LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - As a result of the poor box-office performance of "Happy Feet Two," 600 of the 700 employees at the digital production studio behind the animated movie reportedly have received their walking papers.
Employees at Dr. D Studios, which is based in Sydney, Australia, have been told they will be laid off in the coming weeks, according to IF.com.au. TheWrap was unable to reach Dr. D for comment.
The film, a sequel to 2006's Academy Award-winning "Happy Feet" -- which grossed $384.3 million off a budget of $100 million -- had amassed only an estimated $30.3 million worldwide as of Thursday.
There may be a silver lining for some of the employees, who reportedly have been offered a job at a new company that Kennedy-Miller Mitchell Films -- which launched Dr. D as a joint partnership with Omnilab Media -- plans to get off the ground in early 2012. KMM was founded in 1973 by "Happy Feet" director George Miller and producer Byron Kennedy.
In addition to the layoffs, KMM and Omnilab are reportedly at odds, and there is the possibility that the partnership between the two companies may be dissolved.
Released on November 18, "Happy Feet Two" has not found much success. It opened in 3,606 theaters and came in second at the box office during its debut weekend, grossing $21.2 million. Its estimated budget was $140 million.
"We obviously came in a little bit under our expectations on 'Happy Feet,' " Warner Bros. President of Distribution Dan Fellman told TheWrap. "The market expands enormously over the holiday. By next Monday, we'll know whether we're in good shape."
With three new family films released this week -- "The Muppets," "Hugo" and "Arthur Christmas" -- "Happy Feet Two" is unlikely to gain further traction.
Dr. D Studios, which specializes in digital feature film production and high-end special effects, reportedly had hoped to compete with Peter Jackson's Weta Digital in neighboring New Zealand. The studio is also attached to the long-delayed fourth "Mad Max" film, "Fury Road"; Miller was the director, producer and writer for the first three installments.
According to DrDStudios.com, "Fury Road" is in pre-production, although the site also includes an out-of-date notice that "Happy Feet Two" is in production. There are no job openings listed on the site.
Early "lost" Disney Cartoon Discovered in UK
LONDON (Reuters) - A lost Walt Disney cartoon that pre-dated Mickey Mouse has been discovered in a British film archive and will be offered for auction in Los Angeles on December 14.
"Hungry Hobos" was one of 26 episodes featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character created by Disney and cartoonist Ub Iwerks in 1927 for Universal Studios.
The first production featuring Oswald, widely considered a prototype to the more famous Mickey Mouse, was rejected by the Hollywood studio, but the second, "Trolley Troubles," kick-started a successful series.
Robert Dewar, commercial director of Huntley Film Archives, one of Britain's biggest independent film libraries, said he and colleagues found the only known surviving copy of Hungry Hobos during a routine cataloguing exercise earlier this year.
"We've got more films than you can imagine," he told Reuters, adding that only about 40,000 of the archive's 80,000 films are fully accounted for.
"We thought this one (Hungry Hobos) looked a little bit suspicious."
Amanda Huntley of the archive added: "When we checked this film we couldn't quite believe our eyes. For an archive, finding a lost masterpiece is incredible -- you just don't think it will happen to you."
Dewar said the archive intended to use the money raised by the sale to help preserve its library.
Bonhams auctioneers expect the 5 minute, 21 second film to fetch $30-40,000 when it goes under the hammer.
The character of Oswald has appeared in several guises over the years, but the significance of Hungry Hobos was that it is part of the first series associated directly with Disney.
According to Dewar, adding to the film's importance was the fact that it aired on May 14, 1928, one day before the first trial screening of Mickey Mouse. It is one of several episodes of the original series still thought to be lost.
In 1928, Disney asked Universal for more money but his request was turned down, prompting his decision to part ways with the studio.
Iwerks went with him, and they developed their most famous creation, Mickey Mouse, a version of Oswald.
"Oswald is a proto-Mickey," said Dewar. "If you see him, you see the same shape of the head, the ears, the mannerisms."
He added that Walt Disney Co., the global entertainment company, was aware of the discovery.
LONDON (Reuters) - A lost Walt Disney cartoon that pre-dated Mickey Mouse has been discovered in a British film archive and will be offered for auction in Los Angeles on December 14.
