Public Commander Keen Forum

So one of the benefits of belonging to a playgroup is that you occasionally get to see things that pass the mainstream by. I saw the movie Igor literally years before it came out on DVD here and I don't know if it was ever released in theaters.

Today I saw another interesting little gem when we had a group showing of a movie called The Magic Roundabout, apparently based on an old kids series.

How to describe this movie? The plot is started when a sugar addicted dog crashes a motorcycle into a magic carousel and frees and evil jack in the box who's been imprisoned there ten thousand years. One of the characters is a talking train that only we can actually hear.

Oh, and at one point the bad guy rips the diamond heart out of another character's chest. There's also a rabbit name Dylan (after the singer) who is told at one point that they 'don't have time to experiment with recreational activities' when he mentions he has something 'stashed away'.

It's quite... unique.


It would have been more popular I am sure but there was one snag. An American redub. This inserted the much needed American voices and poop jokes while carefully cutting out that extraneous stuff that required you to think.

If you ever see the original release somewhere, it's worth a squizz.

My mum remembers the magic roundabout - the show really is rather old and I've grown up knowing about it but not seeing it.

I did however see the new version of the Magic Roundabout a few years back and bloody hell, it's appalling.

But wow, that movie sounds... wow.

I have found out that the BBC's English series made no sense... because they didn't pay for the French scripts and so just made up plot as they went along. (Well... the cow is riding something... maybe she thinks she's a bus? Yeah. That sounds good.)

Someone's also put the movie up online. I think this is it here. If it's the American version, bleah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl0sJcIk8YE

Levellass wrote:I have found out that the BBC's English series made no sense... because they didn't pay for the French scripts and so just made up plot as they went along. (Well... the cow is riding something... maybe she thinks she's a bus? Yeah. That sounds good.)

Someone's also put the movie up online. I think this is it here. If it's the American version, bleah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl0sJcIk8YE

In some cases it makes it even more funny.

For example "Most eXtreme elimination Challenge" or MXC for short

I swear, it's like the forerunner of the youtube poop.

"This video contains content from The Weinstein Co., EMI Music Publishing and EMI, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
Errghhh! Revenge of the Rickrolling

I saw some of it from another video though.

The dubbing definitely didn't make sense, though I daresay when I was younger it might have

The Weinstein Co.

off topic, but what the hell is the deal with those weinstein guys?? they're involved in everything! damn near every movie i see and show I see has the weinstein guys as producers or whatever.

Well, you know how a single chicken company controls over half the chicken in the US? And how a single Chinese-owned company controls a third of the pork?

Well its like that for movie companies too. Bigger eats smaller. Those who buck the trend are punished. (This is why the special effects company that worked on Life Of Pi is now bankrupt.)

Levellass wrote:(This is why the special effects company that worked on Life Of Pi is now bankrupt.)

oh really? i didnt know. that tiger in the movie looked great.

I think I actually saw that movie. It was pretty damn crazy indeed.

I thoroughly enjoyed Life of Pi, damn good movie. Sad to hear about the CG company going bankrupt.

Oh it's even more cruel than that.

You see CG companies are quite literally bottom of the heap in Hollywood. If you kill one, you go and get another, no tears shed. So it is that when Bill Westenhofer was doing his acceptance speech for these very special effects he:

'thanked Rhythm & Hues, which he said was experiencing “severe financial difficulties.” He didn’t get a chance to expound upon the difficulties plaguing the visual-effects industry, which has so far seen two bankruptcy filings, as the ominous chords of the theme from “Jaws” sounded to play him off the stage.'


In other words, 'Shut the hell up lackey, we don't want to hear your sob story.' http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2013/02 ... shout-out/


And that's actually a pretty nice ending, you don't want to hear what happens if the company goes bankrupt *before* the movie is finished.

Levellass wrote:you don't want to hear what happens if the company goes bankrupt *before* the movie is finished.

oh I think we do
i'm guessing the workers don't care anymore and just do whatever bullcrap effects in there that they want. like the tiger in the Life of Pi will just be a badly polygonic sphere. that'll be cool.

Nope.

According to the most common arrangement, "fixed fee," after a certain amount of takes, the VFX guys are forced to cover the costs. What this means is that the studio agrees to pay you X, if the movie costs more than X you HAVE to keep going or be prosecuted even as continuing wrecks your company and sends you into debt. This also means that if you do succeed and the movie makes billions... tough. You've already been paid your fee, go away.

As neat sum of all this is given here: http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/t ... n-air-snub