Halika 3.0

Walt Disney’s newest animated feature “Chicken Little” is making waves at the American box office, as grosses hit nearly $120 million since it first opened three weeks ago.

A very loose adaptation of the venerable children’s story, Chicken Little is bound to be as popular as the other Disney characters. This quirky new character is the archetype 98-ounce weakling, yet children will soon be posing for pictures with his six-foot-tall mascot in Disney’s theme parks around the world.

Nobody could be prouder of this little hero than Philippine-born Ralph Fernan, who was responsible for animating both the title character and his father, Buck Cluck. It was up to Fernan to give life to these two lead chickens. He clearly had the most challenging task of giving the film its heart.

“As you have probably noticed, there are many scenes between Chicken Little and his father,” the 40-something Fernan told Life & Times via phone patch. “So as animator, I had to build a rapport between father and son and make it look realistic.”

Many of the scenes between the older chicken and his tiny son are tender and actually human, and they comprise the best moments of this otherwise rapidly paced CGI movie. Yet Fernan refused to take the entire credit. He attributes the success of the film to a lot of contributors, from the gifted voice talents, the art directors and the overall director Mark Dindal.

With all the talented animators and art directors working on the film, it seems that director Dindal would have little else to do, but Fernan said that on the contrary, he was the central guiding force of the whole production.

“True, we all had our duties but it was Mark who set the tone and direction of the film. He’d advise us in certain scenes and describe their purpose. How the characters should react to certain situations, how the action ought to be depicted and he more or less choreographed entire scenes,” he explained.

It was Dindal who also coached the voice talents, which included major stars like Steve Zahn, Patrick Stewart, Don Knotts and Joan Cusack.

From UE’s pride to Disney’s gem

Fernan was born in Manila and is a Fine Arts graduate of the University of the East. Although he majored in painting, he found himself working on animation. “My first stint with animation was when I was hired by the local studio of Hanna-Barbera,” he said.

“That was in the eighties, not long after I finished college. You can say that it was at Hanna-Barbera where I got my formal training, where I learned the ropes.”

Most children are familiar with many of Hanna-Barbera’s beloved characters — from Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear to The Flintstones and Josie and the Pussycats.

Fernan was assistant editor of the Hanna-Barbera’s feature-length cartoon Once Upon A Forest (1993), which featured the voice talents of Michael Crawford and Ben Vereen.

Sadly, however, the company was compelled to shut down its Manila studio due to financial difficulties.

As with most of the talented Filipino animators, Fernan decided to seek his fortunes in other countries. There were fewer opportunities for animators in the Philippines, he explained. While others found employment in Australia, Fernan and a few others tried their luck in the United States. Fernan has so far been the most fortunate Filipino animator. He found work at Burbank Studios and was animator for the features of Turner Pictures and Warner Brothers. Among his credits are the highly acclaimed Iron Giant (1999) and Stuart Little 2 (2003).

Not long after, he was hired by Walt Disney and was immediately assigned to Chicken Little. “We started to work on Chicken Little two years ago. It all began with storyboarding and scripts which were continuously revised,” Fernan recalled.

Fernan noted there are several Filipinos working in Disney, both in the production and administration’s departments. “We’re all so proud to be part of this great company. I’ve met Roy Disney, the son of Walt Disney. He looks a lot like his father!” he said.

For Disney, Chicken Little was a major gamble that paid off. It was the first CGI film, the studio produced on its own. (Pixar produced most of its CGI productions.) The studio first adapted Chicken Little for the screen in 1943 using traditional animation.

“Of course, traditional animation will always have its advantages, but with CGI, the work is faster and easier. I would like to work on conventional animation again,” he said.

Fernan resides with his wife and son in Altadena, California. While he’s enjoying his work in Disney, he said he hopes the animation industry in the Philippines would eventually get off the ground. “Then perhaps the talent wouldn’t have to migrate to other countries,” he said.

Article written by Dennis Ladaw
Ralph Fernan: The big Pinoy behind ‘Chicken Little’
The Manila Times November 30, 2005

General Jarque and Plinky Recto — what do they have in common? A very influential lawyer. And gangster. And landgrabber. The ex-boyfriend. Plinky’s that is. Plinky’s ex-boyfriend (others call him the estranged husband) is the reason why General Jarque joined the communists.

Plinky Recto was once a Close-Up model and since her name ends with a Recto (big name, with a street named after it) she got some airtime in Philippine showbiz buzz but now enjoying her time as a Pilates instructor. Ralph, the senator and husband of Vilma Santos, is her brother. She has a civil case against her influential ex-boyfriend and now she’s back in the news.

Plinky found her courage to speak up partly with the help of Gabriela. After filing a civil case against Magdaleno Peña, she went to The Buzz to talk about some of the details. She never mentioned Pena’s name, but she did say something about Jarque’s case. The rest you have to check online, she says. It’s all over the net, so I had to compile them here.

The number of battered women in the Philippines is rising. They just found a new spokesperson with Plinky’s face.

