NEVERLAND – MOVIE MAVIN MAKES A MOVIE

A little over a year ago I created a post alluding to a short I had written for a competition. While the competition fell through a 6 minute video was produced by a truly lovely man named Robert Campbell through his business CCS Video in England. Also volunteering their time and talents were Alice Ryan and Kristian Evans as lead actors and Tony Maas in a supporting role. My dear friend  Stuart White (published author and screenwriter par excellence – see his page on us.imdb.com which has only some of his accomplishments) and his best friend, the incredibly clever and brilliant photographer, Dave Thorpe graciously and generously showed up to lend support and encouragement as my representatives, as the trip to England for this was just not practically possible for me at the time. Also lending their time and talents to see this project to fruition were: aerial cinematographer and production assistant Roger Allen, assistant director and sound engineer James Skinner, production assistant Michael Winborne, composers Dimitrs Keramidakis, and Enrique Cervera, as well as the kind cooperation of City West Homes.

I will be grateful to all of these people – most of whom I will likely never meet – for the rest of my days, for bringing to life the singular vision I had and breathing life into characters which were only ephemeral specters in my head and words on a page, until these wonderful people created this brief moment which I now share.

While it is too large to place on this blog, the site for accessing this film is here: Neverland.

Please send comments and let me know what you think.

Thanks – Home School Mom Movie Mavin

 

 

 

EARLY MAN – LAUGH AS WALLACE AND GROMIT MEETS EVERY SPORTS MOVIE CLICHE KNOWN TO MAN

SHORT TAKE:

Adorable, funny, family friendly, typical sports outing about an underdog cavemen team playing soccer against a more sophisticated "Bronze Age" team to win their valley back, all brought to us by Nick Park and friends, the creators of SHAUN THE SHEEP!!!

WHO SHOULD SEE IT:

If you like Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the Sheep or Chicken Run or The Wrong Trousers or…. oh EVERYBODY!!!

AND IF YOU LIKE THESE REVIEWS PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! THEN YOU'LL GET     EVERY NEW REVIEW SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR E-MAIL!!

GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE LEFT HAND SIDE AND TYPE YOUR E-MAIL IN – IT (SHOULD BE) THAT EASY. ANY PROBLEMS PLEASE SEND ME A COMMENT AND I'LL DO MY BEST TO RESOLVE YOUR ISSUE.

LONG TAKE:

What do the fantasy franchises: Harry Potter, The Avengers, Game of Thrones and……. Wallace and Gromit have in common? Wallace and Gromit????!!!!

The answer is: Early Man.

Early Man is an adorable plasticine animation feature length movie brought  to you by the same instigators, led by Nick Park, who created The Wrong Trousers, and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the story is spun about the lives of a group of Cavemen who were forced into the lone habitable spot by a meteor which devastated the rest of the known Earth. Their valley is lush and green, where all about them is the Badlands: with dangerous mutant animals, harsh rocky ground, and volcanos. The Badlands looks a bit like I'd imagine the Wembley Stadium parking lot after an EFL Championship game. But there are a couple of silver linings. Not only did the meteor strike carve out at least this one fertile area but the meteor, itself, also gave them the template for history's first football. By that, for those of you reading in America, I mean soccer. But the Brits call it football, so there it is.

Fast forward a couple "eras" and Dug (voiced by Eddie Redmayne – Newt Scamander from the "Harry Potter" world of Fantastic Beasts) and the tribe of which he is a member, happily lives on fruits, nuts and the odd rabbit (which said presented rabbit is about as catchable as Bugs Bunny so, in effect, they are de facto vegetarians). But Dug is ambitious – he wants to hunt mammoths………!

But that's not what the story is about. Their idyll is interrupted when Lord Nooth (voiced by The Avengers' Tom Hiddleson) sporting an impenetrable guise of Italian accent, comes upon the scene with equipment made of the bronze which he has mined from his nearby kingdom.

Dug challenges them to a game of soccer/football to win their valley back. Completely outmatched, Dug's group has no equipment, no training, no experience and doesn't even know the rules, but his chutzpah gets the attention of a local girl, Goona (voiced by Game of Thrones' Maizie Williams) from the Bronze kingdom who coaches Dug's tribe in exchange for a spot on the team. Nick Par, the creator, even lends a hand — or voice — for the emotive and communicative grunts and snorts of Dug's intelligent pig, Hognob.

The story is a pretty formulaic case of underdog team goes up against much better players with nothing but a good cause, lots of heart, and a ringer. We've seen the like in everything from The Karate Kid (karate) to Facing the Giants (American football) to Bad News Bears (baseball) to Mystery Alaska (hockey) and Balls of Fury (ping pong), and it works — every — time because, as Patton put it so well – "Americans love a winner" and everyone loves the underdog because in them we all  find inspiration. But this time it's played for laughs, parodying the sport, the genre, diva professional players, sports announcers, a "win one for the Gipper" moment, a hen pecked husband, you name it.

It's a clean, gentle, lovable movie that kids will enjoy for the claymation/plasticine animation and adults will appreciate for the pokes at the cliches. While there is a good deal of spoofing and teasing, there's not a mean spot in Nick Park's entire imaginative brain.

The cast list is like an old home week of favorite kids' characters, especially from the Harry Potter franchise. So when you take your kids you can happily point out that Eddie Redmayne is both Dug andNewt Scamander.  Timothy Spall, who voiced Chief Bobnar also moonlighted as Peter Pettigrew. Mark Williams, who does the voice for Barry, was also Mr. Weasley.

Miriam Margolyes, who voices Queen Oofeefa was also Professor Sprout. And Tom Hiddleson is Lord Nooth andLoki! I'll let you figure out how to explain Maisie Williams' stint in Game of Thrones. But, if it helps, she was also in a handful of Dr. Whos.

Early Man is available on Amazon now. So go watch this cute movie that will be delightful to kids, footballers, adults, fans of Wallace and Gromit, Harry Potter afficianados, pig farmers, rabbits, cavemen ………………

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE

OK BOYS AND GIRLS – I HAVE A CONFESSION. I wrote a two minute short and entered it into a competition – the challenge: what story could you tell in two minutes if your characters had only hours, or minutes before an Earth shattering – no last minute reprieve – meteor was going to hit Earth? I won one of the 50 spots. Stuart White, one of my guest reviewers, and, I am very pleased to say a good friend, won a spot as well. There are 50 shorts – 2 minute spots from 50 different screenwriters were or will be filmed and compose one 100 minute movie.

Although the video will not be out for a while yet as not even all the shorts have been finalized, Chris Jones – the orchestrator of the project – just released the trailer. Here it is.

So — the movie reviewer has had a hand in writing a movie. I am only one of fifty but win, lose, or draw I am complicit in Impact 50's creation.

While you won't be able to see my short until the film comes out, tell me what you think of the idea of the project in general and this trailer in particular. FYI none of the filmed portions of my short are in the trailer but there are some truly stunning bits shown.