Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!

The Movie...
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Directed By...
Nick Park / Steve Box

Starring (Voice Talents)...
Peter Sallis (Wallace)
Helena Bonham Carter (Lady Tottingham)
Ralph Fiennes (Victor Quartermaine)

The Story...
The cheese-loving Wallace and his ever faithful dog Gromit - the much-loved duo from Aardman's Oscar-winning clay-animated "Wallace and Gromit" shorts - star in an all new comedy adventure, marking their first full-length feature film.

It's 'vege-mania' in Wallace and Gromit's neighbourhood, and our two enterprising chums are chasing in with their humane pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto." With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a "humane" pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their west Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits.

Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington's snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who's rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero - not to mention Lady Tottington's hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor's real intent could have dire consequences for her...and our two heroes.

Official Website: http://www.WandG.com

Some Facts You May Not Know About W&G...

• 1989: The original W&G titled "A Grand Day Out", in the form of clay-animated short film comedy, was created by Nick Park. It was Park's graduate project when he was a student at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England. It was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Short in 1990.
• 1994: Park's 2nd W&G film, "The Wrong Trousers", won the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short.
• 1996: Park's 3rd W&G short "A Close Shave" earned him yet another Oscar®.
• "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is W&G's first full-length feature film, and primarily a 3D animation made up of a combination of computer animation and clay animation.
• It took 5 years of solid work to complete this 85-minute feature.
• All characters are molded from a special blend of Plasticine, which is slightly more durable than ordinary Plasticine. However, constant resculpting had to be done.
• The characters' hair and clothing are molded and hand painted on each individual puppet.
• You can see the fingerprints. It tells you they are real.They are tangible.
• Every character had to be duplicated in different poses and in various costumes. E.g. Wallace had 35 versions; Lady Tottington & Victor had over a dozen versions.
• In addition, there had to be an assortment of interchangeable and replaceable parts for each puppet, ranging from eyes and ears to heads and hands to mouths.
• A team of 30 animators spent over 2 years to make the puppets "perform", by moving the puppets themselves and capturing into frames.
• Gromit (the dog) had no mouth. His expressions had to be depended on brows, eyes and body.

$ Worth Spending $...
S$9.50 (Definitely worth the weekend price!)

In Singapore Cinemas...
29 December 2005

This Rush...

I cannot contain my excitement. About tonight. Not because I’m going to the Gala Premiere of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.

In fact, I’ve been feeling excited the past week. Some events have made me look forward to attending them. I can’t say in details. For there are certain few individuals who may read this blog and who will know what I’m talking about. They can’t know..... as yet.

It’s been a while since I felt this rush of thrill. I simply have to get it out... somewhere... somehow...

And hence this post.

Movie: The Myth 神話

The Movie...
The Myth 神話

Directed By...
Stanley Tong 唐季禮

Starring...
Jackie Chan 成龍 (HK)
Kim Hee Sun 金喜善 (Korea)
Tony Leung Ka Fai 梁家輝 (HK)
Mallika Sherawat (India)

Look Out For...
** Jackie's transition between present and ancient times.
** Jackie's super cool luxury boat-house (with mini golf course!).
** Korean top beauty Kim Hee Sun's porcelain/snow-like skin.
** Cheesy-looking branding of "EMPEROR" (producer of this movie) in the ending scene as the camera slowly zooms out
BUT... MOST IMPORTANTLY...
** Indian sexy bomb Mallika Sherawat's MELON-SIZED BOOBS!

$ Worth Spending $...
S$9.50 for movie ticket

In Singapore Cinemas...
23 September 2005

My Thoughts After Watching...
An interesting combination, I find... to pair Jackie Chan with Kim Hee Sun. It's a case of yellowish-wrinkled-skin versus snowy-fair-almost-flawless-supple-looking-skin. A refreshing story, about a modern-day archaeologist who often dreams about himself as an ancient warrior in Qin dynasty, protecting a princess (whom he later falls in love with) betrothed to Emperor Qin. Transitions between modern and ancient times are smoothly and smartly done. First 2/3 of the movie keeps me wanting more, until towards the end, the part where a horde of people (good guys and baddies) starts flying around in the air. Somewhat cheesy, but acceptable. During one of the fighting scenes, a colleague commented that Jackie's movements seemed less swift now. Perhaps age is really catching up.

