Kaena: The Prophecy

The most striking aspect of "Kaena: The Prophecy" were the CG visuals. If you enjoy that type of presentation and want to spend some time with this movie, you'll probably enjoy it -- otherwise, if that's not your cup of tea, you may want to see something else.

The characters are partially developed, so we know who they are, and when conflict occurs, we care somewhat about the outcome. However, the story was a definite drag on the movie. Perhaps it's my own pet peeves about names of things and people that are simply slung into the middle of a sequence, with no real explanation or background to accompany it. I know I prefer to understand what the characters are talking about, rather than have a new name dropped in "hey, look at this cool name for a person/character/device/planet I thought up." I don't mind if a character doesn't understand everything that's going on -- but I at least like to have a clue about what they're talking about.

That, plus the very stylized, heavy cgi presentation will probably limits the films wider appeal. Shots of flowing liquid and aspects of things that are difficult to tell whether they are liquid or solid are interesting up to a point -- but I know I have a low threshold for them.

Kirsten Dunst did a good job, since although I knew she did the voice of Kaena, it didn't make me think of her, as some voice actors do. The late Richard Harris' work was fine, but his voice was so distinctive I did think of him rather than the character at times. Much of the deficiencies in the writing are in his character's lines (since his character understands more).

Also for a movie that added "The Prophecy" to its title -- I expected more of a formal prophecy in the storyline.

So, overall, not terrible. CG-lovers will like it of course, but I wouldn't see people going in droves to see it.

KAENA isn't bad, but it is just not what is considered "ground-breaking," and there are many who claim it is. It's impressive considering that it was done on a low budget and dreampt up by people who at the beginning of the project had very little knowledge of film-making. KAENA is a great example of how a little resourcefulness can pull the rabbit out of the hat, but overall it certainly is not a revolution in CGI animation.

This is why it is not a CGI revolution: -Sometimes they had to cut corners by reducing the frame rate to 12 FPS. Ugh. I would've just cut the shots out altogether.

-The character models often did not deform right. For example, if a human model lowered his arm, the skin would fold like clothing. Sometimes this would lead to noticeable distortions in the characters. Maybe they didn't care too much for painting skin weights properly.

-The animation was very linear in some places. Objects and characters would basically switch between poses one at a time, a problem especially noticeable when characters are talking. You can almost see the animators pulling the sliders for their blend shapes! Here's an "O", here's an "M"...

-Weight and inertia problems. Often people and objects did not move as they should under certain stress conditions. For example, Kaena landing on the floor after a very long jump. Not enough emphasis was put into the animation to make her landing credible. Or, when a huge sap monster stomps around, the camera shakes, but it does not seem as though the monster has as much mass as the screen area he occupies suggests. This happens so often, it's hard to buy into most of the character movements throughout the film.

-The texturing was really monotonous. Most of the humans were very smooth-skinned, the wood texture for the roots was used too much (why couldn't they have something grow ON the roots? Or at least do something to give the surfaces more detail...it's almost as if they made a single NURBS surface for the floor in some shots), and sometimes, bump mapping was used very little on surfaces that were immediately noticeable to the viewer. It serves for some really dull and monochrome backgrounds.

-Design inconsistency. This is a huge problem. Some humans looked more proportionately accurate than others, for example, Kaena had a somewhat realistic human body design, and others would be drawn more distorted, like cartoons. In addition, the sap monsters have really detailed models and effects, where many human characters were smooth or cartoon-like. The animation was also inconsistent this way-- sometimes Kaena would have more expression in her face than her body, and sometimes it'd be the opposite. It's almost as if, wow, many different artists worked on this film (but, we aren't supposed to know that, right?).

-Motion blur. Please, if you aren't going to use deformations, turn up the motion blur. It seems as if the animation is STROBING. It would really help in those low frame rate shots.

But... there are some good things about the art of Kaena. The fluid effects were nicely done (although they did not often interact well with other objects), the lighting was well done, in somewhat of a chiaroscuro fashion, and some of the models are convincing; mainly the sap monsters because of their amount of detail. Bravo in these respects.

On the whole, I'd give the film a 6. It is impressive that so much was created with so little (they should get some sort of award for their resourcefulness, actually), but in the end, it doesn't come close to rivaling the big-wigs of America and Japan, and it's astonishing that people continue to boast otherwise about this film.

