"Daffy's Rhapsody" talkback
"The Snow Queen" trailer
"Arrietty" Will Be Ghibli's Biggest US Release Yet
Ricky Garduno, RIP
Follow @CartoonBrew on Twitter
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS
Follow Cartoon Brew on Facebook
|
|
|
Moomins and the Comet Chase Trailer
March 20, 2010 1:53 am
A trailer for the children’s film Moomins and the Comet Chase, the first stereoscopic 3-D feature out of the Nordic region. It’s being produced by Finnish studio Filmkompaniet Alpha, who previously made the feature Moomin and Midsummer Madness in 2008. The characters are based on Tove Jansson’s classic book and comic characters Moomins which have been the subject of numerous animated TV series and features throughout the years, including a hand-drawn Japanese version of this same Moomin story from 1992 titled Comet in Moominland. 22 comments posted in 3-D, Feature Film, Stop Motion 
|
ADVERTISEMENTS
EVENTS
RECENT BREW TV EPISODES By Sitji Chou. A man tries to understand the futility of creating human connections when they’ve been impeded by the microcosmic void between material particles.  By Nikolas Ilic. A story of a Scottish sheep farmer who shears his sheep and tosses them cliff side…  By Dylan Hayes. Lesson 1: Everyone gambles, not everyone loses. Lesson 2: The world is full of traps. Lesson 3: You cannot win if you don’t take risks.  By Jean Yi. A personal and humorous exploration of being the ‘Nice Girl’ and coming to terms with the label and all its different meanings.  By Ferg Brennan. A lonely fisherman catches an unusual fish, which he decides to keep as a pet. |
Interesting that it looks like a cutout and stop motion hybrid. Sort of quasi dimensional material animated flat. Physically adding some rounding to material positioned on different planes. Fewer gravity or support issues than typical stop motion. It is surely digitally composited too.
The technique in a general way reminds me a bit of Karel Zeman’s “1001 Nights”/”Sinbad” from the early 70s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LWmEDDZd4w
Regarding their being classic comic characters, I’m pretty sure historically the Moomins started as a children’s books and then were adapted and continued as comics by the author.
Actually this seems to be re-edited version of episodes from the Polish stop-motion animated tv series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moomins_%28TV_series%29
I really don’t like that the director of Midsummer Madness was also credited as a Finnish although the animation was made decades earlier. Reeks of Godfrey Ho and Carl Macek.
I remember the Polish being my first introduction to Moomin although I was really a small child and only thing I can really remember about was that the episodes were based on Moominsummer Madness.
Some people hate the 90’s Japanese series but in my opinion it does justice to the novels and not that much was changed content wise.
Wow, this is even harder to watch than Fantastic Mr. Fox, but I imagine it’s going to be far richer for its fidelity to the source material as opposed to Hollywood hippification. “Moominland Midwinter” was a wonderfully sweet and melancholy book, but I haven’t read the original story: I may give this a look when the time comes.
I’m undecided about this. I like the appearance and the materials, clearly adapted from the earlier japanese stop motion series, as well as the motion style. But why is this made for 3D, where the 2D appearence clearly will cause problems? Good example is the raft, its perspective is never right. And somebody should re-work the backgrounds, please. They’re flat and dull.
Hmmm….I am not sure how I feel about that trailer, but I do want to give a shout out the Moomin comic strip. I stumbled on them a few years ago and they make for really great reading. There are currently four ( I think ) hardcovers that reprint the strip, from Drawn and Quarterly Publishing. Light, fun stuff.
http://www.fuzzyfeltmoomins.co.uk
Apparently some fans call this series of Moomin Adventures “the Fuzzy Felt Moomins” after the materials used in production. The above link seems to have all episodes available to watch for free. Good viewing when I’m in the mood for something lighthearted.
Wow, I really like the style of the film in the trailer, but I think the voice acting & music (at least for the trailer) actually ruin it a bit. I feel it needs to be less brash and more passive.
Anyone who adores the drawings of Tove Jansson should skip the comic strip compilations completely and read the books – especially the later ones.
For a real treat, visit here to see her drawings for the Finnish edition of Tolkiens The Hobbit:
http://www.zepe.de/tjillu/hobbit/index.html
Here you’ll find her Alice in Wonderland work:
http://www.zepe.de/tjillu/alice/index.html
Hunting of the Snark:
http://www.zepe.de/tjillu/snark/index.html
Me rattling on about her work and some nice illustrations to boot:
http://sandwichbag.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-tove.html
My pal Brian Sibley writes about her work and his correspondence with this amazing woman:
http://briansibleysblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/memories-of-moominland.html
I am truly in love with her art and writing.
I don’t think there’s anyone who’s influenced my own approach to creating more.
I started reading her books when I was very young, then forgot about her for 25 years.
I Googled her only to discover that she’d died only the day before…
I’ve been meaning to scan her later Moomin work for some time.
Perhaps I’ll do it today after this post.
This looks a bit too babyish for the Moomin saga. The books were rather dark and idiosyncratic, and this trailer makes the characters look like fuzzy-wuzzy Colorforms. Meh.
I really enjoy the style of it, but as someone commented earlier, maybe it should have less voice acting in it. It kind of kicks it down a bit when the speaking starts. Otherwise the cutout look is very charming.
Interesting. I should really watch some of the earlier adaptations!
I am a bit confused. The puppets/models are the exact ones used in the 1980s ‘fuzzy felt moomins’ show that was shown in the UK. It seems likely it’s just the relevant episodes pasted together and cleaned up.
I love Tove Jansson and the Moomins a lot, so it’s great to see this, but it seems a little dishonest and strange. Also the voice acting is horrible and makes it seem rather annoying and hyperactive, rather than quiet, contemplative and strange as it should be.
Jarko: Who are these people that hate the animated Moomin series? Do they hate life, laughter, and fun or what? It was a beautifully animated, beautifully written series that stayed pretty goddamned true to the books, I’m not exactly sure what they were finding to hate. I guess people always find something to bitch about.
Agree with Scarabim. This was – and still is – my all time favorite book as a kid. Tove Jansson’s original illustrations were so striking and dark (almost like woodblock prints), it’s a damn shame no-one has ever used these as a base for any adaptation
I think I already know the answer to this, but is it going to be released int he US?
Is it just me or does Trove’s work seem reminiscent of Miyazaki. I don’t know much about about Miyazaki’s influences but I would bet Trove was definitely an influence on him.
Yeah baby! Childhood memories! I can hardly remember any of the episodes that I saw, but as a kid I loved it. Thanks for the post and people’s comments, some good info there!
Annnnnnnnnnnd after watching this I can honestly say the direction they’re taking seems pretty ‘babyish’, as someone else pointed out. Ugh. The great thing about the original books and the animated series was they were quite obviously made for all ages, a bit like Miyazaki’s work. The Last Dragon On Earth story/episode still gets to me every time I watch or read it. It’s one of the best ‘if you love something, set it free’ stories ever jotted down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlCT6UoQ7gU&feature=related
voice over… simple…. do it… american bullshit… oh my word… why? Moomins is deep deep weird mad…. burn hollywood
ha ha it’s finnish and I’m a douche… please ignore
This is very charming.
Wow.. when you got a good story and interesting characters, to do it in ANY medium, seems like a sure thing!
The Japanese version is very “anime” and the stop motion(*3D?) is not quite like the books.
Interesting article nontheless.