posted
I know this has been done on posts before, but I just started watching the new Star Wars Clone Wars series... well not that new. If the full Ender universe cannot come alive on screen, perhaps in a few years when this sort of computer animation is perfected... let's guess 3 to 5, how about bringing Ender to the masses that way.... Just a thought from a loyal fan.
Posts: 3 | Registered: May 2009
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posted
Just to clarify, please watch in 1080 res... it's a world of difference.
Posts: 3 | Registered: May 2009
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
While I like the Clone Wars I feel that its animation is too light hearted and cartoony to do EG justice and would prefer something along the lines of Appleseed blend of japanese styled animation and cgi.
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posted
Card specifically stated that while he DOES think Pixar-level animation is great and perfectly expressive, he wants to wait until CGI has mastered rendering emotion on a fully realistic human being before it would be used for Ender.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
The problem with animation is not so much to do with emotion as it is to do with audience.
You can animate very clear expressions with CGI. That is, if you stay on the left side of the uncanny valley. If you try to make realistic human models, they will probably strike the viewer as inhuman.
That's why most good 3D animated features that star human characters are stylistic (The Incredibles, Up, How to Train Your Dragon, etc) instead of realistic (The Polar Express). It has been demonstrated in these films that you can animate expressively with cartoony characters.
The problem with doing something like that with Ender's Game would be that it would make everyone think it's a kid's movie.
No, that's not a fair prejudice about animation, but it is a real, existing one. It will not be easy to market a movie with a huge child-actor cast about playing games in space, which happens to be animated, as the deep, thoughtful, and very adult story that Ender's Game is.
Either wait a few years for the animation tech to get to a level of realism past the uncanny valley or wait a few years for public perception of the niche of animation to change.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
It's also a matter of what style is demanded by the story, and if stylization is appropriate for the that. I tend to think stylization is not called for by the novel, and would be a bad decision for a potential film, partly because it would undercut the seriousness and closeness of the material to the human condition- if you place the peril of the story across the uncanny valley, it matters less to the audience. But then, same problem with realism that isn't *really* realistic.
I've always been in favor of an EG CGI movie though- I think it's the perfect film to be made as part of an advancement of film technology in the area of animating realistic human beings. I'm also in favor of it because I think the potential for a disaster with child actors is very, very high. I remember when OSC announced that the live action Peter Pan was his wish for a model for casting Ender's Game. If an EG movie had casting like that, it wouldn't work. Children can act in fantasy movies, but Ender's Game is not fantasy- it doesn't demand only that children react predictably to unusual situations- it demands subtlety and poise that is extremely rare.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
While I would rather see EG as a live action movie. I think some of stories in surrounding EG universe could be told through CGI. I think it would serves as a great gateway into pushing a studio to greenlight the live action movie.
quote:Originally posted by matmabro: I know this has been done on posts before, but I just started watching the new Star Wars Clone Wars series... well not that new. If the full Ender universe cannot come alive on screen, perhaps in a few years when this sort of computer animation is perfected... let's guess 3 to 5, how about bringing Ender to the masses that way.... Just a thought from a loyal fan.
"Ender's Game" can, and in my opinion should, be an animated film. Not Pixar-esque or CGI but traditional, hand drawn animation. And without any Japanese influence. It could be a great and beautiful way to do the novel justice.
Posts: 83 | Registered: Apr 2010
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posted
Animators generally don't try to make their characters incredibly realistic because people are incredibly good at picking up all the human subtleties that are difficult to animate. The end product ends up being pretty creepy. This is why most animations are intentionally 'cartooney' (despite the obvious fact that they're geared for a younger audience). For example, a common stylistic approach to portraying humans in animation is to have an incredibly large head, skinny limbs and neck, and fluid motion.
I agree that Ender's game should look anything but childish. It wouldn't appeal to adults as much, and I hate to think of all the young children that could be mistakenly dragged into it and either became disturbed by it (for not everybody is as strong as Ender!) or totally misinterpret the message. But should look simple enough that the audience finds it pleasant to look at and still be able to connect it to the intense emotions that the book triggers. I wouldn't like to see it as a life-action movie, however, mainly because I don't want to see a real person portraying Ender in a different way than how he's existed in my imagination.
On a practical level, how would a director portray the thoughts that Ender has in the Battle School? His depth of thinking would be too hard for any child actor to show nonverbally, so would he narrate his thoughts?
Posts: 47 | Registered: Mar 2010
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