Though companies were hired for work on the pilot episode—such as Entity FX for the visual effects effects departments now work exclusively for the series. Ivan Hayden is the visual effects supervisor, and works with many levels of the production staff. During pre-production, Hayden must go through the scripts, looking for possible visual effects. He then has a concept meeting with the writers, and after settling on the effect designs to use, coordinates with the special effects and stunt departments. Hayden is also present during filming to help the director make sure that the scenes are being filmed in the best way for the visual effects, such as by ensuring that the actors are looking at the correct location where an effect will later be added. Afterward, he then meets with the editors. Another aspect of the visual effects department is coming up with rules and physics for each supernatural creature, though the rules are often bent if it benefits the story.

Supernatural uses a ariety of special effects depending upon the story arc, deaon, and physics the creators put into the episodes.  Below are some examples:

Buffy was a TV series that ran from 1997 until 2003.  The series narrative follows Buffy Summers (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), the latest in a line of young women known as Slayers. In the story, Slayers are chosen by fate to battle against vampires, demons, and other forces of darkness. Like previous Slayers, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches, and trains her. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy surrounds herself with a circle of loyal friends who become known as the “Scooby Gang“.

The series brought in upto 6 million viewers an episode.  The Buffy canon is continuing outside the television medium in the Dark Horse Comics series, Buffy Season Eight. This has been produced since March 2007 by Whedon, who also wrote the first story arc, “The Long Way Home“.  Buffy the Vampire slayer used make up and CGI effects for a very powerful and moving supernatural drama.  The CGI and animated effects of the series also helped it move seamlessly into the comic book world where these effects could be hand drawn.  Buffy has also spawned animations in the form of video games where the story is entirely reliant upon the CGI presented.

Five official Buffy video games have been released on portable and home consoles. The most recent, Chaos Bleeds, was released in 2003 for Gamecube, Xbox and PlayStation 2. On July 11, 2008, 505 Games announced that they were working on a Buffy game for the Nintendo DS, entitled Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice.

Below I offer clips of Buffy that feature CGI weather in small forms of magic use, the vampire dusting scene, or the Buffy video game.

The above was a promo for the never made animated series.

ETA: I have commented on Scutari and Francis

According to the wikipedia entry on M&Ms: These include the team of the cynical and sardonic “Red” (originally Jon Lovitz, thereafter Billy West), who is the mascot for milk chocolate M&M’s, and the happy and gullible “Yellow” (originally John Goodman, thereafter J.K. Simmons), who is the mascot for peanut M&M’s. Other mascots include the “cool one”, Blue (originally Phil Hartman, thereafter Robb Pruitt) for almond; the seductive Green (Cree Summer) for peanut butter, mint, and dark chocolate (Green is the only female M&M’s mascot);^[10] and the slightly neurotic Orange (Eric Kirchberger)

When Mars expanded into the greater depths of animation they started making video games for product such as the mini M&Ms.

In the case of Red and Yellow the personalities are so well loved and recognized they have done holiday commercials as well as super bowl commercials.

M&Ms are tied so closely to modern pop culture thanks to the success of these GI spokescandies that they have been interviewed by Regis and Kelly, they have had tie ins with StarWars as well as Transformers.

Below I have placed some of my favore M&M moments.

ETA: Commented on Allingham and Lyver.

The series first started in 1963 and ran until 1989, it was in 2005 that the new generation of Doctors were reborn and since than the series was put into the world record book for longest running continuous series.  Below are the doctors from 1-11.

The doctor has many great enemies that he protects to the world from such as cyberman:

Also his greatest enemy and the one that wipped out his home planet as well as the other time lords, Daleks,

While the Doctor doesnt use weapons he does use a sonic screw driver.  The series is dramatic and hilarious and I would recommend it to anyone.  Also if you follow the links it may begin to make more sense to you.  I’m talking about the animation in this series because with every episode there is some form of CGI, while the show and its creatures do rely heavily on makeup and special effect artists they do use a considerable amount of CGI, from small things like weapons to large scale cities and planets.  Im fact the series has created a spinoff web show in the BBC where it is entirely animated.  The trick to keeping the series going is that the Doctor is capable of regeneration.  Its a Time Lords way of cheating death.  Below is a clip that shows this where we can also see some of the CG from the series.  This is the nestest regeneration sequence in which my favorite doctor is replaced by  a new/same doctor.  While the actor changes the basis of the doctor never does.

