'Evolution Man'? 'Animal Kingdom'?
Whee! We’re bringing you announcements from Cartoon Brew of lots of international animated theatrical features that will probably never come to the U.S. This time it’s a French movie, variously Evolution Man, or, How I Ate My Father or Animal Kingdom: Let’s Go Ape, that is being released theatrically in Britain this month.
Is it anthropomorphic? Surely, if you consider pre-homo sapiens primates to be animals. Otherwise? Hard to say from this trailer (which is one of two), but there are at least lots of animals presented in a manner that furry fans should enjoy.
Generally I don’t care for motion-capture (lots of animation fans are arguing over whether it’s “really animation”), but it does seem effective here. It must be easier to turn motion-captured actors into primates than into four-legged animals. Also, Prana Studios in Mumbai does good work.
Is Animal Kingdom: Let’s Go Ape a “train wreck", as the Cartoon Brew article implies? Do you want to see it? In the U.S., we’ll be lucky if it gets a children’s DVD release. Maybe it’ll appear on YouTube. If you like these two trailers, keep checking YouTube.
About the author
Fred Patten — read stories — contact (login required)a retired former librarian from North Hollywood, California, interested in general anthropomorphics
Comments
You know, I just realized; we are definitely the only website in the world with this trailer as our top story.
Well, it was the top story on Cartoon Brew until it was replaced by something else, animation-related but not anthropomorphic.
Fred Patten
Perhaps one of the weirdest things about this movie (as related by Cartoon Brew): Evidently the body-actor for the mo-cap of the main character lost his right hand in an accident some years ago. The "animators" felt they needed to hide this fact. Their solution? The lead character keeps his right hand stuffed into his loincloth -- For The Entire Movie! You'll also notice he's the only character who WEARS a loincloth. Weird.
Yeah, why did the producers of this movie choose a one-handed actor for their mo-cap star instead of one with both hands? Because the actor is also the director? Bad decision! Or was the budget so tight that they couldn't afford another actor? In that case, penny-pinching was not a wise decision.
Andy Serkis as Gollum or as Caesar through mo-cap was brilliant, but was that mo-cap really "animation"? That's what people are arguing over.
Fred Patten
Couldn't they just do something like put a fake 'hand' on the actor's wrist, since it's only acting as a location marker for the mo-cap? Oh well, Monday Quarterbacking...
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