Thursday, January 19, 2012

French Tunes

The land of wine, Brie and the Eiffel Tower rolls out its latest animated production in various parts of the globe.

... [Today] sees the release of A Monster in Paris in UAE cinemas, a French production that boasts all of the high-tech modifications of a Hollywood blockbuster: it is computer-animated, presented in 3D and features a noted voice cast in the French singer Vanessa Paradis, who is Johnny Depp's long-time girlfriend, and Danny Huston, a regular in big-budget productions such as Wolverine. ...

I had zero awareness of this movie until my younger son showed me clips of the picture on You Tube. It hasn't gotten a release in the States yet (or maybe a release is secured and not yet not announced) but the opus looks fairly slick. And if my computer and movie-oriented kid is aware of The Monster, something must be up.

France, little by little, has become a center for animation. Illumination Entertainment animates there at its newly-purchased studio. Animation schools abound. And of course there is the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

It ain't all about the U.S. of A. anymore. There are other world players, and the best ones don't appear to be in India. Funny how that happens.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

And of course it's directed by former DreamWorks' director Bibo Bergeron.

Anonymous said...

I've heard of it before. It developed quite the fanbase on Tumblr.

Anonymous said...

The soundtrack is amazing!

Anonymous said...

Amplifying detail...the actual animation of A Monster In Paris was done by Walking The Dog in Brussels, Belgium. The French studio into which Illumination/Universal bought is Mac Guff, who also did fine work on Dragon Hunters and Azur & Asmar.

Relevant to A Monster In Paris and Walking The Dog is VEGA, a network of independent animation studios that pools and allocates talent as needed per production. Not sure what implications that holds for U.S. unions, but the model might be worthy of note on this blog.

Anonymous said...

A cat in Paris, The rabbi's cat, A monster in Paris... next The rabbi's monster

Anonymous said...

HUELETT ALERT TAG ALERT 839 ALERT
IATSE ALERT: Make yourselves USEFUL to the talent that has paid into your organization and TAKE NOTICE:


" a network of independent animation studios that pools and allocates talent as needed per production. Not sure what implications that holds for U.S. unions, but the model might be worthy of note on this blog. "

Steve Hulett said...

HUELETT ALERT TAG ALERT 839 ALERT
IATSE ALERT: Make yourselves USEFUL to the talent that has paid into your organization and TAKE NOTICE:


" a network of independent animation studios that pools and allocates talent as needed per production.


Always good to hear from you, Charles. (Still happy to take you to lunch, by the way.)

We've long supported cooperation between studios. And the Belgian model is easily doable in the States, all it takes are studios and creators willing to do it.

TAG will gladly participate, offering a seamless cloak of portable benefits for artists that shift to different studios.

Anonymous said...

No, this isn't Charles. And it's bad form to guess (?) names in the anonomous setting you generously afford.

You gladly answer for what you can do, but evade answers for what you cant do.

I suppose the answer is veiled within here: "all it takes are studios and creators willing to do it." Of which you would gladly co-operate with because it WOULD give you something real to do.

Until then, you offer an invaluable level of information, if not without some faults. The value and quality of it is unlike anywhere else I've read. Now, how about a placement of the artists who DRAW and ANIMATE the pictures onto the pyramid that contains all the people who regard us as the lowlifes (or at least most of us that they can get away with) of production....

Chris Sobieniak said...

At least France and much of Europe stays on top.

Steve Hulett said...

No, this isn't Charles. And it's bad form to guess (?) names in the anonomous setting you generously afford.

Yes, quite right. You aren't Mr. C.

He knows how to spell anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Where can we learn more about this VEGA thing? Google didn't help me on this one.

Sounds interesting.

Anonymous said...

Never mind. Found some info on Walking The Dog's website.

Anonymous said...

http://www.walking-the-dog.be/vega

"VEGA Studios

"Major international productions require large teams, skilled and experienced management and substantial technical and logistical resources..."

VEGA is a new European wide network of Very Good Animation studios with substantial collective experience of high quality feature film animation. Jointly VEGA is able to deliver the scale of resources and skills base that combined with our ability to work together smoothly and effectively means we can implement your future project at the highest possible quality whilst respecting the constraints of your budget and schedule.


A key feature of the VEGA network is its ability to ramp up rapidly, driven by its extensive shared co-operative work experience."

Anonymous said...

It's a TERRIBLE cartoon on every levee. The story is ramshackle, and the animation (if you could call it that) is masturbatory at best. Truly awful stuff. You'd think simon wells, rich rich, or don bluth directed it.

Anonymous said...

I drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.

Anonymous said...

LOL! that's LEVEL. Damned fingers....
Even so, monster in paris is dreadful.

Anonymous said...

Frankly, I think the animation and the look of the film are nice.

Anonymous said...

The animation is just fantastic! The character designs are great. Nice music. You guys should calm down and open your eyes and ears. "Dreadful" is a little too much, don't you think?

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