Flushed Away Discussion *Spoilers*

[Strider]

So who saw Flushed Away this weekend? I saw it yesterday, and thought it was absolutely marvelous.

I love how Aardman textured their world to look like they were stop-motion puppets instead of CGI. It gave the world a nice "feel". I also liked that the animation style was sort of a CGI/stop motion hybrid. A lot of the animation was fairly smooth, but some of it was done as if they were using stop motion techniques instead of computers. This is especially noticable in the lip synch. Having heard this was the case before seeing the film, I wasn't sure if it would work or if I would like it. I think it worked great. It separates Flushed Away from other CGI movies, and I think it is part of what keeps the Aardman magic in the film. If they had done things more like regular CGI, I think it would have lost a little something.

Whoever came up with the dozens of gags for the slugs (and the characters themselves) needs to get some props. Every time those slugs showed up I was giggling my head off. They are the definite stand out of this film, but that isn't to say that the other characters are bad. The frogs are great, especially Le Frog (voiced by Jean Reno) and his henchman. The Two rat henchman are also really funny, especially the big one.

All in all, this is one that everyone can enjoy. There is lots of stuff for the kids, but there are lots of jokes in there that will go right over their heads to be enjoyed by the adult crowd. I wouldn't say that Flushed Away is quite as classic as Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, but it is
definitely the best animated flick this year by far.

9.1/10.0

[DaForce]

Saw it this afternoon. The story was okay, the gags were pretty good, but I had some reservations about the animation. I know the animation was supposed to be representative of the claymation stuff Nick Park did with the Wallace and Gromit stuff, but while the character animation was smooth the lip sync was insufferable to watch. Especially as an animator watching this.

The mouths on the characters kept doing these movements that any beginning animator would just cringe at while watching it. Since they smoothed out the body animation of the characters (instead of doing the jerkiness of claymation, which is hard to replicate in 3D) you'd think they would have smoothed out the mouth movements for the lip-syncs as well.

So, for me, while the movie was good, it wasn't great.

Rating: Bargain matinee once, otherwise it can wait until DVD.

[Strider]

I think the lip synch was one of the things I liked the most, and I say that being an animator myself. Personal taste I guess. At least they did it on purpose, rather than trying to do it smoothly and screwing it up completely like some CGI movies have done.

Personally, I thought that the character animation was a lot closer to stop motion than you did. To me, the characters seemed to hold poses slightly before moving on to the next one, but it was a very subtle thing.

Regardless, I was just glad that the movie was full of jokes that were actually funny (and a few that weren't) instead of jokes that are just painful.

[Strider]

So DaForce, what kind of animation work do you do? Just curious...

[DaForce]

Originally Posted by Strider

So DaForce, what kind of animation work do you do? Just curious...

Actually, I'm graduating in March.

Right now I'm working on two 3D animated shorts. One is a group project which will be very cool if everyone gets off their asses (I can divulge more about this project next year when it's more of a finished project), and the other is a somewhat solo project that I'm working on for my senior project.

My senior project is a blend of 3D animation (3D backgrounds, and props) and 2D planes for the characters using animated textures for facial expressions and hand movements. It could be really cool, or it could wind up being really lame. It's a 50/50 toss up at the moment.

[Strider]

Sounds cool.

What do you want to do when you get out of school?

[DaForce]

I'm looking at applying at a few places..Laika, the Orphanage...any place where they're still doing 2D work, and are hiring like crazy people. I also have a few story ideas on the backburner I'm developing to see if they're viable enough to pitch in the future.