Even though Mowgli is still starring in a real person, this film still allows us to see the infinite possibility of shooting a live-action movie with zero real people in full CG. Counting last year's Dinosaurs, Disney has made huge strides in special effects recently. It is foreseeable that animated films without human characters such as "The Lion King" will also be able to complete the production of live-action reality in the near future.
In recent years, Disney has focused on making classic animation live-action, and basically every year, a live-action animated film is included in the production and distribution plan of the year. However, at the beginning of the plan, the two children's remake films, "The Wizard of Heaven" and "Maleficent", instantly became negative models. Except for the flashy special effects and the devastating subversive adaptation of the original, they did not leave any extra impressions. On the contrary, "Cinderella" in 2015 learned the lessons of predecessors, respected the original setting and plot, and supplemented it with appropriate special effects. We saw an excellent live-action restoration of the original animation. But Cinderella was too conservative and timid in its adaptation, without making some reasonable changes.
For such live-action films, respecting the original work is the main premise, and reasonable adaptation is the key to outstanding performance. After all, the difference in expression between animation and live-action films has caused differences in expression, and these differences are the opportunity for adaptation. This live-action version of "Fantasy Forest" not only respects Kipling's original work, but also retains the bright children's animation style of "The Forest Prince". This film abandons the dark style of the original work, and is close to the fairy tale color of the animated feature film, but the original feature of animals as human beings has been restored. In terms of the outline of the story, this film is no different from "Prince of the Forest", and has not made any devastating and subversive adaptations. But "Fantasy Forest" as a live-action film builds a complete script and adds many details to make the story more fluid. When the classic jazz-style interlude and ending theme sounded, we saw the director's sincerity and respect for the adaptation of the original work.
Aside from the original factor, what is the biggest attraction of this movie? Of course, except that the actor Mowgli is played by a real person, all the scenes and animals are made by CG, and the powerful motion capture technology also escorts the film. It should be mentioned that Andy Serkis, the first person in motion capture, will also create a live-action version of "The Jungle Book". Presumably by then, the CG production and capture technology will be more exquisite.
If you don't watch the pre-promotion and you haven't been informed in advance, you may not realize that not a single scene in the movie is actually shot, and not a single animal is actually starring in the movie. These virtual live-action scenes are mixed with real character performances, and the picture integration is excellent. The animal hair patterns that are easiest to wear, the motion trajectories of vegetation branches and leaves, and the particle effects of firelight have all achieved a high level of realism. For bears, panthers, tigers, she-wolves and other animals with rich facial expressions and body movements, they rely on motion capture to achieve a convincing and realistic movement and expression effect.
But such a full CG movie is still not perfect. In comparison, the author thinks that "Dinosaurs" is more technically perfect. Anyone who has watched the 3D version in a movie theater can easily find that the brightness of the picture is dim even under IMAX or RealD high-brightness equipment. Even in a scene with sufficient sunlight during the day, you can see that the overall picture tone is dark and the lighting brightness is not high. Perhaps it is to eliminate the fusion marks of real people and CG scenes, and to cover up the inaccurate and rough details of the special effects production. However, the sharp-eyed author still found several very obvious special effects traces, one is water flow, the water pattern effect is particularly unreal, and even the movement trajectory of the water flow is slightly distorted; Under the dim luminous light, Klee and the surrounding CG-produced animals are particularly abrupt, and the synthetic traces are quite obvious.
Without subversive adaptations, plot clichés are inevitable. But the lighthearted and witty plot, bright and compact rhythm, purposeful narrative, as well as jazz and cold humor make this live-action fairy tale of "teenage Tarzan incarnated by Simba the Lion King revenge Scar Sheri Khan" interesting.
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Text:
Shige at noon on April 16, 2016
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