New Feet, Flushed images

pictures from 2 upcoming animated films now online.

Aug 29, 2006 Dominic von Riedemann

Here are some images from upcoming animated films Happy Feet and Flushed Away.

(Source: Animated News)

2006 is definitely going down as the year the CG Animated Boom went critical. With a glut of flicks like Ice Age 2, Cars, Over the Hedge, Monster House, Doogal and Barnyard cramming your local googleplex, there were way more animated family films than audiences could support.

The intense release schedule (Monster House, The Ant Bully and Barnyard opened within 3 weeks of each other) claimed more than its fair share of victims. The Wild, Doogal and The Ant Bully were crushed in the stampede.

However, the animation insanity is not over yet. Two more films hit theatres in November, also within 2 weeks of each other: Warner Bros.' Happy Feet and Dreamworks/Aardman's Flushed Away. When two animated family features get released in that close a time, someone's gonna suffer.

The only real winner from all this will be actor Hugh Jackman, who voices roles in both films.

I'm pretty buzzed about Flushed Away: it's from Aardman Studios, the blokes responsible for the brilliant Wallace and Gromit series. So far, I'm digging the look of this flick: it takes Aardman's Claymation style and drops it in CG. This was a brainchild of necessity since the Aardman soundstages burned down just after Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit's premiere. If the writing for Flushed Away is as good as previous Aardman efforts, I'm so there.

I wish I could say the same for Happy Feet. The animation looks sharp but someone took a nap in story meetings. The movie strikes me as just another (to steal a memorable phrase) "big stinking pile of average corporate mush." If my initial impression wears out, I'll be rooting for Flushed Away to win out.

Be that as it may, you can check out images from Flushed Away here and images from Happy Feet over here. Happy Feet opens on November 17, while Flushed Away hits on November 3.

The copyright of the article New Feet, Flushed images in Animated Films is owned by Dominic von Riedemann. Permission to republish New Feet, Flushed images in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.