Doesn’t look too bad for a low-budget direct-to-video movie being produced and distributed by companies with the words “Family” and “Believe” in their name.

For a brief second there when the trailer showed the kid animated for the first time, I thought it was Guybrush Threepwood.

Another nail in the coffin of 2D animation. Thanks, Believe Pictures.

Corduroy Bear wouldn’t be caught dead in this.

i used to love this story. and i’m not sure why because it’s pretty damn depressing. but i never conceived of it being animated. and if so, i guess i’d think of it more like one of those movies [or tv show or whatever] of corduroy bear they made in the 80’s.

though i would like to see how they handle making this sick kid’s only friend even more lifelike then burning it alive and not traumatize children.

Hokey smoke! Never mind the attempt to blend RL and animation, which reminds me way too much of the clips I’ve seen from “My Friend Ganesha.” This doesn’t look at all like it follows the Margery Williams story line or pays respect to the whole “What is real” theme of the book. OK, it’s a trailer and they can be deceptive; certainly the trailer to the recent film version of “Bridge to Terabithia” didn’t hint at the core moment in the story and sold it as a mere fantasy work instead. But even as a trailer, this reeks!

I think I saw a trailer for this when I went to see Tale of Despereaux (or some other film, recently)… regardless, my stomach turned a bit.

Animators should know that there is such a thing as an Animation Afterlife. When you die, you are forced to watch everything you were involved in over and over for infinity.

Whether that is Heaven or Hell depends on what you’ve made.

Did they even read the book?

My soul. It hurts now. Make it stop.

In all seriousness, it looks as if they’ve taken a lovely but simple story and turned it into a boilerplate “Family” film with animation that is as bland as white bread. Oh well. It will quickly disappear from the shelves and we can forget it ever happened.

Disney had the rights to animate Velveteen a couple of years ago.
Disney Sydney was slated to do it but it was shelved after story hiccups, from what I can remember. But I still distinctly recall Sharon Morrill going on and on about how excited they were to have the rights anyway.

What happened? How did Disney let this one get away?

The Velveteen Rabbit WAS animated before. It was produced as a special in the late 70’s and was MUCH more faithful to the book, from what this trailer shows.

I think Andrew might be remembering the special which was actually in 1985. Here’s a YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M_ieh7qzL8

The sad reality is kids will watch anything and it doesn’t have to be good. Parents will buy crap just to entertain their kids for an hour. If it has a bear, dog, or princess in it some moron will buy it at Wal-Mart.

There was also a Rabbit Ears version narrated by Meryl Streep. Not really animation, but a faithful adaptation of the book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_m054tLKvs

Cutesy Bunny In the Trailer: “Let’s jump out of the tree and FLY with the Power of Love!!!”

Me: “What trippy-ass book did the scriptwriters read? Because if that was in ‘Velveteen Rabbit’, I sure would have remembered it.”

To Moses:

Yeah, 1985. THAT’S the ticket!

“Disney had the rights to animate Velveteen a couple of years ago.
Disney Sydney was slated to do it but it was shelved after story hiccups, from what I can remember. But I still distinctly recall Sharon Morrill going on and on about how excited they were to have the rights anyway.

“What happened? How did Disney let this one get away?”

Isn’t it in the public domain?

It’s like the producer threw some lint and coins out of his pocket and said to the animators: “This is the budget we have”.

I have an animated Velveteen Rabbit on VHS that I watched as a kid. I liked that but this is kina creepy.

The trailer wants so badly for you to think this is a film worthy of an academy award. F U, movie. F your A.

Are the backgrounds visible through the characters in one scene?

Ow.

I’m perfectly fine with films that extol the wonder and power of a child’s imagination, but this child’s imagination appears to be broken.

Me: And the story could only have less to to with the book if the rabbit was replaced with a tank and the boy was a…a tree.

My Husband: I would see that movie.

Look for “Tank and Treet: The Animated Adventure” sometime in 2016

I’d see “Tank & Tree.” I hope there are some sassy voice-over actors!

God that was terrible (surprised a theater chain’s that serious to show it too).

And it’s no wonder some of us still yearn to see the Weekend Specials back on the tube as well (or a nice DVD set). I remember either seeing that or a live-action version of the story as a 5 year old, and it left me in tears. Kids today are being duped.

Having been involved throughout the production, I have to say that this film is a sad example of a studio allowing corporate financial people to make creative decisions and ignoring the warnings of the art staff. I have a few friends that saw this film through to completion, and it’s unfortunate that their talent was so very underutilized.

Hmmm, I’ll be the devil’s advocate here.
Narrative aside, of which I know nothing, it could be animated a whole lot worse.
I saw this DASTARDLY ill-animated Christmas show on tv a few weeks ago. It was so badly done in Flash by people who were obviously not animators that I couldn’t help but watch the entire damn thing all the way through so I could catch the credits.
All I can remember is that it was a new production (2008) and I forget by whom. Whoops.
It was so terrible that I watched it with the sound off so I think it was about this crotchety old guy who doesn’t like kids and then he slips on the ice and then i think he ends up demolishing this guy’s house and then everything’s better in the end again.
Anyone?

this one was done by the same company that brought you imdb’s number one placed “worst aniated movie” titled: kis vuk. I have to apologise in the name of every decent Hungarian animation involved person .. but as usual .. hey! it is nothing personal! just business ..