"Hungry Hobos" was one of 26 episodes featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character created by Disney and cartoonist Ub Iwerks in 1927 for Universal Studios.
The first production featuring Oswald, widely considered a prototype to the more famous Mickey Mouse, was rejected by the Hollywood studio, but the second, "Trolley Troubles," kick-started a successful series.
Robert Dewar, commercial director of Huntley Film Archives, one of Britain's biggest independent film libraries, said he and colleagues found the only known surviving copy of Hungry Hobos during a routine cataloguing exercise earlier this year.
"We've got more films than you can imagine," he told Reuters, adding that only about 40,000 of the archive's 80,000 films are fully accounted for.
"We thought this one (Hungry Hobos) looked a little bit suspicious."
Amanda Huntley of the archive added: "When we checked this film we couldn't quite believe our eyes. For an archive, finding a lost masterpiece is incredible -- you just don't think it will happen to you."
Dewar said the archive intended to use the money raised by the sale to help preserve its library.
Bonhams auctioneers expect the 5 minute, 21 second film to fetch $30-40,000 when it goes under the hammer.
The character of Oswald has appeared in several guises over the years, but the significance of Hungry Hobos was that it is part of the first series associated directly with Disney.
According to Dewar, adding to the film's importance was the fact that it aired on May 14, 1928, one day before the first trial screening of Mickey Mouse. It is one of several episodes of the original series still thought to be lost.
In 1928, Disney asked Universal for more money but his request was turned down, prompting his decision to part ways with the studio.
Iwerks went with him, and they developed their most famous creation, Mickey Mouse, a version of Oswald.
"Oswald is a proto-Mickey," said Dewar. "If you see him, you see the same shape of the head, the ears, the mannerisms."
He added that Walt Disney Co., the global entertainment company, was aware of the discovery.
George Lucas' Grand Plan for Grady Ranch
(Marin Independent Journal) The latest outpost in filmmaker George Lucas' entertainment frontier will transform the old Grady Ranch into a three-story digital technology fortress flanked by two towers rising amid 187 acres of open space.
On a campus largely hidden from view, a 263,197-square-foot building with a footprint as big as two football fields will feature just about everything 340 movie-making employees, actors and guests will need. Plans include 51,000 square feet of film stages, 27,918 square feet of screening rooms, a 4,381-square-foot cafe, a 1,151-square-foot kitchen, 19 units providing 11,228 square feet of guest quarters, a general store, a gym and a day care center.
The building will top underground parking for 202 cars and 24 bicycles.
Outside, plans include nine bridges spanning creeks, as well as a cave to age casks of wine from the filmmaker's vineyards. Excavated material will be used to build a knoll hiding the project from neighbors, and to shore up, raise and restore Miller, Grady and Landmark creeks.
The plan is less intensive and more environmentally friendly than a program already approved by county officials, so it is all but assured of getting the green light after hearings next year.
Aides say Lucas, who came up with the concept and design, was inspired by the Mission-style buildings at St. Vincent's School for Boys.
Others, pointing to plans for two 85-foot towers, see similarities to Casa Grande, the main house at the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Lucas, with a keen eye for elegant architecture, featured Victorian, art deco and craftsman styles at his 2,500-acre Skywalker Ranch not far away. The campus Lucas built at the nearby Big Rock Ranch in 2002 is in Frank Lloyd Wright's "prairie" style.
The size of the latest structure in Lucas' string of high-tech entertainment production facilities in Marin is crucial, according to the plan, in order to consolidate detached buildings that were previously approved, as well as to house production stages up to 55 feet high.
"These productions stages would be used at times for the production of sequences that require techniques possible only in such a large space," an environmental analysis says. "Costume storage, makeup rooms and dressing rooms would be located adjacent to the production stages at the rear of the building," not far from the set shop, equipment storage and outdoor state facilities.
Like other wings of his sprawling entertainment universe in Marin, the stunning, state-of-the-art digital filmmaking enterprise at Grady Ranch would be largely screened from passers-by and neighbors and off-limits to the public. Lucas donated 800 acres of Grady Ranch to the county Open Space District, and has protected more than 5,000 acres at his nearby Big Rock, Loma Alta, McGuire and Skywalker ranches as open space with conservation easements.
