Battle for Terra

Battle for Terra (2007)
Directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas

Giddy. Image from http://www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00003527/terra11.html

In an alien village of towering mushroom trees lives a girl and her father. These aliens don't have legs and fly. They propel with a swimming motion and are kind of leaf shaped. Although they can fly they use other flying contraptions equatable to motorcycles or cars to get places faster or move more people.
It's another peaceful day in this town when the sun is eclypsed. Dozens of tiny lights rain from the sky and turn out to be invading fighter ships. They're capturing the native people to run tests on and who knows what else. The girl, Mala, is distressed to see her father get abducted. Unable to tolorate losing her only other parent Mala tried to get abducted to get reunited.
None of the ships take her so she decided to take them. In her flying machine she manages to take down a ship. After it's crashes she finds the pilot unconscious and losing oxygen. Back at her home the pilot, Jim's rover unit tells Mala how she can create oxygen so he doesn't die. Giddy is able to teach her English, and Mala follows the instructing, driven by the hope that this human will be able to get her to her father.
Once concious Jim says he needs to get to his ship. If Mala helps him get to his ship, he'll take her to her dad. Mala eagerly agrees.
When they return the site of the crash the ship is gone! Giddy's sensors indicate it's been dragged off to a part of Mala's planet, Terra, where no one goes. They follow Giddy and end up at the ruins of an old civilization, and to Mala's surprise there are people there! One of her people's ships lands and the group follows it to get in. However once inside they're surrounded. With Jim's ship in sight, he takes Mala hostage in order to get to it. The three get inside and take off.
Jim approaches his home ship and docks. Mala is instructed by Jim to stay in his ship and wait for him. He has to be debriefed and scanned then he'll be back. Jim is greeted by his best friend who was worried Jim died, then drilled for information about the natives by higher-ups.
During all this Mala grows impatient. She's brought her respirator so she'll be able to filter the oxygen, and she grabs a laser gun from the cockpit that she'd seen Jim use.
Snooping around the ship eventually leads her to a holding chamber. Whether her people are dead inside or not is unclear. Her father in the connecting room is still alive, but very very weak. Mala attemps to push his stretcher out and make it back to Jim's ship but her father and her are tailed by two men. Not wanting anything bad to become of his daughter, Mala's father grabs the gun, throws her back in the room with her people and shuts the door on her. He shoots wildly at the men and the room, eventually breaching something resulting in all of them getting sucked into something and dying. Mala, heartbroken in the next room, sees all this through the glass. She collapses on the floor and is taken prisoner.
Jim tried to convince his supervisor, Hemmer, that the people are peaceful and they need to think of a way to get more oxygen for the humans without destroying the Terrans. Hemmer disagrees. He's taken over the government and the home ship. He demands that the terraformer be sent to the planet as soon as possible. It'll take a week for the planet to get converted to breathable oxygen, and as it is the ship only has two months of oxygen left. Hemmer begins to worry where Jim's loyalties lie.
On the other side of a one way mirror Jim sees Mala calling for help. She's in a room full of breathable air for her. Jim's best friend is then thrown in and begins to suffocate. Hemmer explains to him he has two options. He can press the red button and the room will fill with oxygen, saving his friend but killing Mala. Or he can let him die and show where his new allegiance lies.
Unable to kill his friend Jim presses the button. Mala begins to choke on the oxygen. Not wanting Mala to die either, Jim quietly orders Giddy to save her. Giddy breaks the glass and leads Mala to Jim's ship. Once inside they make a break for it back to Terra.
Back home Mala is asked to tell all she knows about the humans' plans. She tried also to get Giddy to explain, but he's unsure if his first allegiance lies with her or with Earth Force. Because Jim has ordered her protection, Giddy finalizes on helping Mala.
The Elders of Terra also reveal that in the ruins where Jim's ship had been held is a secret army base, in case of invasions like this. The Elders had once been at war, but because of the near total destruction the survivors started new lives teaching nothing of hate or war. However the past is now coming in handy.
The flying machines they have at this base are much more sophisticated than the ones ever other Terran uses. They actually stand a chance against Earth Force.
Hemmer launches the attack the the fighter ships on both sides take flight. Things look promising until Hemmer calls for backup.
The terraformer hits Terra's surface and begins producing oxygen. The residents of a nearby village being to suffocate. Seeing all these innocent civilians choking, Jim decides he can't go through with supporting the humans. Knowing he'll get closer than anyone else, human or Terran, to the terraformer before being suspected he becomes a martyr.
Rockets go straight through the machine, killing Hemmer. Mala sadly watches as Jim's ship explodes. The battle is over. But at a great cost on both sides.
The home ship still in space, Mala feels terrible for all the humans that have nothing to do but wait to die. The Elders assure her, there is always an alternative.
Some time later, Mala and her best friend, Senn, are racing through the clouds. They're approaching a large dome. It's a small part of her planet where the humans are able to terraform. The species can intermingle on Terra now with their respirators.
In the middle of the dome a large statue is under construction.
It's Jim, staring our to the stars.

