furtech: (RoadsideRomeo)
furtech ([personal profile] furtech) wrote2010-09-24 09:30 am
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Alpha and Omega: furry fan-service

I'll give you a break from my interminable trip reports to talk about the new animated film, "Alpha and Omega"

alphaomega

The ads foretold a terrible film: actors in fursuits (they bore more of a resemblance to actors than to wolves), corny gags (more impossible sledding), bad humor, etc., etc.

And...those impressions were realized in spades. At one point I had to apologize to [livejournal.com profile] martes for dragging her to see this. I think it was at the point when, during a "howl", the wolves suddenly stood up on two legs and launched into a Bollywood-style dance number. Really.

At the same time I had to admit: If I were 5 years old, this would be MY MOST FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME!!1!. I saw Disney's "Jungle Book" at about that age and not only was I mesmerized, it remains one of my all-time favorite films. When you're five you have a pretty clean slate, experience-wise. Wolf-behavior, non-sequitor dance numbers, corny plots: there are definitely parallels. I'm sure Kipling rolled in his grave when the wise bear, Baloo, suddenly spoke scat and launched into a dance number like "Bear Necessities".

So, yeah. I'm not saying go see it generally, but if you've got Very Young Children, you might take a bullet and take them to see this.

The end credits were beautifully designed: one of the best I've seen. What I found particularly intriguing were the 2-D character development and design art: they were *wonderful!*. Now my mission is to find someone with access who can get me a set. I'd love to see all of the development-- my best hope is for a making-of type book, but there is no such thing on Amazon yet. I wish this had stayed a 2-D animated feature.

Oh, and fwiw: most of this was done in India, possibly by the same talent who did India Disney's "Roadside Romeo". The character animation and many of the story elements reminded me a lot of Roadside.

[identity profile] fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com 2010-09-24 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I know I've seen animated versions of Riki-tiki-Tavi and Kotek the White Seal, but can't remember seeing many of the other stories translated to animated film.

[identity profile] oats-a-plenty.livejournal.com 2010-09-24 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't remember the animation studio for the life of me. They had their movies at Target once. They played them on Nickelodeon back in the late 80's when it was the cool kids network.

[identity profile] furtech.livejournal.com 2010-09-24 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Chuck Jones did several Kipling stories, plus Toei Animation (Japan's version of Hanna Barbara) did an extended series based on the Kipling Jungle Book world. The Toei series was all right, considering their normal fare.

[identity profile] okojosan.livejournal.com 2010-09-25 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
The Russian Jungle Book series looked cool from what I saw of it, too.