This year’s Ghiblifest:
“Nobody likes working in the big blue box.” That’s how Ryan Reynolds answered the question of what it was like working on Free Guy, a movie with extensive CGI because a lot of it takes place within a video game.
Ian McKellan almost gave up on The Lord of the Rings because he was having problems dealing with acting by himself against a green screen and pictures of the other actors’ faces taped to stick.
Hugh Jackman has admitted that he’s acted opposite a lot of tennis balls and green crosses on a stick, used as markers for where a character will be digitally added later.
There’s a different CGI technique that’s become popular in the last decade: the StageCraft. It’s the video wall ILM created for The Mandalorian, where the background is displayed on those large curved screens so the actors can see what the location is supposed to look like. Add in the the practical items (physical objects) added on set for the actors to interact with and the soundstage becomes what’s known as “The Volume”.
But if you look at interviews with actors and directors, there’s a common thread you’ll hear time and time again: most of them prefer practical effects, in-camera effects and the like because it gives them real things to work with, to respond to and to interact with. Things that are missing when you have virtual elements, and it affects the performance.
When Hugh Jackman was pitched The Sheep Detectives as “Babe meets Knives Out”, he was expecting more tennis balls. What he got was old school: puppets of sheep heads he could act with.
Notice I said “act with” instead of “act against”. That’s because the puppeteers gave Jackman real characters to work with and it helps us as the audience see why his character, shepherd George Hardy, says each sheep is special and should have a name, even if that name is a placeholder until a better one comes along.
We see his routine of caring for the flock and providing entertainment for them of reading murder mysteries and who-dunnits, which he knows they can’t possibly understand because, face it, they’re just sheep.
Thankfully, they’re not “just” sheep. They take it upon themselves to solve his murder when the police are useless and incompetent. In doing so, they teach us in the audience how murder mysteries work. And even when they’re going through the steps one at a time to where you might start thinking “now, this is supposed to happen”, even if that does happen, it’s still a surprise.
As they learn how to solve the murder, they also learn about themselves: the value of pain, the value of leaning on one another when you’re scared, and the value of those who are shunned simply because of being born.
The Sheep Detectives is still in theaters. If you’ve got the time, it’s worth seeing.
I’ll add that to my “check out at the library when it comes out on video” list.
Set a reminder in your calendar for December 31st.
There was a behind the scenes video I saw a while ago that discussed how a big difference is in what you see in the movie is how it was made. If it was filmed using a camera, it gets things for free when they’re on location: buildings, scenery, weather, background crowds, and so forth. If it’s an animated movie, “nothing is free.” Everything you see in the movie is put there by a person.
Now, if it’s a CGI animated movie or a digitally-drawn animated movie, there are tools available that can make it easier, such as a program that generates trees. Another is the process that took the 3D character of Peni Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and rendered it to make it look like she was a 2D character.
Regardless of the tools, there’s still people making decisions on how to use them. There’s no “push a button and the computer does everything”… yet. A.I. is getting us closer, but right now, the results aren’t good enough. There’s mistakes and things that don’t look right. Watch the Firefly Sea Shanty at the 1:30 mark. The real Kaylee would never disrespect an engine like that.
And that brings us to the type of movie that definitely gets nothing for free and where a person is definitely involved in everything, making every decision for every frame: stop-motion animation.
The company that’s the leader in the field, in my opinion, is Laika. They are also a company that films “on the ones”, meaning they animate at 24 frames a second, instead of on the twos, threes or fours (12 frames/second, 8 or 6).
You may have seen various behind the scenes features about stop-motion animation that give you general ideas about how the process works. Laika just released another featurette that makes it clearer exactly how much goes into making one, in a way that changes it from concepts to full understanding of how enormous it all is. It also shows why Laika needed another year to finish the film.
Wildwood premieres on October 23, 2026. The Wildwood: Follow the Crows outdoor art show opens in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, August 7, 2006. The official website is at wildwoodmovie.com.
That trailer really made me think of my visit to Weta Studios. We didn’t get to see quite so much of the process, but we did get to see a lot of miniatures, “bigiatures”, set pieces, etc. I got to see a lot of the sets for Thunderbirds too.
Sheep Detectives is available on Amazon Prime now.
I’m half an hour into the movie, and some of the jokes have made me laugh.
I’ve gotten to the point that if it’s on streaming, that’s nice and lovely, but I want it on physical media. Two days ago was another example why. Sony deleted all 551 StudioCanal movies that PlayStation “owners” in the UK paid for. Same thing they did three years ago with shows from Discovery Channel. No word yet if there is so much backlash that Sony realizes they need to renew their contract with the studio so the “owners” can “own” them again.
