There have been a few animated Spanish films, not quite all of them managed to be screened outside of the country, however all of them quite a success in their own time.
Most of the Films that I came across started out pretty late, the first few around 2000 following through to 2011 and on.
I really like all of their Film posters, none excluded, which is very rare for my taste. They all had a certain hint of mystery. I hate when the Film posters are too obvious and predictable, even with animated films.
Firstly I quite enjoyed the look of Condor Crux, made in 2000 by Jose Louis Garci an was distributed by Patagonik Film Group as well as Buena Vista international. The film was only shown in Argentina and Spain so the film was not translated into any other languages, however, it still made quite a bit of money even with only getting 4 out of ten stars on IMDB's rating list. A lot of people had been saying from the start of Condor Crux's production that the film had a rare chance of becoming successful because they never really had a clear target audience, however when making a children's movie, the target audience should be somewhat obvious, but apparently not to the critics. The language used in the film was supposedly way too complicated (however I can not be the judge of that, as my spanish skills are beyond shocking. ) and there was no chance for it to be targeted at teens either, as the 2D animation appeared to be of rather poor quality and there was supposedly no chance of it being an adult movies either. So the dialogue was heavily criticized from both ways - too complicated for children, to ridiculous for adults. Well there aren't really any target audiences left now, are there?
However, it was also said not have been a complete waste, it was only in its early days of computer based animation, combined with some 2D, there were some nice renders and background designs, so if you can look past all the other mistake, this movie was a nice first try in my opinion.
Most of the Films that I came across started out pretty late, the first few around 2000 following through to 2011 and on.
I really like all of their Film posters, none excluded, which is very rare for my taste. They all had a certain hint of mystery. I hate when the Film posters are too obvious and predictable, even with animated films.
Firstly I quite enjoyed the look of Condor Crux, made in 2000 by Jose Louis Garci an was distributed by Patagonik Film Group as well as Buena Vista international. The film was only shown in Argentina and Spain so the film was not translated into any other languages, however, it still made quite a bit of money even with only getting 4 out of ten stars on IMDB's rating list. A lot of people had been saying from the start of Condor Crux's production that the film had a rare chance of becoming successful because they never really had a clear target audience, however when making a children's movie, the target audience should be somewhat obvious, but apparently not to the critics. The language used in the film was supposedly way too complicated (however I can not be the judge of that, as my spanish skills are beyond shocking. ) and there was no chance for it to be targeted at teens either, as the 2D animation appeared to be of rather poor quality and there was supposedly no chance of it being an adult movies either. So the dialogue was heavily criticized from both ways - too complicated for children, to ridiculous for adults. Well there aren't really any target audiences left now, are there?
However, it was also said not have been a complete waste, it was only in its early days of computer based animation, combined with some 2D, there were some nice renders and background designs, so if you can look past all the other mistake, this movie was a nice first try in my opinion.
So then after that, around 2003 we have 'El Cid: The Legend' written and directed by Jose Pozo, with Julian Fernandez as the producer. The Film was also not translated into other languages than Spanish, so the international target audience was not very big, however unlike the last Film, this one wasn't even shown in other a lot of places other than Barcelona and Valencia. It was however produced by Filmax animation, a studio in the USA, (Feature and Games animation production)
But, the most interesting thing I found out about this Film was the clean-up supervisor, 'Mike-Wiesmeier.' Who started out as the inbetweener for heartthrob John Smith in Disney Pocahontas, Mike work in and out side of the US. After that he continued on with a few of the old Disney classics such as, Tarzan, Hercules, The Hunchback from Notre Dame, The little Mermaid 2 and Return to Neverland. All as assistant animator or clean up supervisor. So he fancies himself to be quite the 2D traditionalist..
'Even with El Cid: The Legend' no being overly famous, finding out about his slightly more clean up supervisor was a good find after all.
Seeing as there are no other versions, but the Spanish ones, below is just the Film poster, which if you compare it the one from only 3 years before, is a massive, massive improvement. The design is a lot more appealing, cleaner and has a nicer design. And the target audience is also a lot clearer. You can definitely see a few similarities when you look at the drawings from this post and Pocahontas which just makes it all the more cooler. (In my opinion anyways. )
His impressive show reel and portfolio can be found here : http://www.mikewiesmeier.com/
But, the most interesting thing I found out about this Film was the clean-up supervisor, 'Mike-Wiesmeier.' Who started out as the inbetweener for heartthrob John Smith in Disney Pocahontas, Mike work in and out side of the US. After that he continued on with a few of the old Disney classics such as, Tarzan, Hercules, The Hunchback from Notre Dame, The little Mermaid 2 and Return to Neverland. All as assistant animator or clean up supervisor. So he fancies himself to be quite the 2D traditionalist..
'Even with El Cid: The Legend' no being overly famous, finding out about his slightly more clean up supervisor was a good find after all.
Seeing as there are no other versions, but the Spanish ones, below is just the Film poster, which if you compare it the one from only 3 years before, is a massive, massive improvement. The design is a lot more appealing, cleaner and has a nicer design. And the target audience is also a lot clearer. You can definitely see a few similarities when you look at the drawings from this post and Pocahontas which just makes it all the more cooler. (In my opinion anyways. )
His impressive show reel and portfolio can be found here : http://www.mikewiesmeier.com/
2005, had 'Midsummer nights dream, which finally also had an English voice cast. The film was written and produced by Manolo Gomez, and even though it had also an English voice cast, the film was only distributed in Portugal and Spain alone.
All the reviews I've read were only positive and were speaking very highly of this Spanish production, The Shakespearian inspiration was said to have been brilliant as well as the general design for the Film. With a clear target audience and strong characters with belief and a mission, which makes the whole Film a very pleasant experience.
Unfortunately I couldn't find no trailer or video (or even a picture for that matter) that was not in spanish, so that was a shame.
All the reviews I've read were only positive and were speaking very highly of this Spanish production, The Shakespearian inspiration was said to have been brilliant as well as the general design for the Film. With a clear target audience and strong characters with belief and a mission, which makes the whole Film a very pleasant experience.
Unfortunately I couldn't find no trailer or video (or even a picture for that matter) that was not in spanish, so that was a shame.
Coming up the bigger productions, I've found the lovely looking film the 'The Missing Lynx' which was released in 2008 in Spain but will be released next year in the United States. The film was produced by Marcelina Almansa and directed by Manuel Silicia. It was distributed in Spain by Aurum productions but will be distributed by Phase 4 films in America.
The poster quite reminds me of 'Puss in Boots for some reason and has also a few other similarities like the cousins art director who was indeed related to one of the directors of Puss in boots.
Below is the trailer of the English version of the missing lynx, which fortunately has not been changed too much from its original. The films has also won Winner Best Animation Feature in Spanish Film Academy Awards 2009. :)
The most upcoming, most recent film I've found was the 89 minute long Film, 'Wrinkles' with its design and hefty 2 Million Euro budget, this Film is definitely one of the bigger Spanish animated Films. The film was produced by Manuel Cristobal and made by Perro verde Films. The first screening of it was shown at the San Sebastian film fesstivals last year and was a full success.