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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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