The Trailer for Tarsem's Immortals

Tarsem boasted that there was no-CGI in The Fall what so ever; there are a few shots where I have my doubts. But overall the film does carry a tangible elegance, like a classic black and white photograph, that is almost unachievable when using has CGI. The Cell was loaded with practical special effects but it was a bit too early a time for heavy use of CGI. Both where visual masterpieces (although if their stories lacked a little punch).
Unfortunately this looks a little bit more like 300 than The Fall. Not only in the use of CGI, but overall in the way it is shot and laid out. I'm still excited to it: Tarsem plus Snyder's producer should still equal awesome. But I am a bit disappointed. What do you guys think?

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The first 6 minutes of RANGO

Enjoy. I sure did.



Rango - Zes Minuten Uit De Film! - 2 maart in de zalen
Uploaded by WTBBelgium. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

The Faces Behind the Winkelvii

 

Here's a little behind the scenes video about how Arnie Hammer was able to pull off playing both Winkelvoss twins in The Social Network. The use of CGI is both very incredible and subtle, and surprisingly much heavier than you would expect in this sort of movie.

Review: TRON:LEGACY

I did not grew up with the first TRON movie; in fact when I first saw the trailer for this movie I believed for a second they had based the film off the videogame and expected a movie based of Pong to be announced any day now. I am stating this to make it clear this review is not being written by an avid fan whose childhood memories were either destroyed or brought back by this movie.

Review: TANGLED

When I say Disney's back, I very much mean it. Ever since the renaissance of Disney animation ended in 1999 with Tarzan, and Disney Feature Animation fell into a mediocre movie slump people began to ask the question - "When will Disney get back on its game and dominate the animation industry again?" Clearly, this took a little while, but when Princess and the Frog was released it seemed that Disney was finally getting back on the quality horse. Now, having seen Tangled, I can very happily say that Disney is on that horse and riding it at full force again. Welcome back Disney. We've missed you.

Cars 2 Trailer Surfaces

Silly Mater. What shenanigans will he get up to next?



July 2011

Tangled Teaser Surfaces

I say surfaces because hopefully this trailer only scratches the surface of a film that's seven years in the making.




There is no hint of the villain here, any other characters, or any of the plot, so I think there is a lot more in store to see. It also looks GORGEOUS.


Still think it should be called "Rapunzel" though...

Despicable Me

Well... if this trailer told you anything. I missed it.

Review: UP

Hands down, this is one of the most phenomenal animated movies I have ever seen. From animation quality, to characters, to PIXAR'S Godly render machine - everything was perfect as far as I am concerned.

Shane Ackers 9 -Original Short

Hello all,

Since the new movie 9 (scroll down for a couple of days to find the trailer) is based on a short, I have decided to post the original short for all to see, so everyone can better understand this movie trailer that blew my mind when Wilder posted it a few days ago.

So - without further ado - the original short by Shane Acker (God the sound design is incredible) 9:

9 Nine Shane Acker Short Animation
Uploaded by FrFKmeron

Review: THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX

I have not seen an animated film like this in a long time.

Watching Despereaux is like watching an old fairy tale animated movie classic. There is a hero that is not yet a hero who goes on a quest becoming the hero he was always meant to be along the way. While this story has been told in almost every animated movie, Despereaux is different. They don't go for the jokes, pop culture gags, and fart humor. They tell a story and if a joke happens to come out of it then all the better. Finally, this gives an animated movie a full story, one we haven't heard or seen in a while.

Despereaux is the tale of a mouse with large ears who isn't afraid of anything. He lives in the Kingdom of Dor, which has always loved Soup and Rats (?). One day though, a rat ruined the soup, causing the death of the queen - and leading to both being banned from the kingdom. Years later (apparently - cause nobody ever seems to age) tiny Despereaux is set with the task of bringing all of these things back with the intent of being accepted into his community in the process.

This is not done with out flaws.

You never catch the name of any character besides Despereaux, there are a few too many plots happening at the same time, and the ending just seems to happen coincidentally - not for any real reason or chain of events. It just wraps up to nicely. Also there is a terribly overbearing Narrator - voiced by Sigourney Weaver, who chimes in literally every five minutes with a new moral to say - but then taking it back later so the next moral will make sense. It gets annoying fast.

However, the art is astounding. The backgrounds are some of the highest quality I have ever seen, and while the character animation and models are nothing special, they do have a certain charming aesthetic to them. Especially the rats, the leader of which looks so much like Anton Ego from Ratatouille, it is absurd.

Overall I enjoyed the movie a lot, but it could have been better. It certainly is a film that the whole family can enjoy though, and hopefully other studios take a tip from the key points of what made Despereaux good, and don't just gawk about what is missing.

Review: MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA

Before I jump into a delightfully short, yet detailed review, let me tell you - I did not see Madagascar. It didn't appeal to me back when it came out in the days before this blog's existence, and even now I probably won't go back and see it. But - I absolutely loved Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

Spoilers May Occur - But Not Major Ones
Written by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) and directed by Eric Darnell (Madagascar) and Tom McGrath (Madagascar), this film tells the story of Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) growing up with his dad, Zuba (Bernie Mac). One day, Zuba turns his back and Alex is captured by poachers and sent to the New York Zoo. Then (the first movie) along with some of his friends, Alex left the zoo, went to Madagascar. Now, accidentally ending up in Africa, they need to figure out how to get back to New York as well as deal with family and personal issues along the way.