In the next clip we see a doctor who villian in pure CGI not to mention the space station and black hole.  Enjoy the Doctor talking to Satan:

Then there are just the classic comedic moments:

So with the Doctor you get the best of everything, I recommend it to everyone.  Just check out 2005 with doctor #9 the budget isnt the greatest but it gets better as it keeps going.  The new season with doctor 11 just started over Easter so you have plenty of time to catch up.

ETA: Commented on LoMonaco, Butt, and Crawford

I am a fan of his stories and was hoping the animation would give credit to the tale.  I do appreciate the subtitles because its like a cliff-notes of the actual play however for being an animation of the 90′s I expected more.  It seem plain and horribly miss-proportioned  which actually made me appreciate the new alternate animated takes on Shakespeare work.

The Lion King, also a 1994 animation was much more vibrant and well drawn.  Characters were proportionate and at no point did I feel as though I was watching a fever dream.  As of 2007 this was the highest grossing 2D film of all time in the united states.  Many younger children wont realize the Shakespearian connection but for those that do the film does the tale justice.  While the story clearly draws inspiration from Hamlet I would also like to point out that there is a major controversy about the film and another film called Kimba the White Lion.  The controversy is interesting and I think more people should be informed of Kimba. In Hamlet the King is killed by his brother (Scar killing Mufasa) and than Hamlet has to avenge his fathers death, he speaks to his fathers ghost (Simba talking to Mufasa in the sky) and he must kill his uncle and take the throne (end of Lion King).

Shakespears influence in cartoons can be seen even further back in the silent era of the 20s as well as in the MGM cartoon “Romeo in Rythm” seen below.

Shakespeare influence in animation is timeless and I’m sure he is not the only great writer we need to thank for some of our great animated moments in history.  This blog was written to really point out some of the external sources for animated film ideas that often get skipped over.

ETA: I have commented on alberry, Pocalyko, weber

This subject matter is both intelligent and dark and I do not believe that today it would be consider child safe.  Many of the older animations have a reputation for being acceptable back in the 80s but being frowned upon today.  IMDB sums the plot of Mark Twain up by saying “Based on elements from the stories of Mark Twain, this feature-length Claymation fantasy follows the adventures of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Huck Finn as they stowaway aboard the interplanetary balloon of Mark Twain. Twain, disgusted with the Human Race, is intent upon finding Halley’s Comet and crashing into it, achieving his “destiny.” It’s up to Tom, Becky, and Huck to convince him hat his judgement is wrong, and that he still has much to offer humanity that might make a difference. Their efforts aren’t just charitable; if they fail, they will share Twain’s fate. Along the way, they use a magical time portal to get a detailed overview of the Twain philosophy, observing the “historical” events that inspired.”

Another clear example of childrens animation that would no longer be considered safe is “Watership downs” This animation based on a British novel must come with a warning: Intensly graphic and unsettling.  According to IMDB “Although Watership Down is a peaceful habitat, Hazel realises there are no does, thus making the future of their new home uncertain. With the help of a seagull named Kehaar, they locate a nearby warren, Efrafa, which is overcrowded and has many does. Hazel sends a small emissary to Efrafa to present their request for does. While waiting for the group to return, Hazel and Pipkin successfully raid the nearby Nuthanger Farm to rescue a group of hutch rabbits there, returning with two does. When the emissary returns, Hazel and his rabbits learn Efrafa is a tyrannical police state led by the despotic General Woundwort; Hazel’s rabbits barely return alive. However, the group does manage to identify an Efrafan doe named Hyzenthlay who wants to leave the warren and can recruit other does to join. Hazel and Bigwig devise a plan to rescue the group of rabbits from Efrafa to join them on Watership Down. The Efrafan escapees start their new life on Watership Down, but soon Woundwort’s army arrives to attack the Watership Down warren. Through the bravery and loyalty of Bigwig and the ingenuity of Hazel, the Watership Down rabbits defeat Woundwort.”  The plot is simple and the novel is a best seller but as the collection of clips shows it truley should not have been meant for children of today.

