A complete special effects let down.

Rating: 6/10 (11 December 2005)

While I definitely would have liked a more mature version of this film than it was, it was Disney and I can let that part go. What I can't let go is how terrible the special effects were done.
#1 Blue/Green Screening This is 2005, there is NO reason for half assed blue screen effects. There were several scenes where the children were standing in front of a pictureeque mountain top view and it was so obvious it was a blue/green screen that it completely ruined any emotion they were trying to get across.
#2 Proportions This is a film which has many characters with differing sizes: Giants, Minitaurs, Centaurs, Dwarfs, etc. It's clearly important that they look proper when they're in the same scene together and not like some cheap photoshop editing. Unfortunately the latter is what you get. There are loads of scenes where I have no idea what they were thinking. I mean, I understand digital animation isn't cheap, but if you're going to rely so heavily on it you should be prepared to do it well (Peter Jackson, LOTR well).
#3 Limitations in digital animation One of the most difficult forms to emulate with digital animation is hair and/or fur. Short or curly is sigificantly easier to render than long (2+ inches), flowy hair. This is because each hair has to be independent of the others and animated in a similar fashion, but not exactly the same. Unfortunately there were several major characters in this film whom were created digitally and had long, flowy hair. The result is they looked poorly animated, digital characters.
It's a shame that Disney, a company who once owned the animation market is no trailing so far behind. I had such high hopes for this film and the ones to follow. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll ever be realized.