Mushroom tree village. Image from http://www.transmissionfilms.com.au/index.php/battle-for-terra/

This films was alright. It definitely had a lot of feels towards the end.
The animation is meah. Things are pretty limited. Basically it seemed like in order to have to not worry about a lot of things, like leaves or grass or hair, the settings went where they did. The giant mushroom-topped trees the Terrans live in have a couple giant leaves on them, like maybe a dozen. All the Terrans are bald, and on the home ship it's pretty militant in attitude and dress so everyone is bald or close to it. They're also all in simple tight-ish uniforms so all that fabric secondary moment is not needed. Ect. Ect. I guess I'm just getting at it's a lot easier if all your materials have a shiny texture or matte texture to them. And if they're still or unmoving completely like metals. You don't have to deal with fabric folds then.

Modeling and stuff get's more complex towards the end of the film, when the battle sequences are going on. All of a sudden you have all these spaceships and Terran ships and explosions and blood. So it was nice from an animation standpoint for a change.

Jim's death was interesting. He really did become a martyr for these two races, so they'd find another way. A better way. The spaceships are shaped like plus signs for the humans, and the pilot sits in a bubble in the middle. During the final battle a couple of the wings on Jim's ship get clipped. There's a scene of Jim's ship closing in on the terraformer and Hemmer looking at it through the glass. It's like a cross. And then they both die.

For all the Terrans' weird flying things, they could sure use an astrologer. Not only did the rain catch them by surprise but a giant spaceship that definitely didn't just appear there. Pretty sure it was traveling for a long time. Their music sucks too XD The jam sessions that kept getting inturruprted in the beginning didn't seem like they were going well.

Funny part of the movie is when one of the humans says "It's a trap!" in the end battle. I literally paused it at that point and went to watch Admiral Ackbar say it on youtube.

The voice acting in the film is amazing. It's a lot of screen actors, not voice actors, doing the voices so it's extra impressive. Giddy, played by David Cross (Tim and Eric, Year One, Men in Black), and Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe, Thirteen, True Blood) did exceptional work. Also in it was Justin Long, who had been in Alpha and Omega, which I recently talked about on here too.

It was an okay one time watch. The storyline wasn't horrible. Definitely one of those go-green movies. However, it came before most of the ones that people complain about. Avatar was 2009, WALL-E was 2008. Yes there were many before that, and there will be many more. I just think it's something worth keeping in mind as you pass judgement.

This movie was better than Planet 51 by a long shot if that helps you make a decision.

There is also no love interest (except between the Terrans and their love for their home planet) which is nice. A movie without that is sometimes hard to come by in North America.

Mala and Giddy escaping the home ship back to Terra. Image from http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/may/01/battle-terra/


Finally here's some more cool info about the movie. So this feature-length was actually based on a short that was written, directed, and animated by the same director.
Check it out.



In honesty I think I like the short better. Not in terms of quality, but purely story. The American flag with a million stars is genius! Really threatening too.
In terms of technicalities, this short, in my opinion, is great. The score by Matt Messina is awesome. I love how the horns build uneasily. I really do. At first it was abrasive, but it's supposed to be. It's supposed to make you feel uneasy. I'd recommend the short to anyone. If you really love the short then maybe the film is for you.

Speckles the Tarbosaurus

Speckles the Tarbosaurus (2012)
Directed by Han Sang-Ho

Five/five stars! This movie is great! Really great!

Speckles and his family

Speckles, a young Tarbosaurus (very similar species to the t-rex) is the youngest in his family. Only 1 year old, Speckles is dwarfed by his older twin sisters, 10 year old brother, and mother. His mother and siblings usually hunt without him, but one day Speckles decides he's going to join in on the action and no one can stop him. Unfortunately someone else has the same idea. One Eye, a Tyrannosaurus rex, has been watching the Tarbosaurus from a distance for a while, but sees an opportunity to get close in this hunt.

