Hasta La Motion!

Despite myriad challenges that the Marvel Studios film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness faced, it looks like the company has gone into overdrive in trying to find a new director to step in for the departed Scott Derrickson.And while we are aware that the new movie is set to begin filming later this year, a new listing from Production Weekly has posted the movie’s plot that we heard about last week. Of course it’s still not confirmed whether its the exact plot, but it does hint at massive effects for the Sorcerer Supreme in the sequel movie.

After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Dr. Stephen Strange continues his research on the Time Stone. But an old friend turned enemy seeks to destroy every sorcerer on Earth, messing with Strange’s plan and also causing him to unleash an unspeakable evil.

Dr Strangre

Interesting bits are :- as it mentions the Time Stone which was destroyed during the events of Avengers: Endgame. How Strange is able to continue his research could be a part of the mystery of the film, especially considering the heavy hint toward the inclusion of Baron Mordo. Mordo was last seen in the post-credits stinger for Doctor Strange, showing that he is hunting down all of the sorcerers on Earth in a misguided attempt to save the world.

We already knew Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, and Elizabeth Olsen would be returning, but there’s been no mention of Rachel McAdams yet. However, the listing does include her alongside the previously mentioned actors.

We’ll know if Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is still on the cards on its 7 May

The post Doctor Strange 2 Synopsis Confirmed appeared first on AnimationXpress.

On 7 January, we reported about India’s first anime studio, Studio Durga making new announcements of their anime film, Karmachakra: Episode Zero, whose first 20  minutes have been published on YouTube as a mini series. 

After receiving amazing feedback from the anime lovers across the country, the studio released the opening song for the film, titled, ‘Chawa’ (seek/desire) last week which has already garnered 12,000+ views and nearly 3000 likes on YouTube.

Rajorshi Basu

Commented Studio Durga founder and CEO Rajorshi Basu, “The song, ‘Chawa’, or ‘to seek/desire’ does touch upon the tone of the film in some ways. It is the driving force behind not only Ganga’s but many other characters in the film. Darkness and light in both the music and imagery of the opening conveys in a certain way what can be expected from the show. It’s meant to be stimulating, interwoven and natural, much like the world of Karmachakra.”

Not only has the song received appreciation, but have also caught the eye of music veterans like music composer Shantanu Moitra calling it “ This is stellar stuff.”

The song is composed, performed and produced by Basu himself while his mother Sohini Basu penned the lyrics and Tanisha Ganguly lending her voice for it. To a matter of surprise, Basu further informed that the composition and music production was done around six years ago, many years before he knew they’d be using it for an anime he would make.

Added he, “I was just really into the style at the time, and thought let’s make something that might go well with an anime opening. So I spent about a week total writing the melody, playing and recording all the instruments, and mixing. The vocals were recorded much more recently, but back then I had asked my mom to write the lyrics to the melody, as she is obviously way more well-versed in Bengali than I am. Many years later, I requested the well-trained and very talented Ganguly, who had already sung on our short song in the trailer, to sing on it. And she did such a fantastic job! Everyone has loved it and we’re glad. We sent the music video to some people we know in the Indian music industry and they really loved it too! It’s amazing to have so much support.”

Tanisha Ganguly and Sohini Basu

Directed by Basu himself, Karmachakra: Episode Zero is a story of an orphan girl trying to find her roots, revolving around mysteries about her past and present. It’s a mystery drama set in a fictional present-day India that draws inspiration from psychology, mythology and cybertechnology.

The film has an enviable voice cast including the who’s who of the Bengali film industry including Swastika Mukherjee, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Mir Afsar Ali, Parno Mittra, Swaroopa Ghosh, Tanusree Shankar, Santu Mukherjee, Anik Dutta, Alaknanda Roy, Shantilal Mukherjee, Barun Chanda and Shamik Sinha.

Talking about the reaction of the lyricist and vocalist, after the song released, Basu exclaimed, “Both of them are genuinely thrilled with the result, as is everyone else on the team after listening. Even as everyone has mostly worked within a conceptual/technical framework provided by me, what they have contributed is invaluable and almost always stuns me.”

Here’s the song for you to enjoy!

The post Opening song, ‘Chawa’ from ‘Karmachakra’ sets the tone of the anime mystery drama appeared first on AnimationXpress.

After making Ghibli movies digitally available for viewers to download, Netflix has now announced that it will be adding 21 features from the Japanese classic animation house, Studio Gibhli. The deal was made with Franco-German distributor Wild Bunch International, which represents Ghibli films globally.

Netflix subscribers in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America will have access to the Ghibli library subtitled in 28 languages and dubbed in up to 20 languages. Beginning 1 February 2020, titles like Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, Ocean Waves, and Tales from Earthsea will be available outside U.S, Canada and Japan.

