Inspired by Pixar?

By
on

Here’s a few new 3D CGI films coming from Europe… is it me, or do these pictures have a slight resemblance to previous works from Emeryville?

Occhio Kochoi from Paris based TeamtTO is a feature film about birds migrating to Africa — the lead character looks a like he migrated from For The Birds or Partly Cloudy:

Finding Nemo with a turtle? That seems like the premise of Around the World In 50 Years (aka Turtle Vision) from Ben Stassen (Fly Me to The Moon) and Belgium based nWave Pictures. This is a 14-minute large format film scheduled for release to Imax theatres later this year.

A clip of the animation begins, below, at :34 mark and ends at 1:21 mark.

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  • http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/ Michael Cawood

    Does everything have to be compared to Pixar as though one company could be the only source of creativity in the industry? Certainly it’s unlikely that Occhio Kochoi was created entirely since Partly Cloudy. They just both have birds in them and made some similar styling choices. Similarly, turtles look like that to some degree… several life times of cartoon exaggeration would create similar results regardless off Finding Nemo’s success. Although it is possible that the project got more support because of the associated popularity of Finding Nemo’s turtles. After all Happy Feet’s budget got an inevitable increase after the success of a certain Penguin Imax documentary and that paid off.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariville Sketchees

    You see movie and cartoon similarities are all over this industry. Whatever sells and is HOT, is what gets imitated. Just like many tv cartoons are rip offs of other successful tv shows now(*visually and written), features fall prey to the same thing. This article doesn’t surprise me. Good to point out though.

  • BelgianAnimator

    Ben Stassen explained to us in a presentation that Fly me to the Moon has a poor story and poor art direction because he only cared about the 3D technique.
    I’ve heard many complaints from frustrated nWave people after he went in this direction with that movie. That company used to be about giving artists freedom, making greatly animated and groundbreaking stuff. Wonder if this new movie is just as revolting as Fly me to the Moon.

  • http://robcatview.blogspot.com robcat2075

    All 3D CGI movies so far have more than a slight resemblance to each other. The brief snippets we see here aren’t too damning.

  • http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

    Also those birds remind me quite a bit of Chuck Jones’ bird designs.

  • 3Dbuff

    I heard Stassen in Annecy where he introduced Fly Me To The Moon in 2008. (I taped his speech). He never said the film has a poor story. He simply said that nobody ever made a film about the Apollo 11 mission before because it is predictable story and therefore not very dramatic. But it is a story worth telling. Using the immersive 3D film language, he felt he could nonetheless turn this remarkable event in the history of mankind into a exiting film experience. It seems he succeeded. With almost $50,000,000 in worldwide box-office (see the film’s website), it is one of the most successful European animation film eve made. This is even more remarkable considering the film was only released in 3D theaters.

    I saw Turtlevision at a German theme park. It is fantastic, great animation, unbelievable 3D and better art direction than in Finding Nemo. From what you can read on internet Turtlevision and Around the World in 50 Years are not the same thing. It is a theme park film based on the feature. The feature will be released in 2010.

  • BelgianAnimator

    Yes 3Dbuff, but Annecy isn’t the only place he opens his mouth. This was at a small presentation in Belgium, where he was asked why he didn’t go with a better written story (every story can be well written, in this movie it’s just very poorly done; they even just copy a scene from the simpsons at one point). He said he didn’t care about the story, he knows it’s poor but it doesn’t matter to him, that it was all about being the first movie made for 3d.

    Belgium is a small country (I’ve actually run into Stassen at bars at the weirdest places), so I know plenty of people who work with him. They complain for example how they had to make the humans so ugly, unappealing and unfitting, while they could do so much better.

  • http://www.dougwilson.co.uk Doug

    The bird looks more like petrie from the land before time, character animation wise anyway.

  • http://animationinventory.blogspot.com/ Teodor

    hmmm…
    can you compare something with lascars-movie, mia et le migou or secret of kells?

  • gino

    pixar has a ‘style’, yes, but it is not (and never was) unique.very few things ever come close to being truly original in any creative pursuit, and even with those you can spot influences. pixar is a great company to be sure, but the bulk of their work so far has been so-so (fanatics feel free to attack)both in terms of visual style and narative -the fanboy finger pointing is getting tedious (hornswiggle was no exeption) this is not a personal attack, i just think people should lighten up and enjoy things for what they are

  • http://markosb.blogspot.com Marko

    I probably wouldn’t want to watch either of these but animation wise they at least look comparable if you don’t scrutinize the finer details. Which is kind of sad because it would be nice to see these French and European studios putting their talent and resource to make something more original and distinct like they occasionally do instead of apparently making knock offs of american cartoons.

    Also, the style is clearly similar to pixar, there is no question about that. Even if it wasn’t as similar as having those characters in the clips that are almost directly from pixar movies. It would still be similar in overall approach to the design, which it is. I don’t think there’s any question of that. Its not something that doesn’t happen in animation all the time anyway.

  • ZAR

    If it’s done properly it’s called a “homage”. If done badly, a rip-off. ;)