Tag Archives: Film

‘The greatest fairy tale never told.” – The tagline of Shrek.

• Shrek is a animated film of a comedy and fantasy genre, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures .
• Shrek is about an ogre, ‘Shrek’, who wants fairy tale creatures out of his swamp, and includes two other main characters, ‘Donkey,’ the ogre’s sidekick, and ‘Princess Fiona,’ an ogre/princess.
• Shrek is somewhat based on a children’s picture book, named ‘Shrek!’, by William Steig, published in 1990.
• Shrek was originally going to be voiced by Chris Farley, who died just before the full recording, leading to a full script change for the replacement of Mike Myers.
• During the 90 minute film, 36 different scenes or places were featured in the world of Shrek, and work on the movie began in November 1995.

• Shrek was released on 18 May 2001, and ended with three sequels, one spin-off (a prequel), and two specials released between 2004 and 2011.
• Shrek was produced on a budget of $60 million, and earned nearly $484.5 million at the box office internationally, ranking it fourth of all film releases in 2001.
• Shrek won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for 2001, as well as eight Annies and six BAFTA Awards.
• By the end of 2001, more than 5.5 million copies of Shrek DVDs and videos had been sold, which, at the time, was the ‘biggest selling DVD of all time’.
• Mike Myers originally used a Canadian accent for the Shrek character, but during the production process he approached the company about letting him re-record his lines in a Scottish accent, which they consented to, but it cost the company millions of dollars.

Bibliography:
History, 2011, Shrek, http://www.shrek.com/

Shrek, 2013, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek

Amazon:     

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…. Thunderbirds Are Go!

• Thunderbirds was a science fiction television series, that debuted in 1965 and ran until 1966 with 32 episodes produced over two series, running for 50 minutes per episode, which in some later reproductions became two 25-minute halves.
• Thunderbirds is about the International Rescue team, or Thunderbirds, who have high technology of aircraft and other rescue equipment and is set in the future, originally 2026, which changed to 2065.
• Thunderbirds was made in marionette puppet style, with some real life filming, with the puppets designed to be one third of a real person’s size and they had a lip sync mechanism which received electrical pulses to make the mouth move with the voice.
• The main characters of Thunderbirds are the Tracy Brothers and their father Jeff Tracy, as well as Brains and Lady Penelope with her butler, Parker.
• Thunderbirds was made in the United Kingdom and authorized by ITC Entertainment and produced by AP Films, who were experienced in the area of marionette puppetry.

• The idea for Thunderbirds came from the 1963 mining disaster in Germany, when miraculously nearly half of the trapped crew were saved.
• The voices of Thunderbirds came from many nationalities, including American, Canadian, Australian and British actors and actresses.
• Many materials were used for the special effects such as explosions in Thunderbirds, including petrol and fueled rocket canisters.
• Thunderbirds is known for the rescue crafts Thunderbirds 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, which range from a large jet to a space station.
• Three films have been adapted from the main series, ‘Thunderbirds Are Go! (1966)’, ‘Thunderbird 6’ (1968) and ‘Thunderbirds’, the most recent film released in 2004.

Bibliography:
The Background, n.d, Thunderbirds, < http://www.fab1.co.nz/thunderbirds.htm>

Thunderbirds (TV Series), 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_(TV_series)>

Monsters Incorporation.

• Monsters, Inc. is a computer animated movie that premiered on November 2001, and runs for approximately 92 minutes.
• Monsters, Inc. was made for Walt Disney Pictures, by Pixar Animation Studios.
• Pete Docter, the film’s director, started work on Monsters, Inc. in 1996.
• Monsters, Inc. grossed $62, 577, 067 at the box office, in America, on its first weekend which ranked it first on the box office chart, and grossed over $562 million dollars worldwide during its season.
• Monsters, Inc. is about a monster incorporation that collects children’s screams, but a two year old human girl enters the monster portal and the adventures begin.

• The idea for Monsters, Inc. came about in 1994, during the making of Toy Story.
• The original story of Monsters, Inc. used a 30 year old man who was afraid of monsters, but the character was changed to a two year old girl who generally was not afraid of monsters.
• The main characters of Monsters, Inc. are a blue monster named James P ‘Sulley’ Sullivan, a green monster named Michael ‘Mike’ Wazowski, and a two year old girl named Mary ‘Boo’.
• Monsters, Inc. was released as a 3D movie in December 2012 and its prequel, ‘Monsters University’, has been released in June 2013.
• Monsters, Inc. won an Academy Award for the best original song, ‘If I didn’t have you’ written by Randy Newman, and the film was nominated for many others.

Bibliography:
Monsters, Inc., 2013, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsters,_Inc.>