Animation: 'Thunder and the House of Magic'
Jerry Beck has just announced on his Animation Scoop website that Shout! Factory will release the December 2013 Belgian-made (for Christmas 2013 release in French-speaking parts of Europe) 85-minute animated feature The House of Magic, retitled Thunder and the House of Magic and dubbed into English, in theaters in U.S. “selected cities” on September 5. The selected cities include New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Shout! Factory is primarily a DVD releaser, so presumably this will become a generally-available DVD release shortly after that.
Under either title, this looks like a kids’ CGI animated feature that furry fans will enjoy, with an anthropomorphized kitten, rabbit, mouse, dog, doves, and lots of Toy Story-type toys saving an elderly stage magician’s house from being sold out from under him by a greedy nephew. The movie is made by Brussels’ nWave Pictures, which made the 2010 A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures and the 2012 A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise features that have already become children’s DVDs in America.
About the author
Fred Patten — read stories — contact (login required)a retired former librarian from North Hollywood, California, interested in general anthropomorphics
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Here is the original English-language trailer, which is notably different from Shout! Factory's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeTTvAK05kY
Fred Patten
Did you notice that the feature, which was originally released last Christmas season with a French soundtrack in Belgium, France, and the French-speaking parts of Switzerland, has interior signage in English? The "School Bus", and Uncle Lawrence"s magic show tent. This strongly implies that the film was made for the American market in the first place.
Fred Patten
Yesterday the Cartoon Brew website discussed eighteen animated feature-length "releases that will likely be considered during [the 2014] awards season". "Thunder and the House of Magic" is one of them. "How to Train Your Dragon 2", "The Penguins of Madagascar", and "Rio 2" are the other 2014 animated movies featuring anthropomorphic characters, unless you count the Boxtrolls of "The Boxtrolls".
Fred Patten
The LEGO Movie also featured anthro characters, and even an honest to goodness anthro animal with supporting character Princess Unikitty. Also, Peabody and Mr. Sherman probably forgot. It was kind of a forgettable movie.
Right now, I'm picking HTTYD2 to win the Oscar, with The Boxtrolls, The Book of Life, The LEGO Movie and Song of the Sea to be nominees ( and that last nor is also sorta furry).
“A Turtle’s Tale” and ‘A Turtle’s Tale 2” also have their English-language trailers on YouTube. They are available on American DVDs from Amazon.com. Plenty of anthropomorphic sea life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vo9xPgHPjE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSEVHO_k9Z8
Fred Patten
Animation World Network has just announced that "Thunder and the House of Magic" will be released on DVD as a Walmart kids' exclusive on September 30. The AWN announcement includes two new DVD clips.
http://www.awn.com/news/watch-new-clips-thunder-and-house-magic
Fred Patten
Here is the movie's official website. This is too late to see any of its rare theatrical releases, I'm afraid, but you may be able to get some of its on-demand TV screenings. And the Walmart DVD comes out on September 30.
Later: my sister Sherry says that it is listed on Time Warner On Demand already for $6.99, to September 29, and on DVD and Blu-Ray at Walmart for $22.47 from September 30. So if you just want to see it without buying it, you should watch it on On Demand TV before the end of the month.
http://thunderandthehouseofmagic.com/
Fred Patten
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