This was in Austin, Texas at the Alamo Drafthouse for the second day of Fantastic Fest, at a presentation on special effects in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
From Cinematical:
Berger showed us slides of centaurs, minotaurs, male and female goblins, two types of ogres, giants, lots of dwarves, and a gorilla (which he actually played for a couple of days). The costumes were amazingly detailed. It would take weeks to thread the hair into a minotaur costume. For the creatures who had speaking roles in the film, they made animatronic heads, which sounds cheesy but looked quite natural. Apparently there were plans to overlay CG effects on these heads, but the effects KNB EFX created were good enough to render that unnecessary.
“This was my Where The Wild Things Are,” Berger said. “I got to be Max and go into the forest with the creatures every day.”
He also showed drawings and photos of specific characters, noting that they’d worked particularly hard on Mr. Tumnus the faun because he is the first Narnia character you see in the film. Apparently the original designs for the character, done long before the role was cast, were based on the actor looking ilke Ewan McGregor. I always envisioned Mr. Tumnus as looking a little older than he does in the film, but he still has the right sort of look.
The 10-minute preview contained some stunning scenes. I’m not sure why the WWII fighter plane sequence seemed necessary, but perhaps I’ll understand that better when I see the finished film. Narnia in wintertime looks gorgeous; the production design is just right. I think the preview we saw was similar to (if not the same as) the one reported here on Cinematical a few days ago, although that post mentions a couple of scenes I don’t remember seeing yesterday.
I saw enough of the preview to know that I’d like to see the movie. The script could be a mess, the acting could be all wrong, but the visuals are right on target.
From AintItCoolNews.com:
First off, I had the worst seat in the place for this. Literally IN FRONT of the FRONT ROW at a terrible angle – but even from that vantage point – I was officially won over to this project all the way.
Liam Neeson’s voice coming out of Aslan is just perfection. But even more cool is the damn Beaver! The Beaver is awesome. Till I saw the Beaver do his “Chatterbox” bit, I hadn’t seen any footage even close to this cool… that’s not entirely true… the opening of this began with the bombing of London and that stuff was jaw-dropping. In fact all of the most finished work was exemplary.
The best news? The kids work… or at least seem to. That was my biggest worry. They look like they belong in this story, and that’s the highest compliment you could give them. The cinematography looks quite lovely. My only worry is with the end battle – and it isn’t that I think it won’t be action packed, it’s just – that stuff was so rough and unfinished that I think I could feel the productions own nervousness over getting all the shots in. I couldn’t help but think while looking at it, 2 months left. That’s gotta be brutal. But ya know what? The battle looks like it will be dynamic as hell, and the Gryphon RULES!
When the footage was over, the audience began cheering – and my sweetie, who absolutely is gaga for Narnia had to go to the bathroom to touch-up mascara. I know everyone that I talked to about the footage that had a great seat loved it. FatherGeek was blown away. I believe Quint said he was blown away. Me? I went from skeptical, to believing that this film could be well on the right road to victory. And that’s a very good thing for 10 minutes to convince one of. Thank God those kids work. Big Sigh!
