must be watching it the wrong way........

[Minister of Silly People in Green]

Rat in the Kitchen is about someone trying your formula for humor. It's surprising using a rat as the hero, there's pain when people realize there's a rat in the food and knowing Pixar, the rat's cute.

[Nix]

Okay, I may be showing my age here… and this is something which has already been done… But am I the only one who would love to see a remake of Henson’s “The Dark Crystal”? That was the first film I ever watched, and I was so young, the only thing I remembered was the term “Skeksis”, and these things with big beady eyes.

I see the “Power of The Dark Crystal” is due out in Spring 2008, a sequel (26 years later!!), and although I’m thrilled, as a kid puppets never really did much for me (something about lack of expression, I think), and I’d love to see it in CGI. It has all the makings of a great kids film, and technology’s come so far, it could only be a hit!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Crystal

[c4chaos]

Buddhas
Planets, comets, asteriods

~C

[simon]

Komodo dragons ? they rock...
Or killer whales.... kinda calf rebels against parental pod etc .... enough of the sickly sweet happy feet kinda film, when I was a kid all I wanted was to pull legs off stuff and poke things with sticks .....

[Stuart Booth]

Toilet Slime, that hasn't been done, I would say it might be popular with little boys as well. Mr Hanky could make a guest appearance and they would be working to counter the time of the coming of Domestos, the great and feared god of toilet slime.

[Tanmay]

How about Egyptian mummys.... it might be a bit creepy.. but one can share a lot of information about ancient civilization using the cartoon films to young childre..

ALso how about animating DIGITS.. or NUMBERS... to help kids learn math...

How about animating Chris/Mohammed/Hindu gods and goddesses/Mhatma Gandhi... and teach teh kids some real values.. instead of making them watch unrealiztic creatures like shrek which barely add any values to anyones life..

[Boblock]

You'll never get a great movie by thinking of a new category like this. What was Monsters, Inc? A kids creature feature or a story about a couple of factory workers helping a kid defeat her nightmares?

Where are the comic adaptations for kids? I read Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio, it would make an awesome kids movie. It's available free online, although I've bought all the books. There are giant robots, tiny robots, Transylvanian monster soldiers, a talking cat and lots of dirigibles.

A great 'kids' movie for adults would be Barry Ween by Judd Winick. It spins the traditional supergenius kid story by introducing a foul mouth, *reference* to porn and a reluctant hero. Girl problems and an eight year old friend who acts more like five aid familiarity. I cried and it's a *comic book* for gosh darn sake.

What's your favourite genre? Why hasn't it been done for kids? Hoodwinked is fantastic, it's like Murder She Wrote for kids.

Kids feel oppressed by adults, they like to see kids beating adults. The Witches is about a kid with a power uncovering an adult conspiracy, perfect. Kids also like older kids, I bet a lot of kids under 16 sneaked a look at American Pie.

ps. Psychonauts would be good too. Can't be bothered to write porperly any more.

[Elisha]

witches/wizards very popular

yet cant think of any CGI movies with that theme

food for thought? well maybe not....

[hannah]

Ninjas!

[Rohit]

To the person who so cleverly said "Perhaps a really really really light hearted Lord of the Flies type thing."

Have you read Lord of the flies? Where in heaven's name did you get the idea that it was light hearted?

Or am I maligning you wrongly because I interpreted your assumption wrongly. Maybe you meant like a Little Robinson Crusoe? Or like The Coral Island?

I'd suggest aliens with spaceships, space battles (coz then no gore) and a bunch of people trying to stop a star from exploding as the storyline. Neat eh?

[Andrew]

The fiery relationship between a Tomahawk missile and its internet love – an air defence battery fire control computer in North Korea. All their friends give advice; some trying to get them together, others less keen. Who will win? Love and the war it would require, or Jealousy - the Electronic Warfare suite got hot under the collar listening in to the conversations, fixates on the air defence computer’s radar and wants to send the Tomahawk on a suicide [sic] mission into a bird sanctuary in Japan (birds block her reception of the hypnotic radar signal).

I’m thinking of the voices… hehe :)

[Radwaste]

All the characters might have been done, but not all the story lines. There's no reason to confine CGI to kid movies.

Alan Dean Foster has you animal fans covered already, with "Quozl" and the "Spellsinger" series, and some oddball aliens in "Glory Road". This is the guy behind "Alien", so he has, shall we say, "credit". I want to see "Cyber Way" done, in which a Navaho medicine painting really works.

