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New CGI Wolves

May 26th, 2010
by rodney.
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Can you tell who’s been under the weather for a few days?  Well now…

Stumbled across a new CGI film to be hitting our shores this September. A 3D feature from India no less, created by Crest Animation Studios. Alpha and Omega is in English though, produced by Richard Rich (The Swan Princess), directed by Anthony Bell (The Boondocks) and Ben Gluck (Brother Bear 2), and released by Lionsgate. The story revolves around a pair of wolves living in the wild in Canada. Kate (voiced by Hayden Panettiere) is a responsible pack leader, while Humphrey (voiced by Justin Long) lives just for fun, frolic, and friends — alpha and omega, get it? Kate’s father has arranged for her to be mated to the alpha male of another pack in order to prevent an inter-pack war. That plan is put in jeopardy, though, when both Kate and Humphrey are captured by humans and transferred to Idaho as part of a wolf re-introduction program. Can they make it back to their pack in time to prevent war? The trailer for this new film is up on YouTube.

The Power of the Viewing Public…

Apr 12th, 2010
by rodney.
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We can’t put this any better, so we’re lifting this verbatim from Box Office Guru:

“The big story this weekend came in third place [behind Date Night and Clash of the Titans — ye ed-otter] where the 3D animated film How To Train Your Dragon witnessed a remarkably low 13% decline in its third round for an estimated $25.4M gross boosting the 17-day total to a terrific $133.9M. Short-sighted film industry watchers and impatient Wall Street investors prematurely dismissed Dragon and DreamWorks Animation after its less-than-stellar opening weekend two weeks ago. The company’s stock dropped 8% on the first trading day after the debut with analysts lowering their estimates for the final domestic take to just $152M. Dragon will now crush that mark next weekend and looks on course to break the $200M barrier too becoming the second biggest 3D toon of all-time behind just the $293M of Up. Beating Pixar’s Oscar winner may not be possible, but outgrossing other competitors like Monsters vs. Aliens, Ice Age 3, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs makes Dragon a powerful performer. The PG-rated film was indeed slow out of the gate, but amazing word-of-mouth coupled with school holidays for spring have made Dragon the must-see film for kids and parents. Competition for families and 3D screens remains extremely light for the next five weeks so the Viking pic’s strong run should continue. Reaching $250M cannot be ruled out at this point given the road ahead since Dragon will be able to earn at least five times its opening figure, if not more.”

In other words, keep spreading that amazing word-of-mouth, people!

Marmaduke Strikes!

Apr 6th, 2010
by rodney.
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Happy Easter (yes belated) and welcome to spring, everyone!

The march of CGI-enhanced talking animals continues. This time it’s Marmaduke, that famously over-sized Great Dane from the long-running newspaper strip by Brad Anderson, comes to the big screen this coming June. But this time, Marmaduke talks — with the voice of Owen Wilson, no less. Also in the voice cast are George Lopez (playing a cat this time — fickle!), Fergie (as a collie who catches Marmaduke’s eye), Kiefer Sutherland (as a purebred rottweiler who gives our mutt-ish hero grief), Ron Perlman, Emma Stone, Tom Wilson, and Damon Wayans Jr. Quite a cast. The film was directed by Tom Dey, and is being released by 20th Century Fox. You can check out the trailer on YouTube and elsewhere on the net.

Training Dragons

Mar 23rd, 2010
by rodney.
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Anticipations are running high for Dreamworks Animation’s How To Train Your Dragon, which hits movie screens this Friday, March 26th. As of this writing the film has a 100% “fresh” / 0% “rotten” rating at Rotten Tomatoes.com — likely to go down as more reviews come in, of course, but still one heck of a high to be starting from. Many critics have noted the flying sequences in this 3D CGI film to be especially exciting. If you’ve not heard, the story follows the adventures of Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), a young viking in a land constantly at war with various species of fire-breathing dragon. When Hiccup’s new invention — a sort of bolo-catapult — injures a young dragon, the human is surprised to find himself befriending the beast (he names it “Toothless”).  In the process, Hiccup finds out far more about dragons and his own people than he ever expected. Of course, getting humans together with unusual non-human friends is nothing new for directors Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders: They’re the team that gave us Disney’s Lilo and Stitch.

