CARTOONS

legends of guardians

2011-12-13T02:25:00.000-08:00

Soren (Jim Sturgess), a young barn owl, lives in the forest of Tyto with his family: his father, Noctus (Hugo Weaving); his mother, Marella (Essie Davis); his older brother, Kludd (Ryan Kwanten); his younger sister, Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria); and Ms. Plithiver, (Ms. P.) the family's nest maid, a snake. Soren enjoys hearing stories of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, a mythical group of warrior owls, who once saved all owlkind from the evil "Pure Ones". His elder brother, Kludd, however, thinks Soren soft-headed for believing in such stories. One night, while branching, Kludd pushes Soren and loses his balance, too; and they both fall to the ground where they are attacked by a Tasmanian devil. They are then kidnapped by two owls, Jatt and Jutt, and taken to St. Aegolious, the canyon home of the evil Pure Ones.
There, Soren meets an Elf Owl named Gylfie (Emily Barclay) and her captor, a Boreal Owl named Grimble. Nyra (Helen Mirren), second-in-command of the Pure Ones and mate of Metal Beak, claims that the owlets are now the Pure Ones' slaves. Soren and Gylfie protest and are sent to be pickers. Kludd denies his brother and goes away to be a soldier with other selected owls. They are tutored by Nyra in the ways of the Pure Ones, who believe that Tyto owls (barn owls and their relatives) are the strongest owls and that they have the right to rule the owl kingdoms. Meanwhile, The other captured owls are forced to sleep under the full moon, which causes "moon-blinking", a trance-like state. Soren and Gylfie manage to stay awake so they will not be moon-blinked. They are brought to a large cavern to pick through owl pellets for small metal flecks, which causes excruciating pain in owls gizzards. Metal Beak conspires with one of his minions to lay a trap for the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. At the same time, Grimble secretly reveals to Soren and Gylfie that he is not truly a Pure One and that his family was captured and forced into their service. He teaches Soren and Gylfie to fly, so they can warn the Guardians of the Pure Ones' plans.
Kludd has become a strong soldier, and his promise prompts Nyra to ask him about Soren's potential. The Pure Ones find Grimble teaching Soren and Gylfie to fly, and Nyra attacks them. Kludd joins Nyra, ignoring Soren's pleas. Grimble sacrifices himself to hold them back, and Soren and Gylfie barely escape to begin their quest. On their journey, they meet a Burrowing Owl named Digger; a Great Grey owl named Twilight; and Soren's old nestmaid, Ms. P. They join Soren and Gylfie on their quest.
Soren and his allies are later mobbed by crows. The battle brings them to the home of an echidna mystic (Barry Otto), on the shore of the Sea of Hoolemere. The Echidna gives them their bearings to the Great Tree. When the group encounters the mist, or a blizzarding typhoon, Digger's wings freeze over and he falls towards the sea. Soren dives down to save him, only to find Digger being rescued by an enormous Snowy Owl; a Guardian of Ga'hoole. The Guardian leads Soren and his friends to the Great Tree. Digger's saviors are Boron and Barran, the king and the queen of the Tree, who listen to Soren's tale. A Great Grey Owl, Allomere, expresses doubt about Soren's story; but a Whiskered Screech Owl, Ezylryb (Geoffrey Rush), defends Soren. Boron sends a scouting party to St. Aegolious.
Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger begin their training in the different chaws of the Tree. Ezylryb teaches the young owls to use the wind currents instead of fighting them. In a conversation with Ezylryb, Soren learns that Ezylryb is, in fact, Soren's hero, Lyze of Kiel. Soren is disillusioned when he finds out that the owl is completely different than he had always pictured him.
Allomere returns without his scouts and tells Boron that the scouts were killed in an ambush and that he barely escaped with two moon-blinked owlets, one of whom is Eglantine. Outraged, the Guardians go to war, but Soren stays with Eglantine, where she soon awakes after Soren tells her about the Guardians, breaking the trance, and gives him shocking news: she wasn't rescued, she was kidnapped by Kludd and given to Allomere, who is a traitor. Soren and his friends rush to the Guardians' aid. When the Guardians arrive at St. Aegolious, they find a trap. Allomere peels off at the last moment, and the Pure Ones unleash the power of the metal flecks against the Guardians, leaving them helpless on the ground. Soren and his friends arrive too late, just as Metal Beak and Nyra send bats to finish off the defenseless Guardians. Soren sends Twilight, Digger and Gylfie to hold back the bats. He plunges into the burning forest fire, carrying an oil lamp that becomes engulfed in flames. The band's unexpected arrival leads Metal Beak to believe Allomere betrayed the Pure Ones, and he sends a group of bats to kill him.
Soren frees the Guardians, and Metal Beak orders the Pure Ones to fight the Guardians. Ezylryb and Metal Beak square off, as do Soren and Kludd. Their fight leads them into the burning forest. Soren tries to talk some sense into Kludd, but he instead attacks Soren with renewed vigor and breaks his own wing. He convinces Soren to save him, only to try to pull his younger brother into the flames. Soren dodges the attack, and Kludd falls into the flames instead. Furious, Soren flies to the aid of Ezylryb, who is engaged in fierce combat with Metal Beak and Nyra. Soren takes Metal Beak by surprise, but Metal Beak easily overpowers him. Soren regains his weapon, a flaming branch, just as Metal Beak moves in for the kill; he impales himself on the branch. Nyra retreats with the remaining Pure Ones. Soren and his friends return to the Great Tree with the rest of the moon-blinked owlets, and Soren is greeted by Eglantine and his parents. Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger are made Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
In the epilogue, Soren tells the story to the young owlets and reveals that Kludd's body was never found and that Nyra is still out there with a handful of Pure Ones. (Kludd is then shown to be alive, now with the glowing red eyes of the other Pure Ones.) Ezylryb insists on taking flight into another storm, and they all fly towards the sea.

