Quicksand Fans

Here's a fun question for everyone.
Which type of quicksand scene do you perfer...
Live action or animated?

Definitely live action!

Definitely, I have a strong preference for live action.

Most of the animations that have impressed me were done by actual quicksand fans! Mainstream stuff underwhelms me but then again, they weren't thinking of me when they did it.

Nessie

Always live action for me as well.

Animated stuff lends a great fantasy quality to things. I am a big fan of fantasy. It can make things stylized and cool.

But I don't think of mud as something that benefits from stylization or added coolness. Mud is already an awesome non-Newtonian fluid that moves with a hypnotizing, otherworldly quality that at once evokes amazement and a sense of playfulness. I am interested in these physical properties of realistic deep mud. The closer an animation can come to replicating them, the better.

I prefer live-action because its the only medium that provides the genuine article. The physics of real mud are not well captured by most animation, which is produced fairly cheaply. If animated scenes were done with more care -- that is to say, less like throw-away Hollywood water bogs, and more like a painstakingly constructed Mirador landscape -- my answer could be reversed.

For me, it really depends on how it is done... I've seen awesome looking animated scenes (Monster Rancher's My Name is Pixie being one) and crappy looking or poorly executed live action ones, and vice versa.

For that matter, sometimes still photos and artwork are better than the actual live action scene... and vice versa.

It all depends on context, the presentation, the storytelling, the acting, the way the material convinces me of the set up, the peril and all that. Looking at it that way, the medium it is presented in really doesn't matter as much as the content. Heck, some audio scenes are more effective than actially seeing it unfold visually....

But, having said that, I do i love the variety...

One thing too that just came to me. In animation the scene can be worked out while it's still being drawn but in the end it fails to to capture one thing I've noticed. The person(s) rescued is not muddy whatsoever once they're out. (atleast that's one thing I noticed) So I tend to lean to live action.

I prefer live action, but, as I think someone has already commented, it's not always done very well - at least, not to suit the interests of people who enjoy that kind of thing!

definitely live action for me, especially if it's done well, as are most of MPV's scenes.

steve70 wrote:I prefer live action, but, as I think someone has already commented, it's not always done very well - at least, not to suit the interests of people who enjoy that kind of thing!

I have to confess that mainstream live action also often underwhelms me. But I too noticed that in animations, quicksand fails to get anyone muddy. You at least get that much with live action. Okay, not always. At least they'll get wet.

There is that Ultimate Hollywood Cheap-Out, and it goes like this:

"There's quicksand in the middle of this creek! REALLY!"

Nessie