Aglaja
2010
The Country of the Hawk
Following Argo, Attila Árpa has set about preparing a feature length animation. In our series dealing with the most important Hungarian animation films in the making this time we visited The Country of the Hawk.
"Last week the final versions of the character sketches and backgrounds were finished.” The characters are based on the members of the crew. It is due to a new method called Kimera which had been developed by the team: they use the available softwers in a much more efficient way so it is possible to save money and time.
Kimera: for less money, but on the standard of Pixar
„Although I know many actors and actresses, with the help of the Kimera there is no need to foreact the movements and gestures, since the method makes it possible to model a character on anybody, and the outcome is almost as high in standard as a Pixar-production.” The other reason for developing the Kimera-method was to turn it into a popular and sellable product on the international market.
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| Lunarda, the evil princess |
The choice between heart and mind
The atmosphere of The Country of the Hawk is similar to The Chronicles of Narnia. The story takes place in the capital of an imaginary medieval country, where an evil queen called Lunarda reigns, and a rebellion is in preparation against her. However, another blow comes upon the impoverished empire, when a mysterious monster begins to abduct children. These are the circumstances when Marco in the company of a little girl, arrives to the capital. They are looking for their tutor, Hawk, and are both abducted by the monster. Though, it turns out that the fearful and mysteroius monster is created by the children who were supposed to be abducted, and it is the children who are going to rebel against the world of the grown-ups. In the finale we might expect a battle scene that compares to those in The Lord of the Rings.
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| A glance at the capital |
The story comprises many well-known elements from different tales, but these elements cannot be separated precisely on the basis of bearing a national character or deriving from other cultures.
The movie is primarily for children yearning for adventure and excitement, and deals with moral and ethical problems like courage and heroism that are known from such novels for the young as, for example, Peter Pan and Ivanhoe.
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| Hawk – sketch |
