Laika’s stop-motion fantasy Wildwood looks so smooth
Laika’s stop-motion fantasy Wildwood looks so smooth
莱卡工作室的定格动画奇幻新作《野林》（Wildwood）看起来极其流畅
Due to a scheduling mishap, I was only able to check out two movies on my second day at the Toronto International Film Festival — but I did manage to get an early look at and some fascinating details on one of my most anticipated films this year. 由于行程安排上的小插曲，我在多伦多国际电影节（TIFF）的第二天只看了两部电影，但我确实得以提前预览了我今年最期待的电影之一，并了解了一些引人入胜的细节。
Even if you don’t know the name Laika, you probably know the studio’s work; it’s the animation house behind stop-motion hits like ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings. Over the years Laika’s films have steadily gotten more impressive on both a technical and artistic level. Which brings us to the incredible-looking Wildwood, hitting theaters next month. If you’re unfamiliar, here’s a look: 即使你不知道“莱卡”（Laika）这个名字，你也可能看过该工作室的作品；这家动画公司曾制作过《通灵男孩诺曼》、《怪诞小箱怪》和《魔弦传说》等定格动画大片。多年来，莱卡的作品在技术和艺术层面都在稳步提升。这让我们不得不提到看起来令人惊叹的《野林》，该片将于下个月上映。如果你还不了解它，可以先睹为快：
Some of the crew from Laika was on stage at TIFF to talk about the making of Wildwood, in particular why this film looks more lifelike than the studio’s previous work. There are a few reasons. One has to do with the animation itself, which, as you can see in the trailer, is incredibly smooth in the new film. “We’re in the midst of the evolution of an art form,” Laika’s head of animation Brad Schiff explained. “Because we have digital cameras, we’re able to see what we’re doing; we have what we call frame-grabbers.” This lets Laika’s animators see all of the recently-shot frames as they’re animating, allowing them to track every single movement of a puppet, ensuring everything moves smoothly. “There’s no reason for stuttery animation, other than a stylistic choice,” Schiff said. 莱卡的一些工作人员在多伦多电影节的舞台上谈到了《野林》的制作，特别是为什么这部电影看起来比该工作室之前的作品更逼真。原因有几个。其中之一与动画本身有关，正如你在预告片中所见，这部新片极其流畅。“我们正处于一种艺术形式的进化之中，”莱卡动画主管布拉德·希夫（Brad Schiff）解释道。“因为有了数码相机，我们能够实时看到拍摄效果；我们拥有所谓的‘逐帧捕捉器’（frame-grabbers）。”这让莱卡的动画师在制作时能看到所有刚拍摄的帧，从而追踪木偶的每一个动作，确保一切移动顺滑。“除非是出于风格化的选择，否则没有理由出现卡顿的动画，”希夫说。
The puppets themselves are also more advanced. They utilize an internal “diaphragm” that Laika calls a breather, which the studio first experimented with on its previous film, 2019’s Missing Link. This time, all of the major puppets are outfitted with breathers, and this lets the animators make characters appear to breathe in a lifelike way, so that they seem more human in the final product. 木偶本身也更加先进。它们利用了一种内部“隔膜”，莱卡称之为“呼吸器”（breather），该工作室在2019年的前作《遗失的环节》中首次尝试了这一技术。这一次，所有主要木偶都配备了呼吸器，这让动画师能够让角色呈现出逼真的呼吸感，使它们在最终成品中看起来更像真人。
You can see some of that in the trailer above, but I was also able to watch a handful of clips from the film, and — despite Laika stressing that they weren’t final — they looked incredible. One showed a fast and tense bike chase through a bustling version of Portland, where Wildwood takes place. There was a speed and tension to it that felt like a live-action sequence. In the movie, a young girl named Prue loses her little brother in an “impassable wilderness” that’s home to a rich fantasy world. In the clips I saw, she did everything from escaping an ornate mansion filled with guard dogs distracted by their own tails, to soaring above a vast landscape while on the back of a giant bird. Wildwood looked as stylish and detailed as you’d expect from a Laika production, but what impressed me the most was how realistic it all felt in motion. 你可以在上面的预告片中看到一些效果，但我还观看了该片的一些片段，尽管莱卡强调这些并非最终版本，但它们看起来令人难以置信。其中一个片段展示了一场快速而紧张的自行车追逐戏，场景设定在繁华的波特兰（《野林》的故事发生地）。那种速度感和紧张感让人感觉就像真人动作电影。在电影中，一个名叫普鲁（Prue）的小女孩在“无法逾越的荒野”中弄丢了弟弟，那里是一个充满奇幻色彩的世界。在我看到的片段中，她经历了从逃离一座装饰华丽、守门狗却忙着追自己尾巴的豪宅，到骑在巨鸟背上翱翔于广阔大地之上等各种场景。《野林》看起来和莱卡出品的其他作品一样时尚且细节丰富，但最让我印象深刻的是它在动态中表现出的真实感。
