"The Trumpet of the Swan" appears to have been made in a vacuum without any knowledge of recent advances in animation, either in terms of technique, or the kinds of stories now embraced by the family market. For directors Richard Rich and Terry L. Noss ("The Swan Princess" and "The King and I"), family films evidently mean kiddie movies. No attempt is made to engage teen or adult viewers. The only possible audience for this film are young children and their exceedingly bored parents.
Adapting a children's book by E.B. White, writer Judy Rothman Rofe lays on the sentimentality about as thickly as one dares. The movie's sole dramatic chore is to give a "voice" to a trumpeter swan named Louie, who is born mute. His father steals a real trumpet -- the kind humans play -- and somehow the bird learns to toot this horn as well as that other Louie, the one named Armstrong. Fame, fortune and his sweetheart swan are his rewards for producing such a pleasing sound.
However this tale worked in literary form, it plays awkwardly on screen by mixing the animal and human worlds as if there were little difference. Somehow Louie manages to go to school where he learns to read and write, but even in fantasy terms the movie never makes this plausible. Instead, this gets treated with a literal-mindedness that drags the fairy tale down into muddled nonsense.
The film is cheaply made, and it shows. Backgrounds, characters and layouts were designed at RichCrest Studios of Burbank. Then the actual animation -- where the film is digitally inked and painted -- was farmed out to Hanho Studios in Seoul, South Korea.
Consequently, the character "acting" is poor. Facial and body movements of critters and kids aren't individualized so the animators can express their different personalities. Everyone looks more or less the same, as if drawn from the same model. All this takes place against stagnant and flatly painted backgrounds.
The actors voicing the characters give mostly stiff and uninteresting performances. Jason Alexander is guilty of highly artificial, bombastic tones in playing the father swan. Mary Steenburgen manages more normal tones as the mother. And Corey Burton is encouraged to give Ted Kennedy-style inflections to a Sen. Squirrel in Boston.
Other than a Little Richard-performed song, "Louie Louie Louie", the music is bland and lacks contemporary lift.
THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN
TriStar Pictues
RichCrest Studios
Producer: Lin Oliver
Directors: Richard Rich, Terry L. Noss
Writer: Judy Rothman Rofe
Based on the book by: E.B. White
Executive producer: Seldon O. Young
Character design: Elena Kravets, Bronwen Barry
Effects and computer animation: Brian McSweeney
Layout designer: Mike Hodgson
Music: Marcus Miller
Editor: Joseph L. Campana
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father: Jason Alexander
Mother: Mary Steenburgen
Serena: Reese Witherspoon
Boyd: Seth Green
Mrs. Hammerbotham: Carol Burnett
Monty: Joe Mantegna
Running time -- 75 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Adapting a children's book by E.B. White, writer Judy Rothman Rofe lays on the sentimentality about as thickly as one dares. The movie's sole dramatic chore is to give a "voice" to a trumpeter swan named Louie, who is born mute. His father steals a real trumpet -- the kind humans play -- and somehow the bird learns to toot this horn as well as that other Louie, the one named Armstrong. Fame, fortune and his sweetheart swan are his rewards for producing such a pleasing sound.
However this tale worked in literary form, it plays awkwardly on screen by mixing the animal and human worlds as if there were little difference. Somehow Louie manages to go to school where he learns to read and write, but even in fantasy terms the movie never makes this plausible. Instead, this gets treated with a literal-mindedness that drags the fairy tale down into muddled nonsense.
The film is cheaply made, and it shows. Backgrounds, characters and layouts were designed at RichCrest Studios of Burbank. Then the actual animation -- where the film is digitally inked and painted -- was farmed out to Hanho Studios in Seoul, South Korea.
Consequently, the character "acting" is poor. Facial and body movements of critters and kids aren't individualized so the animators can express their different personalities. Everyone looks more or less the same, as if drawn from the same model. All this takes place against stagnant and flatly painted backgrounds.
The actors voicing the characters give mostly stiff and uninteresting performances. Jason Alexander is guilty of highly artificial, bombastic tones in playing the father swan. Mary Steenburgen manages more normal tones as the mother. And Corey Burton is encouraged to give Ted Kennedy-style inflections to a Sen. Squirrel in Boston.
Other than a Little Richard-performed song, "Louie Louie Louie", the music is bland and lacks contemporary lift.
THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN
TriStar Pictues
RichCrest Studios
Producer: Lin Oliver
Directors: Richard Rich, Terry L. Noss
Writer: Judy Rothman Rofe
Based on the book by: E.B. White
Executive producer: Seldon O. Young
Character design: Elena Kravets, Bronwen Barry
Effects and computer animation: Brian McSweeney
Layout designer: Mike Hodgson
Music: Marcus Miller
Editor: Joseph L. Campana
Color/stereo
Cast:
Father: Jason Alexander
Mother: Mary Steenburgen
Serena: Reese Witherspoon
Boyd: Seth Green
Mrs. Hammerbotham: Carol Burnett
Monty: Joe Mantegna
Running time -- 75 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 5/11/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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