Lucas' latest plan for Grady will have less of an impact than a project approved for the site by county officials in 1996. Revisions Lucas has in mind will be kinder to the environs than the earlier project, according to an analysis by Ascent Environmental Inc. of Sacramento.
"Overall, there is less impact and additional benefits," said Rachel Warner, county environmental coordinator. She noted the current plan involves a smaller building footprint, less construction and less grading, as well as the added benefits of creek restoration, bridge installation and improved fire access, among other improvements.
Eliminated from the project are plans for a separate day care and recreational building, seven guest cottages, and fencing that could obstruct wildlife movement. The main building "foot print" is reduced from 190,000 square feet to 123,000 square feet. Grading would be scaled back, and 411 trees would be removed, rather than 2,374 trees.
Additions to the plan include five more small bridges so vehicles would not travel though creeks. Several tributaries would be realigned. Some 68,000 cubic yards of excavated material would be used to "raise creek channel beds to historic levels" and fill deep crevices and other impediments to fish migration. Overhead utility lines along 3,600 square feet of property frontage along Lucas Valley Road would be buried underground. Fire road improvements would be made.
New energy conservation attributes include a geothermal heat system, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic solar panels, low-flow and high-efficiency fixtures and automatic daylight controls along with "dark-sky friendly practices" at night. Finally, a wine cave is part of the plan in order to store barrels of wine from grapes grown on other Lucasfilm properties.
Lucasfilm's statement
Private planning consultants working on the project remained mum, referring requests for comment to Lucasfilm, where publicist Emilie Nicks provided a brief email statement:
"Grady Ranch will be a cutting-edge digital media production facility for both movies and television. As we complete this final phase of the approved master plan, we remain committed to continuing our extensive history of preservation and of bringing long-term benefits to the Marin community. In addition to meeting all the requirements outlined in the approved master plan, we've also made significant, positive improvements to the Grady Ranch Precise Development Plan, above and beyond what was required."
A Lucasfilm website about the project, www.gradyranch.com, notes many benefits of the development of Grady and Big Rock ranches. "Most notable among these benefits was the protection of an extraordinary amount of open space — 3,283 acres ... parts of which were originally zoned for development with numerous housing developments," the site says. "Other master plan benefits and conditions include traffic mitigations along Lucas Valley Road locations, enabling the 11-mile multiuse trail easement (part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail system) that runs through Grady, Big Rock, Maguire and Loma Alta ranches, and stream restoration."
The website adds that as far as the Grady project, "we've reduced the overall footprint ... planted additional trees to make the building less visible from the road and reduced the amount of grading. Also included is a more robust restoration plan that results in removal of steelhead passage barriers ... reduced sediment inputs to Miller Creek, reduced flood risk, increased available groundwater storage and restoration to the pre-grazing conditions of the valley and creeks."
The Grady project is part of a master plan unanimously approved by county supervisors who gave Lucas permission to build facilities totaling about 456,000 square feet at the Grady Ranch and about 185,000 square feet at the nearby Big Rock Ranch. Lucas finished construction of the Big Rock complex in 2002.
"It's less intense," Supervisor Steve Kinsey said of the latest Lucas project. "It's less everything," added Kinsey, who noted, however, that reviewing it cost more. The Ascent Environmental "supplemental" master plan report cost Lucas $358,000, and Kinsey wondered whether all the exhaustive detail was necessary.
But Nona Dennis, vice president of the Marin Conservation League, indicated some details are troubling, calling the project "massive for the site." Although the time for argument about use of the land passed several decades ago, and most of the land will remain open space, she noted the project "continues to be industrial use in a residential area — a long-standing issue between the Marin Conservation League and George Lucas."
Further, Dennis said the proposal now involves "a large amount of recontouring of land cloaked as 'stream restoration.'"
The project will "allow office and industrial uses in an area zoned for housing and agriculture," the league's website complains. The league's "current concerns focus more on the massive reshaping of the landscape and Miller Creek to accommodate the structures, landscaping, and access," and noted "the Grady Ranch facility rebuilds the landscape to fit the structures."
