Tag: Dreamworks

Trailer Talk: The Croods

DreamWorks (via iTunes Trailers) has released a first trailer for their prehistoric animated adventure The Croods, the highly anticipated new animated film from directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. It features the eclectic voice talents of Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman. It will be released in Australia on 28 March 2013 from Paramount.

The Croods is a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the world’s first family as they embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. Traveling across a spectacular landscape, the Croods discover an incredible new world filled with fantastic creatures — and their outlook is changed forever.

At The Reel Bits, we don’t just post trailers now, we review them too. This is Trailer Talk. Check out our thoughts after viewing the trailer below.

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Trailer Talk:

Chris Sanders will forever remain an animation god thanks to his two features to date: Lilo & Stitch (2002) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010). So it’s interesting that the first look at his latest film, with co-director Kirk DeMicco (Space Chimps), has so many traditional elements to it. Indeed, it follows 2012’s trend of animated rebellious daughters (Brave, Hotel Transylvania) and in many ways posits itself as a “Ice Age with humans”. Of course, this is just a trailer, and far be it to us to judge a film based on 2 minutes of footage. Who do you think we are: paying audiences?

Let’s talk about what we can assess this trailer on, and that’s the animation. It is, in a word, gorgeous. The almost slate grey and brown look of the cave still allows for a great deal of character detail, the area where Sanders’s works have always excelled. As the colour world is literally revealed to us, like Dorothy stepping into Oz, we are given a jaw-dropping moment that is sure to be mind-melting on the big screen. We have enough faith in the talent that this will be more than a follower, especially given that both directors are also writing, so we are keen to see more.

Bits Rating: ★★★½

October 4, 2012
Personal Bits: American Beauty

Everybody’s got a story, and we all have our favourites and guilty pleasures. From the art-house to the bargain basement, movies impact us all in different ways. Judge not lest ye be judged. Here we hang out our Personal Bits. This week’s guest is Steven Savona.

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”American Beauty (1999)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”220″]

Director: Sam Mendes

Writer: Alan Ball

Runtime: 122 minutes

Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper

Studio: DreamWorks Pictures

Country: US

More Personal Bits

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When I think of impressive directorial debuts, Sam Mendes’ American Beauty races to the forefront of my mind. Written by Alan Ball (in his screenwriting debut), it is a richly nuanced film, and of all the films I’ve watched in my life to date, I’m happy to call it my favourite. In a nutshell, it’s about a middle-aged man named Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), whose apathetic existence is injected with vitality once he grows attracted to his teenage daughter’s friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). Below the surface, it is about a whole lot more, and that’s what I’d like to espouse throughout this article.

It pains me that people dismiss the film as ‘sick’ because they hear about the relationship between Lester and Angela. I’ve heard people declare that they refuse to watch it because of this plot point, and others have watched the film and disliked it for this reason alone. The mark of a great film, or a great piece of art in general, is that it can focus on a theme that is generally frowned upon by society, and make the audience accept it. I didn’t feel the slightest bit sickened by the relationship between Lester and Angela. In fact, I wouldn’t even say they enter into a relationship, per se. Both characters seem enthusiastic about the possibility of sexual exploration, and at no point is sexual harassment evident or implied. Again, I must stress that American Beauty does not use this element of the story as its fulcrum.

At its heart, American Beauty is about Lester realising that he lives an unhappy, monotonous life, and taking steps to fix that problem. He comes to realise that the ‘American Dream’ is just a myth, and that he needs to start doing things that make him happy—not things that society believes leads to happiness. We see Lester change his lifestyle by rebelling against his family and society’s expectations in general. He lusts over Angela, as his marriage to wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) has been reduced to a semblance of what it once was. He starts smoking marijuana once he is acquainted with his new next-door neighbour, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley). He quits his job as an office worker to work in a fast food restaurant. He eventually buys his dream car – a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, without his wife’s knowledge. All of these actions help Lester to recapture the essence of his adolescence—a time when life’s challenges weren’t so distressing.

Lester’s wife, Carolyn, symbolises the irritating demands of society. She is a real-estate agent who is a portrait of materialism, without even knowing it. She doesn’t have to be happy to find contentment. Seeming happy is good enough for her. Her life revolves around the constant struggle of projecting an image. In one of the film’s most powerful scenes, she fails to sell a house, and afterwards slaps her face with brute force and bawls her eyes out in that very house she failed to sell—all behind closed doors, of course. She tries to keep herself together by listening to a self-help tape which features the mantra “I refuse to be a victim.” Carolyn becomes involved in her very own adulterous sexual exploits, as you will find out.

