Star Wars Wampa stopmotion

Jim (aka Fantamation) from TheRPF started out re-creating a Stopmotion puppet of Luke Skywalker riding his Tauntaun from The Empire Strikes Back (shown here).

From there, he was inspired to film the puppet in Stopmotion, but needed to create a scene. So, he decided to recreate the scene of the Wampa killing the Tauntaun, but from a wide shot.

He set to work creating a armature, sculpting the face and hands for the Wampa, and padding a body, Jim had his new puppet. After a couple of days of animating his puppets and a couple of weeks of clean up and effects, he has a
Finished video = Vimeo.com password "fantamation"

Here is the clip inserted into the film: Empire Strikes Back Additional Wampa Footage

photos by Jim (Fantamation) and Kevin (OTnROTSfan)

ParaNorman Movie Review

OK, I watched the movie opening night, and had to get to the theater a half hour before it started to make sure I have a good seat. I ended up walking straight into the theater, and was the first on there. Great, I could choose any seat I wanted. I was kind of surprised that no one else was there, but suspected that the theater would become more packed as the time went by. As the last half hour ticket by, maybe 5 other couples or families showed. That was it. The theater was bare. It could have been that it was the 3D showing, and parents didn't want to fork over the extra cash for it. It could have been the time slot, that parents where taking their kids to see a late showing. Whatever the reason, the turn out, was less than I expected. The movie had a great moral, of trying to teach kids that being weird is OK, and it was very anti-bullying, and over all wanted to get the point across that we should treat everyone with kindness and respect no matter their differences. That aside, I am not sure how I left about the movie as a whole. The visuals where great, the animation was fantastic, the world style was a little bit, well, I guess distracting. You could say that everything felt off, or weird. And that very well could be what they were going for. But, like I said, it was distracting for me. I left the theater thinking that I am going to have to see it again, not because I loved it and cannot wait to see it again, but because I need to come at it with a different mind set. Maybe it's a movie that has to grow on you. Like Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. I wasn't a fan the first time I watched it, but the more I did, the more I grew to love it. Now, if I had to compare it to Coraline, I would vote Coraline was a better film. Oh, the other thought I had, was that ParaNorman is, in my opinion, a Halloween flick. It should have been released in October. Everything about it gave off 'Halloween' to me. I think it may have had a better turn out if it was released in October.

Got my Tickets

Purchased my tickets and got my 3D glasses. I will use another pair of 3D glasses so I can keep my ParaNorman glasses sealed in the plastic.

ParaNorman Foamposite Nike Contest

Contest alert, on the ParaNorman website, there is a link for a contest to win limited edition Nike Shoes. Go to Here for details. First, you need a twitter account. Second, FOLLOW @PARANORMAN. Last tweet a photo of yourself as a kid showing how weird of a kid you where with the caption #WEIRDWINS PARANORMAN FOAMPOSITES. I'm going to have to start digging through my old photos. Missed out on the Nike Dunks during the Coraline release, hopefully I can get a pair of these.

ParaNorman Trailer Review

I saw this trailer in theaters and was excited to see a longer trailer than the teaser. It got me really excited to see it, however I over heard a little boy some rows behind me say something like "Let's not see that one, too scary." The parents laughed, and said "OK, we wont see that one" Now I know that the writer was trying to make a zombie film for kids:
 
but since hearing that response from a kid, I got to thinking, are parents going to take their children to see ParaNorman?
Personally, I love Coraline, read the book maybe three or four times back to back, and I am a huge sucker for all things stop-motion, so I am definitely going to see this film, in 3D and will probably love it too. I can see lots of other stop-motion animation nuts seeing it as well. But this film is kind of geared towards kids, and like so many films that are, they always seem to have a few adult themes that are too intense for young kids to handle. For instance my sister who has young children, felt Coraline was too scary for her kids to watch. She also has an edited version of Wall-E 'cause of some scenes where too emotional for the kids (aka they couldn't watch the scene without crying). Having a child cry in emotional pain cause they are too sad, or 'cause they are too scared isn't what a parent wants in a film they show to their kids. I think I had this same feeling about the movie Rango, while I enjoyed the film, I felt it too scary for kids.
All that said, parents should always screen shows and movies before letting their kids see it so they know what to expect, and can judge weather the show is appropriate for their kid or not.

More ParaNorman

The movie comes out this Friday, and I am getting more and more excited about it. In my search for all things ParaNorman I have come across some fun little collectibles. First, is the set of 8 figures that were sold at Comic-Con, that you may be able to get now on eBay. It looks like the also handed out a pumper sticker, buttons, and other little odds and ends.
The second set of stuff are the Free Promo posters that where put up around town. I assume that if you found them, you could take a poster for yourself. These too are popping up on eBay.
Third is the Promotional Contest Giveaways that come with various cool odds and ends. Then there are the little miscellaneous things such as a Hotel Door key, Movie film cells, Theater cups and carriers,

ParaNorman Commercials

I just saw these commercials online and love them. Check out ParaNorman's youtube page for more videos, Here

49 ParaNorman Mystery Boxes

Crates are starting to be shipped out to Laika's favorite bloggers to promote the new upcoming ParaNorman film. I gotta say, as the date creeps nearer and nearer I am getting more excited to see this movie. This marketing campaign is being done by Wieden+Kennedy, the same company that did the marketing for Coraline.

I think I figured out the numbers, there are seven pilgrims, so there are seven coffins for each, that's seven x seven for 49 total crates. That said, crates 1-7 should be Eban Hardwick, crates 8-14 would be Blackton, crates 15-21 are Lemuel Spalding, crates 22-28 are Amelia, crates 29-35 are Goodie Temper, crates 36-42 are Wile London, crates 43-49 are Judge Hopkins.

