Well... it looks like we are starting 2013 with a rather fun ride. Mama, the new presentation by Guillermo del Toro, might not be breaking any new ground in the genre he helped define, but it follows the tradition of the twisted fairytale with full satisfaction. It provides a couple of nightmarish sequences, a handful of good shock scares, and a chilling feeling running down your spine for most of the film, and a few good laughs - most of them nervous laughs. Could you ask of anything more from a film like this?
What is it about basements, old manors, and dark corridors that cause the dark side of our imaginations to soar? It would seem that most horrors seem to inhabit these places; common sense would tell you not to go in there, not to go were the light is scarce because there might be something creeping in the shadows. Something you can’t quite explain, and that most people won’t believe is there.
As a rule of thumb, you should not move to an old manor who’s previous resident disappeared after allegedly going insane. But alas, 10-year-old Sally (Bailee Madison) and her father (Guy Pierce) move into such a place. Bad idea.
Dreamworks Animation seems to be going on through a development extravaganza. After the success of Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon it seems that the studio has finally found a unique style that is almost free of the pop-culture references that plagued its earlier films. Furthermore, unlike Pixar who has stayed at a one-movie-a-year pace Dreamworks has been tackling two (soon to be three) projects a year. Despite the fact that the releases for this year, Kung Fu Panda 2 and the Shrek spinoff Puss in Boots, as well as the ones for 2012 and 2013 are already set the studio has announced seveal films in development that are set for future releases.
Splice treads a very fine line between a serious science fiction film and a B-movie monster thriller. It could have worked as one of the other but both styles do not mix as smoothly as one would like.
The 1990 film version of the Roald Dahl book, "The Witches" featured some crafty mouse puppets from the Jim Henson company, a bald incarnation of Angelica Huston, an early Rowan Atkinson, and a fair amount of near child nudity towards the end. I remember a good amount of deep emotional scars from the film between seeing it once in third grade and again on a Saturday afternoon on the late UPN network.
The upcoming remake of the film will be shot entirely with stop-motion animation and will be directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy & Hellboy II) with Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) maintaining a producing role backstage. The project started back in 2006 when Cuarón and Del Toro discussed collaborating on a film adaption of a Roald Dahl book. Soon after Del Toro wrote up the screenplay for it.
There is no date set for this project, and with Guillermo del Toro's upcoming adaptation of "The Hobbit", it's hard to judge when we'll actually get to see anything from this movie. If Corpse Bride and Coraline are any indication, stop-motion animation has come a long way in recent years.
Above is the trailer for the original film. Though someone has also uploaded the entire film onto YouTube but there's a good chance that will be removed due to the obvious copyright violation.
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