Holy LEGO Blocks, Batman!

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Students at the Digital Animation and Visual Effects (DAVE) School are working on a film that will bring everyone's favorite caped crusader to life through the magic of computer-generated LEGO blocks. 'Batman: New Times' features Adam West as the voice of Batman, Mark Hammil as the Joker, Dick Van Dyke as Commissioner Gordon, and Courtney Thorne-Smith as Catwoman. A rather impressive trailer is available now."

Doesn't say. How much?

[FreeLinux]

How much did it cost to produce this "little" student project?

3D computer graphics animation.
Professional sound and scoring.
Real life movie stars for voices.

All this stuff costs Disney millions of dollars for a 90 minute movie. How much did it cost for this little project?

Re:White Stripes

[TomHandy]

I remember seeing something on the "making of" that White Stripes video (actually, I think it might have been that VH1 "Pop-Up Videos" thing), and they pointed out that there were a couple of sequences in that video that were actually done with some type of animation other than stop-motion with real legos.

Re:Legos?

[SKorvus]

From the About the Film [daveschool.com] page:

Earlier this year we were inspired by Spite Your Face's brilliant stop-motion LEGO epic Spiderman: The Legend of Doc, The art direction of Batman: New Times is also based on a popular toy line. Keeping with the "TOY" theme The DAVE School Students have built a vibrant 3D world out of

computer generated Lego blocks. Every set, every prop and every character has been precisely modeled according to strict scale specifications. Almost every location, vehicle and character has been, or could be, built out of Legos. To research this project and aid in set design The DAVE School purchased over 100 pounds of Lego Blocks from dealers on E-Bay!

Legos! Legos! Legos!

[fm6]

When you work for a company, you have to insist that all your trademarks are adjectives, because there's a lot of silly case law that penalizes you if you don't. But the rest of us are free to use language that actually makes sense. Sure, you'll get letters reminding you that you're "misusing" the trademark. But that's just "due diligence" -- not even the person who wrote the letter takes it serious.

Re:Legos?

[BobTheJanitor]

Actually, C3 blocks (made by PlayAlong) and the Minimates are quite different from their Lego counterparts. I know this because I just wasted money on the C3 Batcave (incorporated into the animated movie), hoping they would integrate easily with my other stuff. They don't at all. The plastic feels much cheaper, and the pieces, while harder to connect to each other, tend to pop apart when even slightly disturbed. Building the set was largely an exercise in frustration, and I'm hesitant to move it much as it has a tendency to spontaneously fall apart.

The Minimate figs aren't 'custom made on the generic LEGO character body' at all. They're almost twice as tall and aren't interchangeable at all with Lego minifigs. They're interesting as they have a lot of points of articulation, but they're far more delicate, and are made of soft rubber.

Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to like this set. I've enjoyed Lego sets for years, and have long hoped for a Batman franchise. They even used Bruce Timm's Animated Series [wikipedia.org] stylings for the minifigs. In the end, though, poor construction, misleading packaging, and almost indecipherable instructions all demonstrate that there's a gulf between Lego and the vastly inferior C3/Playalong.

Re:Doesn't say. How much?

[Reziac]

Also, having worked in the arse end of the film/TV industry, I'd estimate that 80-90% of the average budget is sheer waste.

Witness: I worked on one show where everything came out of the producer's own pocket, rather than being financed by a studio, hence he wouldn't stand for any waste. That show cost $80k per episode -- when similar studio-backed productions were costing around $500k per episode (and SF was around $1M/ep.)