STUDIO
The MOVING CASTLE is not just committed to celebrating animation's past - it also seeks to transform animation's present also! So, in addition to its 'living museum' mission, The MOVING CASTLE will also create an active and vital animation studio environment that will also advantage of modern state-of-the art digital technology too. The objective will be to create ground-breaking, independent-style, mainly-2D projects that both raise the bar and extend the horizons in traditionally animated films.
Even with the barest minimum of funding audience-appealing and movie-scale productions will be possible. Embracing either 'stone-soup' budget approaches, or utilizing budgets with a more industry-level reality, The MOVING CASTLE will direct their animation projects towards new and ever-exciting realms never been attempted before.
Projects (in alphabetical order) that The MOVING CASTLE is currently developing...
Even with the barest minimum of funding audience-appealing and movie-scale productions will be possible. Embracing either 'stone-soup' budget approaches, or utilizing budgets with a more industry-level reality, The MOVING CASTLE will direct their animation projects towards new and ever-exciting realms never been attempted before.
Projects (in alphabetical order) that The MOVING CASTLE is currently developing...
'BAD PENGUIN' ~ Theatrical movie in 2D animation:
Bad Penguin is a crazy bird who hates Christmas! (Imagine a lovechild between Quentin Tarantino and Bugs Bunny.) The town folks are preparing to celebrate their first Chrismas after the end of World War II when the bird shows up to wreck the show. The only friend he has in the entire world is Cooper - a blind, street-wise jazz musician - who attempts to protect the angry, armed-to-the-teeth penguin and discover the reason for this bird's unrestrained hostility. Ultimately a reason is discovered and an amazing, yet entirely unexpected, gesture of self-sacrificing generosity is witnessed!
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The current 40-sec teaser...
Click HERE to find out more about our 'Bad Penguin' production development.
'DREAMSINGER' ~ Theatrical movie in 3D & 2D animation:
DREAMSINGER tells the story of a young whale who would save the world. TOBY is struggling to find his place in his pod and the ocean. MITSU is a young girl who seeks to save Toby's life from her father who is master harpoonist on a Japanese whaling ship. Unbeknown to either of them the planet itself is being threatened by a dark and emergent force, DIOMEDA. Only Toby, assisted by Mitsu, can the evil that is about to before the world. This epic tale - a 'Bambi of the oceans' - aspires to be one of the finest animated epics of all-time!
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'SPIRIT OF THE GAME' ~ Theatrical movie in 2D animation:
Based on the book of the same name by Geoff Francis
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Jamie is a talented young soccer player entrapped in a dark world of blind bigotry, racial prejudice and mindless hooliganism. He is offered the chance of a better life by the sudden appearance of the ghostly spirit of one of the finest players to have ever lived... Sir Stanley Matthews! 'SPIRIT OF THE GAME' is about heroes, villains and the underlying scourge of racism that is so currently prevalent within the footballing culture. The film explores the emotional upheavals that engulf a teenager who finally begins to realize his potential by rejecting the negative influences of his peers in favour of a more positive and self-disciplined outlook from an earlier age. SPIRIT OF THE GAME is quite truly a moral tale of our times!
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'THE UNCIVIL WAR' ~ Animated docu-drama movie in 2D animation:
Morgan and Jeremy have shared a classroom for three years and have always disliked each other. A fourth grade social studies assignment reveals they are directly connected by tragic events that occurred 150 years earlier. Morgan's distant grandfather fought for the Confederacy, while Jeremy's distant grandfather was a Union soldier. Based on true historical characters and beautiful personal letters preserved from the time, the animated Uncivil War demonstrates how history can become magically transformed when everyday people are personally involved.
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Based on the book by Nick K. Adams
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Listen to the original NPR/KUOW interview with Nick Adams that inspired this animated dock-drama approach...
'WILLIAM HEATH ROBINSON & HIS AMAZING UNCLE LUBIN' ~ Theatrical movie in live action @ 2D animation:
HEATH ROBINSON was an iconic British artist and humorist from the turn of the 20th-century. His life and work afforded him an unchallenged 'rock-star' status up until his death in 1946. William Heath Robinson was mostly famous for the fantastic, hilarious and wildly-imaginary contraptions he conceived and illustrated. 'The Adventures of Uncle Lubin' was his most famous children's book classic he ever created - introducing to the world the endearing and yet absurdly eccentric Uncle Lubin. This challenging yet hilarious biopic poses an intriguing question - what if Uncle Lubin the character ever met William Heath Robinson the man?
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An early teaser starring David Thewlis and his Uncle Lubin...
'THAT'S ANIMATION FOLKS!' ~ TV Special in 2D & 3D Animation.
Duffy Duck has become a famous animation producer since the bottom fell out of the 2D animation business, where he once made his fortune. Duffy finds Big Bunny, a fellow star of the ‘golden era’ of animation, washed up and derelict in a Hollywood bar. Duffy takes pity on Big and asks him to head-up an animation tribute show he's producing... "THAT'S ANIMATION FOLKS!". Big promises Duffy he will sober-up for the big night but at the very last moment he risks a quick drink to give him courage. One drink leads to many and so eventually a pitiful, fumbling, drunken bunny stumbles haplessly onto the stage to introduce the show. The star-filled Hollywood audience is incensed by the pathetic bunny's antics and gives him a bad time. Ultimately Duffy arrives on stage to demands they give Big one more chance. They do so. Eventually, a much more sober (and yet utterly humiliated) bunny somehow pulls-off a performance of his lifetime. The tribute show itself features some of the finest, genuine animation shorts that have ever been screened at the real ‘2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival’ in recent years. These short films are interleaved with Big's increasingly confident performance... introducing guest appearances by older star 2D cartoon characters (clearly aged and past their prime) who compete for the limelight with the younger and somewhat more glitzy 3D stars that appear too.
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