The Magic Roundabout (2005)

Curiosità

The Magic Roundabout is a 2005 animated adventure fantasy comedy film based on the television series of the same name. Unlike the show, which was presented with stop-motion animation, the film utilizes computer-generated animation. The story sees a group of unlikely heroes who go on a quest to stop a reawakened villain, who intends on freezing the world, from retrieving a set of powerful diamonds.

Production

In 2000, Andy Leighton started working as a managing director at bolexbrothers. There he learned that the studio's financial income was drying up, and decided to start building a feature film slate. Associate producer Bruce Higham had a link with Kodak and was friends with Nick Collinson, who worked for Canal+.

During 2002, the film was in pre-production until the actual production commenced and lasted for 33 months. According to Leighton, the film had a slightly darker tone than the show; bolexbrothers wanted to take the action away from the Magic Garden, with their story starting there, but then having the characters go on a globe-trotting adventure around the world. Raoff and Stephane Sanoussi made an attempt to write a story for the film.

Borthwick was hired to oversee the storyboards and scripts, but went through a personal crisis during the pre-production and was sidelined as a result. The producers at Pathé UK lost confidence in him, so Borthwick brought in his student Frank Passingham, who took over. Les Films Action also hired Jean Duval to create and supervise their graphic charter for the development of future Magic Roundabout productions.

Unlike the show, which was presented with stop-motion animation, the film was mainly animated in computer-generated animation, which Pascal Rodon was very much into. Whereas British animators and studios such as bolexbrothers specialised in stop-motion or traditional animation, Paris was, in Leighton's words, "kind of the leaders [of computer animation]", since they had about three or four universities that were teaching it, being more advanced t…

When animating the hair for the characters and Dougal's fur, the animators first tried the envelope tool, then used the Hairs Dynamic in XSI. They used this technique for Dylan's tuffs of hair, but abandoned it mostly due to it causing technical problems. The animators also developed a mesh that served as a deformation cage for the characters' hair, used for Florence's hair and Coral's pigtails.

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