LoVeLesS IdEas

If Filipino animators have, in the past, lent their talent to Hollywood movies like Mulan, The Little Mermaid, and Finding Nemo, what’s stopping them from producing their own digital films and breathing life to Filipino-speaking characters?

The lack of funding may be one reason, but in terms of technology, Pinoys can compete, says music composer and arranger Jessie Lasaten, who heads Cutting Edge, a production studio packaging itself as a one-stop facility equipped for motion graphics, animation, editing, original music, and audio in a single Macintosh-based studio. The production outfit has ten multifunctional studios for small- and large-scale television, film, radio, and new media productions.

Cutting Edge is also the local animator behind the full-length animated film Dayo [Wanderer], among the entries to the 2008 Metro Manila Film Festival.




“The Philippines has been outsourcing animation and digital works for around two decades now. It’s about time that we recognize our very own animators by creating original content that is proudly Pinoy,” says Lasaten, who believes that Pinoy animators can compete on the international scale.

Revolutionary
Dayo combines paperless 2-D and 3-D technologies in presenting a fantasy film ripe with figures from Pinoy mythology. It tells the story of an 11-year-old kid named Bubuy (voiced by Star Circle Grand Kid Questor Nash Aguas) out to save his grandparents, who have been abducted into Elementalia, a fantasy land with strange flora and fauna.





At Elementalia, Bubuy meets Anna Manananggirl (voiced by Katrina Legaspi), a hyperactive teener with a special affection for all things human–but not of the tummy-filling kind. Their adventure takes them from massive falls teeming with gravity-defying merfolk to crystal caves housing swarms of alitubi; and from a grand old tree, home to a motherly kapre, to a majestic mountain guarded by a pack of hungry aswang.

Directed by Robert Quilao, Dayo also features the voice talents of Laurice Guillen, Peque Gallaga, Nova Villa, Noel Trinidad, Pokwang, and Michael V. Gerard Salonga does the film score, with Lea Salonga performing the theme.

view the official website

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is the 2008 sequel to the 2005 motion picture, Madagascar.[2] It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and was released on December 5, 2008;[2] the film was distributed by Paramount Pictures. The sequel starts as prequel, showing a small part of Alex's early life, including his capture by hunters. It soon moves to shortly after the point where the original left off, with the animals deciding to return to New York. They board an airplane on Madagascar, but crash-land in Africa, where each of the central characters meets others of the same species; Alex is reunited with his parents. Problems arise, and their resolution occupies much of the remainder of the movie.[2] The film stars the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Richter.[2] Also providing voices are Alec Baldwin, will.i.am, Bernie Mac, Sherri Shepherd.[3] The previous title was "Madagascar: The Crate Escape", which was featured on a trailer with Ben Stiller.





The plot



In the past, Alex (Ben Stiller) the lion lived in Africa with his father Zuba (Bernie Mac), the pride's alpha lion, and mother Florrie (Sherri Shepherd), along the rest of the pride, including the main villian Makunga (Alec Baldwin), who always wanted to be the leader. One day Alex—known as Alakay to his parents—is captured by poachers after his father turns away for a moment because of Makunga. Zuba chases after his captured son, but Alakay's crate falls into a nearby river and drifts off to sea. Alex is then discovered, found washed ashore in New York, were he is put in the zoo, named Alex, and later becomes an idol to many New Yorkers, also making friends with a young zebra, a hippo, and a giraffe.

The film cuts to the four heroes saying goodbye to their lemur friends while taking off in a plane to New York, along with King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer), the chimpanzees, and Mort (Andy Richter) who did not get into the plane on time, but hangs on to the wing outside as they take off. Over the country, they run out of fuel and crash land "safely" in the African plains. The penguins, who controlled the flight say it might take 6 to 9 months to rebuild the plane, and so Alex, Marty (Chris Rock), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman (David Schwimmer) take off to find any help. However, the chimpanzees find help. The animals encounter a tourist car, with New Yorkers sitting in it. Alex recognizes the old lady "Nana" that kicked his butt at the train station, and they engage in a brawl, nevertheless the old lady beats Alex again. Later the humans are carjacked by the penguins as they execute "Operation Tourist Trap" for extra supplies to rebuild the plane. However, as they make their getaway, Nana is awoken in the back seat by their "rock n' roll racket" (Boston's "More than a Feeling"). The penguins toss her through the windshield without much ceremony, and then, realizing she isn't dead, reverse the Land Rover and hit her again. Nana, apparently uninjured, leads the rest of the humans off to make camp, saying she doesn't want to stay out in the open because she's "too old too die."

