You might as well ask, tebop, why people producing kids' films use such big name actors to star in them. I mean, for a fraction of the cost, you could get several lesser-known, lower-quality actors, and the kids wouldn't care, because they have so low expectations and criteria, right? They're only kids, after all - why should they care about the quality of someone's acting, or how much they commanded in fees to appear?

There are two driving factors in this: firstly, all major film companies (note the use of the word major here, mind) make sure their work is of a certain production quality. That's true whether it be live-action, traditional cel animation, 3d, whatever. And quality costs. You are never going to see a full-length professional production in your local multiplex that was conceived, animated and rendered in Poser, no matter what iteration or how advanced it gets. Why? Because just as Poser keeps advancing, so will all the higher-end apps, allowing for more to be done (besides, many of these studios use custom-built versions of software, allowing them to do stuff that no-one else can; it's another way of keeping your productions identifiable with your style).

Secondly... whilst it may be kids who put the bums on seats, it's adults who pay for the tickets and take their children. And adults want to sit through good quality films, not blocky, low quality animations thrown out by a couple of student in a weekend. The production quality has to be high in order to guarantee bums on seats.

Actually, I just thought of a third point, as well. Why do you assume that kids won't notice the quality of a productio like Shrek? Sure, they might not know all the technical terms for the lighting, modeling, rigging, and so forth: but they still know the difference betwen quality and crap. I have two kids of my own, and believe me, if something isn't up to snuff, they let me know about it. So suggesting that, just because your target audience is in a lower age bracket, you can somehow dial down your production values and skimp on money and quality, is completely off-beam. In fact, I'd say it's often the other way round - kids tend to be an even more demanding audience than adults, because they're less forgiving of what's put in front of them.

jonthecelt