The Legend of the Sky Kingdom
Encyclopedia
The Legend of the Sky Kingdom is a 2003
animated feature film
from Zimbabwe
- the country's and Africa
's first. It was based on a children's book of the same name by Phil Cunningham, who was also the film's producer. It premiered at the Durban International Film Festival
in October 2003. http://www.southafrica.info/what_happening/arts_entertainment/junkmation.htm
animation. The puppets and all of the sets were built from pieces of junk that the filmmakers found - a necessity of the low budget as well as an artistic choice inspired by Africa's folk artists, who often turn things that others have thrown away into works of art. The filmmakers call this animation style "junkmation".
The filmmakers also spent two years custom-building a motion camera out of bicycle parts because they did not have the money to buy a professional one.
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
animated feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
from Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
- the country's and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
's first. It was based on a children's book of the same name by Phil Cunningham, who was also the film's producer. It premiered at the Durban International Film Festival
Durban International Film Festival
The Durban International Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It is one of the oldest and largest film festival in Southern African and presents over 200 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and...
in October 2003. http://www.southafrica.info/what_happening/arts_entertainment/junkmation.htm
Plot
Three orphans escape from the Underground City ruled by the Evil Emperor and search for the Sky Kingdom while facing many challenges along the way.Production
The film was animated using stop motionStop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
animation. The puppets and all of the sets were built from pieces of junk that the filmmakers found - a necessity of the low budget as well as an artistic choice inspired by Africa's folk artists, who often turn things that others have thrown away into works of art. The filmmakers call this animation style "junkmation".
The filmmakers also spent two years custom-building a motion camera out of bicycle parts because they did not have the money to buy a professional one.