Awesome TED Talk showing the South African puppet masters behind the long-running (and recently Tony sweeping) stage production of War Horse. They start with a masterful little hyena and work their way to the War Horse designs. Fascinating and beautiful, I can see why the stage play was and is such a hit. I just wonder how Spielberg is going to recreate the magic on the big screen with horse actors.
Already an Oscar front runner and not yet released (never a good idea), Spielberg's other movie this year (as director - he also produced Super 8 & Cowboys and Aliens, which probably seemed like a good idea at the time) is a World War I epic about a boy who goes on a dangerous mission to, ahem, find his beloved horse - sold to the cavalry and fighting in the war - and bring him back to his home town.
That synopsis has every opportunity for unbearable sentimentality, but the film is based on the massive hit play - performed with puppets - which in turn is based on Michael Morpurgo's acclaimed children's book. The play swept this year's Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway, and has been described by The Times in the UK as "the theatrical event of the decade." Whether the play's acclaim is more due to the story or the puppetry we will have to wait and see. Spielberg has a successful track record with films about the Holocaust, WWII and modern terrorism, so anticipation for War Horse is high. I remain a skeptic willing to be convinced.
The Adventures of Tin Tin has finally opened, and critics have given it a warm embrace. Empire magazine paid it a very well worded compliment: "Spielberg has brought a boy’s heart, an artist’s guile, and a movie-lover’s wit.”
The first bit of good news is that the motion capture & 3D technology is, apparently, not only excellent, but merges well into the story, without being a distraction. The second bit of good news is that Spielberg captures the books' boyish sense of adventure with a nostalgic wit that hearkens back the heyday of Indiana Jones. Good news indeed.
The Adventures of Tin Tin should therefore do well at the box office and be a good companion piece to Spielberg's other 2011movie - the considerably more Oscar-y War Horse (trailer to follow).
It is being affectionately referred to as JJ Abrams (writer / director) & Steven Spielberg's lovechild, which is to say it contains healthy doses of kids, aliens & nostalgia.
Likely to emerge as one of the classier summer movies of 2011 - you know, the one that made you feel like a kid again & had you quietly tearing up on the inside. With Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler, the lovely Elle Fanning & a whole set of adorable kids in 60s outfits.
Should be fun, but I can't help being skeptical about the motion capture animation - too lifelike & it becomes creepy... Judah Friedlander has explained this at length in 30 Rock.
But it's Spielberg & Jackson, master entertainers, so we will give them the benefit of the doubt, for now.