Last but not least I want to draw your attention to “Plague Dogs” who according to this site is the #1 most disturbing childrens film.  The film is about dogs escaping from a test lab and are chased by humans and helicopters.  In the end the dogs drown. “After the dogs attack some sheep on the fells, they are described as ferocious man-eating monsters by a journalist named Digby Driver. A great dog hunt follows which is intensified with the fear that the dogs could be carriers of a dangerous bioweapon like bubonic plague. The research station is fictional. It is named ARSE (Animal Research, Scientific and Experimental).” is what wikipedia had to say about it and again I caution you to watch the following clip.

I would say that we have some traumatizing animations in our shows today but these movies are part of an animation history that we may never see again in the politically correct world.

ETA I have commented on: Lyver, Alberry, and Taylor

I have never researched the great villain, Captain Hook, as he is one of the few male villains in a Disney story.  Originally Hook was created to distract a stage audience and was not an actual villain in the story.  Reading the wiki for captain Hook I discovered “According to Disney’s Platinum release bonus features, Hook was modeled after a Spanish King. One director insisted that Hook should be a darker villain with no comedic traits. Yet this would not work during the crocodile scenes. The animators realized he could not be truly evil, because of the children in the film that he would be threatening. The result is a “bad guy,” but only to the point of matching Peter Pan.

Jason Isaaacs, the hottest capt. Hook in history, brings a new twist to the character.  In the 2003 movie the captain in much darker and more evil.  Disney would never animate him as such.  He does still keep his comedic moments although they are along the lines of black comedy such as his list of happy thoughts “the black plague the red plague puppies on spikes babies on spikes…”

The sumptuous visuals often reflect the feel of Disney and give the overall production a rapturous storybook feel, especially a sequence involving a forest full of waltzing pixies, which will have viewers repeating along with the cast, “I do believe in fairies, I do, I do, I do!” Most of the violence is of the swashbuckling variety, the film does contain one sequence involving the black-hearted Hook casually shooting several of the Jolly Roger’s scurvy crew.

I was never a fan of the Disney Peter Pan film but always a fan of Hook.  In watching this version the more adult feel has made me fall in love with the story all over again.  This film brings a child like wonder to it that stands out more than the animated film because it is surrounded by an adult world where bad happens and people can die.

What I never noticed until this live action version was that the actor who plays Hook is also cast to play Mr. Darling.  This is a tradition that goes back to the original stage play days.  It is this father figure who wants his children to grow up whose “villainy” is reflected in the pirate captain.

When it comes to the animation used in the film animation.com points out “The visual effects in the film are a mixture of practical and digital. The fairies that appear in the film are actors composited into the film with some digital enhancements. According to actor Jason Isaacs, the filmmakers were impressed with actress Ludivine Sagnier’s performance and decided to abandon their plans to make Tinker Bell entirely computer animated. The film also features a large, computer-generated crocodile. Another character, an animatronic parrot, appears in some scenes on the pirate ship.  A complex harness was built to send the live-action actors rotating and gliding through the air for the flight sequences. They were then composited into the shots of London and Never Land, although they are sometimes replaced with computer-generated figures. Other aspects of bringing the fantastic story to life include the complex sword-fighting sequences, for which the actors were trained.”

I think the 2003 live action film does credit to the original screen play and has a wider range of audience appeal.  The magic, mystery, and beauty of this film put it on a pedestal higher than Disney’s animation classic and I think it is because of the darker characters like James Hook that the childlike fun and feelings can be stronger and more relatable to the modern world.

and

Post #7

I didnt really change much.  I picked these two post because they offered the most interest and variety of sources.  They seemed to be really enjoyed by those that read them and I know the Coraline one turned alot of people onto stop motion animation.  Post 7 was the first I did research with book like Freud and took a psychoanalytical point of view.