Over The Hedge

[Dacey]

They both made me laugh.

But I'm not sure how funny Hammy would be without Steve's voice. Scrat's hilarious in all languages!

[Meg]

Good point, WJ.

[Meg]

I don't know if anyone noticed, but Jeffrey Katzenberg has done almost no personal publicity for Over the Hedge. (meaning interviews and such)

Hey Vi, have you seen this?:

http://www.break.com/index/bwave.html

[ShyViolet]

Thanks, Meg! You rule.

[Dacey]

OTH surpassed the $100M mark this weekend:

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

[Meg]

Thanks, Meg! You rule.

I know, I know.

[ShyViolet]

The person who reviewed First Flight on IMBD said that it was co-produced by Aardman. Is that true?

Somehow it doesn't sound right to me... I could be wrong though.

[spaz]

saw this film. it was great. original, witty and had a very clever "motion threw space" (general relativity) gag. the animation and story were terrific too. why am i writing this ?. i'll tell you. because i am sour .. thats why. i'm sour that Dreamworks embraces new forms of comedy in animation; while i was on constant probation for attempting to force insane humor into The Wild. to all animators and writers of animation; always break convention, question established formats, have fun. Over The Hedge is a very good example of this. way to go gang.

spaz

[ShyViolet]

OMeon.com gave the movie a C-...even thought the writer never really explains why he didn't like it. He hedges (no pun intended) "Well the voices were actually good here," and that it made him laugh etc...etc...he even liked the designs of the animals, and the story. His reason is apparently that the humans weren't convincing enough. Or something about the film having too many big voices. I don't know, I couldn't tell. He kind of just sticks something at the end about how "good enough" just doesn't cut it anymore, and then something else about too many big voices.

Maybe someone else can make sense of this?

http://www.o-meon.com/pages/columns/col_05-30-06.html

[Meg]

I thought you were talking about Cars for some strange reason for a second there. I need to read the topic title before I click on it...

He's hedges (no pun intended)

Personal theory - Whenever someone says "No pun intended", they're lying, because if the really didn't intent it, they wouldn't have said 'pun not intended". If they had actually not intended it, they would not have realized it was a pun, thus not saying 'pun not indented'.

[ShyViolet]

He's hedges (no pun intended)

Oops--typo--I meant "He hedges" not "He's hedges." I fixed it now.

Yeah, usually with no pun intended, you do kind of intend it. But sometimes you don't realize it at first--in this case, it just kinda came out that way.

I thought you were talking about Cars for some strange reason for a second there. I need to read the topic title before I click on it...

That's understandable. That's pretty much all anyone's been talking about for the last three days or so.

[Meg]

That's understandable. That's pretty much all anyone's been talking about for the last three days or so.

Ha ha. Guess so.

[ShyViolet]

“The majority of movie stars are all trained in what’s called ‘The Method,’” said one of the most highly regarded voice actors in the industry today. “There’s nothing wrong with method acting and when done well, you can see some amazing performances. The problem is method actors draw from within and use their faces and bodies to show what their character is experiencing.”

Continuing, he said that in animation the audience never sees the actor. A voice actor has to find the character entirely through his or her voice. “That’s why stage actors, not big stars, from the ‘40s and ‘50s were such great voice actors. They knew how to go over the top and play to the back row.”

To help make his point, he cited the work of veteran stage and radio actress Verna Felton, who voiced everything from a haughty elephant matriarch in Dumbo to Cinderella’s fairy godmother. And who could ever forget legendary stage, film, and television actor Hans Conried as Captain James Hook shouting, “Let him have it! LET HIM HAVE IT!” in Walt Disney’s Peter Pan.

This makes no sense, because it implies that the "big stars" DW hires do Method acting with is why the movies aren't good. But that's how EVERY actor is trained nowadays. That's how every actor has been trained since Marlon Brando on. (1950s) That old Stanislovsky theatre-stylized acting went out a long, long time ago. Every actor, including traditional voice actors such as Jim Cummings, Charlie Adler etc..etc...they all learned how to act on the Method. (The experienced actors of the 40s and 50s were trained in 20s and 30s)

Basically, NOTHING should have changed at WDFA, as well as animation as a whole. Stories should still be layed out in pictures, not scripts. Actors should still imitate a 70-year-old method of acting because that's how it was done before. It was working like a charm too, especially with gigantic blockbusters like The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron.

But anyway. I think I made my point.

[ShyViolet]

Has there been any news about the Over the Hedge DVD?


I'm glad that DW is doing better stock-wise but I'm still wondering if everything is all right, business-wise. If they bottom out, (worst case scenario) will they be absorbed by a larger conglomerate, and is there any chance it might be Disney?

[Ben]

This has come up before and it has not been out of the question.

Just a little while ago (okay, well, maybe 2 years or more), there was talk of Disney buying DWs, which some speculated made them spin off the animation company as its own thing.

I think Disney might jump at DWA should it come up for sale, and why not? JK would be back where he did his best stuff!