Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Happy feet
Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated comedy-drama film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released in North America on November 17, 2006. It is the first animated feature film produced by Kennedy Miller in association with visual effects/design company Animal Logic.
Though primarily an animated film, Happy Feet does incorporate live action humans in certain scenes. The film was simultaneously released in both conventional theatres and in IMAX 2D format.[1] The studio had hinted that a future IMAX 3D release was a possibility. Unfortunately, that was not possible because Warner Bros., the film’s production company, was on too tight of a budget to release Happy Feet in IMAX digital 3D. Their previous release of The Ant Bully in IMAX digital 3D had cost the company a big amount of money, so they did not have too much to spare for Happy Feet. [2] Happy Feet won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was nominated for the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
The film was dedicated in memory of Nick Enright, Michael Jonson, Robby McNeilly Green, and Steve Irwin.
Set in an Antarctic emperor penguin colony, the film established that every penguin must make a unique song called a "heartsong" to attract a mate. If the female likes the male and his song, and if it fits with the female's and helps complete it, the two penguins mate. This is based in fact, since emperor couples court each other and recognize one another by their unique calls. One penguin named Norma Jean (voiced by Nicole Kidman) sings the song "Kiss", whereupon a male penguin named Memphis (voiced by Hugh Jackman) sings "Heartbreak Hotel". Norma Jean chooses him as her mate. They couple and Norma Jean lays an egg. The egg is left in Memphis's care while Norma Jean and the other females leave to fish for several weeks. While the males are struggling through the harsh winter, Memphis drops the egg, briefly exposing it to the freezing Antarctic temperatures. The resulting chick - the film's protagonist, Mumble (voiced by Elizabeth Daily) - has blue eyes, ever-lasting down feathers, a late hatch and a terrible singing voice. However, Mumble has a talent that none of the other penguins had ever seen before: tap dancing.
This ability, however, is frowned upon by the colony's elders, who do not tolerate deviance of any kind. As a result, Mumble is ostracized throughout his childhood, with only his mother and his best friend Gloria (voiced by Alyssa Shafer) to turn to for compassion. One day Mumble wanders into a secluded area, where he is free to be himself and dance. But Mumble is interrupted when the Boss Skua (voiced by Anthony LaPaglia) and his posse Dino (voiced by Danny Mann), Frankie (voiced by Michael Cornacchia), and Vinnie (voiced by Mark Klastorin) fly down and plan to consume the dancing baby penguin. Mumble stalls by asking the leader of the pack about a yellow band that is attached to his right ankle. The Boss Skua tells Mumble that he had gotten abducted by "aliens"; the result leaving him with the mysterious yellow band. The "aliens" the Skuas bird speaks of are actually human beings. Mumble narrowly escapes the hungry birds by falling into a small crevice. Mumble grows into an adult (voiced by Elijah Wood), still half-covered in fluffy down.
Mumble's class is graduating, and although Mumble has not graduated, he joins them on their first unaccompanied trip into the ocean. His class ends their day by partying on an iceberg. Mumble constantly interrupts the singing party and is forced to enjoy the party on a small, separate iceberg. Mumble dozes off and wakes to find himself alone; his class gone. A hungry leopard seal (voiced by Roger Rose) chases him off the small iceberg, and the penguin finds himself far from his home and within the carefree colony of adelie penguins. These adelie penguins are small in stature, but fiercely loyal to those they call friends. He quickly befriends a small group of bachelors who form a club of sorts called the Amigos: the leader, Ramon (voiced by Robin Williams), the brothers Raul (voiced by Lombardo Boyar) and Nestor (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui), and twin brothers Rinaldo (voiced by Jeffrey Garcia) and Lombardo (voiced by Johnny A. Sanchez). The Amigos quickly embrace Mumble's dance moves and assimilate him into their misfit group.
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Mickey Mouse
Mickey was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an 1st, cartoon character created by the Disney studio for C- Mintz of Universal Studios.
