Live-Action Or Animated? What’s Your Preference For Comic Book Adaptions?

[Amadeus Arkham]

What out of the two mediums do you generally prefer to see comic book movie adaptions in? For myself I’m more of a animation guy but I can’t deny the thrill of seeing a comic book page replicated in the real world. Where do you stand?

[Frontier]

Animated bar none. It just gives you more freedom and allows you to go all out in a way you don't often see with live-action properties.

[godisawesome]

What out of the two mediums do you generally prefer to see comic book movie adaptions in? For myself I’m more of a animation guy but I can’t deny the thrill of seeing a comic book page replicated in the real world. Where do you stand?

...I can’t really choose one over the other, on the basis that I think the writing is ultimately the most important thing.

A well written cartoon is going to be better for me than a mediocre or forgettably scripted live action movie.

I think I might give it just barely to live action on the basis that *nowadays* there’s a lot less corner cutting on the live action films, and the live action films have gotten better at embracing the ambition of comics.

[AndrewCrossett]

It depends entirely on the comic. Some should be one or the other, some could go either way or a combination of both, and in some cases budget constraints would dictate the answer.

[Vakanai]

I find myself rewatching and getting more excited for the animated movies than anything else, so animation.

[Tofali]

1000% Animation. Live action is an exercise to frustration and disappointment. Live action is mostly and always a product made for the general audiences while the fandom just get scraps

I'm always stressed out at my first viewing of a live action movie but giddy and happy at my first viewing of an animation "adaptation"

[KabutoRyder]

I'd like more animations. I want Marvel animations except I want the people who do the DC animated movies to do the Marvel ones.

[Castle]

Animations. More given space to flesh out characters and stories. However I only like animated adaptions that are not straight up childish.

[phonogram12]

Depends. For animation, I prefer them to remain as faithful to the original source as possible, which is just one of the reasons I just couldn't get into many of the more recent DCAU movies.

For live action, however, I prefer a loose adaptation at best. I don't know what it is, but seeing something in live action directly translated from a comic book just bores me to tears.

[choptop]

I like Live action but really animated puts out the better movies.

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

Going with live action, that way it gives actors more to shine with. For example I like Hamill's Joker as much as the next guy, I really do, but it doesn't really compare to seeing actors like Ledger or Phoenix truly embody the role. Plus in modern times with the right budget, there's not much you can do with animation you can't with CGI.

[Totoro Man]

I'm just going to echo on AndrewCrosset's reply:

it depends on the character, the story, the types of actions we're being shown, and the budget:

for something like Green Lantern I think 2D animation is probably the better way to go. for me those magical green light constructs just look better when they're animated in traditional animation. even if the CGI for a live-action film is fantastic it will still have an uncanny valley effect...

the same holds true for something like ATLA, Dragonball Z, or Naruto where we have insane fight sequences that frequently employ elemental and energy manipulation powers. I think 2D animation is probably the most sensible and cost-effective way to go.

for street-level characters w/o superpowers it would probably be cheaper, and more sensible to do live action.

the problem with going full-blown CGI animation is that, in some cases it's even more time-consuming and expensive than just filming it as a mixed live-action/CGI film.

I mean, as much as I would be curious to a see a live-action Rock Lee vs Gaara (probably STILL the best written fight in Naruto IMO) … pulling that off well in live action would be INSANELY expensive and hard to do. so it makes more sense to simply render it in 2D animation.

[Osiris-Rex]

Live action. It seems more real.

[WebLurker]

Both

10char

[Mistah K88]

Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but I'm going to go with animation. There's just much more that you can do with it, with live action you have to worry about if something looks too silly and the like. My favorite adaptations of characters have been in animation.