Alex and the rest meet up with a giant group of animals including other lions, hippopotamuses, giraffes and zebras and more. There Alex is reunited with his father and mother. Marty meets an enormous pack of zebras that sound exactly like him, Gloria falls for a hippo named Moto Moto (will.i.am) whose name means "Hot, HOT"; he makes Melman jealous, because he has deep feelings for her. The giraffe becomes the witch doctor for other giraffes so he can stop his species from dying in holes. Before Alex can join the pride he must complete a challenge, which is scheduled the next day. Makunga now has the chance to become the alpha lion by tricking the returning son.

The next day, Alex is told by Makunga that he should choose an opponent called Teetsi, and so he does and the entire pride gasps as the lion walks up to Alex, and Teetsi appears to be a gigantic beefed up lion. Alex mistakes the challenge as a dance off, and he is easily defeated. Zuba is forced to give up his role as the alpha lion and give it to Makunga and the lion is both confused and angry after Alex tells him he was a star unlike a king. After Zuba insults Alex saying that he isn't a "real" lion, he walks off offended and depressed. Marty becomes angry at Alex because he mistook him for another zebra, and Melman argues with Gloria after she says she is going out on a date with Moto Moto that night. Melman is too shy to admit his feelings to Gloria, but Julien attempts to teach Melman how, and so the giraffe takes off to find Gloria and Moto Moto. He is still to scared, and Gloria thinks it is just an apology and she accepts and then Melman tells Moto Moto to take great care of Gloria in case of the future he is sure she might have. Meanwhile the lost humans including Nana meet up with another group of people who were carjacked as well and they find a camp site and they worship Nana for her great leadership. Mort washes up to the shore (because he fell off the plane when it was about to crash) and he is chased by a shark.

The water hole is dried up the next morning, and all the animals panic because they will die of thirst. Makunga doesn't know what to do, but Julien suggests a sacrifice to the volcano so the water could return. Melman decides to volunteer as the sacrifice. Gloria is completely surprised by this, and tries to talk Melman out of it, but then she realizes he is doing this is impress her and sharing his complete feelings about her. Alex finds Marty and the zebra forgives him, and they leave the nature reserve to try and find the reason why the water supply is gone. They find a dam built by the humans blocking the river to the plains. They are ambushed, Alex is captured, and Marty escapes to tell that his friend has been caught. Zuba gets the message and he chases after him. Melman declines the sacrifice to stay with Gloria, and the zebra arrives to tell them about Alex's capture. They then show up at the plane as it is completed and it flies off above the jungle.

The humans are spit roasting Alex above the fire alive, but Zuba arrives in the nick of time. Nana attempts to kill Zuba and Alex with a gun, but Alex shows the humans his famous dance moves, and soon enough they recognize the lion as Alex from back at the zoo. Zuba shortly joins in the performance. Nana is impressed, but then points the gun at Zuba and pulls the trigger, but the bullet is deflected by a big bucket lowered down by the plane carrying the rest of the group. The lions enter and they fly off, but before leaving the campsite, they destroy the dam and the water washes back to the pride, who are almost dying from thirst. At the volcano, Mort arrives still pursued by the shark, which falls into the volcano lava (Maurice making a joke about wondering if the gods like seafood). The lemurs look down into the plains finding the water returning and making them think the sacrifice worked. Makunga is removed from the throne (after Alex tricks Nana into attacking him), and Zuba and Alex are now the alpha lions.

Now that the water is back, the animals can live in peace without Makunga living there anymore. The penguins and chimps decide not to stay as they take off back to New York, and the Skipper is married to the bobble-head hula doll seen from the plane sequence. Now part of the pride, Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, Julien, Mort and Maurice dance off to their new home along with Zuba and Florrie.

