Thursday, October 20, 2022

Pixar Chief Reassures the British People: "The Pumpkids movie will honor Queen Elizabeth's memory.".....

Emeryville, CA - Fans of Queen Elizabeth II, the recently deceased ruler of England and Jamaica, will hear a familiar voice this Halloween in the upcoming Pixar film, The Pumpkids Movie: Rise of the PumpKing.

The Queen, shown here recording the voice of Lady Grumpkin, made several script suggestions that were ultimately ignored by Pixar's artificial intelligence content creation program

"We couldn't have been be more thrilled or more honored to have had the opportunity to work with the queen," Pixar President Jim Morris explained. "If we had known that she only had a few months to live, we would probably have given her more lines."

The Pumpkids movie, which is based on characters from the beloved children's book series, will be the first and last time that Queen Elizabeth will lend her voice to an animated project. According to Morris, it will also be the first movie to have a script entirely written by Pixar's artificial intelligence content creation program, named Jobby in honor of Pixar's first CEO Steve Jobs. "Queen Elizabeth was a pioneer as a monarch, so it's a perfect fit for her to have been involved with a movie that will push the envelope of what it means to have a movie made with computers."

One role in animated movie production that still requires a human touch, for now, is director. In the case of The Pumpkids Movie: Rise of the PumpKing, Pixar went with a bit of an unconventional approach, hiring a team of almost thirty children between the ages of seven and thirteen who each took turns of thirty minutes. When asked about the potential for infighting with so many directors, Morris laughed. "Oh yeah, there were definitely a few times we needed to step in. But out of that pressure, from all that coal we poured into the hydraulic press that is the making of a major motion picture, I think we created a diamond."

Agnes O'Pumpkin, voiced by Dame Judi Dench's sister Trudi, will serve as the main antagonist of the film 

For those worried about the legacy of Queen Elizabeth, Morris adds one final bit of reassurance. "The queen really had a lot of fun. She loved the character of Lady Grumpkin, the ruler of Pumpkinland. She got a kick out of her sassy catch phrase and put some royal stank on it during recording. Trust me, you will be hearing that line from every kid in England in a couple weeks."

The Pumpkids: Rise of the PumpKing will hit theaters on Thursday, October 27th. Click here for a spoiler free review.


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