Cast

Sam Neill - Allomere
Geoffrey Rush - Ezylryb
Hugo Weaving - Noctus
David Wenham - Digger
Emily Barclay - Gylfie
Abbie Cornish - Otulissa
Adrienne DeFaria - Eglantine
Ryan Kwanten - Kludd
Sacha Horler - Strix Struma
Miriam Margolyes - Mrs. Plithiver
Helen Mirren - Nyra
Jim Sturgess - Soren
Essie Davis - Marella
Hugo Weaving - Grimble
Joel Edgerton - Metal Beak
Angus Sampson - Jutt
Leigh Whannell - Jatt
Deborra-Lee Furness - Barran
Gareth Young - Pete
Barry Otto - Echidna
Bill Hunter - Bubo
Anthony LaPaglia - Twilight
Richard Roxburgh - Boron
Tony Cogin - Additional Voices
James Evans - Additional Voices
Amanda Bishop - Additional Voices
Lelda Kapsis - Additional Voices
John Xintavelonis - Additional Voices
Trent Dalzell - Additional Voices
Andrew McDonnell - Additional Voices

Crew

Zack Snyder - Director

Zareh Nalbandian - Producer

Bruce Berman - Executive Producer

Chris De Faria - Executive Producer

Deborah Snyder - Executive Producer

Donald De Line - Executive Producer

Kathryn Lasky - Executive Producer, Book Author

Lionel Wigram - Executive Producer

Alex Weight - Supervising Animator

Alexs Stadermann - Storyboard Supervisor

Alicia Gleeson - Additional Editing

Amber Naismith - Production Manager

Ben Joss - First Assistant Editor

Christine Cheung - Second Assistant Editor

Craig Welsh - Lighting

Danny Long - Casting

David Burrows - Editor

David Hirschfelder - Composer (Music Score)

Emil Stern - Screenwriter

Eric Leighton - Animation Director

Georgie Uppington - Production Manager

Graham Hopkins - Character Animation

Grant Freckelton - Art Director

Henry Karjalainen - Post Production Supervisor, First Assistant Editor

Imke Fehrmann - Associate Producer

John Orloff - Screenwriter

Johnny Han - Special Effects Supervisor

Kacy McDonald - Production Manager

Katrina Peers - Associate Producer

Kristy Carlson - Casting

Matt Villa - Additional Editing

Semih Ozkoseoglu - Second Assistant Editor

Simon Whiteley - Production Designer

Tom Parker - Production Coordinator

Wayne Pashley - Supervising Sound Editor, Sound/Sound Designer

Wesley Coller - Associate Producer

meet the robinsons

2011-12-12T23:06:00.001-08:00

Lewis is an aspiring young inventor at an orphanage whose inventions have been scaring off potential parents.

