An Animated Carmen?

[Hewylewis]

Hey guys, I was just listening to the Overture from Carmen and it got me to thinking, wouldn't it be cool to see this amasing Opera as an animated feature film, like disney or something?

[Ben]

It certainly would, though I suspect the subject matter would have to be drastically toned down!

Unless they wanted to be <I>really</I> daring!


Welcome to our boards.

[droosan]

There are several musicals I've long thought would make interesting animated films .. among them:

The Pirates of Penzance (its various songs have been parodied dozens of times in cartoons over the years, so why not try for the whole thing?)
Oklahoma! (this could be quite a visual treat, if it used contemporary early-20th-century illustrators to set its style)
L'il Abner (which is such a 'natural' fit for a cartoon treatment, I'm amazed it hasn't at least been attempted by some studio).
Cabaret (I'm referring to the 'tamer' Broadway version, not the filmed version .. though it would still suffer from the 'not for kids' aspect which Ben pointed out with Carmen)
Les Miserables (Seriously! I see an animated version in my head, every time I listen to it .. too bad pretty much no-one would go to see a 3½-hour, mostly-depressing animated feature)

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and indeed, welcome to the forum, Hewylewis!

/Sports was your best album, by far

[EricJ]

Hey guys, I was just listening to the Overture from Carmen and it got me to thinking, wouldn't it be cool to see this amasing Opera as an animated feature film, like disney or something?

The producers of "Shakespeare: the Animated Tales" did Carmen as an episode of their next half-hour-animated-synopsis series, "Operavox"

Don't know if you could call lit "animated", since it's really just posterized video, but should give you enough of an idea--
Actually, there aren't really that many interesting operas to animate anyway, seeing as we already got that direct-video Magic Flute a few years back.

There are several musicals I've long thought would make interesting animated films .. among them:

Back during the 90's Beauty&Beast "Animateds are the new Broadway! " craze (back before Jeff K. went on his stage craze), there was a brief studio mania to round up all those remaining unproduced movie musicals into cartoons--"Cats" being first on the list.

And then...we got Richard Rich's "King & I". You can guess what happened after that.
(Although, to be fair, the small percentage of the movie that actually did have to do with the original musical was imaginatively staged in the animated version. Too bad we got so little of it.)

The Pirates of Penzance (its various songs have been parodied dozens of times in cartoons over the years, so why not try for the whole thing?)

...Oh, WHEN are they going to release the '83 Kevin Kline/Linda Rondstadt on disk??
(The movie, that is--Yes, I know the cheesy 80's-cable stage concert is on disk, and it's not the movie.)

[droosan]

At least we have the Christopher Atkins/Kristy McNichol version, from 1982, on DVD ..



.. which is perhaps the closest thing to a 'cartoon' version of The Pirates of Penzance that we're likely to get!

I still have The Pirate Movie's soundtrack album on LP .. and while some of the 'added' songs are regrettable (Pumpin' and Blowin' ?! .. what were they thinking? ), IMHO several of the 'updated' stanzas in the Gilbert & Sullivan songs -- and much of the wordplay on the original dialogue -- are quite clever. Ted Hamilton's Pirate King is fantastic, as is Bill Kerr's Major General; both are so good, in fact, that it's almost a shame this wasn't a forthright adaptation, rather than a send-up. :idea:

[EricJ]

At least we have the Christopher Atkins/Kristy McNichol version, from 1982, on DVD ..it's almost a shame this wasn't a forthright adaptation, rather than a send-up. :idea:

And at least, thanks to cable and VHS, we still have Kevin Kline on YouTube...
(Yes, THIS was the movie in which we first found out that Kline could do comedy, a full three and a half years before that "Fish" thing.)

[Ben]

Some fun things I haven't thought about in a while here!

[Hewylewis]

How do you think the opening titles would be like to the Carmen overture?

[Hewylewis]

Anyone?

[droosan]

Well, it's entirely speculative.

.. but, if I were tasked with designing the look of an animated Carmen film, I'd probably use the works of Antoni Gaudi to set the style ..



.. partially because the artist is a good 'match' for both the setting and the period (19th-century Spain), but mostly because his organic 'art-nouveau-gone-awry' style would lend an other-worldly, 'fairy-tale-esque' quality to the environment of the film. Plus, it would just be plain fun to look at.

Again, that would be what I'd want to do. But IRL, these things are often hashed-out by committee.

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Don't panic if your post doesn't get a response right away; our forum membership is spread around the world, and most of the regular posters probably only check in for a few minutes each (though, that's just an assumption). Just be aware that responses can take a while, sometimes.

[EricJ]

Anyone?

No. We've answered what we could, now sit down.

In the meantime, here's some more Pirates of Penzance clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vytosDX9dVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSTTTCOHr4

[Ben]

Play nice, Eric.

But, yes Hewy [sic?], as Droo says, please don't pressure other members if your questions don't get an immediate response. Not only are we a spread out bunch, but sometimes we simply don't have the time to give elaborate replies, especially to theoretical conundrums...

Thanks for answering, Droo, and good choice. I was thinking more stark and primitive myself (lotsa chalk).

[Hewylewis]

Okay I'm sorry. I'm just new here.

[Hewylewis]

Well, it's entirely speculative...

Absolutely beautiful for the actual film. But for the opening, I kinds see living smoke, taking forms of th eorchestra, charactors and the places, hmm?

[Ben]

Also, no need to quote entire messages, especially long ones!