DVDizzy Forum

From Academy Award® winning director Roger Ross Williams, LIFE, ANIMATED is the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man who was unable to speak as a child until he and his family discovered a unique way to communicate by immersing themselves in the world of classic Disney animated films. This emotional coming-of-age story follows Owen as he graduates to adulthood and takes his first steps toward independence. The subject of his father Ron Suskind’s New York Times bestseller, Owen was a thriving three year old who suddenly and inexplicably went silent – and for years after remained unable to connect with other people or to convey his thoughts, feelings or desires.

Over time, through repeated viewings of Disney classics like THE LITTLE MERMAID and THE LION KING, Owen found useful tools to help him to understand complex social cues and to re-connect with the world around him.

LIFE, ANIMATED evocatively interweaves classic Disney sequences with verite scenes from Owen’s life in order to explore how his identification and empathy for characters like Simba, Jafar, and Ariel gave him a means to understand his feelings and allowed him to interpret reality. Beautiful, original animations offer rich insights into Owen’s fruitful dialogue with the Disney oeuvre as he imagines himself heroically facing adversity as a member in a tribe of sidekicks.

Owen’s story is a moving testament to the many ways in which stories can serve as a means of persevering through the dark times, leading us all toward the light.

Andrew Stanton wrote:CG animation is basically puppeteering. It's a very complicated marionette with strings.

Sotiris wrote:Now that Andrew said it, can CG animators stop feeling offended when they're compared to puppeteers?

Kyle wrote:There's no rule that says anything about it being frame by frame. Its mostly about acting through a character that is not yourself.

ce1ticmoon wrote:Well, if we're being technical, isn't animation about creating the illusion of motion on a frame-by-frame basis? Whereas something like puppetry is a real-time performance using puppets/objects. So in that sense, since CGI (and stop-motion) films are created frame-by-frame, they'd be classified as animation. Mo-cap would be more in-line with puppetry.

Inspired by the Oscar-nominated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Spirit Riding Free follows the heartfelt journey of a wild mustang who could not be tamed. A whole new generation will experience all the daring adventures when Spirit meets a girl named Lucky whose courage matches his own. Together they push limits, harness the power of friendship and discover what it means to be free. With their best friends by their side, they explore a world filled with endless rides, magnificent horses and never-ending fun. Premieres exclusively on Netflix in 2017 in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Nordics, Benelux and France.

Sotiris wrote:DreamWorks is producing a TV series based on "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" called "Spirit Riding Free". This is the first time the studio is doing a show based on one of their 2D movies. It will undoubtedly be made in stylized, Flash animation like the rest of their Netflix shows. It's still not clear if the show is a re-imagining or a midquel. It's definitely not a sequel since they're replacing Spirit's love interest, Rain with a different female horse named Lucky.

Inspired by the Oscar-nominated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Spirit Riding Free follows the heartfelt journey of a wild mustang who could not be tamed. A whole new generation will experience all the daring adventures when Spirit meets a girl named Lucky whose courage matches his own. Together they push limits, harness the power of friendship and discover what it means to be free. With their best friends by their side, they explore a world filled with endless rides, magnificent horses and never-ending fun. Premieres exclusively on Netflix in 2017 in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Nordics, Benelux and France.

Source: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2016 ... netflix03/

Mooky wrote:The hand-drawn bits of the documentary look amazing.

Q: How did you come to Mac Guff?

Roger Ross Williams: I started looking at animated shorts. First I looked at some Oscar shorts. I was inspired by the sort of French 2D look and feel. Owen connects with 2D animation because he likes the emotion of hand-drawn animation. I knew Mac Guff really didn’t do 2D, they did stuff like Despicable Me, but I was put in contact with them anyway. At first I thought I'll just ask their advice about French animators.

Philippe [Sonrier], the owner, kept part of the studio after part was sold to Universal and Illumination – I think that’s what happened. They have hundreds of people who work at Mac Guff’s studio outside of Paris. Philippe kept a small group at his original office, which is in the neighborhood right beneath the Eiffel Tower. You look out every window and you see the Eiffel tower. So I went to meet him. Philippe is this eccentric character who lived for many years on a boat on the Seine. He fell in love with Owen’s story and said, "I want to take this on." He bought in Mathieu Betard and Olivier Lescot, these really brilliant, talented French animators. Together with Emily Hubley, who was our animation advisor, we created Owen’s world.

unprincess wrote:I do notice a lot of emphasis on the classic hand-drawn films though, I wonder what the boy, who I think is adult age now, feels about Disney abandoning hand-drawn animation.

Roger Ross Williams wrote:Owen connects with 2D animation because he likes the emotion of hand-drawn animation.

When Owen was younger, he preferred hand-drawn animation “because it does expressions and feelings.” Now, he likes computer animation as well, perhaps because it has come closer to hand-drawn in its expressiveness and richness of detail.