He decides that his mother is the only one who truly loves him and works on a machine to scan his memory to locate her.

Unfortunately, this keeps his roommate Michael "Goob" Yagoobian awake,

which then causes Goob to fall asleep during an important Little League game.

Taking his memory scanner to his school's science fair,

Lewis meets Wilbur Robinson, a mysterious boy claiming to be a time cop from the future.

Wilbur needs to recover a time machine that a man wearing a bowler hat has stolen.

Lewis tries to demonstrate the scanner, but it falls apart,

throwing the science fair into chaos. Upset, Lewis leaves while the Bowler Hat Guy,

with the help of a robotic bowler hat named Doris, repairs and steals the scanner.

Wilbur meets Lewis at the orphanage and asks him to repair the scanner.

Lewis agrees to do so only if Wilbur can prove he is telling the truth,

which Wilbur does by taking them to the year 2037 in a second time machine.

When they arrive, however, Lewis says he can use the time machine instead of the scanner,

and he and Wilbur get into an argument and crash. Wilbur then asks Lewis to fix the time machine, but Lewis has another condition: Wilbur has to take him to visit his mother afterward. Reluctantly, Wilbur agrees and hides Lewis in the garage. Lewis doesn't stay there for long, however, and ends up meeting the rest of the Robinsons except for Cornelius, Wilbur's father.

Following Lewis, the Bowler Hat Guy and Doris unsuccessfully try to kidnap him.

Meanwhile, the Robinsons offer to adopt Lewis, but change their mind when they learn that he's from the past. Wilbur also admits to lying to Lewis about taking him back to see his mom, causing Lewis to run off in disgust.

Lewis then discovers that the Bowler Hat Guy is a grown-up version of Goob.

After losing the Little League game, Goob had become so bitter that he was never adopted and remained in the orphanage long after it closed. Doris was "DOR-15," one of Lewis' failed and abandoned inventions. They both blamed Lewis for their misfortunes and decided to ruin his career by stealing the memory scanner and claiming credit for it. Leaving Lewis behind, they take off with the scanner,

drastically altering the future to a world minus Wilbur and dominated by Doris clones. Lewis repairs the second time machine, goes to confront Doris and destroys her by promising to never invent her, restoring the future to its utopian self.

Back in Wilbur's time, Lewis finally meets Cornelius, who is a grown-up version of Lewis.

Cornelius explains how the memory scanner had started their successful career,

which persuades Lewis to return to the science fair. Wilbur takes Lewis back,

but makes one stop first: as he promised, he takes Lewis back to when his mother abandoned him. Lewis nearly stops her from leaving the infant at the orphanage, but decides not to, explaining to Wilbur that he already has a family.

Wilbur drops Lewis off in his own time and leaves. Lewis heads to the fair,

but enroute wakes up Goob just in time for him to make the winning catch. Back at the fair, Lewis asks for one more chance to demonstrate his scanner,

which this time succeeds. He is adopted by Lucille, one of the science fair judges,

and her husband Bud, who nickname him "Cornelius" and take him to their home.

As Lewis leaves, he turns and waves at Goob,

who is also leaving the orphanage with a family of his own and a Little League trophy.

The movie ends with a quote by Walt Disney containing Lewis/Cornelius' motto: "Keep Moving Forward."

Cast

Jordan Fry/Daniel Hansen as Lewis

Wesley Singerman as Wilbur Robinson

Steve Anderson as Bowlerhat Guy, Grandpa Bud, Cousin Tallulah

Nicole Sullivan as Franny Robinson

Harland Williams as Carl

Angela Bassett as Mildred

Matthew Josten as Michael "Goob" Yagoobian

Laurie Metcalf as Lucille Krunklehorn

Ethan Sandler as DOR-15 (Doris), Uncle Fritz, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Dimitri, Uncle Spike, Cousin Laszlo, CEO of InventCo

Don Hall as Uncle Gaston, Gym Coach

Kelly Hoover as Aunt Billie

Adam West as Uncle Art

Tom Kenny as Mr. Willerstein

Tracey Miller-Zarneke as Lizzy

Joe Mateo as Tiny

Aurian Redson as Frankie the Frog

Jamie Cullum as Frankie the Frog (singing voice)

