Arthur Christmas Unwrapped Tomorrow

Aardman's latest feature, the Christmassy collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation, Arthur Christmas arrives in cinemas over here in the UK tomorrow (whereas, US readers will have to wait until the 23rd), and, as such, Aardman and Sony have swamped us with clips.

Above, we have highlights of the star studded premiere of the film. In addition to the creative talent from the studio - director and writer, Sarah Smith, and Aardman head honchos, David Sproxton, Peter Lord and Nick Park - the premiere was attended by members of the film's cast including Bill Nighy (Grandsanta), Ashley Jensen (Bryony) and Outnumbered's Ramona Marquez (Gwen). In addition to some new clips of the film, the video also show's Nighy and Jensen helping to turn on the famed Regent Street Lights.

If this magical event encapsulates the film as a whole, we're all in for a treat when it hits cinemas tomorrow. But, speaking of clips, Sony also rolled out a plethora of new clips from the movie (below), but, be warned some clips are a little spoiler heavy.

 

 

  

I particularly loved that last clip, 'Elf Delivery', it was jaw dropping, both in the ambition of the story, and in terms of the beautiful animation. The film, from these clips at least, looks funny, gorgeous and touching. I can't wait to see Arthur Christmas (I'll be heading out to see it next weekend, so look out for a review around then).

The Pirates Voice Cast Revealed

Just as I'm beginning to get restless with the lack of updates on Aardman's second feature film with Sony Pictures Animation, due out next year, The Pirates: In An Adventure With Scientists, we get a huge block of news concerning the film.

Aardman and Sony's first feature film, due out on 11th November over here in the UK, Arthur Christmas, has an all star cast of such talented actors as Hugh Laurie, James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent, however The Pirates, if anything outshines that. The Pirates is due to star a veritable smorgasbord of British talent, led by Hugh Grant.

Hugh Grant takes the lead in his first ever animated role, the star of Love Actually, Notting Hill and Did You Hear About the Morgans? will bring a great British feel to the already quintessentially British Aardman. Grant is flanked by some equally fantastic talent, in the form of Martin Freeman (The Office, The Hobbit), David Tennant (Doctor Who) and Ashley Jensen (Extras, Ugly Betty), amongst others.

It truly is an all star cast that will only serve to boost an already fantastic sounding film, below is the announcement (courtesy of Aardman's website) in which you will find the entire all star cast:

Hugh Grant, starring in his first animated role, is the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas.  With a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award.  It’s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London.  Along the way they do battle with the pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a young Charles Darwin (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!



The film sounds fantastic (you can see an image from it at the top) and I cannot wait to see the next stop-motion film (with Arthur Christmas being computer animated) from the geniuses behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.

Aardman News 2

More Aardman news concerning their upcoming 2011 CGI Christmas film, Arthur Christmas. Set in the ultra high tech North Pole on Christmas Eve, the film stars James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen as hapless and eager son of Santa Arthur, his older and more capable brother Steve, Santa, Grandsanta (the grumpy and cranky father of Santa), Mrs. Santa and lowly elf Bryony respectively.

The film casts many stars who are also in the upcoming Starz Animation film Gnomeo and Juliet, what really caught my attention is that the film is co-composed by the fantastic Michael Giacchino, a staple of Pixar, who is currently compsoing Cars 2.

The film sounds fantastic and you can read the full article here.