Ricky Fitts is characterised as an ‘outcast’ of society. Or, for lack of a better term: the weird kid. He sees beauty in a dead bird, and in a homeless lady freezing to death. In arguably the film’s most recognised scene, he shows Lester’s daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), the most beautiful thing he has ever filmed: a plastic bag ‘dancing’ in the wind. Ricky explains the significance of this bag to his life:

“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air; you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and…this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. The video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember…and I need to remember: sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.”

Ricky’s words resonate as the film’s enduring message. There is, after all, so much beauty in the world. We just don’t always realise it, as we don’t attempt to look closer. “Look closer” happens to be the film’s tagline. By the end of the film, the major characters have all taken a close look at themselves, and they come to realise that the dreams they aspired to at the beginning are nothing but mere illusions. Some of them realise the beauty in this, whilst others are left to slay their personal demons.

Examining the film on a technical level, Conrad L. Hall’s cinematography beautifully encapsulates the underlying beauty and personality of a quiet American suburb. There’s a particular scene where Hall creates the illusion that Chris Cooper’s character is disappearing as he walks into the rain, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking considering what takes place before it. It’s also worth taking note of how the colour red is used as a motif for a life force than cannot be suppressed. Thomas Newman’s score is the film’s pulse, and it complements so many pivotal scenes perfectly. His track Dead Already will sound awfully familiar, even if you haven’t seen the film. That’s because so many ringtones sound like it.

I have vague memories of first watching American Beauty when I was six years old. Fast forward nine years, and I could only remember specific images from it, but that was enough to make me buy the film on DVD, one Thursday afternoon in 2008. I immediately watched the film when I arrived home, and my eyes were filled with tears when the end credits began to roll. The film touched me in a profound way, and I knew that I had watched something special. One of my greatest values in life is truth. Many people have labelled American Beauty as a satire of American suburbia. I agree with that view, to a certain extent. The backdrop of American suburbia elegantly complements, though paradoxically contrasts against the film’s truthful elements. Though the film’s story is fictitious, I felt for the characters as though they were real people. I felt their joys, however scarce they were, and I occasionally ached for them. Let it be said: American Beauty is a film you need to watch experience at least once in your life.

Got your own Personal Bits? If you want to write about your favourite film, please let us know! We will feature a new one every week!

August 3, 2012
Q & A: Emily Watson on War Horse

To celebrate the DVD and Blu-ray release of DreamWorks’ War Horse, Disney has sent over some wonderful Q & A content with the cast and filmmakers. The first of these is from star Emily Watson.

Emily Watson admits that she watched the London stage production of War Horse through a veil of tears. “I’d seen it when I was eight months pregnant,” she recalls. “And I said ‘I’ve got to get to the theatre before the baby is born because after the birth I don’t know when I’ll get to go again. What shall we go and see?’

“And we decided on War Horse and of course after about ten seconds I just went to pieces and was sobbing away.”

Q: What did you think the first time you saw the finished film?

A: I love it. It’s a big, brassy, bold piece of Hollywood and I mean that as a compliment. I think when you see the film it makes you think of all those words like ‘trust’ and ‘love’ and ‘hope’ and ‘friendship’ and it’s redemptive and it’s a miraculous and it has an uplifting, happy ending which is wonderful and that’s absolutely what you want. But, at the same time, I think Steven has made a very powerful anti-war film. And I think that is great and especially for the younger generation. A lot of kids are growing up playing war games on their computers and they think it’s a game and this film shows very powerfully that it’s not a game and it’s not cool. There was a whole generation wiped out by the First World War and this is what it looks like. It’s a very powerful piece of filmmaking.

Q: You’ve worked with so many great directors covering every spectrum of film, from Lars Von Trier to Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Altman to Steven Spielberg…

A: Yes, I feel very lucky. And it was a really great thing to get the call from Steven Spielberg. I actually met Steven a long time ago in Hollywood at an (Oscar) nominee’s lunch. Hilary and Jackie was out the same year as Private Ryan and it was one of those things where nominees have a get together. And he came across the room, looked me in the eye and shook my hand and said ‘well done, that was great..’ And I was completely overwhelmed. And then ten years later I got a phone call saying that Steven wanted to meet me and I went to Claridges Hotel in London and he offered me the job.

