Five Children And It (film)
''Five Children and It'' is a 2004 family fantasy-comedy-drama adventure film adaptation of the 1902 novel ''Five Children and It'', which features live action and computer animation. It was directed by John Stephenson, produced by Nick Hirschkorn, Lisa Henson and Samuel Hadida, written by E. Nesbit and David Solomons with music by Jane Antonia Cornish and starring Tara FitzGerald, Freddie Highmore, Alex Jennings, Jonathan Bailey, Jessica Claridge, Poppy Rogers, Alec Muggleton, Zak Muggleton, Zoë Wanamaker, Kenneth Branagh, Alexander Pownall, Robert Tygner, Eddie Izzard as the voice of It-Psammead, Georgio Serafini, John Sessions, Kim Fenton, Norman Wisdom and Duncan Preston and Zak. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2004 and was theatrically released on 15 October 2004. The digital puppetry and CGI animation for Psammead was created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. ''Five Children and It'' grossed £1,519,049 worldwide. The film was r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Stephenson (director)
John Stephenson, (born 28 May 1952) is a British director and a former vice-president and creative supervisor for Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA film award in 1985 for ''Dreamchild'' and in 1991, he won an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Early life Stephenson was born in London, England. Educated at the Kingston School of Art and then the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1979. He moved to the USA and had a brief spell working as a designer of prestigious-fashion West End Interiors in Los Angeles. Career Joining the Jim Henson's Creature Shop in the early 80s, Stephenson became a member of the unique group of artists designers and crafts people working on the ground-breaking film The Dark Crystal. in addition to working as a mechanical designer, he also served as an assistant cable control puppeteer on Dreamchild. Subsequently, in 1985, he became Creative Supervisor a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Warner Home Video
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (as a division of Warner Communications, Inc.). The company launched in the United States with twenty films on Betamax and VHS videocassettes in late 1979. The company later expanded its line to include additional titles throughout 1979 and 1980. It is responsible for distributing the film and television library of Warner Bros. Discovery and other companies on various home media formats, such as DVD, Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, digital, and streaming platforms. Some of the companies that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment distributes include Max, Warner Bros. ( Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jim Henson's Creature Shop
Jim Henson's Creature Shop is an American animation and special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based in Hollywood, California, United States. History Jim Henson's Creature Shop was originally created as a partnership with British illustrator Brian Froud to facilitate the production of ''The Dark Crystal''. Originally located in Hampstead, London, it received its name in order to differentiate it from Jim Henson's original puppet workshop in New York City. It was then used for future productions such as ''Labyrinth (1986 film), Labyrinth'' and ''The StoryTeller (TV series), The StoryTeller.'' It was relocated to Camden Town following Henson's death in 1990 and his son, Brian Henson, takes it over. A third location in Burbank, California opened to serve Hollywood, and one of its first projects was the ''Dinosaurs (TV series), Dinosaurs'' television series. Its main animatronic supervisor is London native David Barring ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Digital Puppetry
Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers. It is most commonly used in filmmaking and television production but has also been used in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre. The exact definition of what is and is not digital puppetry is subject to debate among puppeteers and computer graphics designers, but it is generally agreed that digital puppetry differs from conventional computer animation in that it involves performing characters in real-time, rather than animating them frame by frame. Digital puppetry is closely associated with character animation, motion capture technologies, and 3D animation, as well as skeletal animation. Digital puppetry is also known as virtual puppetry, performance animation, living animation, aniforms, live animation and real-time animation (although the latter also refers to animation generated by com ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston (born 11 August 1946) is a retired English actor. He is known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood, including his role in the soap opera parody sketches '' Acorn Antiques'' and as Stan in the sitcom '' dinnerladies'' (1998–2000). He reprised his role of Clifford in '' Acorn Antiques: The Musical!'' in 2005. His other television roles include DS Todd in the soap opera ''EastEnders'' (1987), Jonathan Haslam in the hospital sitcom '' Surgical Spirit'' (1989–1995); and Doug Potts in the soap opera ''Emmerdale'' (2007–2011, 2014–2020). Career Preston appeared in a short 1981 Public information film entitled ''Say NO to Strangers'', as a kerb-crawling predator attempting to lure a schoolgirl into his car. He has also made many guest appearances in various TV series, including ''Hunters Walk,'' '' Secret Army'', '' The Professionals'', '' All Creatures Great and Small'', '' Robin of Sherwood'', '' Bergerac'', '' The New State ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010), was an English actor, comedian, musician, and singer, best known for his series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966, in which he portrayed the endearingly inept character Norman Pitkin. He rose to prominence with his first leading film role in ''Trouble in Store'' (1953), which earned him the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. Wisdom’s appeal extended far beyond the UK, gaining popularity in countries as diverse as South America, Iran, and many nations within the former Eastern Bloc. He enjoyed particular fame in Albania, where, during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, his films were among the few Western productions allowed to be shown. He was once described by Charlie Chaplin as his "favourite clown". In later years, Wisdom broadened his career to include stage and television. He performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway in New York City alongside stars such as Mandy Patinki ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Sessions
