Funny characters Poncharov. Global screen rounding

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-12 17:37

In the new cartoon “Ponchary. Global rounding”(2021) the main characters are cute, hilarious creatures. Round like donuts and fluffy like hamsters. But when two of them are suddenly pulled by the portal of time, it turns out that in the future, ponchars are museum exhibits along with dinosaurs. An urgent need to change the course of history, and for this they will sweep through all eras. Everything is new to them and nothing cares: even cavemen, even quadrocopters! So, roundish adventures lie ahead! Release date in Russia - February 11, 2021.

Ed and Op are ponchers, brother and sister. These cute, fluffy, donut-like creatures live in the Galapagos in 1835. Ed is a morose pessimist who desperately wants to become a full-fledged part of society. But the overly active Op is constantly playing tricks, so society avoids them. Another impulsive trick of Op thwarts preparations for the upcoming Flower Festival, and the brother and sister are expelled from the tribe.

It seems that Op is not in the least discouraged by what happened. She leads Ed to the far side of the mountain into the restricted area to find a flower so beautiful that they will be allowed to return to the festival. To their surprise, Op and Ed discover a huge flower, glowing with a mysterious light, which opens and sucks Op and Ed inside. They find themselves in a portal of time and are transferred to a house … in modern Shanghai.

In our time, Op and Ed meet the adorable dog Clarence. He tells the ponchers where and in what time they were, and decides to help them return to their time. Clarence takes guests to the museum, where the poncars discover to their horror that their species became extinct in 1835, just after they fell into the flower of time. Op and Ed understand that they must return to 1835 and save their tribe …

About working on the film

Director David Silverman's message

- A lot of animated films have been shot about, say … dogs. And about cats. Well, about pets. And about the birds. And about insects. And about lions, tigers and bears.

There are films with the general idea "about objects that live, although we do not realize that they are alive." About toys living in a house, about cars living in a garage, about garden gnomes living, as you might guess, in a garden.

But how many films are "about animals that never existed and no one has ever seen before"? I would say not a single one. Well, you understand.

Therefore, when my fellow screenwriters, with whom we worked on the series "The Simpsons", offered me the script for the film "Ponchary. Global rounding”, I became interested.

Because, well, think, who are ponchars? I personally don't know. I can't even imagine how they might look. The script had a description: "They have a hole in the middle." What? How to draw it ???

In the rough design, they resembled a squirrel with holes. Well, let's face it, not the best option. We tried several versions and settled on a round shape and began to refine it. And it worked. This is how ponchars appeared.

The most interesting plot twists involve time travel. In the script it was written simply: "The heroes fall through the portal and are sent from 1835 to our time." This gave room for imagination. We've all seen time travel portals in the movies more than once, something new was needed. At some point, it dawned on me: at the beginning of the film, we show that the ponchers are preparing for the Festival of Flowers.

Suppose our heroes find a large, unusual flower, fall into it, and set off at another time. Thus, we introduced a new magical element - the Flower of Time. Because, you know, I don’t remember that. This is a new element, just like the ponchora themselves. They matched well!

This is a towering, hilariously funny and charming adventure film that has a lot that no one has ever seen before. The picture is simply beautiful, and I am very proud of it!"

Message from writers Joel Cohen, John Frink and Rob LaZebnik

- Work on the film “Ponchary. Global Rounding”was time consuming but enjoyable. From the moment the first idea was conceived to the finished film, it seemed, it took about seven years (fortunately, we lost count). From the very beginning, we decided that since our world will be inhabited by new types of creatures, they should be funny and unusual.

When the hole idea came up, we thought we had found something special. We began to discuss the different designs of ponchar holes: “Hole heads or bodies with them? Do the holes need to be large or small? Maybe make holes of different shapes for different ponchar? Well, you can see firsthand how our debate ended. We seem to have found the right option. Even if this is not the case, we will not redo it.

Alma was one of the last Fossils we created. We were looking for endangered animals that could make a kind of bridge between the bird Dodo Dotty and Triceratops Hoss. We went through a variety of terrestrial and marine animals and settled on a detachment of South American ungulates. We fell in love with an unusual horse with a trunk. The name came up pretty quickly, because the official name is difficult to remember or even just pronounce. It seems that we are this creature differently from Alma, and have not been called since then.