Q: Did you know what the project was before you met him?

A: Yes, I knew it was for War Horse and I’d seen the play and I said ‘I presume it’s for the (role of the) Mum?’ And they said ‘yes..’

Q: When had you seen the play?

A: I’d seen it when I was eight months pregnant and I said ‘I’ve got to get to the theatre before the baby is born because after the birth I don’t know when I’ll get to go again. What shall we go and see?’ And we decided on War Horse and of course after about ten seconds I just went to pieces and was sobbing away. I did sit through it and I remember I went to a matinee and it was full of a lot of older people who were really quite shaken by it. You know, they were an older generation and for them the First World War wasn’t within living memory but certainly it would have been for their parents and so it was very meaningful to them.

Q: At those early meeting with Steven did you discuss his approach for adapting the playonto the screen?

A: We had a chat about the play and he obviously loved it, as did I. He said ‘I’d love you to do this..’ and I came out of the meeting walking on air, it was a very thrilling day. And obviously, I was very, very excited at the prospect of working with Steven – what actor wouldn’t be? I love his films. And I was intrigued, too, because I knew that he would tell this story in a very powerful way. And he has.

Q: The actors who go to war in the film, like Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch, obviously had a lot of preparation for that big cavalry charge…

A: That’s amazing. I love the sequence because it’s brilliantly conceived and so dramatic.

Q: For you, does it compare with the famous battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan?

A: Yes, it does. And you know when you are watching it that these poor men are riding to their deaths and it’s so moving. And it’s so brilliant to have a sequence like that that portrays such a turning point in history – it’s brilliant, really brilliant.

Q: But what was your preparation? Did you meet up with Peter and Jeremy to discuss a shared approach?

A: I met with Jeremy before hand and I think that was when Jeremy was still going though the casting process and they wanted us to get together to see whether it would work as mother and son. Although, by that time, I think Steven was pretty sure that he wanted Jeremy from quite early on but he just wanted to cover the bases. As far as my preparation goes, it was very interesting because the writing was so well formed and the language, the vernacular, was brilliant because it was so evocative of the place. It was about being in the place with the farm tools and things like that. There’s a scene, which actually didn’t make it into the final cut of the movie which is where I’m making bread. I’d said to Steven, ‘I want to be doing things..’ Because I think a woman in that position, a farmer’s wife who is really running the farm, she is working all of the time, there’s not a lot of sitting around and talking.

Q: So you found the character quite easily?

A: Playing that role was like putting on a really well fitting coat. In a way it’s an archetype because Rose is the Earth Mother, she is the Penelope in The Odyssey and she is the heart to which you return at the end of the journey.

Q: She is a very strong, stoic character. Did you like playing her?

A: I loved playing her. And I loved the relationship with Ted, which is clearly complicated but lovely. They are really well drawn characters.

Q: Did you feel that your characters were almost playing a story within a story?

A: Yes, in a way. There’s a scene where my character Rose tells her son about his father’s involvement in the Boer War and how it has hurt him and changed him. And that was actually Steven’s idea, the Boer War and the pennant that she gives Albert as a sort of cinematic physical emblem that goes through the film. And I think that works beautifully well.

Q: Am I right in thinking that you hadn’t worked with Peter Mullan before? Did you know him?

A: Peter is lovely. I had met him socially a while back. But I hadn’t worked with either Peter or David (Thewlis) but it felt like I knew them both really well because I felt we were all from a similar stable in a way. And it was quite interesting on the first day because Steven talks to you during a take.

Q: Isn’t that distracting?

A: No, it’s not distracting and actually it’s really great but you have to get used to it. I could see Peter was slightly taken aback at first because his universe is Ken Loach where performance is utterly sacrosanct and you don’t disturb it, it’s a really sacred thing, you are in the world of truth of it. But on War Horse you would be in the middle of a take and Steven would talk to you and it’s like he is planting little seeds in your ear and they start to flower. If you accept it, it’s great and a really creative thing.

Q: What sort of things would he say to you?

