With the rise in popularity of streaming services and social media, new movies have been at the back of my mind. This led me to investigate new releases in the film industry, and it only left me with one idea: they do not make movies like they used to. The new animations have been eerily human-like with the advancements in technology, and producers are shying away from the cute original animation type. The newer sequels have been altered to look nothing like the originals. I spoke with students from the study hall classes here at BHS, and they had similar views. Addison Smith, a junior at BHS, stated, “The new “Minecraft” movie looks interesting, but not in a good way. With Jack Black in the movie, it seems like it would be a funny but corny movie. Like the line, ´I yearn for the mines.” The “Minecraft” movie, directed by Jared Hess, is set to release on April 5th, 2025. Another new animated movie, ¨Shrek 5¨, directed by Walt Dohrn and Conrad Vernon, was set to release on July 1, 2026, but the release date was then moved to December 23, 2026. Maggie Malec, a senior here at BHS, mentioned, “I heard speculation that the new “Shrek 5” movie release date is being pushed back because of how badly they messed up the animations. There is no way they are adding TikTok filters to the movie. Everyone on the internet is mad about how they are changing the movie¨. After speaking with them, this affirmed previous thoughts about the decline in animated movies. It seems like the new technology is taking away from the creative artistic appeal of the animations and turning them into hyper-realistic figures. Also, with many advancements in society with the media, producers are attempting to mesh pop culture within their movies, sometimes adding a corny aspect to the movie. Overall, the new animated sequel movies today are losing their appeal and are being transformed into other forms of the original.
