Films
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| Small Soldiers. Image courtesy of and © DreamWorks LLC and Universal Pictures. |
Small Soldiers Big
On Effects. On July 10, DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures opened
their live-action feature film Small Soldiers, which features computer
animated visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and animatronics
by Stan Winston Studio. Depicting toy action figures which take over a small
town, the film posed a unique challenge to visual effects artists. Director
Joe Dante said, "The puppets are very stiff, and CGI is much more fluid.
The trick was to make the puppets look more fluid and the CGI more stiff,
which, oddly enough, is quite tough." Visual effects supervisor Stefen
Fangmeier agreed, "We had to resist the temptation to make our CG characters
more dynamic--to have them perform actions that toys could never do."
Steve Lee, one of the 20 staff animators on the 80-member team at ILM, said
that although much of ILM's work was cleaning up the puppet shots, the "fun"
part was the full character animation they created for the soldiers' facial
expressions and action shots such as running and jumping. Lee, who worked
in traditional animation before joining ILM two years ago, said animating
Small Soldiers was akin to working in stop-motion animation, and even
like playing with action figures. The film required 136 CGI models, the most
ever created for a production in ILM's history.
IMAX To Turn 2-D Into 3-D. Imax Corp., a Toronto, Canada-based company
specializing in large format and stereoscopic film technology, is testing
a system to convert existing 2-D animated films into 3-D versions for exhibition
in Imax cinemas. A spokesperson for Imax confirmed reports that the company
is negotiating with several undisclosed Hollywood studios to use this technology
for releases as soon as 1999. In order to be converted, the 2-D film would
have to exist in digital format, which presents no problem, as most animated
features are digitally-produced these days (Disney Feature Animation hasn't
inked real cels since The Little Mermaid). Imax is also getting into
animation with its SANDDE (Stereo Animation Drawing Device) technology which
allows animators to draw 3-D images in freehand space. SANDDE was used to
create an animated short called The Imax Nutcracker, which has been
screening at selected Imax theaters since late 1997. Imax chairman and co-CEO
Brad Weschler said, "With the rapid growth of the Imax 3-D theater network,
we also feel that soon we should have enough distribution clout to establish
new characters and to launch ancillary market sales off Imax 3-D animation."
In a separately-funded venture, Russian animator Alexander Petrov is working
in Montreal on a 20-minute animated film in Imax format, through Pascal Blais
Productions, which is expected to be completed by the end of 1998.
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| Antz. © DreamWorks LLC. |
DreamWorks Ups The Ante. DreamWorks has decided
to release its computer animated feature, Antz six months earlier than
its previously announced debut set for March 1999. This bold move will place
the PDI-produced film in U.S. theaters on October 2, 1998, a full seven weeks
before the November 20 release of Disney/Pixar's entomological CGI animated
feature A Bug's Life. While the media has been depicting the turn of
events as a high-stakes competition--DreamWorks vs. Disney, Pixar vs. PDI,
Jeffrey Katzenberg vs. rival Disney executives--people involved in the production
of both films are expressing a desire for each other to succeed, and coexist.
"We are all trying to keep this from turning into a battle of the movies,"
said Carl Rosendahl, PDI's founder and chairman, "It's not about that."
He added that the two films are "radically different," with "different
stories and different characters, and are aimed at different audiences."
He said that DreamWorks' decision to move Antz to October is a result
of the film being ready, and that many of the shots are already completely
rendered. He admits there will be a push to complete production, but the studio's
staff of 260 people will not be expanded, nor will work be farmed out, as
Warner Bros. did to meet its holiday release date for Space Jam in
1996. PDI's second CGI feature for DreamWorks, Shrek is currently in
pre-production and development, and will get a head start on production shortly
after the release of Antz. DreamWorks' first, now second-to-be-released
animated feature, Prince of Egypt, produced in their Los Angeles facility,
is slated for a December 18 debut.
Mulan Makes $100 Mil. In exactly one month, Disney's animated
feature film Mulan has grossed over $100 million in ticket sales at
United States movie theaters. Between its June 19 release date and the box
office closing on July 19, Mulan has grossed approximately $101 million,
according to figures published in the Hollywood Reporter [7/20/98]. The success
of Mulan has bolstered the hopes of Disney's colleagues in the feature
animation business, who are facing stiff competition in the next few years,
with animated feature releases coming from DreamWorks, Disney/Pixar, Warner
Bros., Fox and others. The international success of Mulan will soon
unfold; the film has recently opened in parts of Latin America, and will open
in Japan in September, the U.K. in October and the rest of Europe before the
end of the year. Remarkably, Disney has not yet determined a release date
for China, the country from which the Mulan story originates. A company
spokesperson said they hope to open the film in China before the end of the
year.
Miramax Marking Mononoke For `99. The long-awaited U.S. theatrical
release of Hayao Miyazaki's animated feature film, Princess Mononoke
has been scheduled for summer 1999. Miramax will release the film with a dubbed
English voice track featuring actors Gillian Anderson, Claire Danes and Minnie
Driver. The film earned its spot as the all-time highest grossing film in
Japan, bringing in over $150 million at the domestic box office in 1997. The
film also won the Japanese equivalent of the "Best Picture Oscar."
Insiders have said that Miramax, a Disney company, is holding the release
of the film until `99 so as not to interfere with the current run of the animated
feature Mulan. Buena Vista Home Entertainment has a deal with Tokuma
Shoten to distribute eight of Miyazaki's animated films in the U.S. on video.
The first will be Kiki's Delivery Service on September 1 and the second
will be Castle in the Sky in 1999.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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