A: Tom told me about something that Steven said to him before the cavalry scene, which I thought, was a beautiful piece of direction. There is a close up of Tom when he is riding towards the enemy lines and he realizes the machine guns are there and there’s a silent slow motion close up on his face and at that point he knows that he is riding into his death and Steven said ‘I don’t want to see fear, anger, surprise, I don’t want to see any of those emotions.’ He said to Tom ‘how old are you?’ 29. ‘OK, start at 29 and end up at nine. I want to see the man becoming the boy..’ What a brilliant piece of direction that is. And in amongst all the technical things that Steven was dealing with for a sequence like that, which must have been extraordinary, to have that level of emotional awareness kind of sums him up as a director. Extraordinary.

Q: Can you remember the first Steven Spielberg movie you were aware of?

A: Probably Jaws although I don’t think I was allowed to watch it but I was aware that everyone was talking about it and I knew that incredible music that was in it, too. I think E.T. was the first one that I actually saw, which must have been in the early eighties (1982). I saw that in the cinema and I absolutely loved it. I just cried and thought it was wonderful. I actually saw it twice and thought it was just magical.

Q: And over the years you would have watched all of his films?

A: Oh yes. I remember when Schindler’s List came out and people were saying ‘Steven Spielberg is making a film about the holocaust?’ Everyone was kind of sniping about it and then they saw it. And what unbelievable commitment and passion it took to make that extraordinary film. I also loved all the Indiana Jones films, too. And Saving Private Ryan was extraordinary. I think he has created his own cinematic language with war films and our movie, War Horse, is another wonderful example of that. When Joey is caught in the barbed wire in no man’s land it is just a very, very powerful sequence – what a brilliant scene. I love that scene when the English boy meets the German boy and they both cut Joey free.

Q: The English countryside looks very beautiful in the film. Where did you film your section?

A: Most of my scenes were on Dartmoor. I loved it. I actually took my family back there on holiday last summer and the kids loved it. It was wild and wonderful and they were outdoors and wading in streams and climbing up trees. I’ve got a girl and a boy, six and three.

Q: Are they old enough to see the film?

A: No. I’ve showed them the first 20 minutes but they will have to wait until they are older to see the rest. It was like ‘Mummy, what are you doing? Why are you so cross? Why Mummy so cross?’ They saw me on a TV show the other morning and it was ‘Mummy, what have they done to your eyes?’ And I said ‘don’t worry it’s just make-up…’(laughs). They don’t usually see me wearing make up.

Q: So they’re not really aware of what you do?

A: Juliet is, she’s six and she sees the poster on television. But I try and keep a little bit of distance from it.

Q: Do you take the children with you when you’re filming?

A: Not on this one. I bring them when I can but it’s much harder now that my daughter is in school. Up until then I had taken them all over the world – my daughter has been to New Zealand and Australia. And just in September I was doing a film in Mexico and they came out for that.

May 7, 2012
Trailer and Poster for DreamWorks’ Rise of the Guardians

The first trailer has gone online for Rise of the Guardians, the latest work from DreamWorks Animation, and we have been waiting for this one. Executive produced by Guillermo del Toro (but isn’t everything?), this looks like epic fun. Based on William Joyce’s The Guardians of Childhood series, it features the voice work of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Isla Fisher and Jude Law. Joyce, who co-directs with Peter Ramsey, won an Oscar with Brandon Oldenburg this year for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Rise of the Guardians is an epic and magical adventure that tells the story of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost – legendary characters with previously unknown extraordinary abilities. When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children everywhere.

Rise of the Guardians is released in the US on 21 November 2012, and in Australia on 13 December 2012 from Paramount.

March 29, 2012
Review: War Horse

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”War Horse (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Steven Spielberg

Runtime: 146 minutes

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston

Distributor: Disney

Country: US

Rating: Worth A Look (?)

More info

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Based on Michael Morpurgo’s young adult novel, War Horse was adapted into a critically acclaimed stage production in 2007. Although tapping into the very human emotions that surround the effects of war, Morpurgo was originally responding to the massive loos of horse life in the First World War, an estimated 10 million horses on all sides. Indeed, of the million horses that were sent overseas from the UK, only 62,000 returned, the rest either killed in action or for meat. A story of this scale of sentimentality was bound to attract the attention of Hollywood, and naturally the king of sentimental war stories Steven Spielberg.

After bonding with his unconventionally determined horse in Devon, Albert (Jeremy Irvine) is separated from the animal as it is shipped off to the front at the start of the First World War. The horse begins an journey that will see him serve both the German and English sides during the war, while Albert has his own odyssey across the front. The horse will meet a number of individuals whose lives he will touch, showing the commonalities that both unite and divide the world during times of conflict.