But Warner, the county's environmental coordinator, said recontouring the land as proposed has merit. "Overall, I think it's a very environmentally beneficial part of the proposal," she said. "Raising the bed elevation of Miller Creek and its tributaries using fill material ... is intended to improve the natural process and functions of the creek, eliminate fish passage barriers, reactivate floodplain area and increase aquifer storage while minimizing channel erosion and sediment."
She noted a county consulting hydrologist called the creek plan "scientifically rigorous, demonstrating a clear understanding of stream processes."
The county Planning Commission will reflect on the new project Dec. 12 when it discusses the Ascent Environmental report and determines whether more analysis is needed. The commission will consider merits of new aspects of the project in February.
2012 Oscar Preview: Best Animated Feature
(collider.com) Continuing on with our look at the 2012 Oscar race, today we delve into Best Animated Feature and the technical categories. As Pixar’s Cars 2 was the studio’s worst-received feature to date (it currently sits at 38% on Rotten Tomatoes), we’ve got ourselves an actual competition in the Animated Feature category. Not only that, but if all 18 films that were submitted to the Academy are deemed eligible, we’ll have a total of five nominated films. This leaves us to debate the merits of Rango and The Adventures of Tintin against the likes of Puss in Boots and Arthur Christmas.
Additionally, we’ve taken a stab at Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, and the technical categories. As these are incredibly tricky to predict this far out (and my picks would be doomed to haunt me come February), I’ve simply listed a couple of frontrunners in each category instead of going in depth. Though it’s still early, we’ve got an overall picture of how things look like they’ll stack up; so hit the jump to check out the state of the race so far. If you missed our previous preview articles, be sure to take a look at our picks for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, and Best Actor and Best Actress.
As I said before, the number of nominated movies in Best Animated Feature depends on how many the Academy deems eligible. If the number of eligible films is less than or equal to 15, there will be three nominees, but if the number is over 15 there will be five. 18 flicks were submitted to the Academy, so assuming all of them are deemed eligible we’re looking at a 5-picture race.
Best Animated Feature
Frontrunners:
Rango
The Adventures of Tintin
Likely to be nominated:
Puss in Boots
Arthur Christmas
Other contenders:
Cars 2
Happy Feet 2
Kung Fu Panda 2
Rio
The Best Animated Feature race this year is somewhat exciting because it’s poised to be an actual race. Pixar released their first certified rotten film in history, Cars 2, so the “runner-up to Pixar” award has now been upgraded to Best Animated Feature. Speaking of Cars 2, the film was so poorly received it’s not even a guarantee that it’ll be nominated. In lieu of that, the bonafide frontrunner this year is undoubtedly Gore Verbinski’s fantastic Rango. The Western Comedy debuted to stellar reviews and solid box office with the help of a brilliant voice performance by Johnny Depp and some seriously stunning visuals, not to mention the quirky John Logan-scripted story. The real threat to Rango seems to be Steven Spielberg’s motion-capture adventure pic The Adventures of Tintin. While sure to bring up the “motion-capture is not animation” debate again, the film has been earning positive reviews and is being called the Indiana Jones sequel Spielberg never made.
Also a strong contender is Aardman Animation’s Arthur Christmas, which is earning some delightfully positive reviews. Aardman is known for its goofy stories and Arthur Christmas is the studio’s first film since 2006’s Flushed Away. Puss in Boots has a healthy shot at a nomination, but I’m not sure it’s destined to go all the way. The film received positive (though not necessarily enthusiastic) reviews, but is hurt by its inability to mirror the box office performance of the Shrek franchise. Happy Feet 2 has a shot, but it’s not exactly getting a warm critical reception. The first Happy Feet won the award in 2006 though, so the Academy may still throw Happy Feet 2 a nomination.
If the Academy is put off by Puss in Boots, they may recognize DreamWorks with Kung Fu Panda 2. The martial arts sequel also received positive reviews, and enjoyed quite a healthy box office run. Blue Sky’s Rio has a shot at a nomination as well, though it’s not a heavyweight by any means.
