ElfQuest - The Audio Movie?

LotR and Harry Potter were already were huge before the movies came out, which meant the movies would at least break even. Plenty of "cinematic universes" burnt to the ground and Marvel is the only real success. Heck, even the recent Hobbit and Harry Potter movies bombed.  

For a live action movie, well, which Hollywood actor would want to be squashed in a computer so their body would fit the tiny Wolfrider size? I also highly doubt, that movie goers would rather see real humans play cave men while we follow the story of weird looking avatar creatures?

If it were an animated movie, the vast majority of animated movies is directed at kids. EQ isn't meant for 10y olds.

Would EQ work for the overseas market? Maybe? I'm not too sure. It certainly doesn't fit the constant action mould of Transformers or super hero movies.

Last but not least, Hollywood is famously risk averse at the moment, is an indie comic series a safe bet?

The perfect time was in the 70s and 80s, when more experimental animated movies were made. Not now.

Speaking of 70s and 80s and experimental film (sort of), I think a lot of information could be drawn from Dark Crystal and applied to the question of what might happen with EQ as a movie, perhaps. I havent looked up whether the Dark Crystal movie was considered a success or not in its time, and I know there a lot of people who dont know about it (or labyrinth) and would probably pass on it if it were sitting out as something to watch, but I enjoyed it, still throw it in every once in a while, and from a certain point of view it's got a lot of the same aspectsas EQ: small non-human elf-like creatures being persued by darkly motivsted, political, empassioned beings to the purpose of extinction, taking direction from rare and wise old beings, a main character on a quest to bring things together involving crystals amd finding kin along the way, on a primative planet that is not earth... I didnt count the moons.... Regardless, very similar in layout, in a way.

So how would it fare today? They made an additional series a few years ago thats still running on Netflix, and I love it, my kids will watch it if it was on, it has some good quality without completely being "updated" so that it feels like it is a part of the world the movie was in. They did use CG to fill in backgrounds and things thst would be hard to do in legacy effects, but Henson studios was never shy about using camera tricks to tell a story. They lean a littkr heavy on computers now that they are part of Disney, and I wouldnt be surprised if the newer Dark Crystal series was in conjunction with Disney.

But I have not heard anyone speak of it, havent seen a new season show up, haven't seen it show up in the titles for D+... I didnt see anything wrong with it, it was enjoyable I think, and soneone thought so enough to produce it, but it doesnt seem to have gone anywhere.

So, what does that say for EQ in the points @Miss Gillespie brought up?

Netflix would be actually a really good venue for the Pinis, Trollhammer. Maybe you should get in contact with them

Netflix is financing the production of a great variety of shows just to see what sticks (I'm also pretty sure Netflix doesn't make a profit yet, or at least not a substantial one). Regarding the renewal of production contracts, I heard that Netflix only wants to produce a few seasons of a show/ series (unless its an extremely popular money maker). Three seasons is the max for most shows.

As far as I know, "The Dark Crystal" had its fans without ever being hugely successful or reaching a super wide audience. It is also not animation/puppets aimed at kids (I have neither seen the old work/ works nor the newer ones, but I heard both are nice).

Personally, I would prefer classic 2D animation for an EQ movie or show and Netflix does produce such content. Obviously, they also do 3D, like Camp Cretaceous.

Miss Gillespie wrote:

Personally, I would prefer classic 2D animation for an EQ movie ...

Feels the same.

Hmm the mention of the 3D and "actors squashed in a computer", which is a funny image by the way, it does make me think of Avatar and the huge success it had. The motion capture and CGI are impressive.

I just fear a creepy "uncanny valley" look for the elves, like how Sonic's first design for his movie was...*shudder*

I agree though 2D would be awesome. It's a shame the pini's are not so caught up on the times, because there is quite the number of fantastic indie animators they could work with. Youtube proves this.

Yup, it must be 2D. But we are writing about an audio thing, no movie. I see no movie coming out for us ...Whatsoever, I just hope, we get our comics with(please) as much wendy art as possible now and in the future. BTW, where the heck is Stargazers hunt 5-8? I have not found it anywhere.

Yeee wrote:

BTW, where the heck is Stargazers hunt 5-8? I have not found it anywhere.

@Yeee
Ääähm...hier: https://fathertreeholt.forumotion.com/t1082-stargazer-s-hunt-5-6-and-7-and-8-to-come-out
You've even commented.

Oh no, I made a mistake. I thought this should come out now, but it was just the old stuff we already know. And the new one only in 2022!
wait so long? Oh dear!

Crowdfunding is open.
Several levels, from roughly 20 USD up to 4000, and some in between, like 100 or 250 USD (figurines).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thefantasynetwork/elfquest-the-audio-movie

I think those art prints are overpriced. And the figurines are just 3d models right now, like for 3d printers, and they might still see changes (which is neccessary in my opinion, esp. the faces still need polishing to be more elf-like).

Someone Pun Bandhu speaks Rayek, meh! I just listened to his voice on You Tube and it does nothing within me, giving me no kick, nothing, it is just one voice among many. lame! It can be, that they can do their audio thingie without me,(says the audio freak).

Well, imo the audio book isn't really what convinces me, German "Hörspiel" is nice, but I'd rather have a real movie. But, okay, that is a different matter.
We'll have to see (or rather hear) how the voices actually work out in the final product. But of course, everyone has a different imagination of how characters should sound.

But currently I am a bit wondering about these prices. The miniatures, they need polishing, and then, well, those are simply 3d models for 3d printing. I can get something like this from heroforge. So I hope they'll use at least resin printers for better detail.