When Disney asked for a larger budget for his popular Oswald plays, Mintz announced he had hired the bulk of Disney's staff, but that Disney could keep doing the Oswald series, as long as he agreed to a budget cut and went on the payroll. Mintz owned Oswald and thought he had Disney over a barrel. Angrily, Disney refused the deal and returned to produce the final Oswald cartoons he contractually owed Mintz. Disney was dismayed at the betrayal by his staff, but determined to restart from scratch. The new Disney Studio initially consisted of animator Ub Iwerks and a loyal apprentice artist, Les Clark. One lesson Disney learned from the experience was to thereafter always make sure that he owned all rights to the characters produced by his company.
In the spring of 1928, Disney asked Ub Iwerks to start drawing up new character ideas. Iwerks tried sketches of various animals, such as dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were also rejected. They would later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. (A male frog, also rejected, would later show up in Iwerks own Flip the Frog series.) Walt Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from his old pet mouse he used to have on his farm. In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. These inspired Ub Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney. "Mortimer Mouse" had been Disney's original name for the character before his wife, Lillian convinced him to change it, and ultimately Mickey Mouse came to be. Actor Mickey Rooney has claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him. Said Disney:
"We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin — a little fellow trying to do the best he could. When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity. I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.
When Disney asked for a larger budget for his popular Oswald plays, Mintz announced he had hired the bulk of Disney's staff, but that Disney could keep doing the Oswald series, as long as he agreed to a budget cut and went on the payroll. Mintz owned Oswald and thought he had Disney over a barrel. Angrily, Disney refused the deal and returned to produce the final Oswald cartoons he contractually owed Mintz. Disney was dismayed at the betrayal by his staff, but determined to restart from scratch. The new Disney Studio initially consisted of animator Ub Iwerks and a loyal apprentice artist, Les Clark. One lesson Disney learned from the experience was to thereafter always make sure that he owned all rights to the characters produced by his company.
In the spring of 1928, Disney asked Ub Iwerks to start drawing up new character ideas. Iwerks tried sketches of various animals, such as dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were also rejected. They would later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. (A male frog, also rejected, would later show up in Iwerks own Flip the Frog series.) Walt Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from his old pet mouse he used to have on his farm. In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. These inspired Ub Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney. "Mortimer Mouse" had been Disney's original name for the character before his wife, Lillian convinced him to change it, and ultimately Mickey Mouse came to be. Actor Mickey Rooney has claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him. Said Disney:
"We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin — a little fellow trying to do the best he could. When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity. I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.
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Sunday, June 7, 2009
The Ninja Turtels
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles originated in an American comic book And cartoonsmarttv published by Mirage Studios in 1984 in Northampton, Massachusetts. The concept arose from a humorous drawing sketched out by Kevin Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming with his friend Peter Laird. Using money from a tax refund together with a loan from Eastman's uncle, the young artists self-published a single issue comic intended to parody four of the most popular comics of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics' Daredevil and New Mutants, Dave Sim's Cerebus and Frank Miller's Ronin.
Much of the Turtles' mainstream success is owed to a licensing agent, Mark Freedman, who sought out Eastman and Laird to propose wider merchandising opportunities for the offbeat property. In 1986, Dark Horse Miniatures produced a set of 15 mm lead figurines. In January 1988, they visited the offices of Playmates Toys Inc, a small California toy company who wished to expand into the action figure market. Development initiated with a creative team of companies and individuals: Jerry Sachs, famous ad man of Sachs-Finley Agency, brought together the animators at Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, headed by award-winning animator Fred Wolf. Wolf and his team combined concepts and ideas with Playmates marketing crew, headed by Karl Aaronian and then VP of Sales, Richard Sallis and VP of Playmates, Bill Carlson. Aaronian brought on several designers and concepteer and writer John Schulte and worked out the simple backstory that would live on toy packaging for the entire run of the product and show. Sachs called the high-concept pitch "Green Against Brick." The sense of humor was honed with the collaboration of MWS's writers, Walk Kubiak, Aaronian, Schulte and Sachs. Playmates and their team (Sallis, Aaronian, Carlson, Schulte & Sachs), essentially, served as associate producers and contributing writers to the mini-series that was first launch to sell-in the toy action figures. Phrases like "Heroes in a Half Shell" and many of the comical catch phrases and battle slogans ("Turtle Power!") came from the writing and conceptualization of this creative team. As the series developed, veteran writer Jack Mendelsohn came on board as both a story editor and scriptwriter. David Wise, Michael Charles Hill and Michael Reaves wrote most of the scripts, taking input via Mendelsohn and collaborating writer Schulte and marketing maven Aaronian.