Jessie Flower as Young Franny

Tom Selleck as Cornelius

Paul Butcher as Stanley

Daniel Hansen as Young Lewis

Dara McGarry as InventCo Receptionist, Mrs. Harrington

John H. H. Ford as Mr. Harrington

Nathan Greno as Lefty

rango wallpapers

2011-12-06T04:53:00.001-08:00

Cast

Johnny Depp as Rango, a chameleon
Isla Fisher as Beans, a desert iguana
Stephen Root as Doc, a rabbit;
Mr. Johannes "Fluffy Joe" Merrimack III; Mr. Snuggles Abigail Breslin as Priscilla, a cactus mouse
Ned Beatty as Mayor Marion "Tortoise John" Lynch, Mayor of Dirt, a desert tortoise
Ray Winstone as William "Bad Bill", a gila monster
Harry Dean Stanton as Balthazar
Alfred Molina as Roadkill, an armadillo
Bill Nighy as Rattlesnake Jake
Timothy Olyphant as the Spirit of the West
Ian Abercrombie as Ambrose
Gil Birmingham as Wounded Bird
Maile Flanagan as Lucky
James Ward Byrkit as: Waffles, a horned toad; Gordy; Papa Joad; Cousin Murt; Curlie knife attacker; Rodent Kid
Claudia Black as Angelique Carrington
Blake Clark as Buford, Gas Can Saloon bartender
John Cothran, Jr. as Elgin
Patrika Darbo as: Delilah; Maybelle
George DelHoyo as Señor Flan, the accordion player
Charles Fleischer as Elbows
Beth Grant as Bonnie
Ryan Hurst as Jedidiah
Vincent Kartheiser as Ezekiel; Lasso rodent
Hemky Madera as Chorizo
Alex Manugian as Spoons
Mark McCreery as Parsons
Joe Nunez as Rock-Eye
Chris Parson as: Hazel Moats, Kinski, Stump, Clinker, Lenny, Boseefus, Dirt Kid
Lew Temple as: Furgus; Hitch
Alanna Ubach as: Boo Cletus; Fresca; Miss Daisy
Gore Verbinski as: Sergeant Turley; Crevice; Slim; Lupe, the violin player
Kym Whitley as Melonee
Keith Campbell as Sod Buster

