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Five Children And It (film)
''Five Children and It'' is a 2004 family fantasy- comedy-drama adventure film adaptation of the 1902 novel '' Five Children and It'', which features live action and computer animation. It was directed by John Stephenson, produced by Nick Hirschkorn, Lisa Henson and Samuel Hadida, written by E. Nesbit and David Solomons with music by Jane Antonia Cornish and starring Tara FitzGerald, Freddie Highmore, Alex Jennings, Jonathan Bailey, Jessica Claridge, Poppy Rogers, Alec Muggleton, Zak Muggleton, Zoë Wanamaker, Kenneth Branagh, Alexander Pownall, Robert Tygner, Eddie Izzard as the voice of It-Psammead, Georgio Serafini, John Sessions, Kim Fenton, Norman Wisdom and Duncan Preston and Zak. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2004 and was theatrically released on 15 October 2004. The digital puppetry and CGI animation for Psammead was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. ''Five Children and It'' grossed £1,519,049 worldwide. The film was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stephenson (director)
John Stephenson, (born 28 May 1952) is a British director and a former vice-president and creative supervisor for Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He was nominated for a BAFTA film award in 1985 for ''Dreamchild'' and in 1991, he won an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Early life Stephenson was born in London, England. Educated at the Kingston School of Art and then the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1979. He moved to the USA and had a brief spell working as a designer of prestigious-fashion West End Interiors in Los Angeles. Career Joining the Jim Henson's Creature Shop in the early 80s, Stephenson became a member of the unique group of artists designers and crafts people working on the ground-breaking film The Dark Crystal. in addition to working as a mechanical designer, he also served as an assistant cable control puppeteer on Dreamchild. Subsequently, in 1985, he became Creative Supervisor and later served as Executive Vice President and CE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Home Video
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (for Warner Communications, Inc.). The company launched in the United States with twenty films on Betamax and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980. History The company launched in the United States with twenty films on Betamax and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980. Warner Bros. began to branch out into the videodisc market, licensing titles to MCA DiscoVision and RCA's SelectaVision videodisc formats, allowing both companies to market and distribute the films under their labels. By 1985, Warner was releasing material under their own label in both formats. Titl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based out of Burbank, California, United States. History Jim Henson's Creature Shop was originally created as a partnership with British illustrator Brian Froud to facilitate the production of ''The Dark Crystal''. Originally located in Hampstead, London, it received its name in order to differentiate it from Henson's original puppet workshop in New York City. It was then used for future films such as ''Labyrinth'' and '' The Storyteller.'' It was relocated to Camden Town following Henson's death in 1990 and his son, Brian Henson, took over. A third location in Burbank, California opened to serve Hollywood, and one of its first projects was the ''Dinosaurs'' television series. Since The Jim Henson Company sold off the rights to The Muppets brand to Disney in 2004; the Muppet Workshop in New York is now credited as Jim Henson's Creature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Digital Puppetry
Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real time by computers. It is most commonly used in filmmaking and television production, but has also been used in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre. The exact definition of what is and is not digital puppetry is subject to debate among puppeteers and computer graphics designers, but it is generally agreed that digital puppetry differs from conventional computer animation in that it involves performing characters in real time, rather than animating them frame by frame. Digital puppetry is closely associated with character animation, motion capture technologies, and 3D animation, as well as skeletal animation. Digital puppetry is also known as virtual puppetry, performance animation, living animation, aniforms, live animation and real-time animation (although the latter also refers to animation generated by computer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston (born 11 August 1946) is an English actor. He is known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood, including his role in the soap opera parody sketches ''Acorn Antiques'' and as Stan in the sitcom ''dinnerladies'' (1998–2000). He reprised his role of Clifford in '' Acorn Antiques: The Musical!'' in 2005. His other television roles include DS Todd in the soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1987), Jonathan Haslam in the sitcom '' Surgical Spirit'' (1989–1995); and Doug Potts in the soap opera ''Emmerdale'' (2007–2011, 2014–2020). Career Preston appeared in a short 1981 Public information film entitled ''Say NO to Strangers'', as a kerb-crawling predator attempting to lure a schoolgirl into his car. He has also made many guest appearances in various TV series, including ''Hunters Walk,'' '' Secret Army'', ''The Professionals'', '' All Creatures Great and Small'', ''Robin of Sherwood'', '' Bergerac'', ''The New Statesman'', ''Press Gang'', ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010) was an English actor, comedian, musician and singer best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring a hapless onscreen character often called Norman Pitkin. He was awarded the 1953 BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles following the release of ''Trouble in Store'', his first film in a lead role. Wisdom gained celebrity status in lands as far apart as South America, Iran and many Eastern Bloc countries, particularly in Albania where his films were the only ones with Western actors permitted to be shown by dictator Enver Hoxha. Charlie Chaplin once referred to Wisdom as his "favourite clown". Wisdom later forged a career on Broadway in New York City and as a television actor, winning critical acclaim for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the television play ''Going Gently'' in 1981. He toured Australia and South Africa. After the 1986 Chernobyl dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sessions
