Well, the world IS a speck!

Dan Barker, South African animator’s involvement in Horton Hears a Who
Story by Nick Van Der Leek
Video by Mikale Barry

Blue Sky Studio’s newest film, Horton Hears a Who (based on a Dr. Seuss book) continues the magic we’ve been led to associate from that company (Ice Age, Robotos) The Horton script is great, performances (many of them) are awesome, and all of this is rendered with sparkling wit and precision by an army of animators, Dan Barker being one of them. Dan's signature scene (one of a whole bunch) is the ape cannon, shooting bananas at a fleeing Horton (Jim Carrey).

Dan was mostly involved in animating Horton and the Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carrell). Morton, a zippy blue mouse, is voiced by Knocked Up star Seth Rogen. Vlad, the evil misshapen vulture (voiced by Will Arnett) is another memorable character. There are many character besides, filling the movie to the brim with Seussian chaos.

For more go here.

Q&A: Ridley Scott Has Finally Created the Blade Runner He Always Imagined (WIRED)

By Ted Greenwald

Photo: Robert Maxwell Feature

Fresh off his second successful movie, an up-and-coming director takes a chance on a dark tale of a 21st-century cop who hunts humanlike androids. But he runs over budget, and the financiers take control, forcing him to add a ham-fisted voice-over and an absurdly cheery ending. The public doesn't buy it. The director's masterpiece plays to near-empty theaters, ultimately retreating to the art-house circuit as a cult oddity.

That's where we left Ridley Scott's future-noir epic in 1982. But a funny thing happened over the next 25 years. Blade Runner's audience quietly multiplied. An accidental public showing of a rough-cut work print created surprise demand for a re-release, so in 1992 Scott issued his director's cut. He silenced the narration, axed the ending, and added a twist — a dream sequence suggesting that Rick Deckard, the film's protagonist, is an android, just like those he was hired to dispatch.

But the director didn't stop there. As the millennium turned, he continued polishing: erasing stray f/x wires, trimming shots originally extended to accommodate the voice-over, even rebuilding a scene in which the stunt double was obvious. Now he's ready to release Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which will hit theaters in Los Angeles and New York in October, with a DVD to follow in December.

At age 69, Ridley Scott is finally satisfied with his most challenging film. He's still turning out movies at a furious pace — American Gangster, with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, is due in November — building on an extraordinary oeuvre that includes Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. But he seems ready to accept Blade Runner as his crowning achievement. In his northern English accent, he describes its genesis and lasting influence. And, inevitably, he returns to the darkness that pervades his view of the future — the shadows that shield Deckard from a reality that may be too disturbing to face.

For the Q&A interview, click here.
NVDL: I recently watched Blade Runner on VCD and credit to this flick, it is still edgy decades later. The climate change effect and overpopulated city images ring truer than ever.

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