Tag Archives: movie reviews

Big Buck Bunny

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Big Buck Bunny (code named Project Peach), the second short open source movie to come from the Blender Foundation, was released online on May 30, 2008. I can still remember hearing about Elephant’s Dream (code named Project Orange) back when it became the first open movie ever released.

Screen capture: Blender Foundation / CC-By 3.0

Screen capture: Blender Foundation / CC-By 3.0

Open movies are made with free software. Both Elephant’s Dream and Big Buck Bunny were primarily animated using Blender, a great program for creating 3-D animations. While I was unable to find an exact list of the software used on BBB, I’m sure it’s very similar to that listed for Elephant’s Dream. Another benefit of using Blender to create these movies is that numerous improvements were to be made in order to make the visual effects cinema quality. It’s great to see a group pushing the limits of what can be done with free software to help find its weaknesses and then collaborating to make it do what they needed it to do.

Another really cool aspect of open source movies is that the content is also free. I don’t just mean that you can watch the movie for free. BBB was released under a Creative Commons BY license, the most liberal creative license offered by CC. Any part of the movie can be “remixed” into your own creation, provided that you properly attribute the original work. It’s really cool because the character “files” are freely available. That means that anyone using Blender can simply load one of the bunnies and make it do whatever you want. Imagine being able to do that with Sully from Monster’s, Inc. or Woody from Toy Story. That’d be really awesome!

Big Buck Bunny is available for streaming on YouTube, but I’d highly recommend downloading a high-quality 1080p version from the website (see 1920×1080). They’ve got copies in a few different formats, including Ogg, all with HD available. When I tried, the US server for the 1920 OGG file wasn’t working, but the Italian server worked great. Grab the torrent if you’d like to help spread the film and save bandwidth.

Also if you’re interested, the Blender Foundation’s latest is Project Apricot, an open source 3-D game using some of the characters from BBB. The next movie project will supposedly be an action/fighting short. They should hire Randall Munroe to help write it! :D

Across the Universe

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Across the Universe coverSadie bought me Across the Universe on DVD for Valentine’s Day. We finally got around to watching it last night, and I have to say I was pleased. Of course, I doubt it would’ve taken much on their part to please me. The movie centers around a few main characters, most notably Jude and Lucy. Jude is a dock worker from Liverpool who decides to take a trip to America to find his father. He meets Lucy‘s brother, Max(well), and they become quick friends. The story spirals out from there to include a whole cast of Beatles-inspired character names. In fact, there were very few (if any) characters actually named in the movie that were not some reference to a character in the Beatles’ music. Much like Forrest Gump, this movie also gives a powerful social history of the time.

The soundtrack was pretty awesome. While the singing was sometimes noticeably computer-altered, the arrangements of the music were amazingly original. Also, there were a few notable celebrity performances such as Bono (as Dr. Robert) singing I am the Walrus. Another great thing about the soundtrack is that it sampled music from The Beatles’ entire run, with pretty much equal representation from their earlier and later stuff.

The reason this movie was so successful was that it combined many aspects of The Beatles’ catalog with some history and a good story. Although I am a huge Beatles fan, they were before my time. I have always listened to their music out of the context of its time period, which was undoubtedly influential in their writing. Putting the music together with a picture of the time helped open my eyes to some additional meanings to some of my favorite music. Another fun aspect of the movie was picking out all the references to Beatles songs. Much like the character’s names, there were a number of nonchalant references in the dialog, such as Jude’s boss saying “when I’m 64.” (I found a nice list of all The Beatles references on Wikipedia, but I’d recommend only looking at them after you’ve seen the movie.)

If you’re not as in love with The Beatles’ catalog as I am (shame on you!), this movie may not be as significant for you. There are a few “trippy” sequences near the middle of the movie that seem to get off plot, but then again this is somewhat reflective of their music. Overall, it’s the music that drives this movie. If it wasn’t for The Beatles’ amazing songwriting abilities, this movie would have just been “ok.” But as I pointed out to Sadie multiple times last night, “Man, did those guys know how to write some music!” I’ve been listening to them for years, and their songs continue to set the bar for any music I encounter.

If you like even a few Beatles’ songs, this movie comes highly recommended.

5/5