Bolt movie posters and wallpaper

2011-12-06T03:56:00.001-08:00

A girl named Penny and a dog named Bolt star on a hit television series called Bolt in which the titular character has various superpowers and must constantly thwart the evil plans of the nefarious Doctor Calico. To gain a more realistic performance, the TV show's producers have deceived Bolt his entire life, arranging the filming in such a way that Bolt believes the television show is real and he really has superpowers. Mistakenly believing Penny has been kidnapped by the villain, Bolt escapes from his on-set trailer in Hollywood but falls into a box of foam peanuts and unknown to the film company is accidentally shipped to New York City. In New York, he meets Mittens, a female alley cat who bullies pigeons out of their food. Bolt, convinced this is another adventure, forces Mittens to help him get back to Hollywood, and after Bolt knocks Mittens unconscious the two start their journey westward on a truck. In Hollywood, Penny is deeply saddened over Bolt's disappearance but is convinced by the studio to continue filming with a Bolt look alike. As their adventure proceeds, Bolt starts to notice that his superpowers aren't working, and rationalizes this is the effect that styrofoam has on his body.
Surprised at his first feelings of both pain and hunger, Bolt is shown by Mittens how to act like a cute, but needy dog, and is rewarded by food. They meet Rhino, a fearless, TV-obsessed hamster and Bolt fan who joins their team. Mittens tries to convince Bolt that his superpowers aren't real, but their discussion is cut short by the arrival of Animal Control, who captures them both and transports them to an animal shelter. After being freed en route by Rhino, Bolt finally realizes that he is just a normal dog, but regains his confidence after Rhino (oblivious to this revelation) gives him a pep talk. They rescue Mittens from the shelter and escape, allowing them to continue their journey. Along the way, Bolt learns to enjoy typical dog activities (such as hanging his head out the window and chasing sticks), but Mittens refuses to go farther than Las Vegas. She tells Bolt that his Hollywood life is fake and there is no real love for him there. Her emotional rant reveals that she was once a house cat, but was abandoned by her previous owner and left to brave the harsh streets alone and declawed. Bolt refuses to believe that Penny doesn't love him, and continues on alone, wishing Mittens the best. Rhino, learning of Bolt's departure, convinces Mittens that they must help him, and the two set off to find Bolt once again.
Bolt reaches the studio and finds Penny embracing his lookalike. Unaware that Penny still misses him and that her affection for the lookalike is only a part of a rehearsal for the show, he leaves, brokenhearted. Mittens, on a gantry in the studio, sees what Bolt does not: Penny telling her mother how much she misses Bolt. Realizing that Penny truly does love Bolt, Mittens follows Bolt and explains. At the same time, the Bolt-lookalike panics and accidentally knocks over some flaming torches, setting the sound stage on fire with Penny trapped inside. Bolt arrives and reunites with Penny inside the burning studio, but they cannot get out. In desperation, and unwilling to abandon Penny, Bolt tries using his super bark. The firefighters hear the noise through the building's air vent and manage to rescue them before they succumb to smoke inhalation.
Penny and her mother subsequently quit the show when their agent attempts to exploit the incident for publicity purposes. Penny herself adopts Mittens and Rhino, and the family move to a rural home to enjoy a simpler, happy lifestyle with Bolt and her new pets. The show continues, but with a replacement "Bolt" and "Penny" – "Penny's" new appearance being explained in the show as being serious injuries necessitating her undergoing facial reconstruction surgery, and adopting a new storyline about alien abduction (one that even Rhino finds unrealistic, and Bolt finds "ridonculous"). The epilogue scenes during the credits show Bolt, Penny, her mother, Mittens, and Rhino enjoying their new life together

chirstmas carol

2011-11-28T21:29:00.001-08:00

One thing's for certain with Robert Zemeckis's latest attempt at motion-capture CGI animation, kids need not apply. I have had conversations with fellow critics and the conclusion I've come to concerning children and Disney's A CHIRSTMAS CAROL is that while some elements may indeed frighten some kids, the overall complaint will be that it's just too boring.

If you've seen any incarnation of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" the best way to describe this latest attempt is to call it a stripped down non-inventive take on the classic Christmas story that wears on too long and is just plain dull. By the time I hit the Ghost of Christmases Yet To Come I was ready to check out, I knew what was coming and wasn't expecting any deviation. I won't say I was ever bored beyond reproach, but I was never moved and certainly never felt a kinship with any of the characters whose dull and lifeless eyes and facial features are far from inviting. The putty-like facial issues and non-responsive eyes have flummoxed Zemeckis since The Polar Express in 2004 and there is very little sign of improvement here. Considering the eyes are the gateway to the soul, a lot is missing when the spark isn't there.

Where the film does knock it out of the park is in its visuals beyond human attributes. The atmosphere, the set design, the lighting and the overall appearance of A Christmas Carol is absolutely perfect. The golden flicker of candlelight glowing in the darkness is perfectly complimented by the frigid and foggy winter nights of the Dickensian mid-1800s. Of course, the mood of the film is never indicative of its appealing settings.

The characters seem to walk through the world oblivious to their surroundings, as if one is not a part of the other. Being a motion capture feature that is entirely true as actors act out their scenes, have their performances captured in a computer, which are then inserted into these photo realistic environments. While this doesn't take away from the visual appeal, it does hit a snag when it comes to connecting to the audience and convincing them they are watching a fully fleshed out feature.

Jim Carrey brought as much as he could to the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, but in the end it felt like you could cast anyone in the role, which Zemeckis proves with Robin Wright Penn as Scrooge's young love, Belle. Zemeckis can change the appearance of any actor to match the look he wants and as a result Penn is unrecognizable and Carrey takes on Scrooge at five different ages as well as plays all three ghosts. Considering Zemeckis did very little with Carrey's natural talents for physical performance, and there was very little in the way of comedy, he could have snatched up anyone off the street to dryly humbug their way through this story.