Don’t hold your breath, though. Sony just announced they will no longer manufacture physical discs for PlayStation games in 2028. And if you’re looking to buy GTA VI, you might be able to buy it in a box like you used to do all the time with games, but inside the box will be a download code. Some stores in Canada are refusing to sell it because of the lack of physical media.
If I really like a movie/TV show, I will buy it on physical media (if I can afford it). Now that I have a real library, I want to start picking up physical copies of books too.
I saw Supergirl last weekend and I thought it was pretty good. There were several contrasts with last year’s Superman, including discussing why does he get to be Superman while she’s Supergirl?
They’re both from Krypton and they both get sent to Earth, where its yellow sun gives them all the powers we’re familiar with. I haven’t decided which is the better time to get those powers: As a baby when you not only have to teach them how to function, you could very easily be seriously injured or killed because the baby would have no idea that swinging an arm could pack a wallop, or as an older teenager.
Kara’s more than a little moody and resentful because her cousin got it easy. He didn’t have to watch what everyone thought had saved them from the destruction of Krypton turn into its own form of destruction. She copes by traveling to systems with red suns.
No, strike that. She self-medicates by going to them so she can get drunk. Staggeringly drunk. Pass out and almost fall off the toilet drunk. When the hangover’s no fun any more, a quick trip to a system with a yellow sun to sober up, and it’s off to the next red sun to do it all over again.
It’s during her latest bar crawl she unwillingly gets dragged into a quest that turns personal. She begins seeing what the real universe is like, seeing others have problems worse than her. She also begins to see “fight like a girl” isn’t derogatory, the way “you fight like a girl” often is.
One of those problems is Lobo. An “immortal with a god complex”, mercenary and bounty hunter, who’d prefer to do his drinking in peace. Disturb his drinking or get between him and his bounty at your own peril because you could suddenly find yourself taking a dirt nap. That is, whatever pieces of you he left behind for that nap.
There’s a little bit of Captain Jack Sparrow in Lobo, in the sense that you’re not quite sure if he’s really planning things or simply blundering his way through. The needle is probably leaning toward blundering, but either way, Jason Momoa proved why Lobo’s been his favorite character since he was a kid and got the ball rolling for getting the part by texting James Gunn with “f***ing LOBO” once Gunn got selected to run DC.
It’s not certain how much longer Supergirl will be in theaters. It dropped a lot in its second week, but surprisingly, it’s getting a boost from the live action version of Moana doing even worse in its premiere weekend. If you have to choose between the two, you’ll get to see something new in Supergirl, so that would get my vote.
Anybody watched the 1993 Doorways movie? The one with Carrie-Anne Moss in…
I watched it yonkers ago…
Idk why Disney keeps doing these live action adaptations. Jungle Book was OK but the rest are just meh. And no shade to Will Smith but there’s only one Genie and it’s Robin Williams (RIP).
I think Disney’s back in their “tell other people’s stories or re-tell our own stories” mode. It’s up to other studios to tell new stories.
One such new story is coming out on August 28th. I’m not a horror fan because too many of them seem to be the “fight the unstoppable evil that will come back after you think you’ve stopped it because you really only temporarily stopped it” trope.
Others might like seeing the struggle for its own sake, and look forward to the inevitable sequels. Yet others might like a movie that involves a character very reminiscent of a certain purple dinosaur and would be non-stop cheering to see an unstoppable evil going after it.
No, this not Friday the 13th meets Barney or The Nightmare on Barney Street. It’s Buddy, starring Buddy the Unicorn, who’s orange with a large purple heart on his chest. He’s the star a 90s children’s TV show where something’s lurking beneath the surface.
The ads on the BuddytheUnicorn YouTube channel are dropping hints one at a time. I can see hints of Five Nights at Freddy’s, Barney, of course, Candle Cove and Death to Smoochy.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw Coyote vs. Acme. If you don’t know the history of the movie, here’s the bullet points.
In the movie, Acme is a “we make everything for the entire world” company, along the lines of Omni Consumer Products from RoboCop and Buy-n-Large from WALL•E. But given that Warner Bros. Discovery dumped the movie in the trash for cash, it’s pretty much in everyone’s minds that Ketchup releasing the movie is a big “take that” to WBD. And after seeing it, quite a few people are asking, “Why did WBD do that? This is a great movie.” I think so, too.
Wile E. Coyote, weary after yet another failed attempt to capture the Road Runner, goes back to his cave and looks at the countless plans that inevitably failed. He’s despondent and ready to give up. He’s a complete failure and he knows it.
