I dug out a picture I took at the WCIT - I think it was the GO Academy booth. They are working with an impressive idea as well and trying to differ from the Saladin formula MDeC is using.
Check out the picture of the figurines: on the right are two versions of Ibn Batutta, the young and the old.
It was refreshing- Ibn Batutta a historical and scientific figure is the lead. From history itself, he has plenty to tell; traversing across the globe and learning cultures and languages of the people he meets. More at Wiki- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta .
I'm thinking a kind of Indiana Jones epic somewhat...A lot adventure, interwoven fact-fiction. The idea is to be more factual in this case of course. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a flop TV series but it made people (like yours truly) more interested to read up on the history portrayed. Similar to frank Miller's 300 - based on a true story, it can make anyone want to at least go to Wikipedia to read up on the stand the 300 Spartans made (Battle of Thermopylae) to defend their land.
And Yes. I agree I do get tired people hyping up on the same old stuff, when there's more out there...Good work after all deserves the due good credit! Here's one to the Batutta team! Kudos to you!
Check out the styling of the characters. Sorry, I forgot the name of the Prof. Dr. in charge of the project. It's been sometiime. I'll dig it out.
NOT really recently (I think it was 25th August, 2008), Les Copaque had a media-industry screening of its upcoming Geng: The Adventure Begins movie (here's a newer link to older preview and here's a newer link). I've been keeping tabs for a while now - animation was my forte' when I was with a tech section- of a local daily newspaper...
Your's truly was there to witness history in the making. The small auditorium at the MDeC HQ was packed to the brim. So far it looks great! What can I say - taking into consideration that this is a first effort. I guess, I should say that after seeing all that the team has gone through, I'm guilty of being a bit more forgiving. But still, I have some things to say, that might be potentially glaring to the avid 3D animation nit-picker - regular audience for a nice animated movie will not ponder too much and will defintely enjoy this marvelous, marvelous movie!
What I still remember though (and this might still change later still during the final cut) is that the movie was still a bit longish. Nizam and gang were all there to take note of the feedback that we all had. Some suggested that the editing needs to be tighter and the removed scenes can be made into a director's cut version on DVD - good idea.
The merchandise is key here people! Like Bill DuBay, used to say when I met him "It's the ancillaries that count. The lunch boxes, the bedsheets etc." Nice guy. Heard he's gone of to Pixar. He's a veteran with comics, Marvel Productions and buddies with Stan 'the Man' Lee. Already Les Copaque, has this in the roadmap. Kudos for them!
Geng: The Adventure Begins to my thinking has something to offer just about everybody in the audience. For good measure I took my kids along as well: my son aged 9 and my daughter aged 4 and my wife for good measure. Note: here's when you will notice that kids will laugh off queue compared to an adult audience. Some people would want to capitalise on these nuances- depends however to whom the movie is tagetted towards to.
My former editor, Ahmad Faiz Daro' Abd. Rahman, now a corp. comm. manager at Petronas, was also there. He noted that some of the scenes needed to be made punchier - true enough. He also suggested to change the character 'Kopek' to another usable name, for obvious reasons 'kopek' is also a slang word used to denote a woman's bust in certain *ahem* parts of the country. Sure enough this was taken note off, however the dilemma now is trying to find another name which will fit into the lip-synching for the word 'kopek' or 'kopet.'
Af for some of the self-inflicted injury or pain displayed by some of the forest creatures, I personally thought they were OK- simply because they were funny and taking into consideration of stretch and squash cartoon concept, they shouldn't be too offensive to animal lovers. They are caused by accidents and self-inflicted due to carelessness etc. Of course those scenes which could potentially cause animal lovers to cringe should be taken out. Can't remember any though.
The scene where the heroes enter the cave and leading in to that scene, a remiscent to several great moments in other movies: think Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom and even yes, the Ring Wraiths in search of Frodo in Lord of The Rings. Still cool though - it is after all a first time effort and using formulas that work will be the right thing to do. Besides, most kids wouldn't have known any better.
Another thing, that I didn't really think too hard about was the characters not changing clothes - suspense of disbelief sustained me enough to just put it away to rest. After all, who has time to change clothes with all the action going on?
The voice acting was actually relatively good and in some cases with regards to the smaller kid characters, I thought were actually really good, especially Upin, Ipin and Raju.
Storyline was engaging enough even if the implementation was in some scenes a bit draggy. However, I was pleased enough that I was surprised still of how certain scenes developed into what was a bit unexpected. Some scenes however, being a veteran *ahem* movie watcher, I was able to fathom the possible outcome - still let's not forget this is mainly for kids anyway.
Sound wasn't there yet as the mastering was not completed yet: sadly enough this still has to be done outside the country. Similarly so stuff like transferring to 2K plates for the final print for cinemas etc. (I might be off a bit on the technical specs, but there you go). Makes you wonder eh? This means local productions still need to be sent to Thailand or some other neighbouring country to make them usable for the local cinemas. Sad isn't it? Oh well, maybe someday someone will want to FINALLY do it and have someone FINALLY support the cost of doing it.
Overall, the boys and girls of Les Copaque did a really fine job transforming the story into great visuals crunched at MIMOS using some heavy duty cluster computing. We are still not where Shrek is, but this is a great start i.e. in comparison say to Singapore's Zodiac movie, I should say. That was of course a few years back...Nizam and the boys, for their age are quite proficient I might add on cinematic principles- I cannot help to be impressed: breaking the 4th wall and Chekov's gun are quite adhered to. Kudos to them and good luck to them!
As it is, I would give it overall 4 1/2 stars out of 5 based on the merits and what I've seen. Just can't wait to see the final cut!