The film opens with a drawn-out and sentimental opening sequence, in which Albert ultimately bonds with the horse in an extended plot about tilling the soil on his father’s (Peter Mullan) failing farm, despite protests from a skeptical mother (Emily Watson). It is only when the British army is introduced, via Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) and Major Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch), that a lightning bolt is sent through the film and some impact is felt for both the human and animal characters. Hiddleston’s penetrating gaze captivates for his brief run on screen, and one almost wishes that we could follow him for a little longer. However, it is quickly established that all humans in the film are transitory, and some humans have more of a lasting impression than others.

Spielberg, already adept at showing us the Second World War from all angles, brings us a very different vision of the first Great War initially, including the involvement (however briefly) of the Indian army and a particularly striking sequence in which the British stage a bloody-minded frontal assault on the enemy. In this one sequence, Spielberg reminds us that the First World War changed almost everything humans knew about combat. The animals in the story are seen as the greatest victims, for while the humans made the decision to follow what they have done in the past, the horses had no option but to follow the humans. When we switch to the German side, and for the first time see the devastating number of fallen mounts, the horrors of war are brought home in a way that stacks of human bodies may have ceased to do for cynical and war-weary audiences.

Janusz Kamiński’s photography has become synonymous with Spielberg, having photographed all of the latter’s films since 1993’s Schindler’s List. Taking notes from Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front through to National Velvet and virtually any other animal film of the era, there is an old-fashioned sweeping lens that bursts the film out from the page and stage to a suitably enormous scale. As such, the film is undoubtedly beautiful, from its sun-stroked skies to the mangled trenches of the Western Front. Yet the photography is not the only old-fashioned thing about the film, with the odd decision to give all non-English characters accents rather than have them speak in their native tongues. Even Indiana Jones‘ Nazis spoke German, and this seems out of step with modern filmmaking and audience expectations.

Spielberg’s conscious tugging at the heartstrings ironically creates an emotional distance from what should be some of the more powerful sequences in the film. For example, one sub-plot with an elderly man and his daughter should elicit some surprise when it reaches its conclusion, but the overt emotional manipulation seals their fate from their first introduction. Not helping matters is John Williams score, which is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. From the opening scenes, it never gives the audience room to come to terms with events, but rather constantly hits them over the head. It is a problem that plagues an otherwise moving film, and one that for many may inhibit accessing what is an often beautiful and well-acted piece.

[stextbox id=”custom”]A flawed but consciously emotional film, giving a storybook quality to events that should never be glossed over. Still a well-made piece, but never gets the mix of its individually strong parts right.[/stextbox]

DreamWorks’ War Horse is released in the US on 25 December and on 26 December 2011 in Australia from Disney.

December 22, 2011
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted poster and trailer

Paramount has sent over the Australian trailer and official poster for DreamWorks’ Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.

Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe are still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple and of course, King Julien, Maurice and the Penguins are all along for the comedic adventure. Their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent – Madagascar style. Starring the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer.

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is due out in June 2012 from Paramount.

December 13, 2011
Review: Puss in Boots

[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Puss in Boots (2011)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]

Director: Chris Miller

Runtime: 90 minutes

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris

Distributor: Paramount

Country: US

Rating: Highly Recommended (?)

More info

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DreamWorks phenomenally popular Shrek franchise ranks as the highest grossing animated film series of all time, taking in over $3 billion dollars collectively at the global box office. With the fourth installment Shrek Forever After declared to be the final chapter, one would expect that to be the end of that chapter. Of course, similar declarations didn’t stop Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Final Destination or Star Trek: The Final Frontier (or the entire Final Fantasy series for that matter), and nobody said anything about spin-offs or prequels. Not willing to walk away from the giant green cash cow of an ogre, DreamWorks have turned to one of the most popular supporting characters from that series, hoping to tap into that lucrative cat coin.

In the days before Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In) met Shrek and Donkey, he roamed the land as an outlaw, accused of a crime he didn’t commit. After learning that Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris) have the magic beans he needs to get to the giant’s treasure, he makes a move to steal them, but is interrupted by a masked rival that he discovers to be Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek, Grown Ups). Teaming up with old friend, Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis, The Hangover Part II), who he had a falling out with years before, the race is on to find the goose who lays the golden eggs and restore the good name of Puss in Boots. This is the authorised biopic of Mr. Puss in Boots.