Big brother, Quicks, is about to start chasing their prey, but Speckles rushes out before him. Speckles runs towards some large herbavores, but instead of running away they head straight back towards him! Something has scared the herd back in the direction of Speckles' family!

The stampede threatens to squash tiny Speckles but Quicks runs in just in time to save him, sacrificing himself. Meanwhile his sisters are trapped between the stampede and the edge of a cliff. Mom rushes through the stampede to get to her girls, but is knocked down.

When she gets up it's too late. The twins have fallen over the edge, like so many other dinosaurs in the stampede. Mom cries in sorrow as the stampede comes to and end, and the catalyst reveals itself. One Eye, the one-eyed t-rex is who started the stampede. And now he aims to take down Mom.

Tiny helpless Speckles can only watch horrified at One Eye pushes his mother over the edge too. One Eye roars in victory, now the dominant hunter of the area. Speckles seeks refuge in the forest, away from larger animals, hoping only to somehow survive on his own. Years go by and Speckles runs into One Eye again. Watching from the sidelines, Speckles sees One Eye take down a therizinosaurus, maybe the same kind of animal that took his eye to begin with.

While eating, One Eye is approached by a smaller Tarbosaurus about the same age and size as Speckles. While One Eye is chasing her away, Speckles using the opportunity to steal some of One Eye's lunch. Safely away from One Eye, Speckles eats and is joined by the other Tarbosaurus. Good thing she got away. From then on the female Tarbosaurus, Blue Eyes, and Speckles are inseparable. They grow up together and become a hunting team.

When they're ten the two have another encounter with One Eye. While waiting to ambush their prey, One Eye appears at the sink hole the two hunt at. One Eye knocks Blue Eyes down on her leg then goes in for the kill. Before he has the change to finish her off, Speckles clamps down on his leg.

From the corner of his eye Speckles sees Blue Eyes get up and hobble away. However now Speckles has to figure out a way to lose One Eye. He decides to draw him into the sink hole. It seems to work, and the Tarbosaurs regroup. Unfortunately somehow One Eye has gotten out of the muck. Exhausted, he roars at the Tarbosaurs. He probably would have tried again to finish them off but he's tired from dragging his tons and tons of weight our of the mud. Speckles and Blue Eyes leave.

The two go far away and eventually get a spot of luck. They follow a herd of dinosaurs to a hot spring. The relaxation and warm water heals Blue Eyes.

Ten years later the two are still together. In face they're waiting for their eggs to hatch. In the mean time the two have found a nest.

Speckles (left) and Blue Eyes (right)

One day while eating in their nest overlooking their new home, the rocks from the hill they live on begin to fall. The two look up to see a boulder coming at them! Speckles pushes Blue Eyes out of the way and the boulder forces him over a cliff.

One Eye pushed that boulder down the hill and now he's after Blue Eyes! She give it her best shot, but One Eye takes her down. She falls, on the same side One Eye had pushed her all those years ago. She seems to submit to him. One Eye is possibly trying to steal Blue Eyes from Speckles, not kill her, so he can mate with her, and so be it that he has to use force.

Before he can kill her, or mate with her (whichever he was trying to do), Speckles appears! He had fallen off the cliff and into the pool below. The giants fight, and Speckles wins! One Eye leaves defeated, and the couple has the chance to get Speckle's old nest back.

Their eggs hatch and they have three children. One of them, Jr., looks just like Speckles except for his mother's eyes. Things go well for a while, when a volcano explodes. The family flees. The world is collapsing around them and a rock lands on one of the babies. Blue Eyes and Speckles stop to try to push the boulder off, but Speckles seeing it's useless snatched up his other child. Pushing Jr. out of the way of another rock Blue Eyes is hit, in the same leg! Luckily the remaining four make it to the tail end of a herd, but there doesn't seem to be any rest in sight. The herbivores are on the move to try to find a new, safe forest, and the carnivores have to follow their food.

Unfortunately the leg wound is too much for Blue Eyes. She falls to the ground and raptors begin to attack. Speckles fights them off as long as he can, but for the sake of his children has to leave her body behind.

Weeks pass and eventually the herd sees green. There is one more hurdle to cross before they're at their new home--a long, thin, serpentine land bridge. The herd presses on.

