Primal fear fighting the darkness

Primal fear fighting the darkness

I worried about how much I had to do in layout. I realized the importance of layout after seeing the finished pictures and feeling unreasonable. Question: What kind of advice did you give on this exhibition? Miyazaki Goro: Not so much. Some proposals about the arrangement of pictures or the value of quantities. As Chihiro has the most cuts, putting the layouts all over the wall was a better way. I did only little. To tell the truth, it is presumptuous to say I am supervising. Miyazaki Goro: Yes. Simply speaking, it is like The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Although it is a very attractive work, I had the strange feeling of wondering if it is possible to keep being attached to it. That is my honest impression. VISIT THE NEWS ARCHIVE FOR MORE EXCLUSIVE GHIBLI NEWS, INTERVIEWS, ARTICLES AND VIDEOS WORTH CHECKING OUT! English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 1 Surround English Dolby Digital 1 Surround 448kpbs Spanish Dolby Digital 1 Surround 448kbps Reviewed by Peter M. Bracke The past couple of years have seen some pretty dreadful animated films. Sure, every once in while we get a great flick like Happy Feet or Cars or even the humble charms of the underrated Monster House. But more and more, audiences are having to wade through a lot of CGI gunk to find the gems. Seemingly scrapping the very bottom of the Pixar-lite barrel and thats saying a lot is Happily NEver After. A quick perusal of the films Rotten Tomatoes score shows an absolutely abysmal 96 percent! rotten rating, and the user comments over at IMDB are just as awful. Add to that a total worldwide box office take for the movie of about 50, the chances that Happily NEver might be some sort of overlooked sleeper a gem-in-the-rough just waiting to be discovered on Blu-ray seem highly unlikely Still, having not seen the film myself, I wondered how bad could Happily NEver After really be? So, as I popped the disc in the player, I decided to disregard the naysayers and give film the benefit of the doubt. Alas, my optimism lasted for about the first five minutes of the movie. Swiping a page from the trusted its public domain so we can rip it off with impunity playbook, Happily Never After features a score of familiar fairytale characters, including Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Jack of the Beanstalk fame. Early on, were introduced to The Wizard voiced by George Carlin, the man responsible for happy fairytale endings. When The Wizard goes on vacation, Cinderellas evil stepmother Freida Sigourney Weaver takes the opportunity to disrupt the traditional balance between good and evil in fairytale land, leaving it up to Cinderella, aka Ella Sarah Michelle Gellar, to save the day by taking on her power-hungry stepmother. But this time, Ella will have to do it without her Prince Charming Patrick Warburton, as she joins forces with The Wizards bumbling assistants, Mambo Andy Dick and Munk Wallace Shawn and an unlikely army of dwarves and fairies. Happily NEver After is pretty much as bad as everyone says it is. The box cover touts the flick as coming from a producer of Shrek and Shrek 2, which is true, and goes a long way in explaining why this flick is such a blatant rip-off of that blockbuster franchise. Every plot point, every character, and every post-modern in-joke is a stale regurgitation of all the far better, genuinely clever moments in the Shrek movies. Quite frankly, after watching this disaster of a film, Im really shocked that Happily NEver After didnt primal fear fighting the darkness go straight to video. Granted, there is some fine voice talent on display, especially Weavers fanciful take on the classic Disney evil queen archetype, and the underappreciated Warburton, who brings a roguish charisma to the scripts stock interpretation of Prince Charming. But such bright spots are far from enough to elevate Happily NEver After from the absolute lowest rung of recent animated offerings. The story is unoriginal, the characters are uninspiring, and none of the music is catchy or memorable. Even the animation is second-rate, with a bland, paint-by-numbers look that makes South Park look accomplished. Sadly, it seems the only reason Happily NEver After was even made was to con kids out of their lunch money, promising a land of enchantment and Shrek-like delights. Dont fall for it. Well, at least Happily NEver After looks good. Lionsgate has produced a rather spiffy 1080p/MPEG-2 transfer for the film, which quite frankly is more than the films lackluster animation deserves. A direct digital-to-digital telecine, the image is primal fear fighting the darkness flawless. The movies color palette is somewhat unique in that it is so on dark side reds are crimson, blues just shy of midnight and that certainly makes for a vivid, eye-popping look. Hues remain rock solid and incredibly rich, almost to the point of being distracting in a positive way. Detail is first-rate, with an often tremendous sense of depth. Happily NEver After almost always looks three dimensional, with excellent sharpness and detail in the shadows superior.