Dingo Pictures

Dingo Pictures
Yee!
Type: Mockbusters Founded: 1992 Founder: Ludwig Ickert Roswitha Haas Headquarters: Friedrichsdorf, Germany

Dingo Pictures was a German animation company based in Friedrichsdorf, formed by the musician Ludwig Ickert (born March 30, 1944, died November 14, 2019) and the book author Roswitha Haas (born January 28, 1940, died December 8, 2015). The studio is known for creating traditionally animated cartoons based on fairy tales and concepts plagiarizing the works of big animation studios like Disney, Pixar, 20th Century Fox, and DreamWorks. These cartoons are highly regarded as some of the worst animated films ever, often looking as if it was traced from another cartoon.

Originally distributed in German by Jünger Verlag, the cartoons were dubbed into many languages and released on VHS, DVD, and audiobooks. During the early 2000s, they were also released in Europe as part of video games, which were actually just the movie and some minigames, by Midas Interactive Entertainment, they stopped publishing them sometime in the PlayStation 2 era, and Phoenix Games, they continued to publish them until their bankruptcy in 2009, for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Wii and Nintendo DS. Though some of their cartoons did get individual English language DVD releases, most notably by East West Entertain­ment in the United States, they are cheap but rare to find.

Works

1. Griechische Sagen: Perseus (1992)
2. Die Nibelungen Sage: Siegfried (1992, storybook movie)
3. Die schönsten Geschichten vom Osterhasen (1993, storybook movie)
4. Aladin (1993)
5. Lustige Weihnachten: Max' wundersames Geschenk (1993, storybook movie)
6. Sing mit Aladin (1993)
7. Neue Geschichten vom Osterhas' (1994, storybook movie)
8. Goldie: Abenteuer im Zauberwald (1994)
9. Der König der Tiere (1994)
10. Hampie, ein kleiner Wal entdeckt seine Welt (1994, storybook movie)
11. Es Weihnachtet sehr... (1995, storybook movie)
12. Artige Katzen (1995)
13. Pocahontas (1995)
14. Ein Fall für die Mäusepolizei (1995)
15. Toys: Das Geburtstagsgeschenk (1996) (Remake of Es Weihnachtet sehr)
16. Wabuu der freche Waschbär (1996)
17. Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (1996)
18. Janis das Schweinchen Baby (1996)
19. Peter und der Wolf (1996)
20. Der gestiefelte Kater (1997)
21. Auf der Suche nach den Dalmatinern (1997)
22. Balto (1997)
23. Hercules (1997)
24. Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (1997)
25. Anastasia (1998)
26. Das unglaubliche Fussballspiel der Tiere (1998)
27. Das Schwert von Camelot (1998)
28. Ein Prinz für Ägypten (1998)
29. Der König der Tiere: das grosse Abenteuer (1999)
30. Tarzan: Der Herr des Dschungels (1999)
31. Im Tal der Osterhasen (2000) (Remake of Die schönsten Geschichten vom Osterhasen)
32. Winkie der kleine Bär (2000)
33. Abenteuer im Land der Dinosaurier (2000)
34. ...noch mehr Dalmatiner (2000)
35. Atlantis: Der verlorene Kontinent (2001)
36. Benni und seine Freunde (2004) (redub/re-edit of Peter und der Wolf)
37. Die kleine Hexe Arischa (2005)

Why We Can Say "Boo, Yee Stink!" To Their Awfulness

Note: It is possible that this studio was meant to be bad as a whole.

1. Absolutely terrible animation that feels reminiscent of a NES or SNES game. The animation itself is incredibly choppy and only moves at a few frames per second throughout every one of their films.... and it blalantly shows.
2. Some of their films and characters in them are complete rip-offs or stolen from famous film companies and animators, like Walt Disney and Don Bluth.
3. The budgets for these films are extremely low, although it could explain the horrendous animation.
4. Lack of a wide variety of voice actors, since there are only around one or two actors in any of the movies. This at least applies to the English dubs, as the German dubs had mostly four voice actors, with Pocahontas having fourteen.
5. While the voice acting for the German dubs is somewhat passable, the English dubs have awful voice acting; many of the actors show little emotion, mispronounce words, and there are frequent flubs that aren't fixed. In addition, the audio for the voices is very poor and cuts off very often.
6. The lip-syncing for all of their films is practically non-existent, as it doesn't even sync up with the audio.
7. Terrible editing, as some sounds play too early or too late, as well as certain characters having parts of their design disappear. In the English dub of Der Glöckner von Notre Dame, cellphone interference can be heard in the background, and in Pocahontas, a bug can be seen crawling on the screen. In the English dub of Aladin, you can actually hear one of the actors turning the page of the script after reading one part. Also, some of their films have visible garbage areas, and in a few films such as Das unglaubliche Fussballspiel der Tiere, what appears to be the cursor for Amiga Deluxe Paint, which their films were animated on, appears occasionally.
8. Tons of characters and assets are recycled constantly in every one of their films, with little change except their clothes' colors or small details.
9. Most of their movies are comprised of filler, with the plot taking a while to get along or even start. As a result, it results in very slow pacing.
10. Despite translating their films into English, there are some cases where signs and even vehicles remain in their original language.
11. The English translation usually has mild profanity even though these movies were made for kids.
    • The most common swear words in these movies are "damn" and "hell". However, these words are not considered profanity in other languages, so it's understandable, but…
    • ...the English dub of Wabuu the Cheeky Racoon made by Art Media actually has a scene where a character says "shit", which unlike "damn" or "hell", is not okay for a kids' movie.
12. The storylines of their movies can range from extremely dark to downright idiotic. For example:
    • Janis the Little Pig is probably the darkest Dingo movie. It actually has a part in the story where Janis is sent to a slaughterhouse, where there's a scene where you can see a dead pig. The ending is also very dark; the film ends with Janis leaving the farm and living with an old pig in the forest, abandoning her brothers and his mother on the farm.
    • King of the Animals is an example of a pretty stupid Dingo movie. The whole plot is about a bunch of animals arguing and fighting over a mine of diamonds that they found in the jungle. Why would the animals need diamonds? The sequel, King of the Animals 2, commonly known as Lion and the King, isn't any better.
13. The cover art for their movies outside of Germany is usually misleading, as they usually look completely different from the actual product, worse yet it looks DISGUSTING if you look at it for too long, especially the Aladin cover.

"Yee!" Qualities

1. Most of the cover art for their movies, while misleading, can be nice to look at.
2. The backgrounds for most of their movies, are actually pretty nice as well.
3. Despite sometimes being repetitive, their music tracks are actually decent.
4. The Spanish and Italian dubs, among others, are competent.
5. It is possible that all of these movies that they make were meant to be bad in the first place.
6. Some unintentionally funny moments here and there, most notably the scene in Dinosaur Adventure where Oro calls out Peek's name in a manner that sounds like "yee".
7. One word that pretty much says it all: "Yee!"

Trivia

• A scene in the Italian dub of the film Dinosaur Adventure in which the character Oro says "Peek", a character's name, in a way that sounds like "yee" became a highly popular internet meme in 2015.
• Phoenix Games published some Dingo Pictures' movies as part of video games, featuring the cartoon and some minigames using stills from the movie.
• The studio was located in Haas and Ickert's own house in Friedrichsdorf, and the crew mostly comprised their family and friends and local theatrical actors.

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