DOES THE FUTURE OF MOVIES LIE IN THE HANDS OF TECHNOLOGY?

Are advanced animation and computer generated images set to take over our screens?

It is telling that one of this summer’s biggest hits was Stuart Little, a movie with a computer-generated mouse as its lead character.  Another huge success was Chicken Run, with its entirely plasticine cast.  And who could forget the hysteria that is Pokemon.  After digitally creating the impressive yet irritating Jar Jar Binks for Star Wars: Episode One, George Lucas has recently announced that R2D2 will be completely computer generated in the next instalment.  Is this what can be expected in the future of movies – entire casts of digital or animated characters with no flesh and blood in sight.

Although perhaps a sweeping statement, there is reason to see this as an entirely feasible prophecy.  Disney movies have been hugely popular for decades, and each new release showcases vastly improved animation techniques and increasingly realistic characters and locations. Compare Tarzan to Sleeping Beauty and you’ll see what I mean. Voices may be provided by recognised human actors, but Disney movies are ingenious and successful animations in their own right.  However, it may be that it is only Disney who has this inherent magic surrounding its cartoon animation.  Take Fox’s recent effort, Titan AE. Despite a huge publicity campaign and a promise of groundbreaking animation techniques and intensely lifelike graphics, it failed to impress at the box office. Perhaps it missed the point of animation; that is to deliver something that would be impossible to achieve with human actors.  After all, what is the point of using these futuristic methods of film making that enable a director to achieve the impossible, merely to tell a story that could have been filmed in the Nevada desert with Tom Cruise.

Although cartoon animation has existed since the dawn of celluloid, improvements in technology have opened up a whole new range of opportunities.  Pixar are the leading name in the use of computer graphics, and they have shown us exactly what can be achieved with A Bug’s Life and the hugely successful Toy Story films.  Like the Disney movies they were created as fantasy films, and the methods used in their production ensured that they remained as such. The success of the films was proven when Woody and Buzz became poster pin ups, and the Buzz Lightyear doll became the toy of the year. It could be argued that utilising the voice talents of big name actors such as Tom Hanks and Tim Allen brought the movie some of its success.  However, to agree with this would be to completely disregard the fantastic storyline and truly impressive animation techniques that undoubtedly make the Toy Story films such a success with children and adults alike.

So, the use of computers is surely set to increase as the technologies available are updated and improved.  This is the way it has been ever since the first line drawing cartoons and the earliest silent movies; black and white has given way to colour, silence to surround sound. In the same way, animation has become more precise and lifelike, and computer generation and digital enhancement techniques have replaced live action and animatronics as a means of making better movies. (Imagine Jaws remade with computers – awesome!)  Computers also enable the creation of fantastic characters that simply would not work is they were humans in costume – Jar Jar Binks again.  Not to mention the fact that it allows directors to create a character exactly how they would like; after all, actors are only human and so have limitations on what they can physically achieve. It is the very fact that computer animation is limited only by the imagination of the filmmaker that is making it such an increasingly popular part of the movie making process.

However, although the future of the feature film must include a substantial use of digitally animated characters and locations, it will not, and cannot, be that computers and animation will completely replace human actors and live action.  Actors themselves often guarantee the success of a film, and so it would be a huge gamble of profits to rely totally on technology in every instance.  And what would the movie industry be without its sex symbols, (ok, so Aladdin was cute..), its hell raisers, its sensitive souls and so on.  The actors are the personality of the film industry, both on screen and off, and these simply cannot be digitally created; out of Episode One Jar Jar merely becomes a data file saved on a disk (I’m sure there’s more to it than that but you get my point.)  Woody and Buzz were popular, as the merchandise wars proved, but they cannot be called to interviews, cannot go on to be involved in other projects.  Yes, I am in awe of the new technology and am excited to see how it will go on to further improve movies of the future.  But there can be no replacement for classic human acting; the very fact that animated cartoons, such as The X-Men and the upcoming Spiderman have been transformed into live action features goes a long way to prove this.  So I look forward to the future of movies as essentially human, with the new technology being used to enhance the industry rather than control it.

STIR OF ECHOES (Video to Rent)

Hollywood has a long-standing habit of releasing films with similar storylines at the same time (see Dead Man On Campus and Dead Mans Curve, or Armageddon and Deep Impact.) Invariably, one has greater hype surrounding it and so is hugely successful, while the other movie kind of gets left by the wayside and forgotten. This is the unlucky fate that befell Stir Of Echoes, which had the misfortune of going head to head with the heavily promoted Bruce Willis blockbuster The Sixth Sense at the box office. Which is a shame, as Stir Of Echoes is equally as good a film as Bruce's blockbuster, and one that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Kevin Bacon plays Tom Witzky, an ordinary hard working family man who is devoted to his wife Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) and son Jake (Zachary David Cope - keep your eye on this one, Osment.) Ordinary that is until his sister in law hypnotises him at a party, an experience that leaves him with the ability to (adopt spooky whisper here) see dead people. Tom has visions and hears voices that he doesn't understand, and feels compelled to dig - literally - into the secret that lays at the heart of his supposedly idyllic neighborhood. Along the way he has to convince his wife that he is not insane, and discover exactly who his young son's 'imaginary' friend really is. Although perhaps not as intelligent or surprising a story as that of The Sixth Sense, this is a well-written and well-acted movie. It's full of moments that will make you jump (or hide behind a cushion if you're anything like me), and the tension continues at fever pitch right until the end scene. Stir Of Echoes boasts a fantastic cast, led by the brilliant Kevin Bacon who gives yet another example of why he is one of the top talents in Hollywood today. Cope is excellent as the innocent yet wise Jake, giving a performance that is both cute and creepy. All in all this is a great movie, one that should stand proud alongside The Sixth Sense and not be left in its shadow. Watch it, and feel those hairs on the back of your neck stand up.....