Kaena: The Prophecy (2003) Kaena: La prophétie (original title)

Directors:

Chris Delaporte
Pascal Pinon

Writers:

Alejandro Jodorowsky (dialogue)
Benjamin Legrand (dialogue)
(more)

Release Date:

4 June 2003 (France)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

AXIS, a gigantic coiling plant, stretches high above the clouds... At its center is a village whose...

Plot Keywords:

Cloud | Secret | Plant | Priest | Mortal Danger

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Cécile De France	...	Kaena (voice: French version)
Michael Lonsdale	...	Opaz (voice: French version)
Victoria Abril	...	La reine (voice: French version)
François Siener	...	Voxem (voice: French version)
Jean-Michel Farcy	...	Assad (voice: French version)
Raymond Aquaviva	...	Gommy (voice: French version)
Jean Piat	...	Le grand prêtre (voice: French version)
Kirsten Dunst	...	Kaena (voice: English version)
Richard Harris	...	Opaz (voice: English version)
Anjelica Huston	...	Queen of the Selenites (voice: English version)
Keith David	...	Voxem (voice: English version)
Michael McShane	...	Assad (voice: English version)
Greg Proops	...	Gommy (voice: English version)
Tom Kenny	...	Zehos (voice: English version)
Tara Strong	...	Essy (voice: English version)
Dwight Schultz	...	Ilpo (voice: English version)
Gary Martin	...	The Priest (voice: English version)
John DiMaggio	...	Enode (voice: English version)
Ciara Janson	...	Kamou / Roya (voice: English version)
Will Attenborough	...	Sambo (voice: English version) (as William Attenborough)
Jennifer Darling	...	Reya (voice: English version)
Cornell John	...	Demok (voice: English version)

Directed by
Chris Delaporte
Pascal Pinon

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Pierre Bordage		dialogue
Patrick Daher		story
Chris Delaporte		screenplay
Chris Delaporte		story
Tarik Hamdine		screenplay
Alejandro Jodorowsky		dialogue
Benjamin Legrand		dialogue
Kenneth Oppel		screenplay collaboration

Original Music by
Farid Russlan

Film Editing by
Bénédicte Brunet

Production Management
Marie-Cecile Dahan	....	production supervisor
Odile Pérrin	....	production manager

Sound Department
Tom D. Backman	....	sound editor
Evan T. Chen	....	sound editor
Jake Eberle	....	sound designer
Jake Eberle	....	sound effects editor
Eric Justen	....	additional sound re-recording mixer
Eric Lewis	....	assistant dialogue recording engineer
Jonathan Miller	....	supervising sound editor
Shelley Roden	....	foley artist
Ernie Sheesley	....	dialogue recordist
Jonathan Wales	....	sound re-recording mixer
Elliot Anders	....	adr editor (uncredited)
Ken Galvin	....	dialogue recordist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Gamiette Rémi	....	character animator

Visual Effects by
Harry Bardak	....	compositing supervisor
Erwann Baudet	....	digital effects artist
Hatem Benabdallah	....	senior lighting artist
Thierry Canon	....	senior lighting artist
Katrina Conwright	....	lead character animator
Marc Cote	....	motion capture lead engineer
Michael Cozens	....	character animator
David Danesi	....	visual effects producer
Christophe Dur	....	modeler
Lapierre Franck-Noel	....	lighting and compositing artist
Brent Paul George	....	lead character animator
Phillip Giles	....	animation director
Marc-André Guindon	....	motion capture director
David Haddad	....	visual effects artist
Laurent Herveic	....	lighting and compositing
Steven Hornby	....	character animator
Michel Kinfoussia	....	visual effects supervisor
Jason Kreller	....	character animator
Pratlong Laurent	....	visual effects artist
Yannick Leblanc	....	technical director animation
Franck Malmin	....	technical director
Laurent Pratlong	....	visual effects artist
Sonia Pronovost	....	animator
Pascal Raimbault	....	digital models supervisor
Richard Raimbault	....	lead modeller
Nicolas Seck	....	CG animator: MPC
Stéphane Soubiran	....	visual effects
Anthony Sparapani	....	senior animator
Patrick Tasse	....	animator
Pènèlope Vandecave	....	lighting artist
Philippe Zerounian	....	character animator

