USA: RAISING THE BAR YET AGAIN IN THE FIELD OF COMPUTER ANIMATION WALT DISNEY CELEBRATES WORLD PREMIERE OF 'DINOSAUR'

Record ID: 389245

  • Title: USA: RAISING THE BAR YET AGAIN IN THE FIELD OF COMPUTER ANIMATION WALT DISNEY CELEBRATES WORLD PREMIERE OF 'DINOSAUR'
  • Date: 6th May 2000
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MAY 6) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) DIRECTOR RALPH ZONDAG SAYING This picture has over 13 hundred shots of digital characters laid into these live action plates and just the sheer enormity of it is daunting all on its own.
  • Embargoed: 21st May 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US AND FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA94CRB66HH95LRDHVDLW7U4N12
  • Story Text: Raising the bar yet again in the field of computer animation, the Walt Disney Company has celebrated the World Premiere of "Dinosaur," its big ticket summer gamble featuring state-of-the-art computer generated imagery and a cast of talking prehistoric creatures.
    The Walt Disney Company is billing "Dinosaur" as the most ambitious and complex animated film ever produced.
    Although the studio is responsible for such technological benchmarks as "The Lion King" and "Toy Story," this newest feat surpasses those earlier films with its seamless marriage of entirely computer generated characters and real live action backgrounds.
    The film, estimated to cost more than 140 million dollars, contains more than 13 hundred digital effects shots, employed 48 animators working over four years, and required 550 computer processors and enough computer software code to fill a 25 volume set of encyclopedias.
    All of this was coordinated by co-directors Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton, both veteran animators making their feature film directorial debuts.
    To meet the demands of this enormous effort, Disney set out to create a brand new state-of-the-art digital studio from the ground up.
    Over the four-year period, the production not only established a ground-breaking new facility, it also ended up with a milestone film ready for summer release.
    "Dinosaur," unusual for Disney because of its PG (Parental Guidance) rating, is the story of a prehistoric Iguanodon who is separated from his species and raised on an island paradiseby a clan of Lemurs. Actor D.B. Sweeney provides the voice of Aladar the Iguanodon, while Alfre Woodard voices Plio, the soulful matriarch of the Lemur clan.
    When a devastating meteor shower plunges their world into chaos, Aladar and his Lemur family escape to the mainland and join a group of migrating dinosaurs desperately searching for a safe new nesting ground.
    Also in the voice cast are Ossie Davis as Yar, the elder statesman of the Lemur clan, Julianna Margulies as Aladar's Iguanodon love interest, and Joan Plowright and Della Reese as a pair of forgotten misfit dinosaurs who school Aladar in the ways of his new family.
    The real breakthrough of the film is its use of real world backgrounds and computer generated characters. Two live action film crews traveled around the world over an 18-month period to capture the dramatic backdrops in locations as far-flung as Florida, Hawaii, Australia, Venezuela and Jordan.
    They brought with them the so-called "Dino-cam," a computerized camera rig that was used to approximate the dinosaurs' point of view and allow the filmmakers the precision they needed to add in the characters by computer back in the studio.
    Together with never-before-seen advances in creating digital creatures with ultra-realistic musculature and skin, this blending of live action and animation lifts "Dinosaur" to an all-time high in the field of feature animation.
    However, the film's big price tag, along with the fact that its rating may scare away some parents with younger children, makes it a big gamble for the Walt Disney Company at the beginning of the all-important summer movie season.
    "Dinosaur" opens in theaters throughout the United States on Friday, May 19.
    ---END---
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