Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/5474
movie was really fun. "When you have a vi- sual eff ects supervisor who is the director, he'll have a good handle on the eff ects," he says. "I thought the execution looked good on all accounts. e stereo is always a little trickier than the traditional 2D approach, so that adds another layer of complexity—but they pulled it off . Hoyt is an amazing VFX supervisor." Fink also believes the fi lm looked "really good." " ose little critters were beautifully created, integrated with the scene, and beauti- fully lit," he says. "As a live-action fi lm with CG characters, there is a lot of work that goes into that. Hoyt did a fantastic job." Tay- lor agrees. "Hoyt is a good artist and crafts- man. e characters were well realized and hit their poses strong, which worked well for the fi lm," he says. "And, it was funny." Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Release date: July 1 Production company: Blue Sky Entertainment is third feature in the animated Ice Age series is all about family: Scrat is sniffi ng out a possible romance with a female saber-toothed squirrel. Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby, and Sid begins to wish for a family of his own. He steals some dinosaur eggs, which leads him to an underground world from which his herd must rescue him. Not everyone loves a sequel, but Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs has avid fans among VFX supervisors—and was the highest gross- ing animated fi lm internationally, according to Beck. "I loved it, I loved it," says Wild. " e stereoscopic eff ects were fantastic, up to the end credits. ey had physical humor for the younger kids and very well developed charac- ters. It was interesting and engaging for more mature audiences, as well. I liked how the ren- der worked and how it evolved from the earlier two Ice Age movies. ere is a lot more detail in the characters now, much more lush envi- ronments, but they also created a look that is unique from their studio, just as Pixar has." Collins Carey also loved Ice Age. "Again, the story carried it," she says. "It was just fl awless. Everything about it was good." Monsters vs. Aliens Release date: March 27 Production company: DreamWorks Animation e title says it all: When a meteorite from outer space hits a young California woman and turns her into a giant monster, she is taken to a secret government compound where she meets a group of fellow monsters that have been rounded up over the years by the govern- ment. On orders from the president, they're all called into action to combat marauding aliens and save the world. Barnes, who has a passion for 1950s and 1960s sci-fi , loved it this CG movie. "I thought it was fun and well executed," he says. Okun also really liked Monsters vs. Aliens. "It always goes back to the story," he says. " ey had a lot of visual eff ects in it—the kind that only we practitioners of VFX could see. e story was good and playful. e lighting, the characters, the story … everything was good. It was enjoy- able all the way through." Up Release date: May 29 (wide release) Production companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios is CG Pixar fi lm has romance, adventure, and it's in 3D. It tells the story of a young Carl who meets and marries Ellie; together they dream of going to a lost land in South Ameri- ca. Once Ellie dies, Carl keeps his promise by tying enough balloons on his old house to take it aloft. He has a stowaway 8-year-old boy try- ing to get a scout badge by assisting the elderly, and the two unlikely companions encounter talking dogs, an evil villain, and a rare bird on their adventures. Who doesn't love a Pixar fi lm? Audiences loved Up, and so do the animation and visual eff ects pros. Beck notes that Up is clearly the front-runner. "It's a poignant, wonderful ad- venture fi lm from Pixar," he says. "No one can dispute the quality. e fi rst 10 minutes are classic fi lmmaking. As usual from Pixar, it's a beautiful-looking fi lm. It looks like paint- ings come to life, and it has heart. We love the characters, and all the characters were there for a reason." " e palette continues to amaze me," adds Mowbray. "If you look at the environments that Pixar builds nowadays, they could pretty much work in a live-action setting, and that's saying a lot, because so much goes into an en- vironmental setting in 3D. And they bring a stylization to an environment that works as a fully immersive and realistic environment." Collins Carey points out that she was most impressed with the animation camera work. " e environment is part of the movie, as op- posed to just the characters," she says. "It's a hurdle to use wide cameras and vistas, and still feel attached to your characters. ey crossed it, and it was beautiful." Pryor loved the humor and the heart-wrenching story with so many well-timed laughs. "From a visual eff ects point of view, you can't beat Pixar," he says. " ey've gotten to the point where you feel like you're looking at physical objects captured in camera, due to composition, lighting, textures, all the technical things. ey're absolutely fl awless, and it's a very pleasing eff ect." ■ Debra Kaufman is a freelance writer for numerous entertainment industry publications. She also writes about content for mobile devices at www.MobilizedTV.com. She can be reached at dkla99@verizon.net. Disney/Pixar's Up (above, left) takes audiences on a breathtaking adventure in that is shown in three dimensions, marking a fi rst for a Pixar movie. While 3D stereo is not new to DreamWorks, its Monsters vs. Aliens (above, right) was the fi rst movie that the studio authored in the medium from the beginning. OSCAR PREVIEW December 2009 36