A few other details for those who love numbers: Wildwood features 233 puppets (36 are just versions of Prue), was brought to life by 49 animators, and took 231 weeks from start to finish. It’s in theaters on October 23rd. 对于喜欢数字的读者，这里还有一些细节：《野林》共使用了233个木偶（其中36个仅是普鲁的不同版本），由49名动画师赋予生命，从开始到完成耗时231周。该片将于10月23日上映。
As for the movies I was able to actually catch on day 2 of TIFF, they were both great, but also, could not be more different. One is a sweetly morbid musical, the other a life-affirming family film made with traditional animation. 至于我在多伦多电影节第二天实际观看的两部电影，它们都很棒，但风格迥异。一部是甜蜜而病态的音乐剧，另一部则是用传统动画制作的、肯定生命意义的家庭电影。
Julián
《朱利安》（Julián）
No theatrical date yet / 暂无上映日期
Julián comes via Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, best known for the features Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers. And it shares much in common with the studio’s previous work, telling the story of a child lost in a world of fantasy. In this case it’s seven-year-old Julián who goes to live with his grandmother in Brooklyn while his dad is on a work trip. Julián is obsessed with ocean life and anything pretty, so when he meets some kids making costumes for an upcoming mermaid parade, joining in becomes his sole focus in life. But his colorful personality often clashes with his more conservative grandmother, and when some boys bully Julián for wearing a mermaid tail, he starts to retreat into himself. Ultimately, Julián is a fairly straightforward tale about being yourself and allowing others to do the same, but it’s told with tremendous style and passion, making it a welcome addition to the studio’s catalog. Plus, the ending is almost guaranteed to make you tear up. 《朱利安》来自爱尔兰动画工作室“卡通沙龙”（Cartoon Saloon），该工作室以《海洋之歌》和《狼行者》等长片而闻名。这部作品与该工作室之前的作品有很多共同点，讲述了一个迷失在奇幻世界中的孩子的故事。这次的主角是七岁的朱利安，当他的父亲出差时，他去布鲁克林和祖母住在一起。朱利安痴迷于海洋生物和一切美好的事物，所以当他遇到一些正在为即将到来的美人鱼游行制作服装的孩子时，加入他们成了他生活中唯一的重心。但他那鲜明的个性经常与保守的祖母发生冲突，当一些男孩因为朱利安穿美人鱼尾巴而欺负他时，他开始退缩到自己的世界里。归根结底，《朱利安》是一个关于做自己并允许他人做自己的简单故事，但它以极具风格和激情的方式讲述，使其成为该工作室作品库中受欢迎的新成员。此外，结局几乎保证会让你热泪盈眶。
Stuffed
《填充物》（Stuffed）
No theatrical date yet / 暂无上映日期
A love story between an eccentric taxidermist and the man who agrees to give up his life in order to fulfill her lifelong dream of stuffing a human. Oh, and also it’s a musical. Stuffed has shades of Sweeney Todd, but despite its macabre premise, it’s much more heartfelt. Barrie (Harry Melling) lives a sad life working at a sandwich factory, collecting obituaries, and caring for his aging mother. But he’s obsessed with being remembered, and when he answers an online ad promising to make him “exceptional,” he meets Araminta (Jodie Comer), whose house is filled with taxidermied animals, but who has also always wanted to take the next step. Their interests, it seems, line up: she wants to stuff a person, he wants to live forever. But as they work together on the weirdo plan, the two become close, complicating the whole killing Barry thing. Stuffed is morbid and occasionally wince-inducing, but it’s also filled with a lot of love and heart, and a not-so-surprising amount of humor. 这是一个关于一位古怪的标本剥制师和一个同意放弃生命以实现她终身梦想（制作人体标本）的男人之间的爱情故事。哦，对了，这还是一部音乐剧。《填充物》带有一点《理发师陶德》的影子，但尽管前提有些阴森，它却更加感人。巴里（哈里·米尔林饰）过着悲惨的生活，在三明治工厂工作，收集讣告，照顾年迈的母亲。但他痴迷于被世人铭记，当他回应了一则承诺让他变得“非凡”的在线广告时，他遇到了阿拉明塔（朱迪·科默饰），她的房子里摆满了动物标本，但她一直想更进一步。他们的兴趣似乎不谋而合：她想制作人体标本，他想永垂不朽。但当他们一起执行这个怪异计划时，两人变得亲密起来，这让“杀死巴里”这件事变得复杂了。这部电影病态且偶尔让人不忍直视，但它也充满了爱与温情，以及出人意料的幽默感。