RIO 2!

Rio was an animated kids movie that was released back in 2011. The story line is about a rare species of bird, named Blu, that was a very comfortable in his pet like lifestyle and pampering. Blu was thought to be one of the only few of his kind along with another bird named Jewel. Blu and his owner fly to Rio where Jewel and her owner live so the birds can breed. Long story short, the birds almost get stolen, escape from the thieves, fall in love and return to their owners. The movie is cute and comedic for all ages. The characters are all voiced by some pretty well known funny people like; Jamie Foxx, Ann Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg to name a few.
This coming April, the sequel is going to be released and I am way too excited. The rare lover birds have kids now and are on their way to find more of their kind! I think all the colors and the animation in the movies are very impressive. I would say that this is one movie that is going to take children's animated films up a notch! Twentieth Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios collaborated for both films and have made some amazing work.

Epic

The creator's of Ice Age and Rio are coming out with a new 3D animated film called Epic. The stars who are voices the characters include Aziz Ansari, Christoph Waltz, and Beyonce. Yep I said it, Beyonce. Beyonce voices Queen Tara, who is trying to protect the forest against evil creatures. The film is based the children's book the Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.  The rest of the cast is pretty impressive and it hopefully will be as good as it looks! For some reason I haven't heard much about it but if it's as good as Ice Age was then I bet it will be great.

An Animation Thanksgiving

I have found a new love for anything animated. One of my all-time favorite shows has always been Family Guy, but I have taken this love to movies now. I spend a considerable amount of time watching new shows and movies on my parents new TV. I was able to plug an HDMI cord right into their laptop and watch anything on Netflix in full HD. Before my friends got back into town I spent my first night home watching one of the best animated movies I've ever seen, Tangled.
After watching this movie, I was amazed that the transition from 2D animated classics, like Aladdin and the Lion King, to what is now 3D animation like Tangled. The colors and life-like motions within the world of this movie were very realistic. This is because the Director, Byron Howard, and Head of Story, Nathan Greno, wanted to take the classic Disney movie look and put an entirely new twist on it.

Art Director of the film, David Goetz, states that, “When you look at old [Disney] movies, you can see that they’re consistent about using these shapes to compose with. That gives the shows a visual continuity, a grace and flow. So, we tried to leverage off that.”

He is referring to what they took from the classic 2D animated Disney movies. They wanted to use the elegance of the classics and but the most realistic touch in the new 3D world. That involved making grass and wood look like real grass and wood. The main challenge was Rapunzel's hair. She uses her hair in this movie like a second pair of hands. This was a challenge for the producers to make the hair flow in a realistic way when she is whipping it all around fighting off enemies and transporting herself around her tower.



Overall I was blown away at the realism and work that was done for this movie. With the use of 40 different animators and even more in higher ranks than that. So far this is tied for my favorite animated movie with the new film Rio. I suggest to watch these back to back because the new advances in 3D animation and the use of CGI with literally blow your mind. My next animated movies to watch are Gnomeo and Juliet, Bolt, and Up.