All Entries in the "Movies" Category
Good News! Persepolis coming to India.
Just received a press release from NDTV Lumiere that they will be releasing ‘Persepolis’ in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore on June 20th, 2008.
I am really looking forward to this. I don’t have the details but once I do, I shall put them up here on the blog. It is sad that they seem to be releasing the film only in 3 metros. I am sure there are a lot of people in smaller cities who would have liked to see this beautiful film.
Persepolis is writer-director Marjane Satrapi’s magical and ingenious award-winning story of a young girl coming of age in Iran, that is both lively and thought-provoking. The animated film is an adaptation of graphic novels about her childhood. Persepolis, which has won, among others, the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes in 2007, and an Oscar nomination in 2008 sees Iran through the eyes of the precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane. Critically acclaimed and widely enjoyed, Persepolis is a magical and ingenious film based on Satrapi’s own experiences of growing up in an increasingly fundamentalist Iran.
Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang - An interesting premise and a promising film!
A war between Red and Black Ants makes for a very interesting premise for an animated feature. Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang is a 82 min long being produced jointly by Elecom Animation Academy, a Kolkata-based animation training institute, and Mumbai’s Fiesta Entertainment and will be released in May this year.
SEE THE TRAILER
The name of the film is a clever play on words (an ant is called a Cheenti in Hindi) and has absolutely nothing to do with the 1964 Ian Fleming book - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or the 1968 film by the same name. It is actually based on ‘Lal Kalo’ (Red Black), a popular Bengali children’s novel by Girindrashekhar Basu.
Mahabharata goes Manga!
After the Ramayana, now it is the turn of the other Indian epic - the Mahabharata to be reborn as Japanese Manga. Hyderabad based Panel Studios is coming out with a 90 minute long feature film called Little Pandavas and they seem to have effectively used the Manga illustrative style for the characters. The film has been directed by Rudra Matsa, the Founder of Panel Studios, who has also written the story for the film. The Animation director is Charan Reddy Desai. Character designs have been created by Rudra Matsa and Charan Reddy Desai and the backgrounds by N. Pawan Chandra. The film is being produced by Nitin Sidamsetty and Rudra Matsa.
You can see the character designs, download wallpapers and view a lot of the pre-production material on the Little Pandavas website.
Panel Studios also launched Panel Comix recently and will be publishing comics based on the Little Pandavas series. Check out the pictures and click them to view a bigger image. Read the complete article here.
Photos and the making of TZP Clay Animation
Hear it from the maker himself…
Dhimant Vyas talks exclusively to All About Animation
and shares photos from Taare Zameen Par’s clay animation sequences.
Interview with Dhimant Vyas - The making of TZP’s clay animation
As promised, we present the transcript of the chat we had with Dhimant Vyas about the making of the clay animation sequences in Taare Zameen Par. Hope you enjoyed the photographs we posted earlier. You can send your feedback and comments to Dhimant directly by sending him an email at dhimantvyas@rediffmail.com
AAA - First of all, congratulations on being the first animator to use Clay animation in a Bollywood live-action feature film. How has the response been?
Dhimant - Yes, the response is overwhelming and very positive!! Thanks to Aamir for choosing the clay animation style. It is a craft with a human touch to it so it also tugs at the audience’s heartstrings. It works well with the main film because the story needed this kind of feel to it. The scenes depict Ishaan, the main protagonist’s imagination so the transitions had to be smooth scene and convey the dream-like quality. we used transitions like morphs, camera moves, elements appearing and disappearing, or you have one element dragging you to anther scene, so there is not cut till the end. And you do not realize when the three minutes pass by.
AAA - How did this project come about?
Dhimant - I had created the caricatures for the Lagaan DVD (Special Anniversary Edition Three Disc DVD box) I had shown Aamir some of my work which he had really appreciated. So when he decided to use animation for TZP, he approached me. Aamir initially wanted to use the classical animation style with a painterly quality. I suggested we try the clay animation technique. I showed him some samples. He liked it a lot and we decided to go ahead with clay animation.
*EXCLUSIVE* The making of TZP Clay Animation
Remember, you saw it here first!! 
Stop motion animation veteran, Dhimant Vyas and Aamir Khan Productions have generously shared photos of the making of the Clay Animation sequences from Taare Zameen Par.
Also read the exclusive interview with Dhimant Vyas where he explains the technique he used to animate these sequences and chats with us about his experience of animating for a Bollywood film for the first time ever. Taare Zameen Par or ‘TZP’ has made Bollywood history by being the first Hindi film to extensively use clay animation in the movie.
Bollywood’s tryst with Clay animation in Taare Zameen Par
For the first time ever we will see clay animation as a part of a mainstream Hindi movie. Taare Zameen Par which releases in theaters all over India tomorrow has animated opening credits (3 minutes duration) and more animation in some crucial scenes of the movie.
The clay animation has been done by Dhimant Vyas, our very own animation veteran, who has even worked with Aardman Studios (of Chicken Run and Wallace and Grommit fame) on their Creature Comforts series. The good news is that he has very generously agreed to share his experience and knowledge with our readers, right here on the All About Animation website and blog. We will post his interview next week, so stay tuned…
News from the Oscars: Alvin and the Chipmunks out of the race!
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has concluded that Fox’s live action/animation hybrid “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” (yet to release), does not qualify for the best animated feature category.
The animated feature screening committee made this decision based on the rule that in a qualifying film, “animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time.”
However, the Academy also ruled that the motion-capture technology used to create Beowulf has not made it ineligible for Oscar consideration in the category of Best Animated Feature.
Now there are just 11 films vying for the three potential nominations.