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 American animated comedy film. It was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb. The film was produced by DreamWorks Animation's studio in Glendale, California and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film stars the voices of Jack Black as the panda, Po, along with Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross, and Ian McShane. Set in ancient China, the plot revolves around a bumbling panda who aspires to be a kung fu master. After a much feared warrior escapes from prison, Po is foretold to be the Dragon Warrior, much to the chagrin of the resident kung fu warriors. Dreamworks is working on a sequel to Kung Fu Panda, which is currently in pre-production.[3]

Although the concept of a "kung fu panda" has been around since at least 1993,[4] the idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance,[5] a DreamWorks Animation executive. Work on the film did not begin until 2004. The film was originally intended to be a parody, but director Stevenson decided to instead shoot an action comedy martial arts film that incorporates the hero's journey narrative archetype for the lead character. The computer animation in the film was more complex than anything DreamWorks had done before. As with most DreamWorks animated films, Hans Zimmer (collaborated with John Powell this time around) scored Kung Fu Panda. He visited China to absorb the culture and get to know the China National Symphony Orchestra as part of his preparation.

Kung Fu Panda premiered in the United States on June 1, 2008, and has since received very favorable reviews from critics. The film currently garners an 89% "Certified Fresh" approval rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Kung Fu Panda opened in 4,114 theaters, grossing $20.3 million on its opening day and $60.2 million on its opening weekend, resulting in the number one position at the box office. The film has resulted in DreamWorks' biggest opening for a non-sequel film, and the third-largest weekend overall for a DreamWorks animated film, behind Shrek the Third and Shrek 2.



The Plot


Po (Jack Black) is a panda who works in a noodle restaurant owned by his goose father Mr. Ping (James Hong), who hopes that Po will one day take over the restaurant (like Mr. Ping took it over from his father, and his father, who won it from a pig friend in a game of Mahjong), and wishes to disclose to him the secret ingredient of his family's famous noodle soup. Po is a kung fu fanatic with secret dreams of becoming a great master in the discipline. However, his weight, clumsiness, and incredibly large girth make this goal very unlikely.

The tortoise Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) has a premonition that the evil snow leopard warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane), the former student of his own protégé, the red panda Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), will escape from prison and return to threaten the Valley of Peace. While Shifu sends Zeng (Dan Fogler), a messenger goose, to Chor Ghom Prison to have the security increased, Oogway orders a formal ceremony to choose the Dragon Warrior, a supreme master of kung fu who can defeat Tai Lung. It is assumed that one of the Furious Five — Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross) — a quintet of supremely skilled martial artists trained by Shifu, will be chosen for this honor. Po, in his attempts to see the gala public tournament during which the Dragon Warrior will be chosen, stumbles into the middle of Oogway's ceremony. Oogway surprises everyone by designating Po himself as the Dragon Warrior, despite Po's protests and Shifu's pleas to reconsider.

Revolted at having Po under his tutelage, Shifu attempts to make him quit by berating and humiliating him through torturous training in the Great Training Hall; the Five also dismiss Po as a worthless interloper. Taking sage advice from Oogway himself, Po endures their abuse willingly, eventually endearing himself to most of them with his determination, good cooking and sense of humor. Tigress later reveals to Po how Tai Lung came to be evil. Shifu raised him from his days as a young cub and treated him like his own son. Tai Lung was also one of Shifu's best students. When Oogway refused to make Tai Lung the Dragon Warrior, Tai Lung became enraged and ravaged the Valley because Shifu said nothing to defend his adoptive son. He then tried to take the Dragon Scroll by force; Shifu intended to stop him, but could not bear to fight what he had created through his love. Tai Lung was then defeated by Master Oogway and imprisoned for two decades. Tigress finishes her story by telling Po that Shifu loved Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before, or since.

Meanwhile, Zeng's errand backfires when a tour of the prison given to him by the overly confident head of security, Commander Vachir (Michael Clarke Duncan), inadvertently enables Tai Lung to escape. Tai Lung orders Zeng to send word of his arrival to Shifu. In the Valley of Peace, Oogway passes away in a swirl of peach petals, his final wish being that Shifu must train Po. However, Po confesses his belief that he may never be a match for Tai Lung, and Shifu is lost for a solution. Overhearing this discussion, Tigress takes it upon herself to intercept Tai Lung, and the rest of The Five follow her to assist. The following morning, Shifu discovers that Po is capable of impressive physical feats when motivated by food. He leads Po to the countryside for an intensive training regime in which Po is offered food as a reward for learning his lessons. As Shifu hopes, Po swiftly becomes a skilled combatant.

