Beowulf (the movie)

[bones_IV]

Don’t worry, bones. I can’t get my astrological sign off of my blog profile either. Infabilly, I don’t know what codes is/are.:crying: Send me a pm, I’d love to take mine off.

My myspace isn’t very flexible with that. Oh well. I love my pics on myspace

 

[Richard_Powers]

Crispin Glover on Grendel’s speech.

How did you find the voice of Grendel?
Crispin Glover: Well, there were two elements. One was speaking in old English. Coincidentally, a year before I heard about this project I listened to a college course on the history of the English language. It was pretty helpful in telling me what the really early, old English sounded like because it was written phonetically. So I happened to have that sound in my head. And when I came in Robert Zemeckis wanted to hear what it sounded like if I improvised in old English, so I did an improvisation of the sound and we decided that it should happen and we got a professor in to help us find words that somehow matched modern sounding English. It’s a fairly distinct and different language than modern English but I definitely enjoyed all of that part of it.

As far as the more aggressive sounds that were made a lot of that had to do with the pain element that Robert Zemeckis had suggested. At first, it was just meant to be an opening into the character but it seemed to make sense to continue on with it – there was a certain amount of expressiveness that could come through that. So, definitely by the end of the day I had a lot of hot teas while we were doing it and I was very glad to go home and rest and know that the screaming did not stay with me!

indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/beowulf-crispin-glover-interview
avclub.com/content/interview/crispin_glover

 

[Bobby_Jim]

I love the comment at the end of Ratatouille:

“Our Quality Assurance Guarantee:
100% GENUINE ANIMATION:
No motion capture or any other performance short cuts were used in the production of this film.”
-Pixar"

I’m glad Pixar at least has some respect for real animation.

[/rant]

Plus it was hard to get rats to wear the motion capture suits.

 

[DaveBj]

Crispin Glover on Grendel’s speech.

Very interesting. Thanks for that.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

Hi everyone
on the weekend I was traveling and the snow was bad so we stopped for the night and took in Beowulf.

Now it wasnt in 3D but it was in a small town theatre so maybe they didnt send the glasses??

---

Spoiler

We had zero knowledge of this movie etc etc.

The animation was good like everyone said. Really shouldnt complain but it still made it hard to sympathise with the characters as they were not human.

The violence and gore were big and noticed they managed a scene where the horses were tripped which is a no no in real life filmaking. And the bit where Beowulf fought Grendal naked as the day he was born was just lost on us.

The whole movie seemed like someone cut chunks out of the script to make it shorter. But what they cut was key parts of the story that tied it together. The queen and everyone made hints galore about things but they didnt tie together. The acting of the was he a priest or something? was shallow even for a animated character I couldnt tell if he was being sarcastic to Beowulf or what.

Also the priest hid in the water when Grendal attacked and the mother hid in the water, what was up with that??

It just seemed that the so called secrets were never reveled enough for a person to figure out what the big deal was. Other than the obvious sin of father part. And the queen had a cross on her later but we dont know why, and the priest was too odd to think it was postive she had the cross.

And at the end, when Beowulfs long time buddy the king went into the water, I guess we have to wait for the sequel to see if he fell for the mother angeline or if he cuts her in two and gets married to the queen and gives her that son she wanted.

I knew it had to be based on some kind of story or book, it was too original for hollywood, but it was so vauge I felt I watched a movie edited by censors but all they took was plot developments instead of naked and gory scenes.

 

[Richard_Powers]

Now it wasnt in 3D but it was in a small town theatre so maybe they didnt send the glasses??

There are two versions. A 3D and a 2D. If you saw the 3D without the glasses you would have seen two images next to each other on the screen.

 

[Tim_Kirchoff]

Hi everyone
on the weekend I was traveling and the snow was bad so we stopped for the night and took in Beowulf.

Now it wasnt in 3D but it was in a small town theatre so maybe they didnt send the glasses??

---

Spoiler

We had zero knowledge of this movie etc etc.

The animation was good like everyone said. Really shouldnt complain but it still made it hard to sympathise with the characters as they were not human.

I don’t know about that- I could perfectly understand the characters and their motivations. I knew about the liberties they took with the plot, right from the beginning, though, so I guess I had the advantage of not being baffled by the changes.

The violence and gore were big and noticed they managed a scene where the horses were tripped which is a no no in real life filmaking. And the bit where Beowulf fought Grendal naked as the day he was born was just lost on us.

The naked part wasn’t neccessary, but Grendel was impervious to weapons, and armor didn’t seems to protect anyone from Grendel. He could have fought just as well with pants on, at least.

