Daily post 16 Sep 2006 08:38 am
Scumbling some more
– Cartoon Brew has posted a couple of images from the next feature film from Blue Sky, an adaptation of Horton Hears a Who.
(Images via USA Today and Comingsoon.net.)
I have to admit how pleasantly surprised I am with these stills. The images do look a bit like those old viewmaster slides. This was a problem many of the cgi films had. However, they broke away from that look, and it wasn’t for the better. Everything got pastel-ey with a look of little plastic dolls – see Everybody’s Hero.
It might be a good time to take a look at George Pal’s version of Dr. Seuss, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. This puppet film was nominated for the Oscar in 1944, yet the film seems to be hidden (it’s not on dvd) and stills seem to be a little harder to locate.
The original Horton
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of a cgi adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ illustration style. Having already adapted two of his books for television, I can relate to the problems inherent. These images are a plus. Let’s hope the script will be strong and the animation will be able to take advantage of the whimsical style of the book. This could be the next decent cgi feature. Undoubtedly, Blue Sky has been doing the second best cgi work out there – behind Pixar, of course. So there’s good reason to have hope. More power to them.
– Speaking of pastel/doll cgi features, Everyone’s Hero quietly moved into theaters yesterday. A review without anything positive to say appeared in the NYTimes; a *** positive one appeared in the NYDaily News and a ** mixed review appeared in Newsday.
The Christopher Reeve connection is an interesting one, and I’d like to know more about it. I understand that he lived through much of the storyboarding process, but I wonder how much more involved he was.
