Interesting point of view on this from a Ringers who have a particular reason to care that Gollum’s movements be as accurate as possible – and their verdict is ‘Kudos to the Weta animators!’ [More]
Day: February 2, 2003
How good is Gollum’s animation? REALLY good, according to Ringer spy Lisa, who wrote in:
“Now that my husband and I have seen the movie more than once, it occurred to me to pass on to other fans a somewhat different observation of Gollum.
As nearly everyone who has seen TTT can attest, the CGI work of Gollum is extraordinary. However, there is another aspect of that work, too. My husband has a 65% hearing loss in both ears, wears hearing aids, and does not use sign language. Instead, he reads lips. Cartoon characters and all CGI characters have always frustrated him because he has never been able to read their lips.
Until Gollum. After we saw the movie the first time, my husband said, “I have never been able to read a CGI character’s lips before. Gollum’s were exactly as if he were a human being.” I cannot think of higher praise for all the people involved in creating Gollum than to tell them that a hearing impaired person was able to follow Gollum’s speech exactly, just by lip-reading. Kudos to the dedication of the Weta staff! “
Ringer Spy Funky Monkey sends us this sound file of Andy Serkis hamming up a traffic report in his best Gollum voice. Andy talks about Two Towers, does the voices, then is persuaded to do the traffic reports using the voice of Gollum. (This file requires Realplayer) [More]
A reminder from Ringer Spy Alex: “ The Encyclopedia of Arda has finally posted its Two Towers Movie-Goers Guide, listing all the plot changes and little winks to the audience that the movie contains.”
The very popular LOTR props exhibition will stay in NZ a while longer, then tour overseas. [More]
The Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa’s LOTR props exhibition has extended its stay and is ‘on track to be the single most popular exhibition.’ [More] Thanks to Ataahua for the link.
Meanwhile, Ringer spy Nancy did some work to find out when and where the LOTR exhibition will go next when it leaves NZ. She wrote to Te Papa and got this reply from Te Papa staff: “The list that I have tells me that the Lord of the Rings exhibition will be on in Boston from approximately the beginning of August 2004 until the last week in October 2004. However, please don’t take what I am saying as being ‘official’ as I’m not sure that all of the red tape has been signed off . Th exact dates of staging the exhibition will be determined by the museum in Boston, not us. It is quite possible that the museum in Boston will not be making an announcement yet. I suggest you check with them closer to the time. The current travel plan for the exhibition is, after Wellington – London, Singapore, Boston, Sydney – Boston being the only USA venue at this point in time. “
Nancy did some more detective work and found out, “The venue in Boston is the Museum of Science. In London it will be the Science Museum in South Kensington. The approximate dates I have for London are September 2003 until January 2004. The whole of the exhibition will be on tour – in fact there may be more items ( not less ) in the travelling exhibition. “