What's Hot

Dreamworks
.
Dreamworks animation, who’s brought us animated classics such as Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, and Madagascar, held a panel at San Diego Comic-Con to give us a rundown on some of their upcoming features as well as some behind-the-scenes info on the process of bringing these films to the big screen. You can read our recap of the panel below, and you’ll be pretty blown away when you learn how much work they put into each movie.

Bill Damaschke, Chief Creative officer of Dreamworks animation, walked us through how these animated pictures are initially started. Generally, there are two “types” of Dreamworks pictures. How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, and Rise of the Guardians were all based on or inspired by books. Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar, on the other hand, were conceived internally through brainstorm internal ideas, brainstorm sessions, pitched by filmmakers and brainstorm sessions and filmmaker pitches. “Ideas themselves come from a lot of different places…what I would say is the thing that really kicks off the process is when we’re able for ourselves to crystallize that core question that kind of has to get answered in the movie, that’s worth building an entire story and characters for…” said Damaschke.
.
For me, the most mind-blowing part of the panel was listening to the animators talk about the staggering amount of work that goes into each movie. Approximately 700 people work on each Dreamworks film. On average, an animator will complete one second of actual film footage each day. And there’s no cheating with any of their movies – because each film has its own distinct look and feel, you can’t store digital “props.” Everything has to be built by scratch. So you can’t use a tree from Madagascar in Rise of the Guardians, for example.
.
The Croods
A movie we had never heard of that was introduced to us during the panel was The Croods. It’s the story of a family of Cavemen who live in a cave and never leave out of fear, until an earthquake ruins it. Once they escape, they find a whole new world that can best be described as an enchanted jungle.
.
The concept behind the movie was telling the story of the “first family,” coincidentally, it’s also the first Dreamworks picture to feature a full family. Think of it as a prehistoric version of The Incredibles, if you will.
Eep –the cavegirl and main character—will be voiced by Emma Stone. The animators all raved about how much energy she had while recording lines in a studio by herself. Each character also has a sort of animal inspiration behind them. Grug (the dad) is like a gorilla, Eep is like a cat. They’ll even drop down on all fours and run around occasionally. Ryan Reynolds also voices a character named Guy—another human who the family meets once they leave the cave.
.
The craziest part of the animation, however, was all the weird animals you’ll see in the prehistoric jungle – some of which you can see traces in animals today, while others have been weeded out through evolution.
.
Rise of the Guardians

Dreamworks
.
The biggest reception from the audience came for the upcoming Rise of the Guardians. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, it’s based on a series of children’s books in which Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman save the world from the evil Boogeyman. It was important for Dreamworks to give a different take on these classic characters – and if you look at Santa and the Easter Bunny, you’ll definitely notice some tweaks. Santa is “Russian inspired, Cossack inspired,” while the Sandman is Southeast Asian inspired (he looks a little like a miniature Buddha). Each character was designed to give the ensemble a global feel. Or in laymen’s terms, they’re “badass warrior” versions of the classic characters.
.
The panel ended with some exciting news about some projects in early production – the penguins from the Madagascar series will be getting their own feature, Kung Fu Panda 3 has been confirmed, and in spring 2014 we’ll get Me and My Shadow – a film that combines traditional hand animation with CGI.
Our favorite quote of the panel? When describing the psychedelic circus scene in Madagascar 3, the animators admitted they created it so “kids could experience drugs without taking them.”