How did we miss this?!? There’s a new George Lucas animated movie! Strange Magic, from Walt Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm Ltd. and released by Touchstone Pictures.
No one in this family had any idea this was coming. Granted, we don’t watch a ton of tv, but usually we know about every sci-fi and animated movie coming out. And anything by George Lucas would have definitely caught our notice, because, well – STAR WARS. We’re one of those families where not only dad, but mom as well, grew up as a Star Wars fan so the kids had no choice but to hear about it. Even if when we were talking about this movie my twelve-year-old did say, “Isn’t George Lucas dead?”
Happy to say he most definitely is not, and our family will be catching this movie as soon as we can. If you’re also caught by surprise, here’s a trailer for Strange Magic:
I always loves heaving about the research that goes into animated movies. Bet you’d never guess that there was biology research for this movie! The animators studied how butterflies fly so they could get the movement of the fairy wings just right. Then they had to think about physics. From Walt Disney Pictures:
“We looked at a lot of monarch and blue morpho butterflies, as well as moths,” says animation supervisor Kim Ooi (“Astro boy”). “We studied movement in slow motion to understand the mechanics… [But fairy] structure is different from that of a butterfly…We had to figure out how they’d hover and how they’d get moementum from their wings to propel them forward.”
Watch the video below to learn more about butterfly flight for yourself! There’s cool slow motion video, a discussion of the aerodynamics of butterfly flight, and a brief mention about how butterflies taste – with their feet! (Yeck! I’m so glad I don’t smell with my feet.)
Media from Walt Disney Studios
and Youtube, Earth Unplugged BBC Worldwide
Cool! I had no idea. Thanks for sharing!
I know! How did we miss this? 🙂
Thanks for the alert – we missed this one, too. Sounds fun. And I appreciate your link to the octopus camouflage blog as well. It’s one of my favorites!
I enjoyed learning about butterfly flight too. I had no idea their wings move a full 180 degrees!
It’s a great thing that there are so many good movies that are suitable for kids that it’s hard to see them al – I grew up in the era where kids’ movies were few and far between. Not that you have to watch a bunch of movies, but when you do see a movie, it’s great to have more choices.