The Five battle Tai Lung on the Thread of Hope, a small, narrow rope bridge over a large, mist-filled canyon that seems to have no end, though Tigress fights him for the majority of it as she has a heated rivalry with him. Although the Five manage to valiantly battle Tai Lung to a brief standstill, he defeats them all and unleashes his special nerve-striking technique on them. All except Crane are paralyzed by the move, and he manages to carry his friends back to the Valley, as Tai Lung allows them to return alive to intimidate Shifu and Po. When they return, Shifu heals the Five and decides Po is ready to be given the sacred Dragon Scroll, which promises great power to its possessor. However, when Po opens it, he finds nothing but a blank reflective golden surface on the inside. Stricken with despair at the scroll's apparent worthlessness, Shifu orders his students to lead the villagers to safety while he stays to delay Tai Lung for as long as he can.

During the evacuation Po meets up with his father, who tells him the secret ingredient of the family's noodle soup: nothing. He explains to a very surprised Po that things become special when people believe they are special. Realizing that this is the entire point of the Dragon Scroll, Po rushes off to help Shifu. At this time, Tai Lung arrives at the Palace to take the Dragon Scroll. While battling Shifu, he finally discovers that the Dragon Scroll is gone, and then attempts to kill Shifu in anger. But before he can lay down a killing blow with his sharp claws, Po arrives and saves Shifu by challenging Tai Lung, who scoffs at Po being the Dragon Warrior. However, Po's skills prove powerful. After thwarting several of Tai Lung's attempts to take the Dragon Scroll with his unique and humorously improvised techniques, Po is temporarily stunned and Tai Lung takes it. However, he is unable to understand its symbolism. Po tries to explain the wisdom of the scroll to a frustrated Tai Lung, who instead uses his nerve attack on Po. But the panda is impervious thanks to his amply-padded body. Emboldened, Po counter-attacks, and concludes their battle by using the Wuxi Finger Hold (a technique Shifu had previously threatened to use on Po) on Tai Lung, defeating him in a large explosion of golden light that ripples through the valley.

The Five return to the valley to investigate the cause of the explosion and find a slightly dazed but triumphant Po. Deeply impressed by Po's victory, Tigress leads the Five to acknowledge him as a Kung Fu Master. Po is at first overjoyed, but then suddenly remembers that Shifu is gravely wounded, and rushes back to his master's side. Po panicks that he is dying, but Shifu reveals that he is only experiencing inner peace for the first time in years. At the end of the credits, Shifu and Po are seen eating dumplings together beside the Sacred Peach Tree. A peach seed, planted by Master Shifu before Oogway's heavenly ascension, has sprouted into a new plant.

Meet the Spartans is a 2008 parody film directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Similar to past movies, such as Scary Movie, Epic Movie and Date Movie, it pokes fun at various movies. Although it references many movies, TV shows, people and pop cultural events, it focuses mainly on the 2007 "historical" war film 300. The film is rated PG-13 in the US and 12 in the UK for crude and sexual humor throughout, language, and some comic violence.


The film opens with a Spartan elder inspecting a baby which resembles Shrek. The baby vomits on the inspector and is then rejected and punted off the hill. With the next baby in hand, the narrator says as it is Vietnamese, Brangelina gets first dibs. Baby Leonidas is then inspected, having a six-pack, biceps, and beard from birth. He is accepted as a Spartan and prepared for kinghood through his childhood training, from fighting his grandmother to enduring James Bond-style torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. Leonidas (Sean Maguire) is then cast out into the wild, and survives the harsh winter while killing a giant dancing penguin. Returning a king for his inauguration ceremony, Leonidas sees Margo (Carmen Electra) dancing and asks her to marry him, to which she responds by giving him the combination to her chastity belt.

The film then fast forwards to where the story begins, opening with Leonidas training his son, until Captain (Kevin Sorbo) informs him that a Persian messenger (bling and all) has arrived. The messenger has come to present Xerxes' demands for Sparta's submission. Leonidas arrives to greet the messenger in the Spartan way (high-fives for the women and open mouth kisses for the men). After growing angry with the messenger's disrespect, Leonidas kicks him, the messenger's bodyguards, and then several other people he simply disliked, ranging from Britney Spears (Nicole Parker) and Kevin Federline (Nick Steele) to Sanjaya Malakar (Tony Yalda) and the American Idol judges. As Leonidas walks off he turns to a column, that has a switch that reads "Garbage Disposal", and flips the switch causing the celebrities to spiral to their "death".