On 1 March, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbors the Yamadas, Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, Arrietty, and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya will be added to the streamer. And from 1 April, Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, From Up on Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises, and When Marnie Was There will be up on Netlfix for fans to enjoy.

Producer Toshio Suzuki at Studio Ghibli said, “In this day and age, there are various great ways a film can reach audiences. We’ve listened to our fans and have made the definitive decision to stream our film catalogue. We hope people around the world will discover the world of Studio Ghibli through this experience.”

Founded in 1985 by Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli has produced 22 feature-length films, giving the audience some legendary classics to binge watch.

The post Netflix to extend its library by adding 21 animated features from Studio Gibhli appeared first on AnimationXpress.

While we have witnessed stunning visual effects that enhanced the storytelling in cinema over the years that audiences were amazed by, visual effects in movies have also attracted ire of fans for ruining the imagery altogether. Its true that in the modern era, visual effects have become inseparable parts of the craft of filmmaking. There’s hardly any movie in the global landscape where VFX technology is not used. While have admired the spectacular results of this post-production phenomenon, today we take a look at the ones that just didn’t do the trick and left us feeling short-changed.

1. Half Girlfriend (2018)

The biggest cause of bad CGI is the lack of budgets. The screaming irony of the whole case is that hideous disaster features the richest man on earth. Half Girlfriend has a sequence where the cut-out of Bill Gates’ face is forcefully superimposed onto another person in the most perfunctory manner.  The way the body shleps along the cut-out of the face had our skins crawling in the worst way imaginable. Even school kids can make better deepfakes on open-source software than the whackjob we saw in the movie. We apologise Mr Gates!

2. The Mummy Returns (2001)

Never return if this is how you’re going to denigrate the “The Rock” like that! This is effrontery! Casting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the sinister Scorpion King and then making him look so cartoonish and unreal that it gave us terrible bouts of uncanny valley syndrome.

3. Justice League (2017)

Whatever may be the case, we can’t help seething at the fact that the VFX team botched up a budget of 300 million dollars and a dapper Superman by making him look so awful. Henry Cavill had to drop by  for reshoots while “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” was still in production and couldn’t shave off his facial hair. Warner Bros tried to CGI out the mustache but failed abysmally, leaving us in splits. Terrible job! Making a handsome man look ugly is not done!

4. Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani

Although it’s not the only ludicrous scene as this movie is full of bad CGI, this one shows how storytelling can go so wrong with bad CGI. The scene is meant to scare but ends up making you laugh and how. They go to their room and the moment the man begins to romance the bride, she turns into a skeleton which looks so terrible that it becomes counterproductive, defeating the whole purpose of the scene.

5. Kalank

While Kalank has drawn some hilarious reactions on Twitter, this bull scene landed right in the eye of storm, getting the maximum flak for making Varun Dhavan look like he is on some rickety little rodeo machine! Netizens lambasted the bull all around the internet, memers and critics alike!

6. Drive

If a movie gets no theatrical release, tepid promotions and a rushed OTT presence, you can imagine how bad it must be. Drive, which released on Netflix featured some of the top-notch cluster of A-lister superstars in the most third-rate imagery in the history of Netflix. This travesty fell flat on the first day of release itself owing to the hideous amounts of bad CG cars, shoddy action sequences and equally bad storytelling.

Let us know in the comment section if you’ve got anymore bad VFX or CGI shots from movies which could be a part of this list! We hope the level of VFX sophistication of the modern era will ensure that such movies don’t return.

The post #FeatureFriday: Bad VFX shots in movies that made us cringe appeared first on AnimationXpress.

Chhota Bheem along with his Dholakpur team mesmerised the young and old audience alike with their excellent musical show, Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure in Mumbai on 16 January 2020. 

Bheem and his friends Chutki, Raju, Jaggu, Kalia, Dholu and Bholu created an unusual world of magic and adventure at Mahakavi Kalidas Natyamandir, Mulund, for the first-ever live theatrical adaptation of the cartoon series in a Hindi musical format.

Conceptualised and produced by Simply Green, in association with Green Gold Animation, this show was brought to the city by BookMyShow, India’s leading entertainment destination.

BookMyShow theatricals head Kumar Razdan said in a press note, “BookMyShow is excited to bring Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure for the audiences. Loved by children and their families, the cartoon character Chhota Bheem reflects a truly Indian village superhero. This live musical performance will bring this popular story alive on stage for the first time ever in India. We hope children and family audiences will love their favourite character on stage as much as they love him on the screen.”