If I had to guess, I’d say the award is between Rango and The Adventures of Tintin, with Arthur Christmas playing the possible spoiler depending on the film’s critical/commercial reception. I think Puss in Boots and Cars 2 will round out the nominations, just because the Academy may feel obligated to at least recognize Pixar (and though there are few, the film does have its fans).
Forger: a New Sculpting App for iPad
(3dworldmag.com) If you want to sculpt while on the train, sitting on the couch or waiting in a queue, this slick app is for you
Developer Javier Edo has released Forger, a sculpting app for the iPad.
The app has a range of the basic features you’d expect from a package like ZBrush. You’ve got nine different brushes to choose from: standard, clay, flatten, move, smooth, pinch, inflate, layer and mask. You can easily import/export OBJ files, mask areas, work on different models at the same time and much more.
Forger has a maximum geometry count of 65,535 polygons, so it’s unlikely to replace conventional sculpting tools any time soon! But if you like to sketch out ideas as you go, this app could prove useful.
Forger is available for iPad 1 and 2, price $2.99.
Red Dawn Set for November 2, 2012
(FilmDistric) Following a steady series of setbacks, Red Dawn finally has a release date. The remake is now set to arrive on November 2, 2012.
In the film, an American city awakens to the surreal sight of foreign paratroopers dropping from the sky – shockingly, the U.S. has been invaded and their hometown is the initial target. Quickly and without warning, the citizens find themselves prisoners and their town under enemy occupation. Determined to fight back, a group of young patriots seek refuge in the surrounding woods, training and reorganizing themselves into a guerilla group of fighters. Taking inspiration from their high school mascot, they call themselves the Wolverines, banding together to protect one another, liberate their town from its captors, and take back their freedom.
Shot in 2009, the production fell victim to financial troubles at MGM, putting the release on hold. A major update came earlier this year when it was reported that the invaders in the film were being re-edited to be portrayed as North Korean rather than Chinese in order to appeal to a broader international market.
Dan Bradley directed the remake, which stars Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
The November 2 release date puts Red Dawn up against the Seth Rogen/Barbra Steisand comedy My Mother's Curse and the animated Disney film Wreck-It Ralph.
The Technology of Film Puppets: Breaking the Reality-Fantasy Barrier
(screened.com) An overview of cinematic puppet technology from marionettes to the digital age.
Since the Nineteenth Century, filmmakers turn to the special effect of puppetry to create fantastic creatures in the realm of film. Creature shops craft real-time, interactive entities, breathe life into them, and capture evidence of their existence. If films and television shows are windows into an imaginative, parallel Universe, puppets are manifest, tactile visitors from this creative world. Animation (despite stop-motion rigs technically being puppets), while picturing its own type of dream world, maintain the integrity of the reality-fantasy barrier. Animated characters live on the other side of a screen, but puppets occupy physical space, somewhere, in this reality.
The varying technologies used on film puppets demonstrate that puppets are as much belief in fantasy as they are the necessity of believability. Over the course of the Twentieth Century, filmmaking pushes the technological and creative bounds of puppetry. Puppets become more detailed and realistic while maintaining a credibility as a possibly credible life form. From simple rigs to computer-driven machines, the technology of puppets revolve around the key purpose of puppetry. Puppet makers incorporate the latest in manufacturing and engineering to construct materials and devices, giving storytelling freedom to the filmmaker and a validity to the puppet.
Even with these advances, puppets of all types remain endearing because they are corporeal phenomenon from human imagination -- no matter how many pneumatic pumps, wires, or googly eyes.
Full article with pics: http://www.screened.com/
Sony Pictures Schedules Pixels for Summer 2013
(comingsoon.net) Sony Pictures has set a May 17, 2013 release date for Pixels, Patrick Jean's adaptation of his own web short that you can watch below.
"Pixels" became a viral hit with its 1980s video game characters attacking New York City. It was previously said that the plan was to make a 'Ghostbusters'-style action comedy in which characters come out of a video game to wreak havoc in the real world.
Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison is behind the big screen adaptation.
The May 17, 2013 date was previously held by Roland Emmerich's Singularity, but it has being going through a rewrite and has now been scheduled for November 1, 2013.
