movies

0507 – La cité des enfants perdus / The City of Lost Children (1995)

The City of Lost Children poster

The City of Lost Children (French: La cité des enfants perdus) is a 1995 dystopian/ science fantasy/ steampunk/ drama film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring Ron Perlman. An international co-production of companies from France, Germany, and Spain, the film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and AmélieThe musical score was composed by Angelo Badalamenti  with costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Interpretation       imdb

movies

0504 – Jumanji

spacetime coordinates: New Hampshire 1869 / 1969 / 1995 / 1996 / 2016

Jumanji is a 1995 American fantasy adventure film directed by Joe Johnston. It is an adaptation of the 1981 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The film was written by Van Allsburg, Greg TaylorJonathan Hensleigh, and Jim Strain and stars Robin WilliamsBonnie HuntKirsten DunstBradley PierceDavid Alan GrierJonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth.

jumanji-poster-2

The story centers on 12-year-old Alan Parrish, who becomes trapped in a board game while playing with his best friend Sarah Whittle in 1969. Twenty-six years later, in 1995, siblings Judy and Peter Shepherd find the game, begin playing and then unwittingly release the now-adult Alan. After tracking down Sarah, the quartet resolve to finish the game in order to reverse all of the destruction it has caused.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113497/

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a 2017 American adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner, from a story by McKenna. It is a part of the Jumanji franchise, serving as a sequel to Jumanji (1995). The film stars Dwayne JohnsonJack BlackKevin HartKaren GillanNick Jonas, and Bobby Cannavale.

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Set twenty-one years after the first film, the plot follows four teenagers who are transported into the video game world of Jumanji, playing as the characters they chose. Uniting with another player, they must overcome the game’s magical power in order to win and return home.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2283362/

+ Sequel +

movies

0493 – The Shape of Water (2017)

spacetime coordinates:  Baltimore during the Cold War  in 1962

The Shape of Water is a 2017 American fantasy drama film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. It stars Sally HawkinsMichael ShannonRichard JenkinsDoug JonesMichael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. Set in Baltimore in 1962, the plot follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid-amphibian creature.

the film was primarily inspired by del Toro’s childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon and wanting to see Gill-man and Kay Lawrence (played by Julie Adams) succeed in their romance.

In an interview with IndieWire about the film, del Toro said, “This movie is a healing movie for me. … For nine movies I rephrased the fears of my childhood, the dreams of my childhood, and this is the first time I speak as an adult, about something that worries me as an adult. I speak about trust, otherness, sex, love, where we’re going. These are not concerns that I had when I was nine or seven.”

shape-of-water-cover-image

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/

movies

486 – The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

cabin-in-the-woods-poster-hi-resThe Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror comedy film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard.  The film stars Kristen ConnollyChris HemsworthAnna HutchisonFran KranzJesse WilliamsRichard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford.

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sketch105.deviantart

Goddard and Whedon, having worked together previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, wrote the screenplay in three days, describing it as an attempt to “revitalize” the slasher film genre and as a critical satire on torture porn. The special effects, monster costumes, special makeup, and prosthetic makeup for the movie were done by veteran horror film actress Heather Langenkamp, her husband David LeRoy Anderson, and their company AFX Studio.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259521/

animation, Uncategorized

0471 – Coraline (2009)

spacetime coordinates: 2000’s Ashland, Oregon

71HSunGPaSL._SL1189_Coraline is a 2009 American 3D stop-motion dark fantasy horror film based on Neil Gaiman‘s 2002 novel of the same name. It was the first feature film produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. The film depicts an adventurous girl finding an idealized parallel world behind a secret door in her new home, unaware that the alternate world contains a dark and sinister secret. Written and directed by Henry Selick, the film was made with Gaiman’s approval and co-operation.

Coraline was staged in a 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m2) warehouse in Hillsboro, Oregon. The stage was divided into 50 lots, which played host to nearly 150 sets. Among the sets were three miniature Victorian mansions, a 42-foot (12.8 m) apple orchard, and a model of Ashland, Oregon, including tiny details such as banners for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. More than 28 animators worked at a time on rehearsing or shooting scenes, producing 90–100 seconds of finished animation each week. To add the stereoscopy for the 3D release, the animators shot each frame from two slightly apart camera positions.

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Every object on screen was made for the film. The crew used three 3D printing systems from Objet in the development and production of the film. Thousands of high-quality 3D models, ranging from facial expressions to doorknobs, were printed in 3D using the Polyjet matrix systems, which enable the fast transformation of CAD (computer-aided design) drawings into high-quality 3D models. The puppets had separate parts for the upper and lower parts of the head that could be exchanged for different facial expressions. The characters of Coraline could potentially exhibit over 208,000 facial expressions. Computer artists composited separately-shot elements together, or added elements of their own which had to look handcrafted instead of computer-generated – for instance, the flames were done with traditional animation and painted digitally, and the fog was dry ice.

At its peak, the film involved the efforts of 450 people, including from 30  to 35 animators and digital designers in the Digital Design Group (DDG) directed by Dan Casey and more than 250 technicians and designers. One crew member, Althea Crome, was hired specifically to knit miniature sweaters and other clothing for the puppet characters, sometimes using knitting needles as thin as human hair. The clothes would also simulate wear using paint and a file. Several students from The Art Institute of Portland were also involved in making the film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraline_(film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/

http://www.coraline.com/

animation

0450 – Titan A.E. (2000)

spacetime coordinates: 3028 AD – Pierce, Colorado //  3044 AD (16 AE) salvage station TAU 14,  planet Sesharrim, drifter colony New Bangkok, Andali Nebula Ice Rings Of Tigrin

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Titan A.E. is a 2000 American animated science fiction film directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Its title refers to the spacecraft central to the plot, with A.E. meaning “After Earth”. It stars Matt DamonBill PullmanJohn LeguizamoNathan LaneJaneane Garofalo and Drew Barrymore. The film’s animation technique combines traditional hand-drawn animation and extensive use of computer generated imagery.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave it 3.5/4 stars for its “rousing story”, “largeness of spirit”, and “lush galactic visuals [which] are beautiful in the same way photos by the Hubble Space Telescope are beautiful”. He cited the Ice Rings sequence as “a perfect examine [sic] of what animation can do and live action cannot”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120913/