DELGO. Delgo, Delgo, Delgo.
Let me tell you about Delgo.
Production for the film began in 1999. The movie came out in 2008. So there's a few red flags there, since the CGI was constantly changing around that time. No matter what, it was going to be outdated. Yet they continued.
The voice cast seemed promising, with big names like Jennifer Love Hewitt, Eric Idle, and the lovely miss Anne Bancroft. (Anne Bancroft died in 2005, three years before the movie released.)
Work for the film was done in collaboration with SCAD, a prestigious art college with students that have gone on to work at big-name studios like Disney and Dreamworks.
The fantasy genre was booming with the success of Lord of the Rings, and audiences were interested in seeing magical worlds and nonhuman characters.
And then.
Then it came out in theaters.
And we got this.
Please
god
no.
The animation was sloppy, the plot dragged on, the body movement was either nonexistent or excessive.
I've tried to remember the plot as best as I can but there's something with fairies and the Delgo species at war with each other, so fantasy racism, and Delgo can move magic rocks with a flute I think? He of course falls in love with the fairy princess and GASP it's so FORBIDDEN and you think it's going to be about them but then it's about an exiled fairy getting revenge but OH WAIT now it's about Delgo mastering his powers but WHOOPS it's about racism and genocide NOPE WAIT it's about friendship- you get what I mean. It didn't decide on what it wanted its plot to be.
Take a second to watch the
trailer and then come back here.
Took that all in? Good.
Let's reiterate the fact that this was 2008. This was the year of Batman: The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Cloverfield, and Wall-E.
Avatar would come out next year in 2009.
So, saying the CGI wasn't up to par is really
really sugarcoating it.
The trailer may have made it seem better than it is. The thing is, with the world building they did, this move had potential. Instead, they chose to focus on the most mundane and cliche plots possible, with hard to follow villains, confrontations, and motivations. They had the pacing drag on and on and on, spending more time on gags/jokes and inconsequential sequences than actual plot.
All of this can make it, in one's opinion, the worst movie of all time.
But I have yet to share one last fact.
This movie's budget was $40 million dollars.
This movie MADE $970,000 dollars.
That is a 97% net loss.
It is the second highest animated box office bomb in the history of movies.
While some movies that don't deserve to do poorly also bomb in theaters (Treasure Planet, Kubo and the Two Strings, etc), this one?
This one deserved it.
Delgo.
May it burn in your minds forever.