John Marshall (11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020), better known by the stage name John Sessions, was a British actor and comedian. He was known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', as a panellist on '' QI'', and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and Hollywood. Early life John Sessions was born John Marshall on 11 January 1953, according to most sources in Largs, Ayrshire, Scotland. His family moved to Bedford, England, when he was three. His father was a gas engineer. He had an older brother, Bill, and a twin sister, Maggie. Education Sessions was educated at Bedford Modern School, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), and Verulam School, St Albans, followed by the University College of North Wales in Bangor, from which he graduated with an MA in English literature. At university, he had begun to appear to audiences with his comedy in shows such as "Look back in Bangor" and "Marshall Arts". He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Jennings
Alex Jennings (born 10 May 1957) is an English actor of the stage and screen, who worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. For his work on the London stage, Jennings received three Olivier Awards, winning for '' Too Clever by Half'' (1988), ''Peer Gynt'' (1996), and ''My Fair Lady'' (2003). He is the only performer to have won Olivier awards in the drama, musical, and comedy categories. He is known for his film work, in particular for his performance as Prince Charles in Stephen Frears' film ''The Queen'' (2006) opposite Helen Mirren. His other film appearances includes ''The Wings of the Dove'' (1997), '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004), ''Babel'' (2006), '' Belle'' (2013), and ''The Lady in the Van'' (2015) starring Maggie Smith. Jennings won acclaim for his performances in television including for his portrayal of Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, in the Netflix series ''The Crown'' acting opposite Claire Foy. He also starred i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes (still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics to generate a three-dimensional picture. The target of the animation is sometimes the computer itself, while other times it is film. Computer animation is essentially a digital successor to stop motion techniques, but using 3D models, and traditional animation techniques using frame-by-frame animation of 2D illustrations. Computer-generated animations can also allow a single graphic artist to produce such content without the use of actors, expensive set pieces, or props. To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new image that is similar to it but advanced slightly in time (usually at a ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventure Film
An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, animation, comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction, family, horror, or war. Overview Setting plays an important role in an adventure film, sometimes itself acting as a character in the narrative. They are typically set in far away lands, such as lost continents or other exotic locations. They may also be set in a period background and may include adapted stories of historical or fictional adventure heroes within the historical context. Such struggles and situations that confront the main characters include things like battles, piracy, rebellion, and the creation of empires and kingdoms. A common theme of adventure films is of characters leaving their home or place of comfort and going to fulfill a goal, embarking on travels, quests, tre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical hour-long legal or medical drama, but exhibit far fewer jokes-per-minute as in a typical half-hour sitcom. In the United States Examples from United States television include: ''M*A*S*H'', ''Moonlighting'', ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'', '' Northern Exposure'', '' Ally McBeal'', ''Sex and the City'', '' Desperate Housewives'' and '' Scrubs''. The term "dramedy" was coined to describe the late 1980s wave of shows, including ''The Wonder Years'', ''Hooperman'', ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' and ''Frank's Place''. See also *List of comedy drama television series *Black comedy *Dramatic structure * Melodrama *Seriousness *Tragicomedy *Psychological drama References Comedy drama Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantasy Film
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary. Prevalent elements include fairies, angels, mermaids, witches, monsters, wizards, unicorns, dragons, talking animals, ogres, elves, trolls, white magic, gnomes, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, dwarves, giants, goblins, anthropomorphic or magical objects, familiars, curses and other enchantments, worlds involving magic, and the Middle Ages. Subgenres Several sub-categories of fantasy films can be identified, although the delineations between these subgenres, much as in fantasy literature, are somewhat fluid. The most common fantasy subgenres depicted in movies are High Fantasy a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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