Fabulous adventures, hilarious predicaments and exhilarating action await an all-star international cast as three unlikely heroes.

Around the World relies mainly on humor and characterization. Hence the shot count is not nearly as high as in other summer blockbusters. Spears says his work on the film used familiar techniques, with an effort to make them look fresher than before. “We didn’t do a lot of groundbreaking new things, we did a lot of things we knew how to do and tried to extend them and find better ways to do them.”

Colorful Descisions
As a Disney release, one can expect a colorful approach to both the storytelling and the actual look of the story. Spears says that while his work was mainly photorealist in design, “the color palette used in the production art design is very colorful. So it’s photoreal within that palette, which has a very playful, cartoonish look to it in some places.”

CG Locations
While most of the film was shot on location in Europe and Asia, some locations were created digitally. “There’s a shot we created in London where we see the balloon flying over the river Seine, which was done using a collection of still photos that I took in Paris, and then we made a matte painting out of them, added digital extras, CG water and the balloon. It was synthetic in that there was no motion picture camera used at all. There were also some shots over the Atlantic Ocean that were entirely synthetic. We never actually shot in London, but I shot aerial plates in London, in which we heavily replaced various elements, to make them look more period.”

Not For Mature Audiences Only
Spears points out that the film is a great vehicle for Chan, who has excellent chemistry with co-star Coogan. But instead of being the fun-for-all-ages spectacle of the Todd classic, he describes the new Around the World as more targeted to a children’s audience. “So if you have kids, take them!”

Painting a Flying Machine
The London-based effects house Cinesite also contributed to the movie. visual effects producer Cath Duncan points out one key 3D shot Cinesite created that was fairly unusual. “The shot was filmed live-action — an establishing shot where the camera pulls back to reveal a ship carrying a mythic ‘Flying Machine’ — a19th century wooden construction with plain white sails. But due to a recut, the story called for the Flying Machine to have been hand painted with a bird and wings design. So we tracked the scene in Matchmover and used a Maya model to track the Flying Machine and apply a texture to the painted areas. The irregular handmade nature of the Flying Machine and the extreme camera move made this a tricky shot.”

Some Final Touches
Sophie Trainor, pr and marketing manager of The Moving Picture Co., gives a rundown on her company’s work on the film: “The key scenes contributed by MPC were the balloon sequence in Paris where Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan are dragged along by the balloon’s rope. During the course of this adventure they encounter numerous comedic mishaps before finally managing to reach safety in the balloon. Secondly, in a similar style sequence the same pair encounters problems with an elephant. We also did wire removals and set extensions to approximately 50 shots on the film, and successfully undertook 65 wire removals and comps for the film’s marketing trailer in a staggeringly short two-week period.” MPC used Shake and Inferno on shots for the film.

Henry Turner is a writer and award-winning filmmaker, whose Lovecraft-inspired horror feature, Wilbur Whateley, won top awards at the Chicago International Film Festival. His writing on film has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, L’ecran Fantastique, Variety and many other publications. A longtime film festival executive, he has programmed for the Slamdance Film Festival, and currently heads FilmTraffick L.A.