As for aliens, C.J. Cherryh has an entire future history mapped out with her "Merchanter" series, including non-bipedal non-humans and actual alien languages, like Kif, Hani, T'ca, Knnn, stsho, Mahendo'sat and chi. She already has Hugo and Nebula awards for her writing. See "The Pride of Chanur".

[am i God or is this hell?]

i think you should do imaginary friends. - a bunch of kids - each having their own set of imaginary friends - who interatc with each other....basically two story lines running - two parallell universes...and then the worlds collide,...

[Narshada]

I has a similar problem when I started up my webcomic a few months back. I wanted to use creatures that haven't been done time & time again, so I did a bit of research and came up with a fruitbat, (not often you see bats in cartoons unless they're swarming over some terrified person,) A squid (great fun to draw and I've never seen one as a protagonist before,) a platypus and... well, I can't tell you the last one as it hasn't been revealed in the cartoon yet. Check out my site for more.
In my research I found there are loads of creatures that haven't been done yet that could be made cute and/or funny - an Eye-eye? Sloth bear? Badger? (Although it was used in wind in the willows.) What about an arctic rabbit or fox? Tapir? That's just off the top of my head so the list is far from exhausted.

[Darth Geoff]

The hooker with a heart of gold

[Andy Geers]

...weren't there aliens in Toy Story?

[ShaunL]

Don't as me - I've been pitching "Think Beowulf...but with chickens" for years

[jackie]

And Lilo & Stich features an alien, so that only leaves Angels.................

[dado]

Hi Scott,
and what about this kind of strange species known as engineers?
This boring people that design fantastic robots, cars, space ships, aircrafts.... at boring cubicle in boring building?
Seems amazing!

[twounicycles]

I thought Shrek 3 was poor. A few good jokes, but not many.

For animals how about - actually I don't really care. CGI has become so cheap these films are being turned out like sausages from a sausage machine. What is needed first is a good story and take it from there.

Having said that. Has anyone covered the Anne McCaffery Dragonsong books? She has big dragons and little pet fire lizards that can shit on your shoulder. Plus mega peril from space. I guess she has written so many it might be tough to work out where to start.

[JShope]

SOLPUGIDS

Any arachnid that will eat live scorpions, and is without venom, is awesome! I get excited any time I see one.

[Amy]

OK, I'll give you Angels, but Stitch from Lilo and Stitch was an alien.

Seeing as there are no original stories out there would it really matter if you used the same creatures as the last kid movie? Yours just need to be cuter than theirs (Like Happy feet and Surfs up)

[LinkCanabico]

what about the fact that kids are alweys "new" to this world i mean they could simply repeat the blockbusters after 5 years and the kids would think its the newest hit also it would stop the problems of advertaising imagine in a franchise restaurant "hey bob remember this year its pocahontas happy meal again" "ye no problem we still have toys for 6 re-runs" we dont need new kid movis we nead them to not relese them to the dvd market so the kids dont se them befor their generations re-run

[chetana]

Teachers :D
Bank managers
Cricketrs
Politicians
Tech Geeks [ well, actually, you do have Dexter]
Anacondas
Crocodiles
Snails - esp. Poisonous ones
Spiders and lizards
Roaches
Housewives

[Alan]

No thought required here. I merely scanned my son's bookshelf. Two titles which have nothing to do with anything listed so far: Captain Underpants (a series) by Dav Pilkey, and Butt Wars! by Andy Griffiths (I am not making that up).

Sophomoric? Totally. Boys only? Probably. CGI-nessicity? I stand ready to be amazed by Dreamworks or Pixar.

The Captain Underpants series are especially well formatted for the (ahem) graphic novella format, so it's difficult for me to see the transition to cinema. As for the Butt Wars books.... The depicted scenes are, in fact, four times more disgusting, revolting, and grimace-worthy than what you are imagining now. So of course it will be a smash hit at the box office with all boys aged 7 to 11. Or 7 to 29; it's hard to tell when they outgrow that.

Just one thing: God, please don't let them have invented Smell-O-Rama before those movies are released.

[Boris]

When the user comments get into the hundreds, it gets too boring to do more than skim through them. So if someone else mentioned this first, sorry. I did see several mentions of inamimate objects.