But those art prints... of course I'd like to have one (especially one, of course) or the others, but seriously... 350 USD. Hahnemühle paper or not, this is overpriced. Maybe they'd attract more backers (and thus more money for the project) if it wasn't such an unobtanium.
This is 350 USD for _one_ art print (the larger version likely more expensive) and then, you can't have it bent / folded, so international shipment (even thought it could be printed here) will be like 50 - 80 USD additionally. Plus customs. Plus, thanks to the Einfuhrumsatzsteuergesetzgebung, additional 19% taxes or something. This is rahter for the lulz but not for pinning it to your wall. I don't see a point in that and possibly paying taxes and fees like crazy. (the "all 10 artprints for 4000 USD" is yet not booked by a single backer)

Yup! Just wait a little bit, jaRf, then you have access to the pictures in the internet to download. Someone will upload them. I need no posters, the pics in small version on the computer are enough.

Just been calculating... There's several backer levels.
One figurine group A for 100 USD. The other group B also 100 USD. Now there is an option for all of them, which then is 250 USD. And as far as I see the only difference is that you get an additional sub-A4 poster (8x10 inch)... so this is like 50 dollars for the poster? And likely the amount of signing cards and "licensed downloads" won't double either?
So wouldn't one be better off to take group A and group B, pay 200 USD and have all figurines and everything else doubled, just minus the small poster?
Or did I just miss something?

The original portfolios with all the back covers are still easily found on eBay for not bad prices.

Someone did finally jump on the $4000 tier level, it looks like! Way it's going they'll be funded by end of the week.

I'm just trying to imagine Ms. Cree as Savah. I just keep hearing Foxy in my head and it's lulz.

Twenty years ago, I was a teenager and hoping, wishing, for a beautiful Elfquest movie. But.. I think this won't happen while the Pini's are alive. I'm not wishing anything bad to happen and I'm not saying their approach is wrong - although at times in the past twenty years it seems that some disconnect tends to occur between the Pini's and their fanbase - but I think Elfquest, the original Elfquest arc and maybe KOTB, are beautiful works of art that can't get off the ground on their own as movies as long as they are tied to the original creator. Maybe this doesn't make sense at all, but it's a gut feeling. Give it another 20-25 years and it has a chance of being 'rediscovered' and celebrated.

Audio.. I'm not sure. I see now that the kickstarter goal has been reached. Good for them.

Anaid wrote:

I see now that the kickstarter goal has been reached. Good for them.

I'm glad for Mr. and Mrs. Pini and for all the fans who are looking forward to an audio movie. I hope it will work out even better than they expect!

Yep. I backed 2 days ago (had to check my budget...) and I hope the outcome will be worth it. I mean, the Flesk production art-books turned out very nice, so I hope people will pull of something nice here, too. And it seems that the sculptors have to exaggerate a few things on the models beofre it is scaled down and cast or printed. So maybe we'll have some finer evlish features on the little figures.

Found this tonight ... believable  Bearclaw! ^^

Found this tonight ... believable  Bearclaw! ^^

... and that

*someone is trolling me*

Well, fuck... I never thought I'd say this but I guess I have to apologize for being such a negative fart about this. I guess Final Quest left me so disappointed that I just became very cynical about what they were doing with Elfquest and whether it would ever reach the high bar that Wendy Pini once set herself. But I actually had goosebumps listening to that trailer. Voices instantly recognizable. Thank you for sharing, there's some tiny part of me that's saying "dare I look forward to this?".

Hello, packmates!

Pardon me for coming in late on this.  I'm not enough into Elfquest to pay to hear an audio movie.  I don't get Netflix, or any kind of pay TV, and I have to find a public WiFi to watch videos or listen to podcasts.  It sounds like a good idea, though.

With what little network TV I watch these days, my favorite show is a 2D animated Canadian production that airs on American public television.  "Molly of Denali."  It's the kind of cartoon I'd want Elfquest to resemble, if it ever became a movie.

My one experience with funding a movie was sending donations to the Billy Graham ministry for the production of "Joni" (1979).  I was not at all disappointed.  (BTW Joni has beat the odds for life expectancy following complete paralysis.)

Maybe a short subject cartoon of a story from Elfquest would be another good step to take.

The backerkit is soon locking orders, but so far they don't even have all figurines as a print. A good bunch of them is still concept art. (One would wonder if there is just one single person to create all the meshes.)
And they somewhat lack the "fragile" elven facial features.
Moreover the 3d-prints so far look like filament, I guess they'd benefit a lot from resin prints.

As I learned, the art-prints might not be available later, seems to be a concerted order. This is a little sad, but that stuff simply is overpriced now with 350 USD for a single print.

Well, but it remains to be seen how things will turn out in the end.

"As I learned, the art-prints might not be available later, seems to be a concerted order. This is a little sad, but that stuff simply is overpriced now with 350 USD for a single print."

Yup! But just wait, I am sure, they will appear online , because some EQ fans are happy to share their "hunt" (? ..if that's the adequate expression for it).

Well, the artwork itself is the standard ones, the portfolio character plates we all know. It's not new art. It "simply" is re-printed in larger formats in better quality (very good paper and printing). But 350 USD is just too much. And "sharing their hunt" thus won't really help.

I received a Kickstarter mail today with some (all?) of the missing little figurines now in preview. As far as I can judge (700x441 pixels) they look pretty good, some still lack the elven delicate features. I guess it'll improve once painted (eyes not hollow). Greymung looked good (no need for "fragility" there ). And there's also a pre-"view" (pre-hear?) of the audiobook of roughly 2 minutes. Haven't checked yet, too many things to do atm.

then I wish you very much fun with your "hunt" and btw thanx so much for your 2 kind Birthday wish mails! I will write you an answer soon.