It seems like salvation is near when One Eye strikes again! He drives the herd back, creating another stampede. Speckles is stuck on one side, his children on the other, riding the edge of the ocean! The stampede passes and the three of them are alive. That soon changes when One Eye head butts one of the babies over the edge. Only Speckles and Jr. are left.

In their battle Jr. is flicked over the edge by One Eye's tail. Speckles does the same to One Eye, sending the beast into the ocean. Both have survived though, and One Eye is heading for Jr.! Speckles dives off the cliff, determine not to let One Eye take his son.

They have an epic underwater battle. All the commotion attracts some tylosauruses, giant underwater carnivores that make t-rexes seem small. It seems like One Eye and Speckles will kill each other when a tylosaurus snatches One Eye up. The villian is brought to the depths of the ocean as a snack, and Speckles catches up with his son.

Exhausted and fading fasts Speckles sees that the battle has drawn them far from shore. He swims as hard and far as he can until he blacks out.

When he awakens he's on the beach, his son next to him, just fine. He gets up and the two continue on to their new green paradise.

Young Speckles

This is so much more than I expected! Actually I didn't know what to expect, but this is far better than anything I'd have guessed. The animation is excellent. The sound design is really interesting. The Tarbosaurus are really vocal so you get to listen to their cool voices a lot.

As far as characters that speak, none of them are speaking anything but roars. There is but a single internal narration from Speckles. It's really interesting how there's not a lot of character development but there is at the same time. Speckles grows and has simple motivations, like protecting his family, but some of the ways he does things that get complex or simple in a time of great panic play a lot to how Speckles has grown. For example when he was ten with Blue Eyes he was cunning and somewhat pompous to try to take One Eye down by using the sink hole, but as an adult seeing his kids' trapped on that ledge he tried to rush through a stampede only to get knocked out. Cool stuff.

Great in every way. And you learn too!

So from what I've read Tarbosaurus are very closing related to Tyrannosaurus rex, thus it's not far fetched to think a t-rex that sees a Tarbosaurus might think they can mate. They look really similar too. The Tarbosaurus' head is a lot lighter, and many Tarbosaurus bones are hollow. Bird like, or what? Anyway this is a South Korean film about a pretty much exclusively Asian dinoaur. T-rex are from North America and Tarbosaurus are from Asia.

This film has a horrible rating on IMDB, but no joke it's amazing! I hope Han Sang-Ho gets a chance to do another dinosaur movie!

On a pretty funny note, the credits list the cast members all as just the kinds of dinosaurs that appeared in the film XD

I'm sorry but I can't find Speckles' voice actors. I know IMDB has a few names listed, but I'm not 100% sure I always trust their info. They list Speckles' name are Spotty for goodness sakes, so how do know they're telling the trust about anything else?

Anyway, like many people from my generation, growing up watching Jurassic Park made us want to be paleontologists. Dinosaurs are the coolest! If you like dinosaurs, or if you like dinosaur movies, or if you like awesome scores set to animal battles watch Speckles.

All images in this entry are from the movie's facebook page: www.facebook.com/Tarbosaurus3Dfilm

Decay

 Science nerds, this text should ring a bell. Image from http://www.decayfilm.com/2012/lhc-sign.html

Decay (2012)
Directed by Luke Thompson

Wow.
The film is acceptable, but the curcumstances surrounding it make it great.

 Image from http://www.decayfilm.com/2012/keep-calm-and-baryon.html

So what happens when living tissue is exposed to the 'God Particle'? This film gives one possible answer.
A problem underground in the LHC is detected. Four students, Amy, Connor, James, and Matt, are sent underground to the Large Hadron Collider's control room to monitor things while a tech team investigates the LHC.
While in the control room something goes horribly wrong and the group has to restart the power by leaving the room, all the while Amy is trying to run simulations on her computer of what will happen to live organisms around the Higgs Boson. Once in the tunnels they begin to hear strange sounds. Something attacks the group. James is bitten. They run for their lives.
The group finds refuge in the server room where they hope to get a message to the outside. They cannot contact the outside, however they do receive the simulation results from Amy's computer in the other room. Radiation from the Higgs Boson is deadly. It kills the brain except for the stem, leaving the affected organism only with primal functions. Kill, and eat. Unfortunately someone with security access on the outside is wiping all the data, erasing his tracks. This couldn't have happened by accident. Someone was willing to send innocent people down just to see what the Higgs Boson woul do. The only good news--Connor found a map.
James becomes exhuasted and 'falls asleep'. When he awakens he's just like the other creatures and attacks Connor. Matt flees, leaving Amy to kill her own brother to save her crush, Connor.
After James is killed, Amy helps a wounded Connor hobble away. In another tunnel they're hunted again and Connor is eaten. Grief-stricken and alone Amy continues. Meanwhile Matt gets attacked by a  bunch of ladies and eaten.
Amy eventually makes it out only to find someone infected got out before her and everyone in sight is infected. Amy seeks shelter inside a professor's office. She knows he has a backup copy of all the data on the 'God Particle', so Amy has to send it out to let the world know.
Behind her a man, the director general of CERN, enters the room aiming a gun at her. He had to let this happen, the research was too important he tells her. Her professor wanted to shut down the LHC, but he couldn't have that. And he can't let her go blabbing. He shoots Amy. Unfortunately for him she's been recording a voicemail to another physicist the whole time, and may or may not have already emailed the data.

