As part of his deal with DreamWorks Animation, Guillermo Del Toro will produce a feature version of Rodrigo Blaas’s award-winning short Alma.
Blaas made the short on his own time while he was working as an animator at Pixar. He will direct the feature version of Alma, and will also co-direct the Trollhunters feature with Del Toro.
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17 comments:
I've seen this before and have watched it many times since and still thoroughly enjoy it each time. Another perfect example of storytelling without dialog. I'm awed by the art direction, color design, character design and all the work done by all the people listed in the credits (whose names also appear on the wall.) Watch this at full screen and look at all the detail that doesn't upstage the storytelling and the acting. This is a little masterpiece.
Agreed that it's a wonderful short, albeit based on a rather well-traveled premise. But can it be assumed that it be at least as good stretched out to feature length?
We know from Pan's Labyrinth that when del Toro is in charge he isn't afraid to end a movie with the death of its lead character -- even a child. But can he and Blaas resist the pressure to turn this into a "DreamWorks movie" by adding fart jokes and tacking on a happy ending?
""DreamWorks movie" by adding fart jokes and tacking on a happy ending?"
That is such an unfair, frankly dated criticism of DWA. Have you been to the cinema and watched one of their films of late? If you don't like their work, fine...but find a new angel.
I've read this. Have you?
I love Guillermo Del Toro but I'm not sure he's a great fit at DreamWorks. I hope he ushers in a new style at DW, more akin to their excellent How To Train Your Dragon, but he is dark - and DW stays away from the dark. Even when they seem to be embracing something interesting like Metro Man being killed in MegaMind, then months later we get the new trailer indicating that the test audiences maybe thought that a death was too scary and so now Metro Man has retired to write bad music. It's my guess that Guillermo will find the development process (the honeymoon period) at the studio liberating and creative, but the practical side - including marketing and test screenings, disheartening.
I have not read it, but thanks for the recommendation. It helps me prove my point that you need to update the DWA movies you're using for your argument/criticism. And I meant to write angle not "angel". Thank you for not hammering me on that:)
I'm so happy for Rodrigo and all the talent involved. Alma is a work of love... He will be a regular at the DW campus now but... will he be leaving Pixar?
In a few years DW will be the front runner by a landslide...
This certainly suggests that Dreamworks wants to expand its repitoire, and allow a broader range of subject matter. That is extremely positive, and I think shows Dreamworks' longterm viablity.
Avoiding getting trapped by a singular house style will prevent the creative atrophy that sets in after years of a "house style." Bringing in new creative blood is also an excellent step. This is a darn good move on Dreamworks' part, and reveals Disney's timidity and lack of risk by letting del Toro go.
Another short that didn't do it to me, but got a movie deal. The first one was 9. Hopefully this feature will turn out better than the 9 feature, cause that was a POS.
I felt that Alma started out really strong, but had a weak and boring ending. Hope the movie turns out better.
"Another short that didn't do it to me, but got a movie deal."
But, wait. You've set up an impossible scenario, here. You just said you didn't like 9 the short, so how could it be a disappointment to you as a feature?! Disappointed that it wasn't WORSE than the short? This same logic will apply to Alma, then...there's really no reason for you to be in the discussion of it being "better" than 9.
If you hate the "book" don't see the movie.
Nothing was changed on Megamind in response to "test audiences".
Its dark. And kind of like Coraline. Nice elements to this.
Let it happen, see what they come up with.
"Nothing was changed on Megamind in response to "test audiences""
Yeah...right.
Did Rodrigo ever pitched Alma for a theatrical short at Pixar and it got turned down? or did he always intended to produce it independently?
...well. I thought it was pretty obvious from the commercials and trailers that the film plays out by having Megamind THINK he killed Metro Man - only to later find he faked his own death to not be a superhero anymore.
Seems like a fairly straight-forward, well traveled plot device to me...I'm fairly surprised everyone else thinks they changed something.
It does remind me of filmation tv superhero shows from the eighties.
But, wait. You've set up an impossible scenario, here. You just said you didn't like 9 the short, so how could it be a disappointment to you as a feature?! Disappointed that it wasn't WORSE than the short?
No. Disappointed that the feature wasn't better than the short.
If you hate the "book" don't see the movie.
This is flawed. I'm in the industry, I see movies for more reasons than just the story. I want to see the animation performance, the technical results, etc, etc.
Besides, in the case of 9, I saw it hoping that the movie would be better than the short, because it had time to develop and play out. It failed imo.
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