So how about office equipment? Computers, printers, faxes, phones, staplers, hole-punchers, and even the disposable stuff like pencils and sheets of paper. Like Toy Story, most of the action could be after hours.

I'd kind of expect the creator of Dilbert to have thought of this himself, as long as he was on the subject. Unless, of course, it's just a bad idea.

[Seth]

One that hasn't been done in a feature film in a while is accidentally-created biologic life. I think.

[Al]

African animals have been done, but not Australian ones, right? One would just need to find a "cuddly" Australian animal, and do a movie about it. Yeah.

[Brad K,]

Bob the Builder.
Kids will like the rat. It is an underdog story, that many kids will identify with -- going from misunderstood to accepted and respected. What kid can't identify with that?

Plus Ratatouille illustrates one of the prime principles of Barny, Shrek, and other monsters and creatures movies. Some of the yucky and scary reactions are out of place. We need to wait to see how the story goes (get to know people) before we decide who the villain is.

As for what is left? How about an art museum. Follow Maxfied Parrish's two androgynous paintings, the one of the youths around the pool with Roman type columns, and the androgynous youth with fishing pole and moon, that DreamWorks uses. Show the picture, animate the painter and the setup. Explain what the painter captured, how the painting is perceived and how it affects America, at the time it appeared, when prints were distributed, and today. Then tell of Norman Rockwell and 'American Gothic', the gothic style window in an Iowa farm house, with the dentist (holding pitchfork) and his sister. Explain who the models are, what the painter intends, and what the painting has meant to various people over the years. Next might be the same treatment for Shrek, explaining the artwork. Maybe the cover story from Raoald Dahl's 'Marguerite, Go Wash Your Feet' ('The Board of Health's Across The Street'). Visit Shel Silverstein's 'The Giving Tree' illustrations. Finish the art museum trip with maybe Norman Rockwell's paining of the kid in the diner next to the cop, with bindle on the floor (bindle - rag-bound bundle on a stick). The story could show a couple of kids in a class trip, going from bored at the start to moved and involved at the end. This kind of treatment could work well for sequels -- other art museum section, sculpture or other mediums of expression, other outings. Either keep the teacher, or some of the classmates in different grades over the years.

There are many good young reader authors with works that should be excellent fits. Tamora Pierce comes to mind. She has several quartets of books, 'In The Hand Of The Goddess', 'Protector Of The Small', 'The Immortals', 'The Cirle of Magic', 'The Circle Opens', the Trickster books, each would be a great story to tell. For an older audience there is Anne McCaffrey's 'DragonSong', 'DragonSinger', 'White Dragon', and many other books set on Pern, or her 'Ship Who Sang' and all the follow on novels by McCaffery and other authors. C.J. Cherryh's 'Pride Of Chanur' books would be excellent as CGI or otherwise, they feature a single human amidst various space-faring alien species.

Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game' might or might not work. This is a drama, not much is cute, although it starts with an 8 year old boy. Very engaging.

There are the first mice in the first Lunar habitats, cats about anywhere. Basically anything that worked on 'Bullwinkle'. 'Black Beauty' and other horse stories (although 'Spirit' went a bit spiritual to work as entertainment).

You have farm animals in any region of the country, at any economic level, in any era. Anywhere in the world, really.

And then there is the social and ecological activism niches. Anyone with an agenda can propose a concept they want a film to express, and pick a venue to host the presentation. Although, when film makers attempt to manipulate the public as if they were the US government, it usually doesn't work much better than it does for Congress or the White House.

[Aashish Gupta]

Senior citizens
Al Qaeda
Cartoonists
US Army
Homeless people
Genocide victims in Rwanda (or whatever Sub-Saharan country)
George W Bush
Big Tobacco
Big Oil
Animated Ozone molecules
Condoms
Abortion clinic workers
Bible thumpers
72 virgins in heaven
Communists
Buddhist monks
Abbatoirs
Vegans
.
.
.
.

[Gjdante]

Someone mentioned trees - Day of the Triffids.

Gives "Say it With Flowers" a whole new meaning.

[Kes]

Wow, people need to read each other's posts more. Bacteria, virusses and yes, even fungi have been done, and they have been done well: Osmosis Jones (the live action was terrible, but the cartoon part I think you'd be hard put to outshine, even in CGI). And also Once upon a time: Life, which everyone of my generation in the whole of Europe has seen (and they all think it's a product of their own country because of dubbing, it's very funny, you'd never get that kind of confusion in the US)

I like the idea of household appliances, talking toothbrushes would do it for me. Also, what about (talking) space ships? It seems to me that'd be very easy and relatively cheap in CGI as well...