Matt following Connor down a tunnel. Image from http://www.decayfilm.com/2012/tunnel-flashlight-2.html

So this is a film you can watch and download for free, as it is made under a Creative Commons license. Pretty cool. It's offered in many different qualities from SD to theatre screening.

Also interesting to mention is the film was made by students and physicists. It's not something made by film students. With that in mind, I'm understanding of the editing decisions. However, as an editor, some of the audio issues and pacing issues could have easily been resolved XP There lots of shot where a character walks past a camera looking down a corridor. If only the shot hung on that empty corridor for a couple extra seconds the tension could have been hugly increased just by giving the audience a chance to think 'Oh noes, something's gonna cast a shadow or start walking down the hall!'

The audio is atrocious. Again if my rocket science peeps showed me a film of this caliber I'd be amazed, but just to be critical from a film person's POV I'm mentioning it. A lot of the audio problems could have been resolved with L cuts in the non-linear editing software. Even running the audio through something like Audacity could have cleaned up a bunch of that white noise which is not consistent from one scene to the next. In some cases the audio was too loud and seemed to peak, in some cases it was too quiet (mostly with dialogue).

There was a lot of nice mood lighting though. I'm not sure if it was just how the tunnels were regularly lit, or if the crew had to do anything special, but that was great. The amount of darkness versus what was visible in each scene was a great balance.

This film was made with an incredibly small budget, making it all the more amazing. These are just some of the circumstances that make this movie great, in spite of technical flaws.

If you enjoy science, if you enjoy b-movies, if you want to see what physicists do for fun, watch this film.

Azureus Rising

Azureus Rising (????)
Proof of Concept (2010)


Swords, guns, mechs, amazing animation and sound?! This has got the makings of greatness!

Image from http://io9.com/tag/azureus-rising

So it's going on 3 years now since Black Sun teased the world with an amazing 5 minute proof of concept which is hopefully being made into a feature length film and game now.
If you haven't seen it already, check out proof of concept.


Amazing, right?
Anyway, like it on facebook and youtube or contact the team at http://azureusrising.com/ to show your support.

There's a big back story to this project, while the short above basically plays out like an action sequence in a longer movie. In case you want to know, our blue (azure?) protagonist is Eric, known as Azureus once he becomes a freedom fighter. From what I've seen and read, this feels like a possible Dune of a new age. And I love Dune, so this is a good thing. You've got your crazy smart, strong, and resourceful rebel leader breaking into a place overrun by military.

Amazing sound, great pacing. I love how you can hear the protagonist's breathing, and how the shots are quick. Not incredibly long ago you could have a single shot go on for a long time, but now shots are kept relatively quick. There's lots of reasons for this, the one you probably hear the most is because it holds the audience's attention better. Regardless of everything else, these shorter shots do hold attention well, which is a big factor in a proof of concept. I could sing the praises of this project all day. I really hope something becomes of it.

Read http://www.3dworldmag.com/2013/02/05/cool-animation-the-making-of-azureus-rising/ for tons of details.

Image from http://azureusrising.com

Alpha and Omega

Alpha and Omega (2010)
Directed by Anthony Bell and Ben Gluck
From Crest Animation Studios (aka Crest Animation Productions)

Cute little film :) Not the greatest animation quality by any means, but a cute movie nonetheless.