The visuals are great and stylized in a very delightful, and not distracting way, and the voice acting is pretty excellent. While the cast includes Chris Rock, Alec Baldwin, Ben Stiller, Jada-Pinkett Smith, and David Schwimmer, my favorite character in the film was Bernie Mac, who channeled a king as powerful as Mufasa was but with a heart that might seem even bigger. I was tremendously sad after watching the film when I came to the realization that that character will likely not be in the next installment.

This isn't a Lion King rip-off. Face it, it's pretty hard to make a movie about a pride of lions in Africa and escape similarities entirely. But DreamWorks pulls it off nicely.

The score is written by Hans Zimmer (surprise) and includes a few songs by will.i.am, who also voices the character of Moto Moto in the film. This brings me to another point. DreamWorks seems to have gotten over their ideas that an animated character needs to look like its real life counterpart. Bernie Mac doesn't sound like Bernie Mac, and will.i.am does not sound like you're watching an animated will.i.am. I have always liked the idea of actors creating voices for their characters, because it adds a lot to the film and makes each character even more authentic.

I loved the fact that you did not have to have prior knowledge of the first film to see this one. They explain the previous plot nicely in about 2 minutes and you are instantly caught up to where you should be, as any good sequel should do. All the characters are great, as is their development, and the visual gags are hilarious and simply amazing - especially since there are hardly any pop culture references (finally).

What I didn't like was the heavy inclusion of the old woman from the first movie. I thought that she was a terribly annoying and frustrating character. But every vine of gapes has a few bad ones on it, and it doesn't stop you from eating the rest of them with joy.

Remember when DreamWorks made great movies like The Prince of Egypt and Road to El Dorado? Well, Kung Fu Panda showed it and now Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa has confirmed it. Dreamworks is back on the great filmmaking track, and I have nothing but the highest hopes for their next film, Monsters vs. Aliens.

First trailer for Monsters vs. Aliens, Dreamworks' next film appears online

The next movie from Dreamworks is Monsters vs. Aliens, a movie where a huge alien comes down to earth and the US military establishes a team of monsters (and a really tall girl) to fight it. It is made in the style a 1950's B sci-fi movie, full of every visual and vocal gag that anyone could ever imagine. I personally think it looks hilarious... almost like an animated Leslie Neilsen movie.

Lately Dreamworks has been making some awesome films (Kung Fu Panda & Madagascar 2) so, here's hoping that the trend continues!




Monsters vs. Aliens hits theaters March 27th, 2009

Follow Up: Kung Fu Gecko

This post is a follow up to the previous post about movie rip-offs from a few days ago (See: 'Spot The Difference' 8/18/08), where I spoke about out-of-country studios that pump out weird, low-quality knockoff's of already popular or soon to be released movies.

This is Kung Fu Gecko. A amazing LOOKING movie (Background and Rendering-wise), but the story seems to make no sense and the actual movement and animation sucks. However, the art is fantastic and near the same quality as that of a big budget studio film.

http://www.kungfugeckothemovie.com/

PIXAR's UP

Pixar's next movie is called UP. It is about a little old man named Carl, who covers his house with balloons and flies away to South America to go on the adventures he wished he had went on with his wife when she was still alive. He meets up with a little wilderness scout and together they journey the land doing all sorts of fantastical things.

Disney's BOLT

BOLT

Bolt is the next animated feature from Walt Disney Animation studios, and is set for release this November. After a Q&A with the Directors, and being shown 20 minutes of footage, I am ready to give a preliminary report of this film.

It is well known that this film has been going through crazy 'Development Hell'. It was conceived by Chris Sanders (The creator/director of "Lilo and Stitch", and was shuffled around when Pixar's John Lasseter took over the studio. Now Sanders is over at Dreamworks, and Bolt is being helmed by Byron Howard and Chris Williams.

The film tells the story of a movie star dog and his friends as they try to get across the country from New York to Hollywood, with the dog, Bolt, thinking he actually possesses the superpowers that he uses onscreen. Slowly he learns he does not have powers, and learns who he really is.

For the visual style of this movie, Disney has 10 patents pending on a software that allows them to have what seems like had painted brush strokes on all the sets and locations, making the whole movie seem more handcrafted and stylish. The style is a nice noticeable change, and is probably the same software used in Tarzan's tree surfing sequences, and will probably be expanded again for Glen Keane's Rapunel due to hit theaters in 2010.

Look forward to this, it may not be what many people expected, but will be a nice movie, and probably very enjoyable none-the-less. Also, the primary voices are done by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, so it can be expected to be a major hit.

Film Review: WALL-E

This review will be short because of the fact that there are not all to many actors to critique. Lets start with the fact that the robots don't talk very much, and when they do it works well and is not obnoxious. Jeff Garlin does a magnificent job as the Captain of the Axiom, a man who wants to return to Earth so badly, he will disobey orders to do it.

This is the first PIXAR movie to feature live action segments, and because of the story and art direction of the film, it fits flawlessly. Fred Willard is fantastic as the CEO of Buy 'n' Large, and subsequently, the world. And when the live action cuts back to animation it does not feel awkward at all.

Film Review: KUNG FU PANDA

This is the first film since Road to El Dorado and Prince of Egypt that has been made by Dreamworks animation Studios that has been 100% original and that I have thoroughly enjoyed.

The art of the film is beautiful and one can see that much more effort has been put into each shot than ever has been put before in a Dreamworks animated film. Each shot is finely crafted with a delightful depth of field that adds to the realism, and for once there are no blatant fart jokes or obnoxious sexual innuendos. Good job.