The Good Dinosaur is as depressing as the movie about “the guy who got raped by a bear,” says Trey Parker.
The South Park creator didn’t hold back on his thoughts about American animated features when speaking recently to an L.A. Times reporter. Here’s how the exchange went:
Do you watch many animated kids’ movies?
Trey Parker: Now that my daughter is almost 4, I’ve seen every kids’ movie there is three times. Some of them are so great. The Illumination stuff is so visual and so cartoony. It’s not what I lovingly call “Ameritrash,” where it’s all about: what was the point and what did the character learn?
We just saw The Good Dinosaur. Dude, that movie is like — what’s the movie about the guy who got raped by a bear?
You mean The Revenant?
Trey Parker: Yeah, The Revenant — it’s that heavy. One horrible thing after another happens. It is sad after sad after sad and you’re crying the whole time, and you’re like, “Who the … made this movie?”
These Illumination movies are the polar opposite of that. We’re not going to be crying. We’re just going to go have some fun. It’s a ride and it’s just about what’s funny. And I appreciate that.
Big grain of salt: Parker plays the voice of the villain Balthazar Bratt in Illumination’s Despicable Me 3, so he has a reason to hype Illumination over the other studios.