But in one of those late night commercials playing on the TV, he hears the voice that gives him renewed hope: it feels like small-time lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) is speaking directly to him when Avery says it’s not his fault everything keeps going wrong. It’s Acme products, and as a lawyer specializing in cartoon clients, he’ll help you get compensation.
Tugging on the pull cord to light up the neon “idea!” sign that conveniently appeared next to him, the Coyote starts making plans to find this lawyer. These two little guys are going to take on the biggest of the big guys and he’ll finally get what he needs to reach his goal of capturing the Road Runner.
Their opposition is a literal big guy, in the form of Buddy Crane (John Cena), the top lawyer for Acme. Confident, very self-assured, Crane views this as nothing more than a nuisance, with the added bonus of being able to humiliate an old classmate. Little do any of the parties involved know how respect and friendship can make the tiny mighty.
This is a good place to stop because I need to tell you a little more about the world in the film.
Cartoon characters are people in this world, living and working alongside humans. Much like with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, they have various jobs and interact with physical objects, with humans interacting with cartoon objects, and this movie uses a mix of practical effects and computer animation.
There are a lot of sight gags, where it will be beneficial to get it on physical media so you can pause and look at them. Amazon has a placeholder of December 31, 2099 for the release date, which seems a little appropriate, given how everyone had to wait almost three years to see it because of the “it’s better in the trash” original release plans.
There are a few fourth wall breaks. Unlike Deadpool, where he’s very obviously talking to (or talking at) the audience, the fourth wall breaks in CvA feel more like the audience is being invited into this world.
And finally, there are many references to the earlier Coyote and Road Runner cartoons. But not all of them and some of the characters have vastly different backstories than what’s in those old cartoons. For example, there’s one where a kid (off screen) asks why the Coyote chases the Road Runner and the Coyote replies to him it’s because every part of a road runner is a different taste sensation, such as each feather on the head is a different flavor. That’s not included in the movie.
So, CvA picks and chooses what it wants to use of past lore and since multiverses are all the rage these days, I guess the world shown in CvA would be one of those alternate dimensions where some things are exactly the same, but have a different context.
I’m going to go see that on $5 Tuesday.
If you’re planning on going to see Avengers: Doomsday, co-director Joe Russo has announced you have to do your homework. Again.
That homework is going to see Avengers Endgame: Encore, which premieres Friday.
You’re going to watch it not so you can enjoy seeing once more how the MCU built up to that point. All the drama and excitement of seeing the superheroes of the world come together to fight the threat that was Thanos.
Nope. You’re going to see it so you can watch the “critically important” additions to the movie that Joe Russo describes as “required viewing”. There is some new footage, a custom introduction, and a new post-credits scene, totaling two minutes. You’ll also get an exclusive look at Doomsday, a whole three minutes worth.
If you don’t go see Encore, you’ll miss out on the information you need to enjoy Doomsday. So, get your wallets or purses ready and get ready to fork out even more money so you won’t be denied that critical, need-to-know information.
I have already decided I’m going to wait to watch Encore until it’s on Disney+. I don’t care if it gets there after Doomsday finishes its run in theaters and also lands on Disney+. I’m not paying about $15 for the ticket and who knows how much in food and snacks just to see 2 minutes of new info.
I’d rather go watch the new Shaun the Sheep movie. At least that’s completely new, instead of only 1% new.
I’ll either do that or watch the clips on YouTube, 'cause you know someone’s going to post them.
I’ll be honest, I have no great desire to watch Endgame again, and this blatant cash grab doesn’t really change that.
Looks like everyone has more homework to do before they go see Encore. If you read the fine print, there’s a notice to the effect that the only way you’ll get to see all of the new things is if you go see it at an IMAX or an Infinity Vision theater. If you don’t, you’re gonna be denied some of the critical, need-to-know information.
What’s Infinity Vision? Well, it’s a certification from Disney for premium large format theaters that says they like the theater’s specs for screen size, audio and brightness level. Are they actually visiting all of the theaters to verify everything’s calibrated? Maybe?
Why do they need their own certification? Well, you see, Dune: Part Three is coming out on December 18, same as Doomsday. Dune 3 picked that date first and locked in a big chunk of IMAX theaters to show its movie for three weeks. So, Disney is doing a “If you can’t see Doomsday in IMAX, here’s a pretty good alternative” sort of thing to compensate for not getting access to those IMAX theaters for a while.
So, remember, kids. If you really, really, really want to see all of the critical new stuff Joe Russo says you need to see, you gotta see Encore in IMAX or Infinity Vision. Any other theater just won’t do. If it means you have to pay more for the tickets there and more for gasoline to get there and back again, it will all be worth it.
But in 2 months they’ll just release it all on Disney+, right? Right?