Garth after Lilly teaches him how to howl. Image from http://alphaandomegafilm.wikia.com/wiki/Garth

In Jasper Park, Canada, there are two wolf packs on the verge of war. The Northern wolves' territory has little food left to hunt so to survive they're beginning to break a pact by going into the other pack's territory to look for food. The hunters in either pack are called Alphas and the rest are Omegas. Alphas mate with Alphas, Omegas with Omegas.
Childhood friends Kate and Humphrey live in separate castes but Humphrey desparately wants to be with Kate.
Kate unfortunately is promised to the son of the pack leader of the Northern wolves. She and he are supposed to marry, merging the two packs thus avoiding the encroaching war.
On the night Kate is to be introduced to her fiance, Garth, she is repulsed by his howl. The wolves are supposed to howl together, creating a wonderful sound that binds them and will hopefully lead to love and mating. Kate excuses herself to get some water while Garth practices his vocals.
At the watering hole Kate bumps into Humphrey, but while they're together they both get shot with tranq darts and whisked away. When they are released they're in Idaho, brought there by humans in order to populate what's most likely a reserve.
After speaking with a French-Canadian goose and English duck (I think), they find out they can get back to Jasper by hiding in a trailer of some humans that visit there every year. The two sneak in and things go well for a while. Eventually at a pit stop Humphrey leaves the trailer to go to the bathroom but gets distracted by some sweets near the trash.
In the meantime the trailer starts to leave and Humphrey is spotted by some humans. Kate leaves the trailer and jumps the human before he can shoot Humphrey and the two escape into the forest. The goose and duck meet back up with the two and tell them there is another way. There is a train just over a mountain that will take them home. The wolves begin a new journey.
Meanwhile at home the Northern wolves' pack leader gives Kate until the full howling moon to return. If she's not back by then there will be war. In the meantime Kate's little sister, and Omega named Lilly, offers to show Garth around. In doing so Garth and her fall in love.
After a close encounter with some bears on the mountain Kate and Humphrey make it on the train, and arrive back in Jasper just as the battle is beginning. The two sides stop and begin marriage preparations.
The next day Lilly is sad, Kate is nervous, and Humphrey decides to leave Jasper since he can't be with the one he loves. Kate and Garth nearly finish their ceremony when Kate calls it off, saying she can't because she's in love with an Omega. The pack leaders are disgusted, but then Garth proclaims the same thing. Lilly is filled with joy and rushes to Garth.
The Northern wolves' pack leader won't have this though, and directs his pack to take the valley. Fighting commences, stirring a heard or carribou just down the valley into a stampede. The wolves stop fighting in order to seek cover from the beasts. The pack leaders find themselves trapped and Kate needs to save them. Humphrey appears, feeling that he can't leave, and the two toboggan down into the valley on a tree to save the leaders. With the log in the valley they can hide behind it, but before Kate reaches it she's knocked out the hoof of a caribou. Humphrey rushes to her body until the stampede is over. She doesn't get up and Humphrey proclaims his love. All the wolves howl in mourning.
After a little bit Kate's body stirs. The pack leaders decide that maybe these cross-caste loves can work.
That night the wolves howl at the moon.

Humphrey and Kate and flying high fro the tranq darts. http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/alpha-and-omega-film/images/12980483/title/omega-photo

I had been a bit opposed to watching it, mostly because when it was released in theatres in the US I heard nothing about it. It wasn't until the DVD release in January 2011 that I knew of it's existence. It's lack of marketing exposure basically turned me off. If there wasn't the time or money put into advertising the film, how great could this film actually be? Yes, there are lots of films without publicity, but if a children's film with a theatrical release isn't publicized it's almost certainly going to flop. It's one thing if its a horror movie straight to DVD, but a kids' movie needs to be known to make money, or needs to be an incredibly low budget mess like Chop Kick Panda (a limited animation short straight-to-DVD movie) because if no money is put into something there's nothing to lose and tons to possibly gain. It did well financially overall, but I can't say I know anyone else amongst my friends and family and even acquaintances that has seen this film.

Anyway, so I did end up watching Alpha and Omega after reading a few positive reviews. I was sick and cycling through my staple animated movies that I watch on lethargic days, so why not. Again, cute it was. The animation and environments seemed a bit barren, similar to Open Season 2 or Hoodwinked. At one point near the beginning of the film we see two random wolves howling together with just a blank sky and moon behind me. There wasn't a lot of depth in that seen. I mean visual depth. It was like a blue backdrop with a moon. There wasn't a million distant stars, or the tops of trees barely visible in the scene to show some dimension. Eventually the camera pulls out so we can see some environment, but that scene bothered by visually.

