If it wasn’t for the its reputation, I would have never known about Delgo. Chances are you have never heard of it either, but it’s a movie known as one of the biggest wide-screen release flops of all time. This 40 million dollar animated movie opened in over 2000 screens and only made around 500,000 dollars in its first weekend. Now I’m not someone who cares much for numbers, because they don’t say a thing about quality, but for this movie I was intrigued. Why were they so bad, was it badly marketed, a movie released at the wrong time or just a really bad movie?
The movie is about a teenager named Delgo (who looks like a dinosaur) who gets caught up in the rising tensions between two tribes, the Lockni and Nohrin people. Because a lot has happened between these groups in the past any small provocation can have huge consequences. If you’ve seen Avatar you can get an idea of what the movie is about. It’s up to Delgo, together with help from a friend of his and the princess from the rival tribe, to fight against a common enemy and prevent total devastation.
When it comes to animated movies I’m pretty open-minded. I always keep in mind that these things are made for children and I don’t mind that, but I was not able to enjoy this. First of all Delgo’s friend is more annoying than Jar Jar Binks (even though he has a small part he wasn’t funny and was very frustrating to watch). Most of the humour fell flat and the movie itself doesn’t look pretty. This is a 2008 movie and therefore has no reason to look like something you’d see in a videogame. The story didn’t manage to engage me and I had a lot of trouble making it through to the end. Not one I can recommend watching.
