# "Titanic -- By the visionary director of Avatar" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 26, 2012, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828 "2012-03-26T09:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/21 "2012-03-26T14:20:34Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Both are love stories set against cutting edge technology (one 19[sup]th[/sup] century the other, ah, 22[sup]th[/sup] maybe?) Nitpick: 100 years ago was the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/22 "2012-03-26T14:46:20Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Because when you market a film you _always_ connect it to a recent big hit, no matter how tenuous the connection. Absolutely. I remember “Avatar – By the visionary director of Titanic”, and it went on to be a huge hit. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/23 "2012-03-26T15:06:18Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > She would have been about 11 when the original movie came out. Today DiCaprio is a respected actor, back then he was the fave of 11 year old girls. I refuse to believe she did not see the movie. I was an 11 year-old girl when it came out, and I didn’t see it. Being a poor black child, I couldn’t afford it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/24 "2012-03-26T15:10:38Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Emmm, I’d disagree with you there, I think they’re vary similar: They also both fall into that Cameron template of huge visuals, simple, recognizable character types, and big story cliches. They’re pretty similar if you look at them in that general way. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/25 "2012-03-26T15:19:13Z")
It’s always fun seeing twenty-somethings experience that generational disconnect for the first time. That moment when they mention something and a teenager gives them a blank look and they realize that there’s now a generation behind them that thinks they’re old. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/26 "2012-03-26T15:22:10Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > 14 years since _The Matrix_, 12 years since _Fellowship of the Ring_. > > I don’t understand how this happened either. 21 years since Barney first started out on VHS. 13 years since Spongebob Squarepants started, and MST3K stopped. 10 years since Teletubbies stopped. \*\* And as always, you can play Toy Story the video game, on your Sega Genesis\*.\*\* \*I was a summer day camp counselor in 2003. Toy Story was one of the few video tapes we had. An ad for the video game came on before the feature. I was :eek: over the fact that Toy Story and SEGA could be used in the same sentence. Much like the rest of these. Except, you know, I get the feeling I’m in the same age range as you guys. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/27 "2012-03-26T15:23:00Z")
Can’t imagine why advertisers would want to connect the dots on the two biggest box office draws of all time were made by the same guy. The only reason to do that would be to say “hey, these are essentially the same movie.” (And in my “i’m old” moment of the week, it was catching part of Independence Day on HBO over the weekend and realizing that Judd Hirsch’s performance in that movie is now about equidistant in time from Taxi as from now.) ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/28 "2012-03-26T15:23:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It’s always fun seeing twenty-somethings experience that generational disconnect for the first time. That moment when they mention something and a teenager gives them a blank look and they realize that there’s now a generation behind them that thinks they’re old. At work to a 17 year old co-worker “You’ve \*\*\* NEVER\*\*\* seen a Mad fold in?!” ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/29 "2012-03-26T15:25:16Z")
Titanic, from the guy who went to the bottom of the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/30 "2012-03-26T15:27:05Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Obligatory [xkcd reference](http://xkcd.com/891/). **Holy Crap** , is the one about The Little Mermaid true? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/31 "2012-03-26T15:27:33Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > At work to a 17 year old co-worker “You’ve \*\*\* NEVER\*\*\* seen a Mad fold in?!” If it helps, I’m 37 and I don’t think I ever have either (but I know what they are, I just never read Mad). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/32 "2012-03-26T15:34:14Z")
2001: A Space Odyssey was set in the far, far future. In 1968 the movie was closer the beginning of the sound era in talkies than it is to us today. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/33 "2012-03-26T16:28:20Z")
It makes perfect sense to connect the two. The reason that they’re re-releasing _Titanic_ is that they’ve converted it to 3D. Even the haters will admit that the 3D effects in _Avatar_ were absolutely amazing. So by saying “From the director of Avatar”, they’re saying “We did the 3D really really well”. Which isn’t actually true, but it makes perfect sense why they’d want you to think it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/34 "2012-03-26T17:02:06Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > **Holy Crap** , is the one about The Little Mermaid true? Yes, I was watching _Tangled_ last night. They had a little feature about how _Tangled_ was Disney’s 50th animated feature and they showed a clip from all 49 of the previous ones. _The Little Mermaid_ was #28 - in other words, Disney has made almost as many movies since _The Little Mermaid_ as they made before it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/35 "2012-03-26T17:04:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Which isn’t actually true, but it makes perfect sense why they’d want you to think it. I’d say it isn’t true at all. The big thing about _Avatar_ was it was made with state-of-the-art 3D techniques. Obviously none of these were used in the making of _Titanic_. It’s just going to get the 3D equivalent of colorization. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/36 "2012-03-26T17:09:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’d say it isn’t true at all. The big thing about _Avatar_ was it was made with state-of-the-art 3D techniques. Obviously none of these were used in the making of _Titanic_. It’s just going to get the 3D equivalent of colorization. No, he has a point. Avatar _is_ 3D. As logically disingenuous as it is, advertising a 3D movie as “by the (possibly only) guy who did 3D really, really well” makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/37 "2012-03-26T17:19:08Z")
Presumably Cameron supervised and approved the 3D conversion process and won’t put his name on a schlock job. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/38 "2012-03-26T17:23:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Yes, I was watching _Tangled_ last night. They had a little feature about how _Tangled_ was Disney’s 50th animated feature and they showed a clip from all 49 of the previous ones. _The Little Mermaid_ was #28 - in other words, Disney has made almost as many movies since _The Little Mermaid_ as they made before it. While I’m sure that is true, I’m guessing that the number of Disney Animated features per year has increased over the last decade compared to back when Snow White came out. Snow White came out in 1937, over 50 years ago. The Little Mermaid came out in 1989 23 years ago. So rate of movies is certainly faster now than pre-Mermaid. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/39 "2012-03-26T17:23:39Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Presumably Cameron supervised and approved the 3D conversion process and won’t put his name on a schlock job. ‘presumably’ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828/40 "2012-03-26T17:45:36Z")
Yeah, I don’t think that **Little Nemo** is disagreeing with me. And it’s obvious _to us_ that he can’t have actually used the same methods, but that comes down to fooling some of the people all of the time: I’d wager that the significant majority of moviegoers _don’t_ know about the different methods of 3D, and so won’t realize that the 3D in _Titanic_ will be inherently worse than that in _Avatar_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/titanic-by-the-visionary-director-of-avatar/616828.md?page=3)