New Comics for Kids from Ape

Mar 9th, 2010
by rodney.
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Ape Entertainment is presenting Kizoic, a new line of full-color young reader comic book titles coming this year. And, luckily, several of those titles have notably furry themes. Two of those titles come direct from Dreamworks Animation: Shrek Forever After — The Prequel, coming this April, and The Penguins of Madagascar, shipping in June. Shrek, of course, is based on the upcoming fourth Shrek feature film. In this new comic by Scott Shaw and Drew Rausch, the villainous Rumpelstiltskin tries time and again to get the best of Shrek, Donkey, Puss-in-Boots, and their friends. Meanwhile, keep your eyes out for Scratch 9, featuring the adventures of a little who can access all 8 of his past and future lives — including the one where he was a saber-toothed tiger!

The Return of Banana Tail

Mar 8th, 2010
by rodney.
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Mark McKenna’s strange (but nice) little monkey Banana Tail returns in Banana Tail’s Colorful Adventure, a new full-color hardcover book for young readers (coming in April from Image Comics).  Banana Tail, if you didn’t know, is a young monkey who is made fun of for his bright and shiny yellow tail. So, he spends his days hanging around with other unusual young animals in the jungle, including a checkerboard zebra and a rhino who changes colors with her mood. Mark McKenna, if you didn’t know, is a comic book artist who’s worked for both DC and Marvel for decades. Now he brings back his popular children’s book character in a new 3D CGI format with the help of Steve Akehurst and the artists at The Fourth Armada.

The Legend of the Guardians

Mar 5th, 2010
by rodney.
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The animation team that brought us Happy Feet (which, we’re told, did rather well…) returns this fall with The Legend of the Guardians. This CGI film, directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) is based on the first three books of the 15-book series The Guardians of Ga’Hoole by Kathryn Lasky. The subject is owls. Specifically a starry-eyed young owl named Soren (Jim Sturgess of Across the Universe). Soren is obsessed with stories about the legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole, armored owls who protect the weak and innocent against evil. Soren dreams of meeting them, and even of possibly becoming one. And he may well have to, when he discovers that an evil queen owl (Helen Mirren of The Queen (!)) is kidnapping young owls and brain-washing them for her own personal army. The film comes to theaters this September, but you can follow the film’s development and see a trailer at the Internet Movie Database.

Soren, our hero. Image c. 2010, Animal Logic

Soren and family. Image c. 2010, Animal Logic

More CGI Dogs from India

Feb 25th, 2010
by rodney.
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In the spirit of Roadside Romeo — but with a completely different cast and crew! It’s Koochie Koochie Hota Hai, a new CGI animated film coming this summer from India’s Prana Productions. It’s a loose remake of the 1998 live-action film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, which was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of that year. This new cartoon feature follows the lives of three  high school dogs — one guy, two girls — in a love triangle, and throws in the added plot element of a time travel machine. In a sly wink to the original film, lead actors Shahrukh Khan and Kajol play the lead voices in this new version, along with several well-known comedy and action stars in other roles. You can check out the trailer on YouTube.

Furry Vengeance

Dec 24th, 2009
by rodney.
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Hollywood does have its way of coming up with titles that make furry fans lift their ears and take notice…

Furry Vengeance is a new live-action comedy film starring Brendan Fraser, coming to theaters in April of 2010. Fraser stars as Dan Sanders, a real estate agent charged with helping a large property company tear down a huge section of a forest preserve to build a new residential community and shopping mall. Trouble is, the local animals have gotten wind of the project, and they decide to take it on themselves to see that it doesn’t happen — even if that means driving Dan and his family out of house and home. The animals are lead by a clever and very resourceful raccoon. Is it all starting to sound familiar to you? You’re not alone. The blog-o-sphere has been going crazy pointing out similarities of this movie to Dreamworks’ animated film Beyond the Hedge, and in general saying not-very-nice things about Furry Vengeance… and all of this after just seeing the first trailer! Still, if you check out the trailer for yourself, you’ll see that there is a huge variety of animals in the “cast”, and any film like that is going to catch Furry Fandom’s interest — for good OR bad. We’ll see what happens next April.

Until then, Merry Christmas everyone, and a Blessed Solstice to you all.

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