First introduced in Shrek 2, the now iconic character of Puss in Boots immediately established himself as a distinctive entity that had a wider appeal than just crazy Internet cat people. Appearing in both Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After, albeit as a pampered fat-cat in the latter, there is a temptation to feel as though we have seen all of this before. After all, as much fun as the alternate reality of Shrek Forever After was, the anachronistic fairytale humour had been well and truly played out in the 9 years that separated the first and last chapter of that film series. As such, Puss in Boots works with a different set of influences. Despite being set in the same universe as Shrek, during an indeterminate time before Shrek 2, this film is an action-Western. If Shrek is the northern European fairytales, then this one is from the south, filtered by way of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns. Even this has been seen before in Rango, but Puss in Boots will undoubtedly offer a much broader appeal.

There are two central factors contributing to the ongoing appeal of the character of Puss. Undoubtedly, one of these is the brilliant voice work from Antonio Banderas, who continues to bring to the table the same gravitas that he would with anything he’s done for Pedro Almodóvar. The other, of course, is the universal cuteness of the fuzzy creatures on screen. The best animated animals act like humans, only to behave like animals (and cartoons) when you least expect it. Puss lapping at a shot of milk or chasing after a spot of light are the kinds of squee-inducing moments that will have cat lovers and people with heartbeats alike giggling with delight.

Puss in Boots makes an all-out assault on the cat lovers on one hand, using all the sequences with Puss as a kitten to engender a high degree of “awwwing” from on average audience. Occasionally, it will flip this around and make jokes about “crazy cat people”. Indeed, there is much more of an adult sensibility to Puss in Boots than the Shrek films. It opens with Puss leaving sleeping cat by a fireplace while getting dressed, and contains frequent references to recreational catnip usage. Make no mistake: this is no Fritz the Cat, but it balances adult and kids humour in a way that was missing from other DreamWorks productions.

The animation itself is gorgeous. With every film, DreamWorks improves some quality or presents us with one previously unseen in their films. The fur, for example, is photo-realistic and looks good enough to pat, although the purring will largely be on our side of the screen. There’s a dance sequence that is as fluid as it is hilarious, and an extended sequence in the clouds is breathtaking. The character design is also terrific, picking up where Shrek left off and making a more sophisticated and beautifully ugly (or hideously beautiful if you prefer) set of misfits, particular in the case of Jack and Jill. Indeed, they look straight out of an old Looney Tunes cartoon or anything Disney has done with a bayou.

Like the Shrek series, Puss in Boots is a highly aware and consciously comedic look at the storybook world. It taps into a vein of the adult brain that can relish in the cleverness of it all, while the other elements work together so that the child (or the child inside us, a disturbing concept when you think about it) can enjoy the sheer joy of it all. In a year where Pixar has let us down with the mediocre Cars 2, Puss in Boots is the franchise that has picked up their own ball and run with it. A strong contender for the best animated feature about a cat for the year. Just as the “Oooh” cat.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Fear him – if you dare! Fun, silly, and beautifully animated, Puss in Boots is a strong step for DreamWorks in stepping away from the shadow of the ogre, and creating a vast universe with their established characters.[/stextbox]

Puss in Boots is released in Australia on 8 December 2011 from Paramount.

Check out our interview with director Chris Miller!

December 7, 2011
Interview: Chris Miller on Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots is now making audiences purr all around the world, and we were lucky enough to get to speak to Chris Miller for a second time on this tour.

We chat about the technical aspects of making the movie, the involvement of Guillermo del Toro, the freedom of playing with a franchise character, influences and recreational use of catnip and those scenes that were too naughty to make it to the big screen.

The interview took place on 29 November 2011 in Sydney, Australia. Participants in the roundtable included Matt Pejkovic of Matt’s Movie Reviews, Jorge Duran of The Spotlight Report, David Longo of Damn Good Cup, Richard Gray of The Reel Bits and Mitch (sorry, didn’t catch your surname!) of Salty Popcorn.

We’d like to thank Way to Blue and Paramount Australia for making this possible, and of course Chris Miller for his generous answers .

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Puss in Boots is released in Australia on 8 December 2011 from Paramount.