The min-series was repeated twice before it found an audience and Cartoonsmarttv. Once the product started selling, the show got syndicated and picked up and backed by Group W, which funded the next round of animation. The show then went network, on CBS. Accompanied by the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 TV series, and the subsequent action figure line, the TMNT were soon catapulted into pop culture history. At the height of the frenzy, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Turtles' likenesses could be found on a wide range of children's merchandise, from PEZ dispensers to skateboards, breakfast cereal, toothpaste, video games, school supplies, linens, towels, cameras, and even toy shaving kits.
In the 2000s there has been a resurgence in the Turtles' popularity with the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 TV series, a new line of Playmates action figures, Konami and Ubisoft's video games, and the 2007 CGI movie
Read more...
Much of the Turtles' mainstream success is owed to a licensing agent, Mark Freedman, who sought out Eastman and Laird to propose wider merchandising opportunities for the offbeat property. In 1986, Dark Horse Miniatures produced a set of 15 mm lead figurines. In January 1988, they visited the offices of Playmates Toys Inc, a small California toy company who wished to expand into the action figure market. Development initiated with a creative team of companies and individuals: Jerry Sachs, famous ad man of Sachs-Finley Agency, brought together the animators at Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, headed by award-winning animator Fred Wolf. Wolf and his team combined concepts and ideas with Playmates marketing crew, headed by Karl Aaronian and then VP of Sales, Richard Sallis and VP of Playmates, Bill Carlson. Aaronian brought on several designers and concepteer and writer John Schulte and worked out the simple backstory that would live on toy packaging for the entire run of the product and show. Sachs called the high-concept pitch "Green Against Brick." The sense of humor was honed with the collaboration of MWS's writers, Walk Kubiak, Aaronian, Schulte and Sachs. Playmates and their team (Sallis, Aaronian, Carlson, Schulte & Sachs), essentially, served as associate producers and contributing writers to the mini-series that was first launch to sell-in the toy action figures. Phrases like "Heroes in a Half Shell" and many of the comical catch phrases and battle slogans ("Turtle Power!") came from the writing and conceptualization of this creative team. As the series developed, veteran writer Jack Mendelsohn came on board as both a story editor and scriptwriter. David Wise, Michael Charles Hill and Michael Reaves wrote most of the scripts, taking input via Mendelsohn and collaborating writer Schulte and marketing maven Aaronian.
The min-series was repeated twice before it found an audience and Cartoonsmarttv. Once the product started selling, the show got syndicated and picked up and backed by Group W, which funded the next round of animation. The show then went network, on CBS. Accompanied by the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 TV series, and the subsequent action figure line, the TMNT were soon catapulted into pop culture history. At the height of the frenzy, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Turtles' likenesses could be found on a wide range of children's merchandise, from PEZ dispensers to skateboards, breakfast cereal, toothpaste, video games, school supplies, linens, towels, cameras, and even toy shaving kits.
In the 2000s there has been a resurgence in the Turtles' popularity with the success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 TV series, a new line of Playmates action figures, Konami and Ubisoft's video games, and the 2007 CGI movie
Read more...
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