This movie reminded me, more than anything else, of "Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within." I think that critics of movies like these sometimes criticize them for being A: animated, and B: science fiction. That's sort of like criticizing "Terminator" or "Lord of the Rings" because, as one reviewer wrote: "that could never happen." Well, yeah. I mean, isn't that the point, to create something that can only exist in the imagination? I have a hard time seeing the relevance of comparing "Kaena" even to other animated features like "Toy Story" or "Ice Age." SciFi is a genre unto itself and needs to be judged on its own terms. "Kaena" is a fully-realized fantasy. It has a comprehensive story, background and setting. The voice-over narration (English) is particularly good, especially Kirsten Dunst in the title role. The only real criticism I have is that the quality of the animation is uneven, ranging between mid-90's video game at one extreme and almost breathtaking at the other. The choice of a very muted color palate for most of the scenes doesn't quite make up in atmosphere for what it loses in vibrancy and realism. Overall, I give "Kaena" an 8 based on the strength of its story and characters.

Presented as the first full-length 3D-generated animated movie from France, Kaena was first an idea for a video game that was expanded into a `real' movie. A fantasy/sci-fi tale, it takes place on of flying forest made of gigantic vines inhabited by a tribe of humans, who, in order to appease their gods, must harvest the sap of the vines. Trouble is, the harvest is no longer what it was and the gods are somewhat angry. A young woman, Kaena, who looks like a cross between Lara Croft and Princess Mononoke, understands that the gods are up to no good, and fights them with the help of unexpected allies and funny sidekicks. The plot follows the well-used pattern where a young misfit must save the world from dark forces, battle monsters and unearth world-shattering secrets, and the script borrows from many previous ones (fans of French sci-fi comics will recognise bits of the `Adventures of Alef-Thau', written in the 80s by Alexandro Jodorowski, who is also credited on Kaena). The script is also certainly quite European in spirit, with more overt sexuality and a indictment of religion probably unimaginable in a mainstream US-made cartoon.

While a little lacking in plot, Kaena mostly succeeds as pure eye-candy. Since the representation of realistic humans is still out of reach for computer graphics (Cf. the mixed results in Final Fantasy), the authors have chosen a half-comic-book style (like in Ice Age) which is quite pleasant, at least if you like people with really big eyes. The movie creatures are quite nice, particularly the talkative worms with their tired faces and their walking and flying devices. But it's the sets which are the most beautiful, with a particular attention to lighting, colouring and texturing: many scenes are shot in a golden light, slightly overexposed with lens flares and other atmospheric effects. The mixture of quasi-photorealism and more traditional CG style works quite well. The vine forest, the village and the spaceship scenes are exceptionally rendered, and among the most beautiful seen in a CG-rendered movie so far. The world of the gods, by contrast, has a dark, liquid and sticky feel (the gods themselves are liquid, gigeresque creatures) with bright shining reflections, and is truly original. Sometimes, there's a little too much of everything, as if the movie was a demo for CG effects (hair, particle systems, volumetrics.), not unlike the first Technicolor movies where everything had to be brightly coloured. But that doesn't detract from the WOW! Factor of the movie.

All in all, Kaena is a very recommendable movie, and one can hope that the authors will follow with a bolder script.

Kaena is a fun fantasy ride through gorgeous cgi animation

The movie takes place in a planet (or plant i should say) called Axis. The people of Axis live their lives according to the "Gods". The movie centers around a teenage outcast named Kaena. Kaena is an explorer and dreamer who believes greater things exist outside the small land of Axis. As the resources of the land start to drain out, the Gods become angrier and more demanding. Kaena, doubting the existence of the Gods, is sent away. On her journey, she searches for the answers she's always dreamed of. Maybe there is life out there in the "great oblivion"...

I'm really not sure why this movie received such bad reviews. It may not be the most complex story in the world, but it's still enough to capture the viewer's interest. It also has surprising good voice acting performed by Kirsten Dunst (who voices Kaena) and the late Richard Hariss. Even Greg Proops makes a decent comedic performance as a worm. Not to mention, the animation is spectacular, especially the scenery. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie.

Recommend if: *you enjoy anime/animation *you like fantasy/science fiction

Avoid if: *you have younger children (they may find some of the creatures scary)