06-16-2004, 10:55 PM
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Join Date: 04-11-2002
Location: Texas
Posts: 4,897
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Creature Shop in "Around the World in 80 Days"
Disney's "Around The World In 80 Days" premieres this weekend. Be on the lookout for all of the special effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. We haven't heard much about JHC's involvement in this film, but it's getting some good reviews so far.
Review: 'Around The World In 80 Days' Fantastic Voyage
Do we really need a remake of "Around the World in 80 Days"?
When it is as funny and fantasy-filled as the one starring Steve Coogan, Jackie Chan and Cécile De France, why not take another whirl around the world?
With such a gifted physical comedian as Chan playing Passepartout, a lot of the tone of the movie is slapstick combined with killer fights and flights that hardly give you a chance to breathe.
Coogan, as the eccentric inventor Phileas Fogg, and De France, as lovely French painter Monique La Roche who goes along for the ride, are both beautifully cast. Coogan is easily able to combine a stuffy Englishman with a man who has a vision that anything is possible in a country where the scientists insist "We have discovered everything there is to discover." De France is winsome, sweet, seductive and manipulative when she has to be. She also has a mean punch.
The story is not exactly like the 1956 version of the tale, but the basics are there. Fogg is a constant thorn in the side of the men in the Ministry of Science. He's always coming to them with some new theory or what they consider a crazy invention that will never fly.
When Fogg boldly states that a man could travel around the world in 80 days, the sleazy Minister of Science makes a bet with him -- if Fogg can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days, he will step down and let Fogg take his place. However, if he loses, Fogg must give up experiments forever.
Never having been out of England, Fogg is a bit nervous about agreeing to the deal, but with encouragement from his valet, Passepartout (who has his own secret), Fogg takes the bet. But you know the minister has no intentions of letting his trip be an easy one.
Their trip is a madcap series of misadventures in some of the most beautiful places in the world. The countryside is exquisite.
A side story regarding a stolen jade Buddha is weak and isn't set up very well, but it does give Chan a chance to let loose with his kung fu action.
Special effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop magically transport us from one location to the next, starting in reality and then morphing into a combination of what looks like high-tech animation. In many spots the scene looks like a painting in the style of the Masters coming to life.
The director's and the actors' comic timing are right on the mark and none of the scenes go on too long (except maybe a cringe-inducing performance by Arnold Schwarzenegger as a prince who has six wives and is looking for a seventh to complete the week.)
Right up to the high-flying ending, "Around the World in 80 Days" is a delight and it's hard to count all of the cameos by well-known actors.
Curiously there is an occasional off-color reference that doesn't seem to fit the spirit of the film --which is just the kind of high-spirited slapstick fun that kids really enjoy. For the more conservative family, those occasional moments may be uncomfortable, but they pass quickly.
"Around the World in 80 Days" is a film that the whole family can enjoy - no sex, no gruesome violence, no heavy themes -- just pure fun. These days, that is hard to come by in a movie theater, so saddle up and take a ride around the world with Phileas Fogg and his crew.
http://www.theomahachannel.com/enter...18/detail.html
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{Who is very angry with something to do with this, but would rather not say what right now so don't ask}regard
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Saw Around the World and loved it!
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