December 4, 2011
Interview and Photos: Banderas, Hayek, Miller and Katzenberg at Puss in Boots Premiere in Sydney

Paramount launched DreamWorks’ Puss in Boots today in Sydney, the last stop on the global journey of the latest spin-off from the Shrek franchise. Very special guests Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, director Chris Miller and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg arrived at the Hoyts EQ in Sydney to promote the film.

We were lucky enough to chat with Chris Miller and Jeffrey Katzenberg about the film. Unfortunately, the stars were too rushed to stop and chat with us at the tail end of the carpet, so we only managed to get one question with Mr. Banderas that we shared with a neighbouring reporter. Better luck next time, we guess!

Jeffrey Katzenberg has been in the animation industry longer than most, and had some interesting things to say on what the most important changes were in the last decade of making animated films. “Technology continues to give our artists the capabilities to realise richer and more beautiful images and create them in 3D. So this constant, almost evolution of technology in the hands of great artists, I think, is making these experiences pretty exceptional. You know, everybody talks about how rich and beautiful every aspect of Puss in Boots is, from the animation, to the visuals, to the furs to the special effects. You know, it has such a beautiful imagery to it, and that imagery was the result of great technical software”.

Speaking of fur, we figured that Chris Miller would be the person to tell us exactly how many individual hairs were on the back of Puss. “At least six,” quips Miller. “Although I’ve never actually counted. I’m sure there were departments that were working hard to fill his back with hair for many, many hours, many days, many weekends, many years. Actually, I am proud of the way the fur looks in this films – it’s crazy! It’s one of those giant computer generated challenges, and it’s amazing to see how technology has come along too. It’s good to have the great technology and it helps create this painterly feel, but the bottom line is that it’s the artists”.

[quote_right]”I see a lot of classic cinematic figures, like Clint Eastwood in the cat. I see Errol Flynn in the cat. Even Indiana Jones or James Bond. Zorro, but you get that for free with Antonio.” – Chris Miller[/quote_right] “To me it’s such a collaborative process. Coming from the Shrek world, or universe, and having this amazing character to work with, I have to say was such a liberating experience to pluck him out of the air and create an entirely new world specific to him, you know. Seen through his eyes, from his point of view. We always look at it early on as Shrek is sort of a Northern European fairytale, this one is going to be Meditteranean, southern, mash-up of Latin culture. We took every leaf from the character: it’s going to be epic, it’s going to be an origin story. So many influences, character wise, that we looked for…For me I see a lot of classic cinematic figures, like Clint Eastwood in the cat. I see Errol Flynn in the cat. Even Indiana Jones or James Bond. Zorro, but you get that for free with Antonio. It was such a liberating fun experience putting a movie together”.

[quote_left]”I would personally like to work on another one” – Chris Miller[/quote_left] So what’s next for Miller? He certainly seems keen for a sequel. “A great project called sleep. It’s going to be wonderful, it will extend through to the end of the year, followed by vacation. I don’t know, we’ll see. I’m just excited the movie is coming out. I would personally like to work on another one. There’s an audience for it, you know. We’ve created something that we are really fond of, we really fell in love with, and hopefully the movie gods will look down on us”.

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[quote_right]”Fun! Fun! It’s almost embarassing to say it”. – Antonio Banderas[/quote_right] There will certainly be a willing actor in Antonio Banderas, who admitted what he really thought about playing the character. “Fun! Fun! It’s almost embarassing to say it. We created a character almost 10 years ago, and we have the parameters and limits of the character in terms of latitude and drama and we can do incredible things with him”.

Stay tuned later in the week for a longer conversation we’ll be having with Chris Miller.

We need to thank Paramount for the opportunity to attend the red (yellow) carpet, and of course the guests for taking the time to answer our questions.

Puss in Boots is released in Australia on 8 December 2011 from Paramount.

Official Paramount Photos

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The Reel Bits Photos

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htBuK3nwuEY

November 27, 2011
Puss in Boots dancing featurette

The kindly folk at Paramount have sent over the official Australian “Dancing Clip” from the forthcoming Puss in Boots, showcasing how the dance choreography was achieved in the animated film. Director Chris Miller, the animation team and the stars discuss how any dance move could be brought to life in animation.

Way before he ever met Shrek, the legendary Puss In Boots goes on a heroic journey, teaming up with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty Softpaws to steal the famed Goose that lays the Golden Eggs. It’s the adventure of nine lifetimes!

Puss in Boots is released in Australia on 8 December 2011 from Paramount.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JJ6XOCWyI

November 18, 2011