Wednesday, 9 December 2015
Narrative project: Environment test renders
Testing things out with a few lights and some fog, still looks a bit messy though.
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Final Movie Review: "The Croods"
(fanart)
“The Croods” (2013) is an animated comedy
directed by Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. It is very much filed with a
slapstick humour and takes the viewer through an extraordinary journey. In his
movie review Nell Minow states: “Despite
a few too many mother-in-law jokes, "The Croods" nicely makes it
clear that even before they had fire, families understood how important it was
to cherish and protect each other.” (Minow, 2013) Perhaps this is the main
strength of “The Croods”, apart from
the stunning visuals – the way they wrapped an important message in a comical
way.
The comedy comes from the extraordinary situations that the
cavemen family is getting into. Even though their life motto is “Never not be
afraid” somehow the Croods manage to fall, stumble, being attacked and crushed
by almost anything in their world. This slapstick approach works excellently in
the form of animation since it doesn’t require any actual stunts and the
squishiness of the characters makes them increasingly funny as the film
progresses. The definition of slapstick comedy in encyclopedia Britannica is as
follows: “a type of physical comedy
characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous, usually violent
action.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015) The good thing about making a
slapstick animated comedy though is that when real actors fall, trip or are
violent it can become very cringy, very quick. It also leaves a bit of a
negative vibe after watching. An animation however can balance things out and
keep things light and humorous.
If I had to discuss a particular scene from the film my
favourite is probably when the the Croods go for their breakfast after spending
3 days in their cave. The now simple morning meal, is exaggerated to an extreme
when it turns into an American football match where even the vicious little
Crood baby plays a major role to win over an egg. What makes it exceptionally
successful are the mechanisms with which their universe operates. People can
jump really high, everyone is really quick and very strong. There are boulders
being thrown and giant bird creatures running after the attackers. The comedy
is not purely visual as well a lot of it relies on the sounds. Every time
someone is being squashed they produce the funniest sounds.
“The Croods” did
not make me laugh out loud particularly but I was tremendously entertained by
the world it presented. What made it funny were the characters, their design
and behaviour the way they reacted to different situations and to each other. I
think the main success of the film, personally, were the visuals, the saturated
and rich universe in which you just want to walk around with a sketchbook in
hand.
Overall “The Croods”
definitely won me over and it brought back a very sentimental feeling of when I
was watching Tom and Jerry running around and slipping on banana peels.
Bibliography:
Minow, N. (2013). The Croods Movie Review & Film Summary
(2013) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-croods-2013 [Accessed 27 Nov. 2015].
Encyclopedia Britannica, (2015). slapstick | comedy.
[online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/art/slapstick-comedy [Accessed
27 Nov. 2015].
Narrative: Maya Assets
Modelled,Uved and textured, busy busy weekend but was really fun, especially the texturing :)
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