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Digital Media FX News Archives

Wednesday - July 4, 2001
- Cats & Dogs Opens to Mixed Reviews
- World Premiere of Jurassic Park 3 Set for July 16
- Happy Fourth of July - Interesting Facts
- News Link of the Day - The Phantom Reedit - Not Kevin Smith

Cats & Dogs Opens to Mixed Reviews
(by digitalmediafx.com) Cats & Dogs opened in over 3,000 theaters today to highly mixed reviews. The Warner Bros. FX-filled feature that pits cats against dogs is expected to have a huge opening, mostly from family audiences. The film will have a far reach due to the vast number of people who own either a cat or dog.

Here are quotes from select reviewers about Cats & Dogs:

Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune - "...Making cats look ugly on film takes some effort, and these are the most hideous felines I've ever seen...In Babe, I never doubted that the animals were talking. Here, six years of presumed technological advances later, I kept being reminded of annoying pet-food commercials. Swarms of computer-generated mice further undercut the feeling of watching flesh-and-blood creatures..."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times - "The dogs and cats talk a lot, with perfect lip-synch, and they do things we somehow doubt any animals, however well-trained, could really do. So advanced are the special effects techniques that the filmmakers even combine animated faces with real animal bodies, with such uncanny skill that after awhile you give up trying to find the seams..."

Mike Clark of USA Today - "It's really a migraine-inducing, furniture-upending jumble. The worst Disney comedies of the '60s primed us to accept, perhaps unwillingly, the sight of pets destroying houses — without being pound-bound by nightfall. But do Goldblum and Perkins have to smile so goofily after the destruction to their house?..."

A.O. Scott of the New York Times - "Yes, the script, by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, does suffer from some hectic overplotting, and the elaborate climax fails to make much sense. But despite some slapdash sentimental subplots...there is enough dopey, exuberant fun to delight children without driving their parents completely crazy."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times - "So much work went into "Cats & Dogs," and there's so little to show for it. A very resistible movie made from what sounds like an irresistible premise, it proves one more time that it's easier to make animals talk than give them anything interesting to say..."

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World Premiere of Jurassic Park 3 Set for July 16
(by digitalmediafx.com) The world premiere for Jurassic Park 3 will be held Monday, July 16, at the Universal Amphitheatre, right next door to Universal Studios. Directed by Joe Johnston and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Larry Franco, the film stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan and Michael Jeter. Steven Spielberg is the executive producer.

The screenplay for "Jurassic Park III" was written by Peter Buchman and Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, based on characters created by Michael Crichton. Industrial Light & Magic and the Stan Winston Studio once again combine forces to create the dinosaur effects.

Synopsis (contains minor spoilers):
Anxious to fund research for his new theory of Velociraptor intelligence, renowned paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is persuaded by a wealthy adventurer (William H. Macy) and his wife (Tea Leoni) to accompany them on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. This infamous island, once InGen's site B, has become both a primordial breeding ground for John Hammond's magnificent creations and a magnet for thrill-seekers eager to encounter them. When a tragic accident maroons the party of seven, Grant discovers the true reason his deceptive hosts have invited him along. In their perilous attempt to escape with their lives, the dwindling group encounters terrifying new creatures undisclosed by InGen, and Grant is forced to learn the dreadful implications of his raptor intelligence theory firsthand.

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Happy Fourth of July
(by digitalmediafx.com) Digital Media FX wishes all of its readers (in the U.S. and overseas) a very enjoyable fourth of July.

Interesting Facts
- Taxes in the United States are higher now than when the United States declared its independence for the same reason (taxes too high).

- The Walt Disney World Resort holds over 1,000 fireworks shows a year.

- The second and third presidents of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4, 1826. They were two of the founding fathers of the United States.

- On July 4, 1997, NASA achieves a first by landing a spacecraft on Mars (the Mars Pathfinder).

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News Link of the Day - The Phantom Reedit - Not Kevin Smith

According to the Philadelphia Daily News:

"When an unauthorized, re-edited version of George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace began circulating around town in early June, fans on the Internet were convinced that it was the work of acclaimed independent director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma).

Dubbed 'The Phantom Edit,' the reedited film removes nearly 20 minutes of footage from the original version…"

Click here for the full story.

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