Update on Animation Projects

Here is an update on number of upcoming animated projects.

First is Mexican animation Espiritus De Furia, created by Espektro Films and co-produced with the help of Alux Films.
The movie is in works for 5 years, and 2D and 3D technologies were used to make it. The film is expected sometimes in 2010, and as I understand the creators are hiring now more people for the last push to complete this feature.
The story set in the historical context of the Mexican Revolution. Its protagonist is an antihero named Scorpio, who waged a fight to death against his greatest enemy: the mercenary Duhalde Leon, better known as Razor. You can see the demo reel below.


Found via Quiet Earth.

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Second one is Russian animated film named Alien Pile. The story happens on the future Earth, inhabited by humans and aliens, but life is not that different after all. Two guys, Al and Max, find a bag with money, only later to discover that it belongs to some gangsters, that eventually trace them and demand their money back. Since they already spent most of it, Al and Max are trying to find a way to get the money back, not knowing that in addition to gangsters, there are also number of aliens following their adventures, each with his own purpose. And everybody are on collision course for the final showdown.

This flash animation is heavily based on references to Russian pop culture. But in addition to Tarantino-like plot, there are many international references as well, including the famous Alien character. Since this is a comedy, all references are getting unusual and twisted parody treatment, much different from the original. Anyway, the idea looks very interesting, but it's still unknown when the film will be released. Being in works from 2005, the release date is constantly postponed due to unknown reasons. Here is the website for the animation studio that did the work.

To watch the teaser trailer for the film press here, and I also found number of scenes from the film, here is one of them. Translation for both videos is not really necessary.

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And this is American animated film titled Bye Bye Bin Laden! It is described as "South Park meets The Daily Show" by the Director Scott Sublett, and it is based on his musical by the same name that apparently was popular in San Francisco.
The movie is a political satire, involving many familiar characters from real life and parodying them. It really looks like South Park wannabe, and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it also delivers the goods.

The movie was already premiered at the South Beach International Animation Festival in last March, and will be released on DVD in August. No trailer right now, so go ahead and visit the official website of the film for more info and screen shots.

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The last one is another Russian animation, a sequel to the cult classic film from 1986 Kin-Dza-Dza. The movie is highly popular in Russia even today, and as I understand it is familiar all around the world as well. And it should be. The film is minimalistic sci-fi treat, with post-apocalyptic and steampunk visual style. The universe of the film is complex and intriguing, and the use of Russian language in it is truly remarkable.
The animated version is directed by the director of the original film, Georgi Daneliya. According to him it will be different story in the same universe, and the movie will feature new characters and new adventures, more suitable for current times.
In February, Daneliya said that the film will be completed by the end of 2009, but a few weeks later, one of the film animators claimed on his blog that the production is frozen and the release date is unknown. Since most of the job was already done, I can only hope that this project will be completed at some point after all.

So, here is some visual samples from the movie.


These pictures are taken from the blog of Alexey Andreev, the animator of the backgrounds in the movie. This is probably just concept art, but it tells something what to expect. Click here to see more pics.

And here is the actual screenshots from the unfinished film.

See more screenshots here.

And there are also two video clips, taken from news reports about the film. Here is the first one, and the second. Only the beginning of each video is related to this movie, the rest is about something else.

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And minor updates on the projects that I already mentioned before. Click on the name to see related post.
New posters for First Squad, Baton, and Night of the Living Dead Reanimated

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More similar updates on other animation projects from around the world are coming soon.