Mystery Boxes that Have popped up online:
? 1 of 49 Eben Hardwick
Neil Gaiman 2 of 49 Eben Hardwick
Super Punch 3 of 49 Eben Hardwick
Jonathan Coulton 4 of 49 Eben Hardwick
? 5 of 49 Eben Hardwick
? 6 of 49 Eben Hardwick
? 7 of 49 Eben Hardwick
Kevin Smith 8 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton
? 9 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton
? 10 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton
Bonnie Burton 11 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton
Tomopop 12 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton
? 13 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton
? 14 of 49 Thaddeus Blackton (at 48 min. mark)
Feliciaday 15 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
? 16 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
Gareth Branwyn 17 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
NotCot 18 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
Justine iJ Live  19 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
BoingBoing 20 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
? 21 of 49 Lemuel Spalding
Revision3 22 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
? 23 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
? 24 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
Neatorama 25 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
? 26 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
Beatonna 27 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
? 28 of 49 Amelia Wilcot
? 29 of 49 Goodie Temper
Amy Knitty 30 of 49 Goodie Temper
Skottie Young 31 of 49 Goodie Temper
The Mary Sue 32 of 49 Goodie Temper
Geek Femme 33 of 49 Goodie Temper
? 34 of 49 Goodie Temper
? 35 of 49 Goodie Temper
? 36 of 49 Will London
Jane 37 of 49 Will London
? 38 of 49 Will London
? 39 of 49 Will London
Jessica Zollman 40 of 49 Will London
? 41 of 49 Will London
? 42 of 49 Will London
? 43 of 49 Judge Hopkins
? 44 of 49 Judge Hopkins
? 45 of 49 Judge Hopkins
? 46 of 49 Judge Hopkins
Ryan North 47 of 49 Judge Hopkins
? 48 of 49 Judge Hopkins
? 49 of 49 Judge Hopkins

Going to keep my eye on Ebay in case W+K sells a crate for the Starlight Foundation again

3D printing at Shapeways.com

I am drafting up some droids and other items that I am going to use for my Diorama in solid 3D. I came across Shapeways.com that will print out or model. I just uploaded an .stl file that was quickly added to My Models section, with a price quote on how much it would be to print in the material that I selected. Well, to give it a go, I had a few things printed out. First are the Landing lights


Now I have some 3D droids

ESB Star Wars Stage Diorama

Apart from Stopmotion, another obsession of mine is the Original Unaltered Trilogy of Star Wars. I came across a blueprint of Echo Base's Hangar that was constructed on the Star Wars Stage for The Empire Strikes Back, and was inspired to create a diorama. I have been working on it off and on since March of this year. The amount of detail that I hope to incorporate into this diorama is going to make the build a long and slow process. I will be using a variety of methods to construct it, from pattern making, cutting wood, scratch building, model making, and 3D printing. I look forward to seeing it completed but am also enjoying the journey. It is my first diorama, and has its fair share of flaws and imperfections, but when all said an done I think it will really shine. You can follow the progress on The Replica Prop Forum Here.

Happy Birthday to me

For my Birthday, my Sister made me a Coraline themed gift box. It contained a Little me, of me, some peanut butter cookies shaped like buttons, a home made button skeleton key, my own Other-Mother card with gift box. If you go to her blog, there are more photos and a description of how she made it all. Get the Coraline Little me Doll here

Frankenweenie Trailer

The Frankenweenie Trailer is up. It is a must see for me, but I am noticing a little too close similarities to Burton's previous features that is a bit distracting for the time being. The boy reminds me too much of Victor from Corpse Bride, and the dog is a spitting image of the Amazing Story 'Family Dog''. But you have to expect that from Tim Burton's films. He reuses actors like he reuses designs. It's his style. I'am not sure if saying "From the Director of Alice in Wonderland" means a whole lot. I mean, it opened in theaters pretty strong, but in the end, it just barely broke even domestically, but it's Disney.

The Other Pink Palace North Elevation

OK, I think this would be the North Elevation of the Pink Palace. It's the back of the house that leads to garden. I cannot be sure as there is no official North, but if you use the Map on the official web site and assume that the top the the screen is North... Anyways, I used a behind the scenes photo of this side of the house to draw it up in Microstation to scale. I cannot recall if I finished, as it has been a long while since I last worked on this Elevation, but I believe it's done. My goal is to draw up the entire Pink Palace and build a miniature 'doll house' of it. It may be pipe dream, but it is a dream none the less. In previous posts I presented a rough layout of the first floor of the house. It wasn't accurate as far as dimensions, but it was a starting point. I will continue to refine the drawing little at a time when I have the time. Currently, I am pleased with how it is coming out.

Happy Anniversary Coraline

OK, it may not be official or anything, but it is the 3 year Anniversary of the release date of Coraline in theaters. I received the Collectors Edition box for Christmas this year. It is definitely something to add to the collection for the die-hard fan, but for the average fan, the normal Blu-Ray would suffice. What I liked about this gift set was the little book and the four post cards. The other little bonus was the new Disc images. But the thrills stop there. The discs are stored in cardboard sleeves, and with regular use can only mean wear and tear on your discs. There are no extra special features or added bonus discs that would have made this gift awesome. You just get a large box (which takes up too much room on my shelf), with a cool 3D image on front, a pull out drawer with your loose discs, four post cards (that will never be used as such) and a little booklet that covers everything that you learn from watching the special features. The 3D glasses is nothing special, as you get them with the regular set. So, a little disappointing in the end. I have thought about switching out these discs with the ones in my original set as I like the new images that much better.
The only disc set that I don't own is the new 3D version (not the one with the blue and red 3D glasses, the OTHER-3D Version). It would be worth getting a 3D TV and blu-ray just to watch this again in its original 3D.