To experience this, Animation Xpress was present to witness this musical extravaganza in person and was totally overwhelmed. It was like having an on-screen experience off-screen, in reality! From casting, to direction, to storyline/script, to costumes to stage decorations, to lighting, to music, timing – everything was on point to give a memorable experience to cherish. 

Rajiv Chilaka and Sailesh Gopalan

Talking to Animation Xpress about the ideation of Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure, Green Gold Animation founder and CEO Rajiv Chilaka expressed, “We at Green Gold have been very inspired by a live-show like the ones we see in Disneyland and Broadway and others. Thus, we had a deep desire to do such a thing. Luckily we got in touch with the right kind of people, Simply Green, who did a thorough job and research diligently working relentlessly over a couple of years. It’s not an easy thing to accomplish in live show that too something that matches at par with international standards. The credit goes to Sailesh Gopalan and the team from Simply Green for doing such a fabulous job.”

Chhota Bheem is one of the longest running original Indian television animation shows for kids and is a lovable superhero who is an example of true friendship as he shows immense courage. Its loyal admirers are going to see him in a new and different way through a series of adventures in this musical entertainer. Its immense popularity has led to the hugely successful Netflix original show Mighty Little Bheem has been listed among the top 10 shows on the global streaming platform in the US, as well as the first Indian animated IP to get a live theatrical adaptation.

Added Chilaka on the audience response, “Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure is an edutainment musical. We already saw the kids’ reaction and that’s fantastic. They’re enjoying, cheering, shouting, singing alone and participating in it. Even when the villain, Graago came in it was funny, and the kids were not scared. The direction, lighting, casting, costumes everything has come out so great. I think it’s a great show and for me personally, it’s an emotional moment to see my child, my creation in a live show. They say success has many fathers, today we saw a different dimension of Bheem given birth by Sailesh and his team.” 

Directed by Shruti Sharma (Broadway-style musical, Disney Aladdin fame), Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure brings together renowned creative talent like lyricist Gulzar, music composer duo Siddharth Mahadevan and Soumil, story-writer Darsana Radhakrishnan and Bollywood choreographer Rajit Dev amongst others.

Such a spectacular live-show has not been a cake walk for the entire team but is the result of hard work and toil for more than a year or so. Neither was it an easy task to recreate the characters and settings so popular in animation, on live stage.

Throwing light on the challenges, Simply Green Innovations executive producer Gopalan told Animation Xpress, “Since this is the first time an Indian homegrown animated IP that has come live on stage, we faced a lot of hurdles, on how the audience would react, given these are popular characters. Who would have thought that even in The Lion King live show, there are no animals on stage. So it’s about how would you convince and engage the audience that this is Bheem and his team up, live and running and doing all sorts of things. This was the biggest challenge for us.

We got the right team and casting, having three sets of people play the characters. The story/script has been done by Radhakrishnan who’s from Green Gold Animation and knew the characters inside out. And getting the right people to act in it, was again a challenge. There were a lot of auditions over a couple of months and we got Joseph on board for those who have done casting for many international and national projects. Since there are three sets of cast, it was important to have good bonding among themselves since they’re the backbone of the show. They have done a fantastic job and the children have connected well with them.

It was also important to get the right team and the right kind of music, because music plays a very important role and it’s almost half the entire play. Soumil and Siddharth have done a fabulous job. Even Shruti, our director has done a very good job in moulding the entire thing in a concrete whole.”

After captivating the audience in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure is going to be showcased in Kingdom of Dreams, which according to Chilaka and Gopalan is a good platform to establish this musical. “Post Kingdom of Dreams, we intend to go all around the country as well as the B class cities as we feel the fan following is much more there than A class cities, after June 2020,” informed Gopalan. 

 Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure leaves an amazing experience for the audience, that keeps them hooked till the end. The entire show is very well crafted and executed, giving out important lessons about cleanliness, team work, friendship, honesty and self belief. Clearly, the climax steals the show with amazing animatics, special effects and laser work.  

An elated and emotional Chilaka quipped, “Everything has gone very well so far, most importantly, we want more people coming and buying tickets to watch this show. India needs to support this kind of art from all sectors. People like Gopalan are willing to take the risk and even we at Green Gold have taken chances. These kinds of shows will also open doors of employment for so many artists. At some point in life, I would love to see this come alive on Broadway or Disneyland. We need a lot more partnerships from other digital portals, hoardings, press, sponsorships, Government cultural programmes, school contact programmes. It should be a year long thing, So we have achieved the initial part, now we’ll figure out a marketing plan as it’s an expensive affair”. 

After the special screening yesterday, Chhota Bheem in Jadooi Adventure runs at Mahakavi Kalidas Natyamandir, Mulund on 17 and 18 january 2020. 

So what are you waiting for? Go and grab a seat for this stellar performance!

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