Okay, of the above post only the space ships haven't been said before, but that's just for me and Scott to know.. ;-)

[Stiennon]

Have Space Suit Will Travel, by Robert Heinlein.

This would be an awesome movie and would lend itself to CGI. Maybe more young adult then kids, but it could easily be G rated.

There is always Podkayne of Mars. Great fairy creatures/aliens. But would have to be PG.

-RS

[Guillermo Silva]

A Platypus!

Now that's a movie i'll see.

[Tyndall]

How about junk food? kids love looking at food.
It could be about like some hilarrious taco with a mexican accent, an ice-creme cone with an attitude, and a hot dog whos shy at first but comes out of his shell at the end during a heartwarming song and dance scene...
I'll call it -A Street Car Named Delicious-
kids wont get the reference but who the hell cares they dont get much anyways

[PC]

peacock.

[Bryan]

I think you pretty much covered the bases. However, I believe there are several modifications to the base that can be developed effectivly.

Dragons
Horses (like race horses, or Cars on hooves)
Furniture (I know Brave little toaster was done, but that was animation not CGI IIRC)
School Buses (Like cars again I suppose, though from the protecting kids from danger angle)
Rocks. (Rocks vs. Mud maybe.. Epic struggle focused around a pebble)

and I'm Spent

[Dave Bull]

Re the disfunctional (dysfunctional?) school idea: the more I think about it, the more possibilities it has.

- do it like a Calvin & Hobbes approach, with two totally different visuals going on at the same time. Each teacher has two 'shapes': what they 'really' look like, and the way that the kids see them. Same the other way around with the kids ...

- have a good selection of different kid 'types'. Everybody who watches the movie has somebody to 'identify' with ...

- do it with a sort of indeterminate grade level, something in the middle. Keep it as non-specific as possible, so that as many kids as possible will identify with the situations.

- As for plot, there can be a dozen sub-plots going on at the same time - again, something to involve everybody: sports teams, science fair, administration problems, school band, PTA, the janitor ... endless possibilities!

C'mon Scott - you could write a rough draft of this thing in a day ... let's see your name as scriptwriter when it 'comes to a screen near you'!

[puneet]

6 year old kid with a stuffed tiger....
That is a new concept for a movie now, isn't it?

[QwkDrw]

Bulldozers, backhoes, and jack-hammers -- oh my!

[Kevin Kunreuther]

Kids like poo, or at least making jokes about poo. Hire John Kricfalusi to make a cartoon movie about talking poo (to all those wiseguys who will say South Park featured talking poo first, John Kricfalusi featured animated talking poo first and he did it in the first online Flash cartoon, The Goddamn George Liquor program. And his poo is funnier than Trey Parker's and Matt Stone's any day). A family of poo, living in the poo house, baby poo, poo-dles, poo-pils in a poo school, being sent to the princi-poo, yes, real toilet humour!

[Yash]

Aliens have been done...
Anyone remember Lilo and Stitch?

[Bob]

@ Ian:
The problem with mermaids is that they're a more-or-less direct representation of a predatory aspect of the anima. The purpose of a mermaid is to lure and kill a male.

Disney only got away with the Little Mermaid because it was 'literature', and they dumbed it way the fuck down, and even then it was pretty creepy.

[Silvox]

jellopy

[Marco]

-lizards
-mushrooms
-stationery and paper supplies (stapler, hole punch, etc.)
-darkroom chemicals
-potatoes
-chupacabras
-mechanics
-a mongoose
-The White Stripes
-peeling '50s decor
-telecommunications mergers
-snails
-swordsmen.

Kids love swordsmen. I know I did.

[Eddie]

When you typed Suburban Animals, I had no idea you were referencing rats.

[peted]

What about Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

Its just crying out to be made into a pixar 3d film !!!!

[Amit]

How about Computers? ... Old ones about to die, new ones with good configurations , laptops as blazing villains and story just moves on...

[Dave Bull]

a kid-oriented CGI movie?

This is a no-brainer ... a classroom ... a disfunctional school. There are as many plot opportunities there as your cubicle world offers for Dilbert ...