The whole movie seemed like someone cut chunks out of the script to make it shorter. But what they cut was key parts of the story that tied it together. The queen and everyone made hints galore about things but they didnt tie together. The acting of the was he a priest or something? was shallow even for a animated character I couldnt tell if he was being sarcastic to Beowulf or what.

Also the priest hid in the water when Grendal attacked and the mother hid in the water, what was up with that??

He wasn’t a priest, at least at that point. He is just the king’s advisor.

It just seemed that the so called secrets were never reveled enough for a person to figure out what the big deal was. Other than the obvious sin of father part. And the queen had a cross on her later but we dont know why, and the priest was too odd to think it was postive she had the cross.

And at the end, when Beowulfs long time buddy the king went into the water, I guess we have to wait for the sequel to see if he fell for the mother angeline or if he cuts her in two and gets married to the queen and gives her that son she wanted.

I knew it had to be based on some kind of story or book, it was too original for hollywood, but it was so vauge I felt I watched a movie edited by censors but all they took was plot developments instead of naked and gory scenes.

The cliffhanger ending was intentional.

I hope I helped clear this up?

 

[Kitty_Chan]

I don’t know about that- I could perfectly understand the characters and their motivations. I knew about the liberties they took with the plot, right from the beginning, though, so I guess I had the advantage of not being baffled by the changes.

Its just I know they are animations so its harder to identify. Then again it would have helped if one was lead plot wise into a bit better understanding of the secrets.

The naked part wasn’t neccessary, but Grendel was impervious to weapons, and armor didn’t seems to protect anyone from Grendel. He could have fought just as well with pants on, at least.

I agree, maybe it was to offset the mother scene, something for everyone

He wasn’t a priest, at least at that point. He is just the king’s advisor.

see now, Im getting protective of catholics ! It looked like he was a priest cause he had a cross on, but I guess it was later. But still that makes a bad light on christians that they came from cowards who hide in water.

Was? there something to his hiding in the water and the mother being in the water??

The cliffhanger ending was intentional.

I hope I helped clear this up?

yes good cliffhanger actually, and even if they didnt do anything it makes a good ending. and yes thanks it clears up things. If you have the answers for the other questions too, that would be great.

It just felt like the whole time I was missing information.

 

[Caesar]

I am looking forward to the movie, though I am worried to find that like many Hollywood versions of the great classics this cultural and literary work of genius will have been rendered down into an oversimplified and meaningless spread of blood, gore and nudity meant to appeal to the unrefined masses, yet another artistic masterpiece trampled into the dirt of popular culture.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

Well as one who didnt know about this being a story I can say it doenst come across.

But having said that, It totally bothered me I said there must be a book on this somewhere, because there seems something underneath but Im not finding it.

btw what is the book or poem or what is it anyway? even through this thread I stiil am not sure.

 

[Caesar]

Well as one who didnt know about this being a story I can say it doenst come across.

But having said that, It totally bothered me I said there must be a book on this somewhere, because there seems something underneath but Im not finding it.

btw what is the book or poem or what is it anyway? even through this thread I stiil am not sure.

Beowulf is an epic poem from around the 8th century written in Old English. It is based on various myths and customs from Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures. Beowulf is a hero who kills a monster named Grendel, the mother of the Monster Grendel, becomes king and then dies in battle against a dragon.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

Beowulf is an epic poem from around the 8th century written in Old English. It is based on various myths and customs from Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures. Beowulf is a hero who kills a monster named Grendel, the mother of the Monster Grendel, becomes king and then dies in battle against a dragon.

interesting ! well thats the plot anyway. is it a long poem, I suppose I could goggle, I will try that. Now your getting me interested, maybe I will have to watch it again after reading the poem.

 

[Mirdath]

interesting ! well thats the plot anyway. is it a long poem, I suppose I could goggle, I will try that. Now your getting me interested, maybe I will have to watch it again after reading the poem.

It makes for a tiny little book, but it’s a cornerstone of Western writing, up there with the Iliad, Odyssey, and the epic of Gilgamesh.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

ok Mirdith maybe I will check out Chapters bookstore and see what they have.

 

[agmoose02]

I think I will pass on this one. As a fan of the Beowulf epic, I’m still scarred from the Christopher Lambert pseudo-futuristic take on Beowulf and Grendel from a few years back. I think I will wait and hold out hope that one day Peter Jackson will decide to do a multi installment tribute to the ENTIRE epic that will do it justice.