Movie: Brothers Grimm

The Movie...
Brothers Grimm

Directed By...
Terry Gilliam

Starring...
Matt Damon
Heath Ledger
Lena Headey
Jonathan Pryce
Peter Stormare
Monica Bellucci

Look Out For...
** Little Red Riding Hood
** Gingerbread Man
** Rapunzel
** Hansel & Gretel
** Grandmother Toad (kissed by Matt Damon)
** Old lady selling a red apple
** The reawakening kiss from "Prince" to "Snow White"
** The ever-so-familiar line, "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"
... AND LASTLY...
*** Evil queen's deep cleavage!!!

$ Worth Spending $...
Not more than S$8.50 (meaning avoid weekend pricing)

In Singapore Cinemas...
End September / Early October 2005

My Thoughts After Watching...
Heath Ledger is such a cutie and hotie!!! *AHEM* Ok seriously... I carried high hopes prior to the movie screening, but left the theatre hall feeling somewhat unfulfilled. A big production it sure is - with Hollywood's A-list actors as leads, and a whole lot of computer graphics and special effects to make up the enchanted forest. However, at some points, I kinda got bored and almost fell asleep, especially the French-speaking-in-horrible-French-accented-English chunks. Without any aiding subtitles, I could hardly understand those conversations! But all's not lost. It's still a watchable movie because the story weaves in a number of familiar fairytales that you and I grew up with. My favourite is the Gingerbread Man part, although that scene doesn't make much sense... Haha...

The Answer... and The Maid 女傭

CORRECT~!!! The answer's "RAINTREE"~!!!

Haha... apologies for the awfully long wait... Has your neck turned long yet~? And your coming back to this page is very much appreciated~!

You must be wondering why on earth did I give such a dumb question with a dumb answer... Well, I've recently left my previous entertainment-related company FLY Entertainment to join yet another media-related company MediaCorp Raintree Pictures. Yes we produce and distribute movies.

To my fans out there (if I have any, that is.. haha~)... not to worry, I am still hosting on Y.E.S 933 on weekends.

Since my first day at Raintree Pictures 2 months ago, I've been busy. My first movie project was Seven Swords 七劍. Followed by The Maid 女傭.

I bet many of you are familiar with The Maid 女傭 from these publicity stunts:

• Eerie sounding movie trailers that are seen so very often on Channel U and TV Mobile (apparently, it scared the hell outta kids, I heard)
• Mannequin dressed in red Chinese traditional wedding costume (Plaza Singapura Level 7)
• Life-sized sticker decals in the toilets (Plaza Singapura Level 7)
• Wedding procession (bride in red Chinese traditional wedding costume and red veil + 2 male servants carrying big paper lanterns) along Orchard Road
• Free screening of The Maid 女傭 for maids in Singapore, at Shaw Beach Road

To be honest, we've received complaints, especially about the toilet sticker decals. For all I know, you may be one of the people who had been cursing and swearing. But hey, at least we've been successful in one thing, that is to raise awareness of the movie amongst the general public! Any kind of publicity is good publicity.

But more importantly, the movie has become one of the most successful Raintree movies ever. Since its release on 18 August 2005, it's hit a high of S$2mil in Singapore box office and is the most watched movie for three weeks in a row! Not to mention, it's broken horror movie opening week records in Singapore box office, beating The Eye 2, Sixth Sense, Ju-On, Shutter, The Ring, etc.

The latest breaking news is that, international sales house Fortissimo has picked up world sales rights for The Maid 女傭, and will be released in American Film Market this November, afterwhich it will be shown on screens internationally~! Even Brad Pitt has expressed interest in remaking this movie. This is certainly a FIRST for a Singapore film~!

So, have you watched The Maid 女傭 yet~?