terra Tagged Articles at Cinematical

One always wants to give an independently-produced animated feature a little extra kindness, seeing as how amazingly difficult it must be to get a CG feature produced in an industry dominated by Pixar, DreamWorks, and Fox. These movies are monumentally hard to create, even with the best experts and a boat-load of money, so imagine how tough it must be for a Canadian outfit like Snoot Entertainment. Debut effort from the feldgling company, Terra is certainly not a brilliant little experiment, but it sure is colorful enough to warrant a few peeks. Animation buffs will appreciate the film's lush landscapes -- but I'm wondering if the movie has that "kid appeal" that's the absolute lifeblood of CG features.

The plot kicks off in slightly familiar fashion, but then we're thrown a nice little curve-ball: Seems the planet of Terra is populated by these kind-hearted and really adorable tadpole-ish creatures. This species knows nothing of war or violence, so when a massive "something" appears in the sky, most of the Terrians mistake the presence for that of a "new god." (The movie touches on religion only tangentially, but also rather interestingly.) But it's not a god; it's an invading force. Obviously the viewer is expecting the invader to be some sort of horribly nasty creature, and in some ways it is: The invader is us.

In September, Erik Davis briefly mentioned one of the projects that Keith Calder's Snoop Entertainment was producing -- Terra. The story is based on a short CG film by Montreal native Aristomenis Tsirbas that deals with an interplanetary, alien future. The short was then penned into a feature by Evan Spiliotopoulos -- the scribe of Pooh's Heffalump Movie, of all things. The extended adaptation deals with interplanetary conflict between a peaceful world and human warriors looking to colonize it. The first news had the likes of Thirteen's Evan Rachel Wood, X2 bad guy Brian Cox, and Arrested Development's David Cross, as well as James Garner and Danny Glover stepping in to lend their voices.

Now Variety has given a whole slew of names to add to the cast. We've got Luke Wilson, Amanda Peet, Dennis Quaid, Justin Long (the Mac guy and Die Hard 4 co-star) and Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) to delight in as well. If that cast isn't enough, there is also Ron Perlman, Rosanna Arquette and Danny Trejo. Really, whoever casted this sucker wanted to cover all of their bases. We've got younger, saucy stars, older and established actors, lots of quirk and two bad asses to boot. For a "studio-quality CG pic at a third of the price," they've certainly got an impressive list of talent. Sure, they're not Brangelina tabloid huge, but I think they've got the chops. Are they enough to interest you?

Though still in its toddler stages, Keith Calder's financing and production company, Snoot Entertainment, is wasting no time chasing after the big, ambitious projects. According to Variety, Snoot has picked up the film rights to Robert J. Sawyer's (pictured right) novella Identity Theft, which marks the company's first live-action feature.

Using the planet Mars as a setting (hmm, I wonder if the color red will appear a lot?), story revolves around a private eye who is hired to find the husband of a beautiful woman after he turns up missing when the couple transfer their minds into artificial bodies. (Yeah, how about they find a way to transfer muscles into my body? Ya know, without me having to do stuff ... like go to a gym and, um, lift something.) With private financing and outside equity investors, Snoot's other projects include the CGI animated film Terra, which is currently in production and stars the voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Brian Cox, David Cross, James Garner and Danny Glover, among others.