The hair is also pretty mediocre. Not the body fur, but the "hair" fur on the heads. It's clumpy and always seems to be bouncing. It may have been a budget choice to go with this kind of hair, but The Incredibles was 2004 so I know there's better animated hair more in tune with physics.

Kate going out to meet Garth and howl. Image from http://cartoonswalls.com/alpha_and_omega_cartoon_desktop_wallpaper-wallpapers.html

From an young animator's perspective I really enjoyed the credits. Movies these days usually have b-roll or little animations in the credits. This film shows it's animation process, from rough sketched to 3D models. Pretty cool to see that without having to buy an art book.

I could have tolerated the film being longer than its 88 minute run time too, just to see more wolves-falling-in-love adventures between Kate and Humphrey to reinforce why Kate ends up falling for the already in love Humphrey. Maybe just one or two little adventures or some witty banter. This film has a lot of adult moments in the dialogue and sometimes in the actions, so some more relationship dialogue doesn't seem too bad. Guess I'll have to check out the deleted scenes.

The character design making the wolves look distinct enough not to get them confused. In movies about animals without clothes studios run the risk of kids not being able to distinguish between main characters.

Just to throw this in here, it's interesting to have some new players on the animated children's movie field. I mentioned Escape from Planet Earth from Rainmaker in a previous entry, and now this film from Crest. There's more and more studios having theatrical or full length movies popping up. They don't seem threatening to the animation powerhouses... yet. Will be interesting to see who comes into play this summer.

If there is a sequel I'm likely to watch it.




BTW in case you find this interesting, this is currently the last released film Dennis Hopper stared in before his death in 2010. There is another film called The Last Film Festival but no release date has been given yet. I think the film is struggling financially at the moment. If filming was completed before Hopper's death, I don't know.

Silence Becomes You

Silence Becomes You (2005)
Directed by Stephanie Sinclaire

First off, let me spare you from the agony that is this film. This one isn't worth your time. It's not like a bad b-movie that you watch for laughs. It's just a bad movie.
Bad pacing, bad writing, confusing confusing confusing story.

Image from http://movie.sanook.com/story_picture/picture/movie/12328/2-9/3

So this is my interpretation of the story.
The film opens with a shot looking down at a girl in a pool getting sprayed with water that's glistening like crystals in the light. Very pretty. But pretty much unrelated to anything.
In a bar a woman is trying to pick up an attractive young man Luke (Joe Anderson). However another woman is eying Luke from another table and Luke chooses the second girl. The new couple leaves the bar together and ends up back at the girl, Violet's ( Alicia Silverstone) huge house.
Luke, drunk, passes out on a bed and Violet and her sister Grace (Sienna Guillory) take off his pants. Let him think he got lucky, I guess.
In the morning the girls tell him that he can stay a few days since Luke is a vagabond. He takes them up on it and grows closer to Violet. In turn this makes Grace jealous, like to the point where she pulls a knife on the poor guy.
Some amount of time passes (it's pretty unclear how much time since the movie has little sense of time), and the trio have pretty much stayed in this house the whole time. Luke's going stir crazy, and eventually Luke and Violet have sex. Luke is falling for her and wants her to leave with him. Grace tries to convince Violet that there's nothing good beyond these walls, including Luke. One day while Violet goes to the market, Grace seduces Luke (though he did protest her advances several times, so good effort Luke!). Violet finds out and runs off into the woods around her mansion in tears. Luke chases after her, telling her something that convinces her they should drive off together. Things seem like they're going to go well for Luke and Violet, but crazy Grace wants her sister back. The girls have some sort of twin stigmata going on, as well as, for lack of a better explanation, voodoo on each other. Grace begins to burn a photo of Violet, and Violet starts getting feverish in the car. Eventually Grace puts out the little fire not wanting to kill her sister. This is apparently enough to draw her back. While Luke sleeps in the passenger seat Violet drives all the way back to her house. Luke awakens furious and gives her an ultimatum--leave now with him or it's over. The sisters convince him to stay just one more night before leaving because Violet has recently announced their pregnancy. Luke agrees. One more night. That's it.
Wanting to 'celebrate' Violet heads to the market to buy food for a feast in her car that Grace has sabotaged. Luke is instructed to stay at the house with Grace and pose for a painting of him. She ends up losing it though and pulls a bow and arrow on Luke.
Violet's car breaks down and she senses something's wrong enough to hurry back to the house after a quick temporary repair. She peers through a window in a door to see her sister's arrow aimed at her lover. A buzzed Luke is more angry than afraid and starts setting the room on fire with a bottle of alcohol. The arrow strikes him dead. Violet has some sort of early miscarriage. Grace is pregnant. And the sisters part ways.