In all honesty, everything seems secondary to the attempted leaps in technology in this film. Zemeckis has made statements as to his intentions with the story such as how the three ghosts are alter egos of Scrooge, the importance in accuracy of Scrooge's appearance and the overall hyper-reality of it all. If the ghosts are alter-egos of Scrooge they only go as far as to mirror his appearance (outside of the Ghost of Christmas Future who is just a pointing shadow) and, like I said, the film is extraordinary visually, but it takes more than good looks to make a good movie.

From the inexplicable hissing of the Ghost of Christmas Past to the annoying and boisterous laugh of the Ghost of Christmas Present, Disney's A Christmas Carol has no understood reason to exist. The only thing unique about it was the way in which it was made and the fact it manages to be so boring. Neither of which appeals to me too greatly despite being a fan of Dickens's story.

courtesy: www.ropeofsilicon.com

Beowulf

2011-11-27T23:37:00.001-08:00

“Beowulf” with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie didn’t have the biggest box office this holiday weekend in its fifth week of release, but it passed a milestone that may make it one of the most important.

The groundbreaking 3D movie “Beowulf” hit the $100 million mark in overseas grosses and $80 million in the U.S. “National Treasure” and “I Am Legend” will make more eventually, but they aren’t the harbinger of a new force in filmmaking that had every studio watching the numbers like a hawk. It shows the next gen 3D is accepted by the public as well as theater owners, most of whom installed pricey new equipment for the 750 3D screens (out of 3,150 total).

By 2010, there will be 10-20 big budget 3D films in wide release. and highly anticipated films like James Cameron’s ”Avatar” will be out next year.

When the stars and producers were queried why they decided to take on a chancy new 3D-CGI format, they all replied that it was for the love of Bob.

Steve Starkey, a producer on the film who has worked with Bob Zemeckis a lot in the past, understands the gravitational pull of the director. “Every time out he chooses to use a story that demands a new style. One again, he has taken this new form of cinema and taken it to a new level. With him it was a challenge like all of the others.”

John Malkovich was quick to compliment the director, telling us ““Bob is very enthusiastic, precise and very clear. For me it was a great joy.” Similarly, Crispin Glover (Grendel) was happy for the chance to work with Zemeckis. “I worked with Bob one time before. It was interesting working in the two different styles,” he said. “I noticed a definite change because things weren’t as exacting with this style. You were finding things as you went along. It’s rare that I am in a film that I actually like but I am really excited about this film.”

Angelina Jolie perhaps said it best. “It was a great experience,” she told Hollywood Today. “So much of film has become a business. You lose the fun of it and Bob is a real artist and an original and he reminds you that you’re a creative person and he is a real artist and I needed that.”

Another fun reason to do the film seemed to be about seeing themselves digitally animated and the process of making a film that way, which was enjoyable for everyone (including the nearly nude Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins.)

Ray Winston (Beowulf) quickly chimed in when asked about his reaction to seeing himself on screen. “I loved it,” he told Hollywood Today. “The thing I had to think about the most was the way I moved because I was playing a 6’6’ Viking with an 8 pack! It’s weird. My wife loves it.” Although, he admits that during the shooting of it he wasn’t always so sure. “I felt like an idiot too, you do really feel naked,” he said. “There is a fear of letting go but once you get over that barrier you just let yourself go. The first time I saw it just blew me away. Even without all the gizmos, the story is still really great and that’s why I’m proud of it.”

Crispin Glover agrees and quickly chimed in. “I didn’t know if it would feel like I was watching myself with this type of technology but you do and you notice the nuances and the acting,” he said.

Alison Lohman, the youngest actor on the panel, enjoyed the new process. “We had the full body suits and the skullcaps and so it felt different but it was different and interesting,” she told Hollywood Today.

The other main female cast member, Angelina Jolie, was quick to remind people that although it was animation, they were still ‘acting’ in the film. “I wouldn’t call it animation because we we’re actually doing these things and we had these scenes together,” she said. “It’s different. Bob will make you do weird things. For swimming, my waist was attached to something; a harness and something with wheels. With flying, they hooked me up with wires and I was being moved.”

