Filmmaking, like most creative or business endeavors, is a balancing act of funding and time management that can go wrong if not handled with care. There are more than enough horror stories of wishful film ideas that fell apart during the development process.
When it comes to animated movies, in particular, animators and writers work in entirely separate capacities and rarely, if ever, communicate with each other. When all staff members are able to do their job well, then the entire film is a pleasant experience. However, there are a number of examples where beautifully animated movies end up being underwhelming, which effectively puts all their hard work to waste.
10 The Good Dinosaur
The Good Dinosaur was released in 2015 and had a lukewarm response. While the film does have its fans, many critics felt that the plot and themes of the film were only middling retreads of other better stories that Pixar had already made. One thing that is universally agreed upon, however, is that the animation is some of the most beautiful work that Pixar had ever done. The movie is filled with many lingering shots of the environment that look borderline photorealistic. Pixar has since improved its animation quality with Toy Story 4, but The Good Dinosaur's visuals still hold up today.
9 Trolls
2016's Trolls is considered by many to be a far cry away from the best of Dreamworks, in comparison to the early Shrek films or How to Train Your Dragon. Trolls felt like a mediocre offering with much less passion put into it. The movie tries to dazzle the audience with its recognizable licensed music and bright, colorful visuals, which ironically made the affair seem even more formulaic.
Even so, the visual effects of the film were some of the best of the time when it came out, and while the visual designs of the trolls themselves were controversial, the environments looked very good.
8 Pixels
Adam Sandler's 2015 film Pixels was completely lambasted by critics as soon as it was released. The list of criticisms was seemingly unending, with film audiences getting none of Adam Sandler's trademark sophomoric humor, and the sloppy storytelling ruined their favorite game franchises. The visual effects may have been the only thing that audiences didn't hate. The film was based on a short film from 2010 of the same name and did a good job updating the short film's pixelated style. The pixelated effects in the major battle scenes between the humans and the video game characters genuinely looked unique.
7 Home
2015's Home was another Dreamworks outing that many felt did not live up to the studio’s capabilities. This movie seemed to try and get by on its celebrity casting, and its story and central theme felt uninspired despite its outlandish premise and characters. The biggest criticism that was thrown at this film was the fact that it just felt generic, with its attempts at emotional moments and humor falling flat. The film did look good, with many environments having a painstaking amount of detail and characters.
6 Turbo
Released only two years after the much-derided Cars 2, 2013's Turbo was seen by many as Dreamworks' answer to the Cars franchise. Visually, the film was impressive, capturing the sense of speed with a unique visual flair during the races. The problem was that it seemed like such a copycat of Cars, so many didn't feel compelled to watch it. Meanwhile, the audience that did see the film found it hard to get invested in the plot, as a functionally similar story had already been done, arguably much better, way back in 2006.
5 Planes
Released the same year as Turbo, and receiving a similar amount of trepidation from audiences, Planes was Pixar's attempt to capitalize on the Cars franchise. Billed as a spinoff of Cars, Planes followed Dusty, a crop duster who wished to become an air racer. The film was torn apart by critics, with many disliking that the story was largely an aerial version of Cars' plot with minimal changes. Even so, the film did look good, with plenty of bright colors, and admittedly, the races were fairly exciting. As a distraction for children, it did its job, but on almost any other front, the movie is considered a failure.
4 Cars 2
Pixar films have a tradition of breaking the mold in terms of their visual animation. Each new Pixar movie that is released has the potential to be considered among the best-looking animated movies, and Cars 2 was no different. It was nominated for a number of "Best Animated Effects" awards.
However, the film is considered by many to be one of the worst movies to be released that year. The focus on espionage rather than racing was seen as far-fetched by fans. On top of that, the general storytelling of the sequel was generally of poor quality, with many major plot points having big leaps in logic, even for a Cars film.
3 Ralph Breaks The Internet
2012's Wreck-it Ralph was a charming homage to classic video games. The long-awaited sequel, 2018's Ralph Breaks the Internet, was still a fun movie with very well-animated sequences, but lacked the personality that was seen in the original. Ralph Breaks the Internet tried to outdo a lot of qualities of Wreck-It Ralph but failed in a number of ways. Where the real-world video game references in the original film were charming, the online product placement in the sequel was significantly less welcome. On top of that, the sequel lacked a central villain, meaning that the plot tended to flounder for some time before finally coming to an end.
2 The Lion King (2019)
2019's The Lion King, colloquially, though incorrectly, referred to as Live-Action Lion King, had legions of detractors. Many argued that the focus to make the characters seem more realistic would remove a lot of the magic that the original film had. When the film was finally released, a lot of people maintained that argument, as well as lamented that the focus on hiring celebrity voice actors as opposed to industry professionals made the film feel even less like a story. Despite all of this, there is no denying that the technology used to recreate the movie was very cutting edge. Everything about the film looked extremely realistic, which was a significant accomplishment.
1 The Emoji Movie
The general public absolutely dreaded the release of 2017's The Emoji Movie and the film was assailed before it even came out. After the movie was released, the movie was universally considered to have an overwrought story and tedious jokes. While the movie did have competent animation that complemented its very nice art style, it was not enough to save the movie. Similar to The Lego Movie, The Emoji Movie tried to engage audiences by giving a fun interpretation of real-world items, but it fell short as there was simply nothing charming about the film from its beginning to its end credits.