Cool News
A Teaser For WETA'S Adaptation Of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS...
Merrick here...
A few weeks back we learned that WETA was moving forward on an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 story
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (details HERE).
A website for the project has now gone online, featuring some sort of teaser (perhaps a proof of concept reel?) which suggests a substantially darker version of the story than many of us may've been expecting. I.e. feels a like a Tim Burton version of the tale.
You can find said teaser HERE.
Your thoughts?
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David Jason WAS Toad.
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Ends in Hell?
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Are they making this for the glasses-on brigade?
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Press Start to begin the game, where everything looks like it's made out of soggy cardboard.
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that looked like fucking shit animation on that brief clip of toad running/hopping/dancing away.
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1983 vintage stop-motion awesomeness http://bit.ly/wNFR1
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Tim Burton/Danny Elfman feel to it.
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Expecting Tim Burton's name to appear above the title with that music and font used?
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Only dour seriousness will do! Call Danny Elfman and tell him we need his usual morose themes recycled for the 90 millionth time! Put everything in the dark, and make Mr. Toad laugh like a child molester! Now we're getting somewhere.
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Wouldn't that be the much more interesting approach? Make them "real" animals and then lead them through their adventures?
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That always tripped me out. How in the fuck did Disney allow the ride to end IN HELL? Worst thing in the world? Toad's wild ride is gone from Disneyworld -- now it's a lame little Winney the Pooh ride.
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And I guess all bad drivers go to hell.
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Flash plugin keeps crashing on that site, something on that site it doesn't like. Running fine otherwise. Have the latest version. !!@#!! Flash!
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The 'Tim Burton-isation' WETA seem to be going for will not work here. Wind in the Willows isn't the kind of thing that lends itself to that dark style. It's supposed to be very twee and quintisentially English. Cream tea and cucumber sandwiches, tweed, the countryside and all that. It's also very fun. It's going to be hard for them to better the Cosgrove Hall version, really.
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... I was able to read that they decided to remind people that Jackson royally fucked up Kong. I agree w/ blue_dog. It would be cool to see them pull this off w/ real animals and actual English countryside. Maybe just use their heads on human-like bodies.
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It kind of drags the whole thing down. But it's just a teaser. Here's hoping the makers aren't afraid of light and open space. Not everything needs to be "edgy". In fact, now that I think about it, nothing really does.But of course, WETA's great, and the little glimpse of substance at the end looks pretty terrific. Best of luck to those involved.
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the Playstation game.
I like it, but... bit of a departure.
I'm with the Cosgrove Hall/David Jason love -
And if you remember the awesome Disney ride(of course my favorite)ends with Mr.Toad going to Hell? He also goes to Prison and commits various crimes. I mean yes, the book and the animations have always been directed at kids(maybe not babies)but still it's allowed to be dark. I prefer the old 80's stop motion...I have the whole series on DVD, great stuff.
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Not only did it freeze up a tone of times, what was with that ending? Was Mr. Toad off to murder someone? It wasn't even charmingly creepy, like Coraline or Nightmare Before Christmas, Just flat out repulsive creepy... which could be cool to watch, but with a horror premise, not "Wind in the Willows".
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Wind in the Willows isn't an epic saga! It's about Mr Toad tearing up the roads in his motorcar and dressing as a fucking washerwoman! Not very impressed so far.
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Why?
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Oh, I'm sure now he'll have an epic quest to walk in the woods for 3 and a half hours.
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I hope the animations looks less game-y in the final version. Can't help but think that Wes Andersen would have been a better choice.
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if it's not wind in the willows, don't call it that. call it 9.
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And that's MISTER Toad, motherfucker!
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The main theme from Spider-Man. Did Danny Elfman write this?
Also, this doesn't look good at all. -
... just in the fact that most of the shots were supposed to be underground. I couldn't hear because I watched it at work. I hope they don't make this tale dark, but more idiosyncratic ala Fantastic Mr. Fox (minus the self-aware humor).
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Here's hoping they simply cut corners when throwing this teaser together and it isn't indicative of what the final movie will look like.
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Jul 16, 2010 12:59:48 PM CDT
Whoa, and I didn't even see Fuck The Napkin's comment...
by royston lodge
...until after I'd written that little critique.
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Animated characters I've seen in a long time!A teaser is suppose to make you go WOW not WTF!
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I'll keep an eye out for this.
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... he's just lost half of his crayons.
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...to Harry fucking Potter? It doesn't look awful, it just looks misjudged.
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Cosgrove Hall's WITW will never be bettered in my books. And that teaser was enough to put me off whatever the hell post-apocalyptic version of the story this is supposed to be.
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Jul 16, 2010 1:57:20 PM CDT
I'm going to remake (insert any classic here) but it's gonna be
by lettersoftransit
Care Bears... only DARK! One cares for you, then kills you. Winnie the Pooh... Dark, Dark, Darkest, with Eeyore the main character. He SNAPS!
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Jul 16, 2010 1:59:33 PM CDT
Wind In The Willows is supposed to hark back to simpler times
by penhapus
Not Fallout 3
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Looks like I was a lot too late to make some remark about the ride being dark. Well, I liked the book.
... I wonder, if the haunted mansion had gone with more 'dark' and less 'funny', would the graveyard sequence have been more like the graveyard sequence in Night on Bald Mountain? The ghosts perpetually rising out of the field on the mesh reminded me of that scene a bit. -
I've quoted you on my Facebook page cos I think you hit the nail on the head with your description.
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I think that's the only course of action here that will express how disappointing this looks (just from a bloody teaser, too!). Get the original Cosgrove Hall masterpiece re-released in cinemas and people will know then what WITW is actually about. Maybe that will make the WETA folks go "Oh shit! Sorry, we were thinking of something else entirely. We'll go make a proper Wind In The Willows film now. Sorry for the confusion, folks."