'Hugo' Revives Interest in Georges Méliès
(Los Angeles Times) Director D.W. Griffith once said of French filmmaker Georges Méliès, "I owe him everything." Charlie Chaplin described him as "the alchemist of light."
Méliès built the first movie studio in Europe and was the first filmmaker to use production sketches and storyboards. Film historians consider him the "father of special effects" — he created the first double exposure on screen, the split screen and the dissolve. Not to mention that he was one of the first filmmakers to have nudity in his films — he was French, after all.
And thanks to Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed 3-D family film, "Hugo," contemporary audiences are being lovingly introduced to the silent film pioneer. "Hugo" is a fanciful tale about a young boy, Hugo (Asa Butterworth), who lives in the Paris train station in the early 1930s and discovers that the curmudgeonly old man (Ben Kingsley) operating a toy shop in the station is Georges Méliès. ("Hugo" took in $15.4 million from Wednesday to Sunday, playing on far fewer screens than other wide releases).
When cinema was in its infancy, Méliès made about 500 films filled with wonder, humor and outrageous effects. A trained magician who captivated audiences with his illusions at the Theatre Robert Houdin, he happened to be in the audience on Dec. 28, 1895, when the Lumière brothers premiered their Cinematographie to the public.
Within a year, he was making his own one-minute films. His best known work, 1902's "A Trip to the Moon," which features the iconic image of a rocket landing in the eye of the man in the moon, has recently been restored to its hand-colored glory.
Though audiences' tastes changed, Méliès kept making the same kind of film. In 1910, he went bankrupt and made a deal with the Pathé production company to finance his next films. If the films failed, Pathe would take possession of his house. The films did fail and by 1913, his career was over. He managed to stay in his house until 1923, when Pathé took possession. He made ends meet at the toy shop. Just as in "Hugo," he was rediscovered and given the Legion of Honor and a rent-free apartment, where he lived until his death in 1938.
The clips of Méliès' films and Scorsese's re-creations of the production of his flights of fancy hopefully will whet appetites of families to check out some of Méliès' films, which are available on DVD and on the Internet.
France's Serge Bromberg, who founded Lobster Films in 1984, is a film historian who has been tireless in his efforts to find, preserve and show vintage films. In September, Bromberg presented the restored color print of "A Trip to the Moon," a project he led, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He's worked for over a year on "The Extraordinary Voyage," a documentary on "A Trip to the Moon" chronicling its production and how the long-lost color print was discovered and restored. "The Extraordinary Voyage" will come out on DVD next year along with "A Trip to the Moon."
For those whose interest has been piqued by "Hugo," Bromberg recently shared his top six Méliès films that are must-sees for any cinephile.
"A Trip to the Moon": "When the film was made in 1902, it was the longest film ever — 15 minutes. It has the most amazing special effects. It is exactly like 'Avatar.' It was the first blockbuster in the history of cinema. It was sold all around the world."
"Vanishing Lady": "It is from 1896. It is the oldest special-effects film that survives. It is one minute long. It depicts a whimsical illusion that Méliès did at his Robert Houdin Theatre. This is really one of the most fantastic films."
"The Four Troublesome Heads": "It's from 1898, also one minute. It is a man who takes his head and puts it on the table. Then the head grows back, and he puts the second head on the table. Then the head grows back, and he puts the third head on the table. Then the head grows back and he takes a guitar and starts playing and the heads start singing. Because they don't sing right, he takes the guitar and knocks the heads away. It is absolutely stunning."
"An Impossible Balancing Feat": "It is from 1902 — one minute. He juggles with himself. It is just so amazing."
"Joan of Arc": "He made it in 1900. It's 10 minutes. It is a reconstruction of the life of Joan of Arc. It's hand-colored."
"The Merry Frolics of Satan": Two travelers get more than they bargained for when they encounter Satan the trickster in this hand-colored fantasy. The film features an inventive carriage ride through the skies drawn by a skeletal horse.
"It is from 1906. It had been a show [at the Robert Houdin], for which he did all of these wonderful tricks."
What's Good About CGI Animated Films
(filmmasterjournal.blogspot.
