Avary discusses "Beowulf"

email this story
read comments (18)
post a comment

Beowulf producer and co-write Roger Avary, just back from the film's London premiere and international press junket, called to debate the ongoing Beowulf animation issue as I was editing the Paul Thomas Anderson interview earlier this afternoon.

(l. to r.) Gaim, Beowulf director Bob Zemeckis, Avary

I brought up the fact that basing animated human images upon live-action footage -- a Beowulf speed-bump issue for some -- is a technique that goes all the way back to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As I understand it, Disney animators used a primitive form of rotoscoping to make the body language and some of the features of Snow White, the evil queen and the handsome prince seem more life-like.

I said towards the end of our chat that a critic friend who hasn't seen Beowulf confided he wasn't looking forward to the 3D headache syndrome, which Beowulf's IMAX 3D process is absolutely free of. Avary agreed that previous 3D films (the 3D Spy Kids, for one) have definitely been a little rough in this respect. I suggested that the Beowulf newspapers ads should promise a relief from this in so many words -- "No headaches!"

Anderson interview<< previous | next >>Why people cry

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 12, 2007 at 3:55 PM

comment #1

le corbeau says ...

Yes, you can see rotoscoping of the human characters quite clearly in Snow White, although the Disney artists significantly altered what they were drawing over-- the body shape is shortened to reach a more pleasing 5-1 body/head ratio, instead of the 6-1 of most humans.

An even earlier example is, ironically enough, in another Snow White, the one done by the Fleischers in 1933 with Betty Boop and Cab Calloway. Starting at about 4:35 you can see that Koko the Clown's movements are clearly drawn over Calloway's distinctive movements on the bandstand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h-KnBpEKJA

I actually think this is more analogous to what some of these modern motion capture movies are doing than what Disney did-- the movement follows a real person but the imagery on top of that movement is of a sort only animation could pull off and clearly goes far beyond merely tracing the movements to a level of graphic creativity comparable to any other animated technique.

For that reason I think all this talk about rotoscoping is a red herring. Animators have always followed real life examples-- look at stills of Disney animators and they had mirrors attached to their tables so they could study their own expressions-- and what matters is not how they get to the final result but how good the final result is.

Posted by le corbeau at November 12, 2007 5:10 PM

comment #2

T. Holly says ...

Nice elephant on his shirt and who's that Monty Python guy with him?

With the London Premiere, the cat's out of the bag. The characters warmed the cockles of my heart and I found them very memorable, everything cranked and the visuals popped straight at, and over me; the flying gave me motion sickness and I felt like I smoked a dubbie before the movie and was high the whole time. But the history was a bummer; everytime I thought they'd give it to me, they said "fuck you, you don't want that." But I did. What was the religious mural about and why so many crosses later?

And the song, I'm sorry, heroes always don't come home, not even Beowulf, he be died in the movie.

Posted by T. Holly at November 12, 2007 6:04 PM

comment #3

PastePotPete says ...

What?

Posted by PastePotPete at November 13, 2007 12:40 AM

comment #4

JaySmack says ...

T Holly--

Thanks for the unannounced SPOILER, you stinking douchebag. Now why don't you do us all a favor and leave the balcony...by jumping off of it.

Posted by JaySmack at November 13, 2007 3:32 AM

comment #5

Ian Sinclair says ...

T.Holly = card-carrying jerk.

Posted by Ian Sinclair at November 13, 2007 5:58 AM

comment #6

nemo says ...

He's not telling you anything that isn't common knowledge among people who read Beowulf (or the Cliffs Notes) in college. By the way, that other Dane, Hamlet, buys the farm too.

Posted by nemo at November 13, 2007 6:57 AM

comment #7

storymark says ...

Christ, guys. Didn't you go to High School? Beowulf dies. The Titanic sinks. Things don't turn out so well for Romeo and his gal.

You may commence freaking out over common knowlegde, now.

Posted by storymark at November 13, 2007 8:30 AM

comment #8

Ian Sinclair says ...

Beowulf is only taught in American high schools. Believe it or not, America is not the only country in the world.

Posted by Ian Sinclair at November 13, 2007 8:38 AM

comment #9

le corbeau says ...

I'm pretty dogmatically anti-spoiler but even I think complaining that someone spoiled the ending of something you've had 900 years to read is silly.

Oh well, I'm sure there were folks shocked that the Spartans didn't actually defeat the Persians in 300, too.

Posted by le corbeau at November 13, 2007 8:43 AM

comment #10

T. Holly says ...

Honeycutt: "his fatal confrontation with..."

Grace Phillips ("Grace is Gone") doesn't come home, should her daughters see "Beowulf?" Let's ask a feminist next.

Posted by T. Holly at November 13, 2007 9:03 AM

comment #11

Bocephus says ...

Beowulf is only taught in American Schools? I find that very hard to believe.

Posted by Bocephus at November 13, 2007 11:33 AM

comment #12

Ian Sinclair says ...

It's one of those wacky only-in-America things, like not pronouncing the letter h in herb.

Posted by Ian Sinclair at November 13, 2007 11:46 AM

comment #13

T. Holly says ...

Ian, why don't you smack around Kurt Honeycutt, who wrote your beloved review, for revealing who he died in battle with. They have talk back at the Hollywood Reporter.

Posted by T. Holly at November 13, 2007 11:52 AM

comment #14