Why do cartoons waste money on big names?

I haven't seen Bee Movie, but with the constant promotion from Jerry Seinfeld, I wonder about the animated genre in general: how come the studios focus so much on the big name actors included in the cast? With Bee Movie it's not too surprising that Seinfeld has pushed this picture so much; he's still in demand, and the movie would be absolutely nothing special without him. Bee Movie is almost guaranteed to be the number one film at the box office as a result.

Still, using a big name actor to drive audiences is just a remedy for a bigger issue. Of course the studios have to use the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Will Smith and dozens of others, because without them, the movies would often be nothing. Again, I haven't seen Bee Movie, but it's not getting great reviews (not getting terrible reviews either), but I have seen a lot of other animated movies where the promotions for the big name actors have been huge.

Remember Shark's Tale? That one promoted the hell out of the people involved, from Will Smith to Robert De Niro. Madagascar: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and so on and so forth. And why? Because they were making up for something else.

With exception to most of the Pixar movies and a few scatterings of other animated films from other companies, most cartoons (it's safe to call these CGI films cartoons now, right, since there really isn't any traditional animated fare these days?) aren't of a high enough quality to rely on look and story alone. Sure, Pixar has used some big names (Tom Hanks and Tim Allen come to mind), but have you noticed that since Toy Story, they really use the actors as promotional devices for their pictures? The previews are almost always focused on the story and the visuals, and rarely mention who the voice talent is. Often times, the voice talent is incredible, but not someone we would know or care about in general.

Then you look at Dreamworks and some other shops, and they almost always have some zany cartoon where they spend half the movie trailer promoting who is in the movie, as if it matters whether Will Smith or Robert De Niro are involved. I'd rather half a pitch-perfect voice talent than an actor whom we're never going to see be involved.

The point of this rant is that if these studios invested just a little less money in its actors and focused perhaps $300,000 more to obtain a quality writer, we'd have a lot more well done cartoons on our hands rather than a bunch of loud and splintered entertainment pieces. Sure, cartoons are meant to entertain children, but if done right, they can also please adults just as much, and it's amazing that studios still haven't completely figured out that it's all about the writing.

New movie trailers: 10,000 B.C., Get Smart

A bunch of new movie trailers have come up in the last day, conveniently just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. You may want to check them out, as some of them are pretty good (and some I haven't watched yet):

10,000 B.C.
Roland Emmerich's "epic" set a long time ago, the trailer premieres Wednesday but Warner Brothers smartly posted the first 30-seconds to get us to thirst for more. The first 30 seconds are pretty good, but you don't see much...

Get Smart
Steve Carell looks to rebound from his disastrous comedy Evan Almighty with Get Smart, a movie adaptation of the old television show. The teaser trailer that's online now is pretty funny, highlighted by Carell being stupid. He sure has range.

Bee Movie
I haven't watch the new trailer, but there is a second full movie trailer for the Jerry Seinfeld comedy about bees.

The 11th Hour
Leonardo DiCaprio narrates this documentary.

In the Valley of Elah
This one's about a war veteran searching for his son, who disappeared after returning from Iraq. It's written and directed by Paul Haggis, so you may want to pay attention to this one.

Sleuth
Haven't watched the movie trailer for this one, but the title is simple goodness.