Animation Department
Julia Bordeau	....	texture artist
Michael Brunet	....	animator
Frédéric Côté	....	animator
Michael Douaud	....	layout artist
Marco Foglia	....	animator
Benoît Gagné	....	animator
Emilio Ghorayeb	....	animator
Patrick Giusiano	....	animation supervisor
Jean-Marc Ky	....	animator
Andrew Ogawa	....	animator
Cory Rogers	....	animator (uncredited)

Casting Department
Jack Fletcher	....	casting: English voices

Music Department
Bruno Mercere	....	music mixer
James Shearman	....	orchestrator
Youki Yamamoto	....	assistant orchestrator

Other crew
Sofia Ashen	....	adr loop group
Richard Cote	....	production assistant
Jack Fletcher	....	voice director: English voices
Stefan Ashton Frank	....	adr loop group
Eric Meyers	....	adr loop group
Regina Reagan	....	adr loop group
Eric Vallee	....	production coordinator

Production Companies

• Chaman Productions
• StudioCanal
• TVA International

Distributors

• Bac Films (2004) (France) (theatrical)
• StudioCanal (2004) (France) (DVD) (special edition)
• Cathay-Keris Films (2004) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• GAGA (Japan) (theatrical)
• Cinergia (Ukraine)
• Europa Filmes (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Media Cooperation One (MC-One) (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Prooptiki (2004) (Greece) (DVD)
• Prooptiki (2004) (Greece) (VHS)
• Samuel Goldwyn Films (2004) (USA)
• United King Films (Israel)
• Universal Pictures Finland Oy (2008) (Finland) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Realities Studio

Other Companies

• SIF309 Film & Music Productions  film score recording
• Screen Music Studios (SMS)  dialogue recording facilities
• Sonic Magic  sound post-production

Also Known As:

"Kaena: La prophétie" - France (original title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sensuality and some frightening images

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

France | Canada

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

France:U | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Germany:12 | Australia:PG

Company:

Chaman Productions

Trivia:

Was dedicated to the memory of Richard Harris (voice of Opaz in the English version).

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: Episode #40.7" (2008)

An artful montage with a single story.

Have you ever played a game on the PS2, PC or XBOX and just drooled over the cut-scenes, those small cinematic snippets shown between levels? This entire movie, scene after scene, *is just like that*. And I'll tell you why: when it was originally conceived by the director and writer, that is precisely what they had intended to do... they wanted to create a game.

Looking at the "Special Features" and the Making-Of featurette on the DVD before watching the movie, I learned quite a lot about why and how it was made. The majority of the CG artists who worked on this film were, at first, all novices, most of whom had some minor experience in doing CG game work. When they first started on "Kaena", the 3D software darling of Hollywood, Maya, hadn't even come out on the market. These CGI animators were all using, basically, a freeware 3D modeling/animation suite. They worked on a shoestring budget, I might add, which is one of the reasons why all of their animators were so inexperienced and were learning as they went along.

Their animation/CG crew began as a five-man team and eventually grew to 50 persons at any given time. At a few key points they had up to 100 people working on the entire project, but most of the time they had a fairly core group of people all working in the same office building. Looking at the scenes individually, I can definitely see where they gave certain scenes to certain teams- as a 3D artist myself, I've gotten quite adept at picking out different styles and techniques used. MOST of the biggest differences between the scenes can be found in the lighting setups, which in some spots are breath-takingly exquisite and at other times amateurish at best.

Due to the original intention for this project to be a video game rather than a feature-length film, I can totally understand why the storyline would have some plot holes here and there- I expect that those gaps would have been filled in during gameplay. So taking that into account, I can honestly say that this film has a pretty solid storyline and some fairly well fleshed-out characters, all things considered. It is also good to keep in mind that this story wasn't written by "professional" sci-fi writers- it was written, in part, by the director who hadn't done anything like this before in his life.

Looking at the entire project with the trained eye of someone who's been involved with the business for a couple years now, I think that "Kaena" is not only a superb film, but it is a testament to what is possible when enough people throw themselves into a project like this. No major studio backing, no major software endorsement, no real experience in this field whatsoever... it's amazing that it even got rendered, let alone having been edited, scored, printed and distributed worldwide.

This movie is similar to "Final Fantasy" only in the sense that it was done completely with CGI. In every other way, however, this one stands alone and it SHOULD be given the proper credit that is due.