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That teaser made me think of Peter Lorre for some reason...
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...after a good, long fecal deposit of substantial girth.
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but he may be too old by now.
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That has Rat, Mole, and Badger fighting against the humans in what spunds like a ripoff of Fantastic Mr Fox?
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Jul 16, 2010 3:35:20 PM CDT
This SCREAMS Tim Burton-style Rippoff! Danny Elfman music even!!
by jonchambers
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I was expecting Burton's name to pop up. As far teasers go, that was pretty effective, I had zero expectations and now I might even see this, when it eventually comes out.
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or at least a review of?
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Whereas Cosgrove Hall clearly did. Is it maybe a cultural thing? Or are WETA just trying too hard to reinvent it? Based on that teaser, it feels like they're trying really hard to force that Burton style upon it.
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Ah... just seeing the 'THAMES' bit at the start of the intro gave me a greater sense of well-being than every single thing Hollywood's come up with in the last few years.They got so incredibly many things right in the 80s - somewhere there's a master's thesis on that. What combination of just enough technology, great imaginations, and a purity of tone, free of irony and self-aware smarminess, came together to create such masterful imaginative work from the mid-70s to mid-80s?
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just constant loading trailer, looks like I'm the only one with that issue though, grrr.
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What every parent should tell their kids before riding Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
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"WRONG!"
How much of quaint, charming and classic do WETA et al not seem to get here? Of course, producers and directors nowadays seem to suffer from terminal Besserwisserin when it comes to interpreting classics.
Kenneth Grahame? E. H. Shepard? Who are they? By the look of this dark and ugly effort it seems WETA have spent too much time with Peter Jackson, who showed in the latter part of ROTK and King King that he can't paint in colour for shit. But on a much brighter note, I expect Cosgrove Hall will do very nicely following this mess :) -
Have they read the classics?
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Saw this a few days ago. I forgot where- google news or something. Wikus pulled off a much better wtf, no...... with his parasitic arm. Theres just no magic "gotta see it now" feeling leeching from this for me, and I can not figure out why, cause I love the weta. But this it doesn't do a damn thing for me. Even the premise. She a cute good girl with these nightmare like creatures living inside of her, and she'll becomes all sorts of different things, so she's never one creature all the time, and they kill people, but it's not her. So this is supposed to be interesting in like a nightmare on elm street 2 Jesse/I'm not doing it, something is controlling me plot. So we are going to fell bad and scared for her or something. It sounds like it would make a rentable video game, key word "rentable" not so much a movie.
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This looks very unrefined. Yes, I realize they're still working on it, but if you're going to tease something, make it worth teasing. Because right now, after see this, I never want to see another trace of Weta's Willows. The animation was choppy and the wet feel of Toady's character animation hearkened back to (as other talkbackers have stated) mid to late '90s video game cut-scenes. I'd love to love this. I've found something enjoyable about every previous iteration of the story, and I'd like that trend to continue. But this....
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Why talk shit when you know NOTHING about Disneyland...or the best Fantasyland ride there (assuming you are talking about California's Disneyland and not the shitty Magic Kingdom rip-off in Florida)? Mr. Toad's wild ride is still going strong, in the exact same place it has always been in Disneyland. The Pooh ride you are talking about has replaced the Country Bear Jamboree, unfortunately.
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Just try to watch "Super Capers" or his ultra right wing comedy? documentary trailer "I Want Your Money". Weta - be warned.
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Does look kinda choppy, but after all it is just a teaser. As for the darkness and story, most of the book took place in some pretty dank and dreary woodland and swamp areas. Not to mention, Mr Toad is a total self destructive prick that must constantly be saved by the more morally well rounded creatures he comes in contact with. All so in the end the old fucker can learn a lesson and be a better man or err... toad I guess.
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Like many of you have said, it's just trying to be a bit Burtonish which is not a good thing to do. They should strive to be more original with this. Plus, the cgi Toad at the end has now got me wondering if they're not gonna be using animatronic suits/puppets as was stated in an earlier news item. Hopefully we'll get to see some concept art etc which will give us all a better feel for where they're really going with this peoject.
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I clicked on the icon at the bottom left and it took me here
http://rgentertainment.com/
You look around you can find a poster, looks as dark as fuck! -
I'm sure WETA can do this justice.
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When is it better to not even put out a teaser trailer?
That's when. -
I have to sit through 1 minute + reading only to see the payoff of a frog smiling and running away from camera? I've passed already...
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english tea and scones cozy dark fairy tale, and what is this videogame film?
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Rango looks so much better...
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If it's a sequel? It's been a Hell of a long time since I read the book but with the line at the beginning 'All that's left now is to rebuild' it seems it might be set after the battle with the weasels?
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You've got animals living in peoples houses and wearing peoples clothes - plus it says at the start of this about rebuilding.
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You fucking blokes!
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Definitely Burton-esque font and music.
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Maybe I should read comments before saying anything so I don't sound like I'm just copying ten people.
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Anyone ever read the short story Two Tragedies (can't remember the author). First part is the Winnie the Pooh characters (unnamed) getting caught in the middle of a war and killed, second part is these characters homes getting paved over and then they die in a fire. Maybe WETA looked at that for inspiration.
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Jesus H Christ, I wish people would stop that. Henry Sellick is the genius behind Nightmare Before Christmas, and kid movies were dark decades before anyway (Rats of Nimh, the Dark Crystal, etc). Burton gets way too much credit.
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PPSSSSSSS.
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Talk about taking a much loved children's classic and sodomising it until it shits blood.
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Because it sure did not look The Wind and the Willows to me...
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