Resolving to face the Persians, Leonidas visits the Oracle, proposing an "erotic-sounding" strategy to repel the numerically superior enemy after offering the priests various skin-care lotions for guidance. The Oracle, Ugly Betty (Crista Flanagan), reveals that Leonidas will die should he go to war. That night, Leonidas and Margo then decide to "pump some iron" before Leonidas leaves for Thermopylae, which in fact is just Leonidas bench pressing his wife one hundred times. Leonidas then goes out to meet the soldiers assembled for his departure, and finds that only 13 (not 300) were accepted in the army, since there were stringent specifications to be accepted (one of which is having a Mediterranean tan). Three among them include Captain, his son, Sonio, and a slightly unfit Spartan named Dilio. Once at the Hot Gates, they encounter Paris Hilton (also played by Parker), who Leonidas rejected from joining their army due to her mild deformities.

Leonidas and his platoon soon face off with Xerxes' messenger and his Immortals, beating them in a dance contest before driving them off a cliff. Xerxes (Ken Davitian), impressed, personally approaches Leonidas and attempts to bribe him in a Deal or No Deal fashion. Despite the soldiers' encouragements, the Spartan king declines, saying that he will instead make the "God King" fall. The Spartans then face the Xerxes army in a "Yo Momma" fight, ending with a victory, in spite of Dilio having his eyes scratched out. Though victory seemed to be in the Spartans' grasp, Paris Hilton betrays the Spartans and reveals the location of the goat path to Xerxes, having been promised her hump removed among her various demands. Using a CGI army, Xerxes meets the 12 remaining Spartans and the war is on.

Meanwhile, back in Sparta, Queen Margo sexually submits to Traitoro in order to persuade him to send more troops to assist Leonidas. He states that he will finally lose his virginity while using his cell phone to take pictures. However, he reveals publicly that she has not been chaste. The anger at this revelation provokes a symbiote suit to envelop her, mirroring the parasitic symbiote Spider-Man suit in Spider-Man 3. She fights with Traitoro, who, in line with the parody, becomes the Spider-Man 3 villain the Sandman. Margo wins the battle with a vacuum cleaner - and Traitoro's treachery is revealed, whereupon Sparta agrees to send more troops. However, the Spartan decision to send troops comes too late, as Xerxes and the Persian army fight the Spartans, who refuse to retreat. The battle initially starts well for the Spartans, but the tide turns as the Persians introduce their secret weapons: Ghost Rider, who is quickly defeated, and Rocky Balboa, who decapitates Sonio with one right hook but getting killed by a vengeful Captain, who plunges a Botox-laced syringe into his head. Captain then gets killed by a spear, thrown through his torso by Xerxes.

Captain's death enrages Leonidas, and the battle sequence switches to a Grand Theft Auto-esque format as he runs through the Persian Army and corners Xerxes. While running away, Xerxes finds the "Transformer Cube" and harnesses its power to combine with a convertible and turn into "Xerxestron", playing "Leave Britney Alone" videos to prove his "godly power". But Xerxestron ends up delivering on Leonidas's promise to "fall", as his power cord disconnects and he falls forward, crushing the surviving Spartans under his bulk. Thus the narrator concludes, "Leonidas was true to his word: a god-king did fall ... but unfortunately, right on them!" The blind Dilio, who left prior to the final battle, eventually returns to Sparta to tell of Leonidas' final moments. A year later, Dilio leads a force a hundred real Spartans and several thousand CGI-ones to defeat the Persians, but the blind warrior ends up going the wrong way and leads the Spartans to Malibu. They end up crashing into Lindsay Lohan as she once more leaves drug rehab, causing her to expose her bare groin and fly off screen.

The film ends with a musical number set to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" performed on American Idol by all of the characters in the film. It also spoofs Britney Spears' VMA comeback performance.





my comment


This was literally the worst movie I have ever seen. I am a movie buff and tend to love all sorts of movies, this movie was a waste of my time and money. They tend to use the same joke time and time again, after the first time, it's not funny anymore!! Also, Parents beware!! This is NOT a movie for children to go to. It is PG-13 but I feel anyone under 16 should not see it, in one scene Carmen Electra is laying on a table with only tomatoes covering her nipples and a slice of pizza covering her crotch. There are lots of other provocative scenes that is inappropriate for children. All in all the movie was crude, disgusting and vulgar, not funny at all except for the opening scene. Don't see it, you'll be extremely disappointed.