There's lots of other random unhelpful stuff sprinkled here and there in the film too, like implications of child abuse. It's also said that the girls never went to public school, so their sheltered lives explain why they dress so funny. They basically dress how a little girl would dress, except they're grown woman. So they have lots of sequins and ugly tights and just stupid outfits that would only look cute on a 7 year old girl.
There's also a line spoken by the girls' dead father repeated over and over. Something about writing your story in blood so your lead bones will turn into gold. It's just a bunch of poop!

Here, look at a picture of Joe Anderson to help sooth the anguish this movie creates. Image from http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/joe-anderson/images/1873375/title/joe-anderson-photo


Opens like an art film. I found myself thinking "Cremaster Cycle...?" But that thought alone is an insult to Matthew Barney, because Silence Becomes You is a weird mess that doesn't leave you in awe. As one of the thread titles on IMDB puts it, this film was "Undeserving of a theatrical release".

Then after the bar scene the set looks a lot like the outside of the house in The Others with Nichole Kidman.

This movie doesn't successfully convey the passage of time well. It's kinda just a big CF.
And perhaps I'm just too sensative to this, but the audio was killing me. There didn't seem to be any de-essing in the dialogue's audio so my ears, ahh, they hurt :, (

I'd like to also point out that this film was directed, written, and produced by the same person. This feels worthy of pointing out because if you're doing half the roles of making a movie then you run risks of failing because you don't have people with emphasis in one area or another to make better judgement calls than you'd be able to. Nothing Sinclaire has produced has amazing reviews. It's also noteworthy to mention Sinclaire has more of a background in theatre, not film. Not everyone can successfully walk back and forth between cinema and theatre. One of the things that struck me in Silence was some of the comically exaggerated motions, and I thought "What is this? Theatre?" Only after the film ended and I researched the director did I see why I felt that way.

I watched this movie because I really enjoy Joe Anderson's work in The River so I thought I'd give Silence a try. I wouldn't say the actors did a bad job. I blame an undeveloped storyline that has it's characters acting beyond believability. This makes the audience have no empathy for the characters at all!
Nothing was developed! We basically just see Violet and Luke make out and have sex, and we never see any other component of their relationship. Like why are you two in love? Then again, maybe it is just the sex.
Gosh, I just can't get over how underdeveloped the film is. There's like a million little components that could've been fleshed out to better convey what the hell was going on, but every component was just sort of only half done!

If you want to watch something good, go watch The River. Don't watch this.

Funny Face

Dr. Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds making a funny face during a lecture to some undergrads.
I just really think this moment is funny. Matther Gray Gubler (plays Reid) seems like a really awesome guy.

Theme Songs

I came across this show called Clone High recently and fell in love with the opening theme! So good!

I'll only partially brag about this awesome show being Canadian because I am as well. This awesome show is Canadian!

Ehem... Anyway, the great theme got me thinking about theme songs I enjoy.

Clone High (2002-2003)

Directed by Ted Collyer, Harold Harris, Phil Lord, and Chris Miller

Editing by Christopher Gould

Cartoon lovers, you may notice a similarity between Clone High and Total Drama. What's the connecting thread? Looks to be Todd Kauffman and Blayne Burnside. On blog John K Stuff after a post with a lot of replies on character design, Kauffman popped in to apologize for what the consensus of this entry through was horrible, ugly design. Here's his entry:

Anyway, I really like Clone High's theme. Tommy Walter is credited as the composer for the theme, which was performed by his group Abandoned Pools (which you can see in the final episode).

Ever heard of Baki the Grappler? The English version has a most enjoyable theme (in my opinion). Theme song is Child Prey by Dir En Grey.

Baki the Grappler (2001)

Directed by Hitoshi Nanba

Check it:

I enjoyed the show too. Pointless as it was. Sometimes you just watch something pointless though, you know? Sometimes pointless is good.

And do you remember the X-Men theme? I like it. 

X-Men (1992-1997)

Created by Stan Lee (surprised?)

Directed by Larry Houston, Fred Miller and Richard Bowman
Theme composed by Ron Wasserman