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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Saturday
- May 12, 2001
- The Mummy Returns and Pearl
Harbor Bootlegs Invade Internet
- Maya Used for
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
- Negative Trumpet of the Swan
Reviews Continue
- News Link of the Day
- Offensive Bugs Bunny 'toons Pulled
 The
Mummy Returns and Pearl Harbor Bootlegs Invade Internet
(by digitalmediafx.com) The film industry is in a hefty online
battle to stop bootleg copies of their blockbuster FX films from
being distributed online even before the movie is released in
theaters!
According
to the San Francisco Chronicle, bootleg copies of The Mummy
Returns showed up online four days before the movie was released
in U.S. theaters and already bootleg copies of Pearl Harbor
are showing up. Most of the bootleg copies utilize a coding and
delivery function called DivX (no relation to the failed Circuit
City Divx technology).
Hundreds of
thousands of copies of the bootleg movies are being downloaded
daily as the Motion Picture Association of America fights to get
the movies removed.
Pearl Harbor
is being released in theaters on May 25, 2001.
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Maya Used
for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
(by digitalmediafx.com) One animation software company - Alias/Wavefront
- will be receiving a lot of good publicity when Square Pictures
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within hits theaters on July
11, 2001. Alias/Wavefront's Maya was used for the majority of
animation in Final Fantasy. This includes a group of Square
engineers spending 18 months in the creation of special Maya plug-ins
to add photo-realistic skin and hair to the characters.
Square also
believes that Columbia Pictures (the distributor of the film)
will market Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within as an "event"
film, but so far that status has failed to materialize with the
film just two months away. In contrast, Disney's Pearl Harbor
earned its event status as a "must see film" over
five months ago.
Final Fantasy:
The Spirits Within opens on a Wednesday (July 11) and is rated
PG-13 for "sci-fi action violence."
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Negative
Trumpet of the Swan Reviews Continue
(by digitalmediafx.com) Tristar Pictures may be having second
thoughts about the decision to give The Trumpet of the Swan
a limited release in Los Angeles and New York. The animated film,
which was originally suppose to go direct to video, has received
consistent negative reviews. Here are some quotes from recent
reviews:
Pam Sitt
of the Seattle Times - "...The lesson? Don't steal. The
rest of the movie's message gets lost in flat musical numbers
and Saturday-morning-cartoon-quality animation. There's not much
here for adults - no Disney-movie-style humor aimed at teens and
parents - and kids might not find it entertaining enough to sit
through at the theater. Wait for this one to come out on video."
Lou Lumenick
of The New York Post - "Fodder for only the most undemanding
rugrats, The Trumpet of the Swan is a brightly colored
but terminally dull cartoon adaptation of E.B. White's classic
1970 book... The animation, executed mostly in Korea, is as flat
and lackluster as the half-dozen forgettable songs."
Liz Braun
of The Toronto Sun - "Trumpet Of The Swan was
created in an animation style that looks dated in these times
of CG wonder, but that's the least of the movie's problems, especially
as little kids rarely notice that aspect. The real difficulties
lie with a vocal cast inclined to overdo it, the absolute dullness
of the story..."
The Trumpet
of the Swan is currently playing on 125 movie screens, mostly
in Los Angeles and New York.
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News Link
of the Day - Offensive Bugs Bunny 'toons Pulled
According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
"A retrospective
by the Cartoon Network initially intended to feature every Bugs
Bunny cartoon will fall just short of complete. Network executives
have decided not to air a dozen of the animated shorts deemed
too racially charged…"
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