Casting is always the most important stage in character development. Finding the right voice that is associated with the image of a particular character is a fascinating process, then discouraging, and then again fascinating. At first it seems that all the roads are open to us, all the actors are in the direct access zone, everyone is willing to cooperate with the animators. But we wanted to find a voice that would fit the character, and not make the character a celebrity.

We managed to find an exceptional cast, each of the actors is incredibly talented. As a result, we got exactly the voices we dreamed of. I would even say that most of these voices were even better than those we could have dreamed of.

For us, the shooting became a real master class in animation in computer graphics. We already mastered the two-dimensional world on the set of The Simpsons, where we could change whatever we wanted.

Computer graphics are something completely different. Working on TV, we are accustomed to the fact that we can make adjustments to the script and the filming process at any time. Computer graphics required early decision making. In the future, we had to strictly follow these decisions.

For us it was a revelation and the main difficulty, but in the end it taught us organization and discipline, and we spent the free time as a result of time management on meals. Anyway, we apologize to directors and producers who had to bark: "No more changes!" more often than necessary.

From Producer Joe M. Aguilar

“We had several business breakfasts at the Avalon Hotel in Los Angeles. The meetings were so humorous that even the waiters periodically joined in the discussions. The meetings were usually attended by writers and producers from Tolerable, directors, yours truly and our colleagues from China Lion and Wink Animation.

We looked at storyboards, cut-outs and watched individual episodes. We discussed various ideas and found solutions to pressing creative problems. These meetings were always productive, we always found ways to make the future film even better. There were a lot of jokes and gentle sarcasm, each of us contributed to the overall good mood.

Our film is a co-production with China, so we aimed for realism when the scene was set in Shanghai, as this city will be shown in the film.

Our heroes find themselves in modern Shanghai. Considering that the Wink studio is located in this city, we organized an excursion to Shanghai for our production designer Evgeny Tomov so that he could see the city with his own eyes. For several days he walked around the city, sightseeing.

We wanted him to see for himself the street life and architecture that you will not find in any other city in the world. Eugene was shocked. Indeed, it is impossible to capture the unique atmosphere of Shanghai by looking at photographs. You have to walk the streets, see and feel the city yourself.

The graphics in our film are stylized, and Eugene, I think, perfectly managed to convey the atmosphere of Shanghai in this unique style. He did not strive for accuracy, it was, rather, a rethinking of Shanghai, based on his own perception of the city. China Lion's executives also participated in the process, leaving a ton of suggestions and comments, right up to the point where the film was finished.

About characters

OP - always a cheerful ponchar girl who is used to doing first and then thinking. She is a dreamer, but her dreams are rarely at odds with deeds. It is thanks to her activity that she and her brother mostly get on adventures and, of course, make problems.

ED - sullen brake for the unstoppable locomotive of fun Op. He desperately wants to join the society of other ponchers, even if he is considered a freak. And what, freaks have no right to be loved?

CLARENCE - the cutest dwarf dog, which you just want to cuddle … If you do not take into account the fact that inside he is an evil and insidious villain.

DOTTY - a dodo bird, the leader of a group of the last survivors in their form, who call themselves Fossils. Despite the fact that many consider the dodo bird to be stupid, Dotty is extremely smart and able to fend for herself. She feels responsible for Iskopashki and is ready to do anything to keep the group members from any threat.

BERNIE - the last Tasmanian tiger. He believes in all conspiracy theories, including a dozen of his own. When paranoia does not overwhelm him, he loves magic and drawing.

HOSS - cute, goofy Triceratops with a playful puppy character. He is loving and cheerful and often forgets about his size, so he can be dangerous. He runs after a tennis ball with great pleasure, than he will think about questions of survival. He is infinitely loyal. He doesn't just like you at first sight, he LOVES you.

ALMA - a hoofed animal that became extinct 10,000 years ago, with a completely unpronounceable name, in whatever language is pronounced. She is a classic hypochondriac, that is, she constantly worries about everything and everyone around, especially about those who can threaten the already barely survived species. Alma never leaves the hideout without a solid supply of antiseptics, antihistamines and cough pills.