After 1995, with the release of “Toy Story”, CGI animation was taken on and soon Pixar would have slight competition with the rise of DreamWorks with their popular “Shrek” in 2001. Now everyone is joining in on the CGI medium. Ignore live-action; full CG animated films have become popular with all audiences. Now companies like BlueSky (Ice Age), Sony Pictures (Surf’s Up) and even Universal (Despicable Me) are running in the animated industry.
Many now compare these companies to one another, and the biggest two would have to be Pixar and DreamWorks. Each has excellent film s but for me, Pixar capture the heart more. However, DreamWorks have something about their animation that seems to be more texture and quite real. Look at Shrek 2 and above and you will what I mean. Pixar at times go for a more crisp, smooth and fantasy look, which is still highly vibrant and beautiful to watch.
Of course, I have kept in mind that traditional cartoon drawing is a dying, but beautiful format. Luckily, Disney are occasionally making a traditionally crafted animated film every now and then, with the most recent being “The Princess and the Frog” and “Winnie the Pooh”. I love all forms of animation so there is no superior format for me. Many will prefer CGI to hand drawn and others vice-versa, and perhaps even stop-motion being the best, but for me they are all equal because they all hold great films. Traditional has “The Lion King” and “Pinocchio”, CGI has “Wall-E” and “Toy Story” and stop-motion has “The Nightmare before Christmas” and the “Wallace & Gromit” films.
As you know, CGI is used everywhere in the film industry, but I will save that for a later post. Many people do not like animated films because they feel they ‘don’t compare to live-action’ and ‘their story’s are not real enough’. Well, these statements are partially wrong because films like “Akira” (not CGI) in 1988 was a reasonably adult animated film and featured plenty of solid action. As for good CGI films, film’ like “Up” feature emotional maturity and even “Toy Story 3” was acclaimed to have made some people shed a tear.
The CGI medium can still compare with live-action films in some ways because of the limitations; there is none. When it comes down to animation, your imagination can run wild. Films like “Ice Age” and “Shrek” really show this. Seeing a CGI animated film in cinemas now is still a glorifying experience, with or without 3D glasses. Many may not be worthy of film of the year, but they are still entertaining film.
As for the side of them being to ‘childish’. Some of them to target a younger audience like films such as “Space Chimps” and “Tinkerbell”, but others have a little more versatility to them. “Shrek” and “Toy Story” both have adult innuendos and little jokes that would go over the heads of younger viewers and they manage to keep your attention with their wit and story. Sometimes the simple things turn out to be the special things. Wall-E is a great story because of its sincerity and most people can relate to it. The same goes with many of Pixar and DreamWorks’s films.
However, we do have many bad CGI films; Like any genre or category of film. Films such as “The Ant Bully”, “Gnomeo & Juliet” and “Chicken Little” appear as more childish and squabbling films. Regardless of that many have proved as excellent films within the medium is I have previously mentioned. There are a few CGI films (and animated for that matter) that are my favourite films of all time, and “Wall-E” is one of them just to point out. I know some people may disagree with my points, and some will agree. Either way, thanks for reading this post about CGI animation, please give feedback and let me know what you think about CGI films.
CGI Helps Jennifer Lopez Fake "“This is My World" Commercial
(earsucker.com) Jennifer Lopez actually faked her involvement in her new FIAT commercial! Who knew?!?
Sure, it looks like Jenny went back to the “block”, but in reality, she was just on a film set on the west coast!
Reportedly, her role in the ad was actually played by a body double! According to reports, the lookalike was behind the wheel of the car in the Bronx, while J-Lo herself was in L.A., where she filmed her part inside of the Fiat 500. The production company then merged the live action and CGI scenes into one seamless commercial, making it appear as if Jennifer was really in New York.
Funnily enough, in the commercial voiceover, she said, “This is my world. This place inspires me. They may be just streets to you, but to me they’re a playground.”
It must not have inspired her enough to actually go back to the Bronx to do her own filming! In the ad, it shows barbershop owner Eligio Cueto, but he revealed that it wasn’t J-Lo behind the wheel of the car when it drove by his shop. He said, “It wasn’t her, it was a double that looked like her.”
Fake, fake, fake!
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