Movie Recommendation for the week Feb 16 2008 - Feb 22 2008

Surf's Up (2007)

Medium - Animation
Genre - Comedy/Family/Sport
Cast (Voice Over) - Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges

Plot Outline - This animated mock documentary directed by Chris Buck (TARZAN) and Ash Brannon (TOY STORY 2) follows penguin Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf) from his hometown of Shiverpool, Antarctica, where all of the other penguins think he’s a surfing fool, to the "Big Z Memorial Surf Off" on Pen Gu Island. This teenage penguin is determined to win the most important competition in the world of penguin surfing in honor of "Big Z," a deceased surfing legend whom he has idolized since childhood. But the waves in Pen Gu are different than in Shiverpool, and the competition is steep. The current champ, egotistical Tank Evans (Diedrich Bader), isn’t about to let this little penguin knock him from first place without a fight.

Why to watch it - Its giving some serious competition to my another favorite movie from PIXAR - Ratatouille. And the animation is just fantastic right from the word go. A must watch for anyone who likes to get entertained.

Enjoy a glimpse -

AnimationMentor.com Co-founder Gets Honored With VES Award !!!

Los Angeles, February 11, 2008 : The 6th Annual VES Awards were announced in a glittering ceremony at the Kodak Theatre Grand Ballroom in Hollywood. The sold-out event attracted more than a thousand visual effects and animation artists, dozens of nominees and members of the film, television, commercial and video game industries. During the evening, filmmaker Steven Spielberg received the VES Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to the art and science of visual effects.

And this time our very own Shawn Kelly who is also a co-founder of the ever growing online animation school : AnimationMentor.com was honored by being awarded the VES Award in the category Best Single Visual Effect of the Year for his mindblowing work in "Transformers" (Desert highway sequence). Congrats Shawn !! You make us all proud.





About the VES
VES is a professional, honorary society, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences,and applications of visual effects and to upholding the highest uniform standards and procedures for the visual effects profession. The VES is the entertainment industry's only official trade organization representing the extended community of visual effects practitioners including supervisors, artists, producers, technology developers,
educators and studio executives.

Its 1,600 global members contribute to all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos, games and new media. The VES strives to enrich and educate its members and the entertainment community at large through many domestic and international events, screenings and programs. Visual effects professionals constitute a vital creative force in content creation and are literally shaping the future of entertainment.

Indiana Jones IV - The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull TRAILER

Nothing to say, just that May 22 come fast !

Enjoy the trailer for now :-)

New Kung-Fu Panda Trailer Is Up !!!

Dreamworks Animation has released a new trailer of its new upcoming CG feature film Kung-Fu Panda. The films is hitting the theaters on June 6 this year.

This one looks awesome and i am dying for the release of this movie in India. The story looks very very interesting and fun to be engrossed in and the animation is top notch.

You can watch the trailer here. Enjoy !!!

Movie Recommendation for the week Feb 9 2008 - Feb 15 2008

Reign Over Me (2007)

Cast - Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler

Plot Outline - A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.

Why To Watch - For Adam Sandler, in a never seen before serious role and believe it or not he is amazing in serious roles too. Don Cheadle gives yet another brilliant supporting performance.

This film focuses on the real Americans, the past generation, no stereotypes or Racism just people who have come together and realized the true meaning of life. This film is about loss and coping. Instead of picking on Psychiatry, it defines it, not as someone who heals you magically, but rather through the necessity of talking out your feeling to an impartial someone you can trust will not judge you, but rather will guide you through your thoughts. This movie is all round amazing!

Trailer -

Michael Caine Acting in Films Part 3-6

Remaining 4 parts of the series of videos of Michael Caine talking about acting in films.

3/6



4/6




5/6



6/6

Wall-E Vacuum Clip for Super Bowl !

Check out the new and wonderful Super Bowl commercial created by Pixar and featuring Wall-E. Infact one of the very talented mentors from AnimationMentor, Victor Navone did the animation for the commercial.

This is what he had to say -

"The spot is 1 minute long, and I actually did a full minute of WALL-E animation, though they had to cut a lot out to make room for the Buzz and Woody bits. Hopefully they will release the uncut version on the web. We had a very short time to produce this ad, so there are some rough edges, but I think it turned out pretty well. I had about 4 weeks to do the WALL-E stuff from start to finish, and I had some help from Don Crum, Wendell Lee and Sarah Mercey. Luckily robots are much faster to animate than humans and rats! The hardest part was probably animating the vacuum hose. The power cord was simulated, thankfully."

Watch the commercial here....

Starting Weekly Movie Recommendations

Starting today, every week i will be recommending one movie for you all which i think is worth a watch. Though movies are extremely subjective, i will try to be as broad as possible and touch as many genres as time permits.

I suggest try my recommendations for a couple of weeks and then decide for yourself whether my choice of movies matches your taste or not.

I am also including a trailer for your viewing pleasure.

So my first movie recommendation is -

Walk The Line (2005)

Cast - Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon

Plot Outline - A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

Why To Watch - Watch it for Joaquin Phoenix who plays Johnny Cash to the hilt. If you have seen previous movies of Joaquin and liked him, trust me you havent seen anything yet. This is the movie where i think he comes into his own league. All his previous movies, he was among multiple actors and very rarely was in the lead. This movie he leads from the front and very very deservingly so. By far his best performance till date.

Also starring as June Carter and unbelievably convincing is Reese Witherspoon who apparently won an Oscar for her performance in this movie. I think that says it all about why to watch her in this movie.

Watch it and if you liked it let me know. Though, even if you didnt like it you can tell me why not !!!