Anthony Hopkins had only good things to say as well. “It is freeing and paradoxically opens you up,” he told Hollywood Today. “You do feel like a bit of an idiot with the helmet on but you just jump in the deep end. It’s electrifying.”For Hopkins, there was a particular interest in doing a type of film that didn’t call for any rehearsal time, which he dislikes. “With this film, you take a scene and you go through the lines quickly. You have to know your stuff,” he told Hollywood Today. “But there are some directors where you sit around a table for two weeks and its so boring because you just talk it to death. You can talk a film to death and into an early grave and kill the spontaneity. But if you have a fine director, like Lumet, than maybe its part of the process and it helps.”

One of the drawbacks of making a CGI/animation film is that it takes around two years after the shooting is done to finish creating the film and have it ready for release. Many of the actors commented that it was hard to remember a lot of the details of the process because it had been so long ago.

“Beowulf” is the story of a young Scandinavian hero who fights to protect his people from the evil Grendel and goes on to fight the battle of his life as he attempts to slay a powerful dragon. The hugely popular Old English poem is written in two parts which screenwriters Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (co-writer of “Pulp Fiction”) adapted into a screenplay. When asked what they had to do to change the poem or add to it in order to make it into a feature length film, the writers wanted to make sure people knew they didn’t mess with the storyline.

“We added mainly elements of motivation,” Gaiman told Hollywood Today. “Both Roger and I read it when we were young and experienced it as a story and loved it. The dragon fighting, the blood made it just a magical story. Sometimes, I think “Beowulf” purists would only be happy with someone standing there and reading the poem which would take about 35 minutes. “ Avary backed up his partner saying that, “the only real difference was that Beowulf stays in Denmark in the film.”

Whether or not people have a problem with their “version” of the story, the writers both feel lucky to have been able to show their view on the poem. “I think it’s an enormous mistake to think that a story that was of the oral tradition has never changed,” Gaiman told Hollywood Today. “That’s the point of the oral tradition. You don’t know what’s been left out or added in. We view it as our addition to the tradition and we feel included in a long line of storytellers.”

The writers said having Zemeckis come onto the project was a blessing. “Bob contacted us and wanted to make it, even though at first he just wanted to produce it,” Gaiman told Hollywood Today. “He is very mysterious but it was very easy. We just sat in a room and we just read it to him and he threw out these ideas that he would think were bad and they were actually brilliant.” Avary agreed, adding that he is “childlike and inventive and I couldn’t believe how collaborative he was. He was very excited about it.”

When asked about his collaborations and the differences between Quentin Tarantino and Neil Gaiman, Avary kept it civil. “Quentin and Neil couldn’t be more different people but they are both geniuses and its comes from a complete love of myth and tradition. I’ve been blessed to work in these collaborations.”

Next up for Gaiman is an adaptation of his novel “Coraline.” Avary has written “Driver,” slated for release next year and is currently writing “Return to Castle Wolfenstein,” which he hopes to have out in 2010. Zemeckis has “A Christmas Carol,” slated for a 2009 release. Angelina Jolie can be seen next in 2008’s “Wanted” and Anthony Hopkins will star in “City of Your Final Destination,” out later this year. He also has a CD coming out with music that he wrote for a film he did this year, “Slipstream.”

Megamind

2011-11-27T21:03:00.001-08:00

despicable me

2011-11-25T22:36:00.001-08:00

dragon hunters

2011-11-25T08:29:00.001-08:00

wall e wallpapers

2011-11-23T00:12:00.001-08:00

adventure of tintin

2011-11-20T21:26:00.001-08:00

Rio wallpapers

2011-11-20T05:50:00.001-08:00

puss in boots

2011-11-20T04:43:00.001-08:00

igor wallpaper

2011-11-20T04:28:00.001-08:00

tangled wallpaper

2011-11-19T23:21:00.001-08:00

how to train your dragon wallpaper

2011-11-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

astroboy 3d movie wallpaper

2011-11-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

adventure of tintin 3d movie wallpaper

2011-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

kung fu panda movie wallpaper

2011-11-09T07:37:00.000-08:00

cars 2 characters

2011-11-09T04:02:00.000-08:00

cars 2 wallpaper

2011-11-09T03:49:00.000-08:00

ice age wallpapers

2011-11-08T22:02:00.000-08:00

monster inc

2011-11-08T01:53:00.000-08:00

kung fu panda wallpapers

2011-11-08T01:48:00.000-08:00

gnomeo and juliet wallpaper

2011-11-08T01:44:00.000-08:00