Related notes:

Plinky and Pilates

Plinky spent another million to import equipment such as the Cadillac, Barrel and Ladder, Wunda chairs, and Reformer machines from California. “But the courier lost my machines weeks before I was to open, and I had to hire someone for three weeks to track where the machines ended up. The people from Sacramento thought the Philippines had only one port,” Recto says laughing. When the machines finally arrived, she had trouble getting them released because the government people had no idea how to classify them for tax purposes. [source]

Who is General Jarque?

Jarque headed the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division in Negros island in 1991-1992, and was credited with turning the tide against the communist New People’s Army guerrillas who had broad support among the rural poor.

In 1995, he surprised the public when he announced he decided “to go underground to wage revolution,” adding he had “come to understand and acknowledge the justness of the struggle … by my erstwhile foes.”

In 1996, Jarque served as a consultant for the NDF panel in the peace talks but became less active after the government and rebels signed an agreement on human rights in 1998. In 2001, he became a security consultant for the Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy Development Corp. [source ]

General Jarque sought the protection of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) after he was unjustly accused of crimes he did not commit. He became a consultant for the NDFP during peace negotiations with the Manila government in 1997. [source]

Jarque was acquitted after 12 years. The article below was published in June this year.

“I feel vindicated,” Raymundo Jarque, a retired brigadier general who defected to the New People’s Army, declared after learning that the Supreme Court and the Sandiganbayan acquitted him of the six cases filed against him more than 12 years ago.

Jarque, military affairs consultant of the National Democratic Front, was the military commander in Negros when sugar planter Magdaleno Peña filed the cases against him.

Doubting that he would get a fair trial, Jarque, who had served the military for 33 years, fled to the hills and joined the NPA. [source]

Children: Capt. Rene Jarque, Raymundo Jr., Melissa (resident of Texas, USA)
Wife: Xenia (also written as ‘Zenia’ on the papers)

May mga pinoy na kayang sumali dito? You earn real money while playing an online computer game. Of course, you have to convert your real money into Project Entropia Dollar (PED) first. Then you can convert your PED currency to real dollars later. Noong 1995 pa ito nag-start.

The Entertainment of the Future is already here

Project Entropia is a massive virtual universe with a real cash economy.

Together with people from all over the globe you experience adventure, you form societies, and you are a part in the creation of a brand new world.

While on the planet Calypso you use the PED currency to invest in your personal development. The assets you acquire can be exchanged back into real world funds.

Project Entropia is available around the clock for decades to come. The virtual universe has been developed since 1995 and every month new exciting content is added.

[source]

Katrina Halili, after Black Darna, will be attracting a wider audience since she is appearing as the cover girl of FHM this December. she is also the 2006 calendar girl of the same magazine.

Julia Clarete, the Hollywood Dream winner and actress in the horror digital film Sa Ilalim ng Cogon.

Holographic data storage has existed for 40 years, but is just coming to the commercial market and may reach the consumer market by 2007.

As opposed to the blue laser technology used both in Blu-ray and HD-DVD, holographic storage goes beyond recording the surface of the disc and records through the full depth of the medium.

Longmont, Colorado-based InPhase Technologies has formed an alliance with Hitachi Maxell to sell discs the size of a DVD that can store 300 GB of data. By comparison, Blu-ray discs will be able to hold 50 GB and HD-DVD discs will store about 30 GB. InPhase’s Tapestry holographic system can store more than 26 hours of broadcast-quality high-definition video.

While other technologies record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light. So transfer rates are significantly higher than current optical storage devices.

As a result, the holographic discs also can read and write data at 10 times the speed of the DVDs currently in the market, or six times that of blue laser discs. [source]

Encantadia is about to end this December. It will be immediately replaced by Etheria. Check out the cast, theme song and teasers of this new GMA-7 primetime telefantasia.

No, I’m not talking about blogging, but what if I actually make an e-book and let others donwload it for free? If it clicks then maybe I can try selling some good ones for let’s say, less than $2. I’ll try to check on Lulu’s services later to see if I don’t get to spend for this experiment. You see, I’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo. While I haven’t finished even a thousand words after two attempts, maybe later, I’ll succeed. Malay mo, di ba?

Elvis Presley and Oprah Winfrey, sino kaya mga counterpart na mga ito sa Pilipinas? One is believed by many to have died and the other still very much alive after becoming a champion of weight loss programs and kicking the habit (meth).

Some workplaces block websites you need to visit, such as web e-mail or forums. An anonymous proxy service gets you through — privately and securely.

Sometimes your browser’s history shows where you’ve been surfing. You may want to eliminate your trail as you surf. Or if you want, you could encrypt your connection to stop spies from toehr PCs as you surf. Every website you visit knows who you are, and which website you’ve come from. Protect your identity as you surf. Using “cookies” online marketing companies can track your surfing. Let a free service hold all cookies thereby protecting you.

Aside from Grace Adriano’s (previous entries), you may also want to visit the blogs of these Pinoys known for their notoriety: Jessica Zafra, Tim Yap and Bryan Boy.

As for notable blogs, you got Bikoy and Sassy Lawyer.

{more links later. too sleepy}