John Sessions (born John Marshall; 11 January 1953 – 2 November 2020) was a British actor and comedian. He was known as a regular performer on comedy improvisation show '' Whose Line Is It Anyway?'', as co-creator, co-writer and co-star of the sitcom '' Stella Street'', as a panellist on '' QI'', and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and Hollywood. Early life John Sessions was born as John Marshall on 11 January 1953 to John and Esme (née Richardson) Marshall. His family was Scottish; his father was a gas engineer from Largs, Ayrshire, and his mother was from Glasgow. He had an older brother, Bill, and a twin sister, Maggie. He was raised in Bedford and St Albans. Education Sessions was educated at Bedford Modern School, an independent school for boys (now co-educational), and Verulam School, St Albans, followed by the University College of North Wales in Bangor, from which he graduated with an MA in English literature. At university, he had begun to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alex Jennings
Alex Michael Jennings (born 10 May 1957) is an English actor of the stage and screen who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre. For his work on the London stage, Jennings has received three Olivier Awards, winning for '' Too Clever by Half'' (1988), ''Peer Gynt'' (1996), and ''My Fair Lady'' (2003). He is the only performer to have won Olivier awards in the drama, musical, and comedy categories. Jennings is known for his film work, in particular for his performance as Prince Charles in Stephen Frears's film '' The Queen'' (2006) opposite Helen Mirren. His other film appearances include '' The Wings of the Dove'' (1997), '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004), '' Babel'' (2006), '' Belle'' (2013), and '' The Lady in the Van'' (2015) starring Maggie Smith. Jennings has won acclaim for his performances in television, including for his portrayal of Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, in the Netflix series ''The Crown'' opp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Computer Animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtual cinematography, Modern computer animation usually uses 3D computer graphics. Computer animation is a digital successor to stop motion and traditional animation. Instead of a physical model or illustration, a digital equivalent is manipulated frame-by-frame. Also, computer-generated animations allow a single graphic artist to produce such content without using actors, expensive set pieces, or Theatrical property, props. To create the illusion of movement, an image is displayed on the computer monitor and repeatedly replaced by a new similar image but advanced slightly in time (usually at a rate of 24, 25, or 30 frames/second). This technique is identical to how the illusion of movement is achieved with television and Film, motion pictur ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Adventure Film
The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in that the genre required a setting that was both remote in time and space to the film audience and that it contained a positive hero who tries to make right in their world. Some critics such as Taves limit the genre to naturalistic settings, while Yvonne Tasker found that would limit films such as '' Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981) from the genre. Tasker found that most films in the genre featured narratives located within a fantasy world of exoticized setting, which are often driven by quests for characters seeking mythical objects or treasure hunting. The genre is closely associated with the action film, and is sometimes used interchangeably or in tandem with that genre. The setting and visuals are key elements of adventure films. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Comedy-drama
Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, illness, betrayal, grief, etc.) are handled with realism and subtlety, while preserving a humorous tenor. The term "dramedy" began to be used in the television industry in the 1980s. Modern television comedy dramas tend to have more humour integrated into the story than the comic relief common in drama series, but usually contain a lower joke rate than sitcom, sitcoms. History In Theatre of ancient Greece, Greek theatre, plays were considered comedies or tragedies (i.e. drama): the former being light stories with a happy ending, and the latter serious stories with a sad ending. This concept even influenced Theatre of ancient Rome, Roman theatre and theatre of the Hellenistic period. Theatre of that era is thought to have long-lasting infl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fantasy Film
Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, although the genres do overlap. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, Wonder (emotion), wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary. Subgenres Several sub-categories of fantasy films can be identified, although the delineations between these subgenres, much as in fantasy literature, are somewhat fluid. The most common fantasy subgenres depicted in movies are high fantasy and sword and sorcery. Both categories typically employ quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and other elements commonly associated with fantasy stories. High fantasy films tend to feature a more richly developed fantasy world, and may also be more character-oriented or thematically complex. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |