The DreamWorks Animation panel at the San Diego Comic-Con will be moderated by Craig Ferguson and is expected to feature Penguins of Madagascar with Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, and Tom McGrath, as well as directors Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell appearing. Director Tim Johnson will also present Home. Will there be more surprises? Follow along with the live blog below!
You can read the archived version of our live blog below:
11:24
ComingSoon.net: Welcome to our live blog of the DreamWorks Animation panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. The panel should be starting shortly.
11:25
Comment From Timdiana
Great to be a part of the live blog. I am wondering if they mention anything on Kung Fu Panda 3.
11:25
ComingSoon.net: It’s actually quite a long panel, so there’s a good chance.
11:26
Comment From Angelo
I would be the happiest person ever if a Rise of the Guardians sequel or spinoff was announced. I know that’s super unlikely though. As long as there’s no Shrek 5 announcement, I’m happy!
11:26
Comment From Maho
will we see something from BOO?
11:26
ComingSoon.net: You would think so!
11:27
Comment From Hayden360
What about the lot of series coming to Netflix?
11:27
ComingSoon.net: Good thinking.
11:27
Comment From Timdiana
I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel for Rise of the Guardians. I’m not sure it will happen, but it would be great it did.
11:27
Comment From Guest
Or something about how to train your dragon 3
11:29
Comment From Maho
Will ‘Coming Soon.net’ post some of the pics of movies that will be shown during the panel?
11:29
ComingSoon.net: If the studio releases material, we will post it on the site yes.
11:30
ComingSoon.net: They’re behind a few minutes, so stay tuned.
11:31
Silas Lesnick: Hello all! They’re just about to begin!
11:31
Joshua Starnes: Finally getting started
11:32
Silas Lesnick: The moderator, Craig Ferguson has just taken the stage!
11:32
Joshua Starnes: With standard disclaimer out of the way, here comes Craig Ferguson and the dreamworks panel gets underway
11:34
EDouglasCS: Hey, everybody! I’m in Hall H, too! (But I’m just here for a short while and will let Silas tell you what’s going on.)
11:35
ComingSoon.net: How’s he crowd in Hall H?
11:35
Silas Lesnick: I’d say about 75% full
11:35
Silas Lesnick: They’re opening with a teaser for HOME. Be right back!
11:36
Comment From SweatCon
You guys are amazing for doing this, love it!
11:36
ComingSoon.net: No problem! We know many people can’t make it.
11:38
Silas Lesnick: We just saw our first look at HOME, which follows the adventures of friendly (but apparently kind of annoying to his kind) alien named Oh.
11:39
Silas Lesnick: He looks like a little purple blob with several legs most of the time, but seems to change color depending on what he’s doing.
11:39
Silas Lesnick: He winds up getting lost on Earth and befriends a young woman and her cat, named Pig.
11:40
Silas Lesnick: Oh, voice by Jim Parsons, is so named because of the sigh he receives whenever he enters a room.
11:40
Silas Lesnick: Parsons has taken the stage alongside director Tim Johnson.
11:41
Silas Lesnick: Ferguson and Parsons are joking about how they were made to audition even after being asked to join their respective projects.
11:41
Silas Lesnick: (Ferguson, of course, lent his voice to Dreamworks Animations’ HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON series)
11:42
Comment From SeanWolf
Jim Parsons of Big Bang? Now the movie has my attention
11:42
Silas Lesnick: The very same!
11:43
Comment From SeanWolf
He did? Who did he voice?
11:43
Silas Lesnick: Ferguson voiced Gobber in both DRAGON films.
11:44
Silas Lesnick: The alien race in HOME wants to remodel the Earth in their own image, so they start removing things they don’t like.
11:44
Silas Lesnick: Tip, the human lead, is voiced by Rihanna and she and Oh are being pursued by Steve Martin’s character, a government operative.
11:45
Silas Lesnick: The aliens appear to have set up their base inside the Eiffel Tower, although they call it by a new name.
11:45
Silas Lesnick: Here comes footage! Be right back…
11:50
EDouglasCS: Good luck describing that clip, Silas! 🙂
11:50
Silas Lesnick: Sorry, I was wrong on Steve Martin’s character. He’s still the antagonist, but he’s with the aliens. He’s their leader, Smeck.
11:51
Silas Lesnick: It seems that the alien race have conquered Paris and maintain their base in the Eiffel Tower.
11:51
EDouglasCS: Home looks very charming and funny… but I’m not surprised since I loved Tim Johnson’s earlier movie Over the Hedge
11:51
Silas Lesnick: Because they have control over gravity, it’s actually levitated above the city as are strange little clusters of objects.
11:52
Silas Lesnick: There are, for example, balls of things like umbrellas, grouped together and just floating in clusters above the city.
11:52
Silas Lesnick: Smeck is angry with Oh and tells him that he’s going to be erased.
11:52
Silas Lesnick: Tip doesn’t like that and threatens to mess with the gravity device controlling the tower.
11:53
Silas Lesnick: With the gravity device messed up, the tower begins to turn, spinning like hands on a giant clock. Everyone begins to slide off the side.
11:53
EDouglasCS: (I’ll also add that the chase sequence they showed–which I’m sure Silas is getting to )–was on par with the one in Kung Fu Panda 2 and Madagascar 3… really crazy and funny)
11:54
Silas Lesnick: Oh and Tip make it into one of the alien transportation devices, which are essentially giant bubbles.
11:54
Silas Lesnick: There’s a MASSIVE chase around and above Paris as all the characters fall, run, and/or pilot bubble vehicles.
11:55
Silas Lesnick: Parsons ended his portion of the presentation by taking a photo to send to Rihanna, since she couldn’t be here.
11:55
Silas Lesnick: They’re moving on to B.O.O., bringing out some replicas of the props featured in the film.
11:55
EDouglasCS: They just showed the new logo for B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations and Craig Ferguson showed and described some sort of gauntlet that all B.O.O. agents wear.
11:56
EDouglasCS: Was very quick… they’re already onto the Penguins of Madagascars. Silas, did you catch the name of that device Craig showed?
11:56
Silas Lesnick: That appears to be all they’re showing off for B.O.O., though because they’re moving on to the PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR.
11:56
Silas Lesnick: They’re about to show a teaser as the directors take the stage
12:00
Silas Lesnick: We’re re-introduced to the penguins as they tackle a top secret mission.
12:00
Silas Lesnick: They meet “The Arctic Wind,” a spy organization comprised of arctic creatures, including a seal, a polar bear and an arctic wolf, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch
12:01
Silas Lesnick: There’s a pretty funny scene where Cumberbatch’s wolf character (whose name, I believe, is actually “Classified”) tried to speak to the penguins, but one of them won’t stop eating cheese puffs, loudly crunching as Classified speaks.
12:02
Silas Lesnick: “We’re out of options,” one of the penguins says to the group in the back of a military plane.
12:02
Silas Lesnick: “I make my own options!” says one of the penguins, opening the back hatch of the plane, causing them to all fly out into the air.
12:03
Silas Lesnick: One of the penguins, Kowalski, is counting down until they hit the ground, “2,000 Meters, 1900 Meters
”
12:03
Silas Lesnick: “Think American, Kowalski!” another shouts, causing him to continue in feet.
12:03
Silas Lesnick: A clip! Be right back!
12:06
Silas Lesnick: A LOT of laughter for that scene!
12:06
Silas Lesnick: The Penguins are sneaking into Fort Knox and there’s a great bit as they roll on their side across a black and white crosswalk, invisible to the guard.
12:07
Silas Lesnick: They get to a massive security door that asks for a password.
12:07
Silas Lesnick: It’s no problem for the penguins, though, as one explains that the security system was made in Kentucky. He plays bluegrass on a small radio and the door instantly changes its tone.
12:07
Silas Lesnick: “Come on in now, ya hear!” the door says, revealing mountains of gold bars.
12:08
Silas Lesnick: That’s not why they’re there, though! They walk right past the gold…
12:08
Silas Lesnick: To a vending machine in the back room. The very last vending machine in the entire world dedicated entirely to their cheese puffs.
12:08
Silas Lesnick: Another clip! Be right back!
12:10
Silas Lesnick: Finishing that other clip first…
12:11
Silas Lesnick: From within the cheesy vending machine, a tentacle emerges, pulling the Penguins inside one by one!
12:11
Silas Lesnick: The tentacles, it seems, belong to John Malkovich’s character, who we meet in the next clip.
12:12
Silas Lesnick: He greets the penguins in a large laboratory setting, introducing himself as Dr. Octavius Brine.
12:13
Silas Lesnick: Imagine a caricature drawing of Dwigh Shrute, dressed up as a scientist, but with his whole body twisted in on itself
12:13
Silas Lesnick: He reveals to the penguins, however, that’s he’s not actually a world-famous scientist. He’s really
12:13
Silas Lesnick: Dave!
12:13
Silas Lesnick: (the penguins don’t know who he is either, but he reveals himself as a purple octopus)
12:14
Silas Lesnick: Another clip! Be right back!
12:17
Silas Lesnick: Taking the stage, Malkovich reveals that Dave was a big attraction at the penguins’ old zoo. When they showed up, he lost his fame and is now seeking revenge.
12:17
Silas Lesnick: Benedict Cumberbatch has taken the stage!
12:18
Silas Lesnick: The new clip shows a chase scene across Venice as the penguins are pursued by three octopi.
12:18
Silas Lesnick: It’s a neat chase between two gondolas, which wind up going on land at one point, using the oars as legs.
12:19
Silas Lesnick: The penguins also have a poor gondola driver with them, who continues to play his ukelele (changing it to fit the scene) as they go.
12:19
Silas Lesnick: “Initiate self destruct,” says one penguin, just as the gondola hits a car and explodes.
12:20
Silas Lesnick: “Frankly,” says the penguin as he dusts himself off, “I’m surprised we had a self-destruct!”
12:20
Silas Lesnick: This is where the North Wind shows up (I believe the clip takes place a second before the first one). There’s also a snow owl, which I missed before.
12:21
Silas Lesnick: They wind up scaring off the octopi and invite the penguins onto their flying, top-secret plane.
12:21
ComingSoon.net: Photo – https://twitter.com/DWAnima…
12:21
Comment From Guest
Penguin names: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private.
12:21
Silas Lesnick: That’s correct, thanks!
12:21
Silas Lesnick: Cumberbatch jokes that he was asked for the first time, “What’s it like playing a villainous octopus?”
12:22
Silas Lesnick: Here comes a new clip, said to be set at North Wind HQ
12:24
Silas Lesnick: Agent Classified warns the Penguins that Dr. Brine is creating a deadly virus called “The Medusa Serum”.
12:25
Silas Lesnick: But it turns out that the penguins have already stolen the serum and hand it over!
12:25
Silas Lesnick: Suddenly the monitor comes to live. Dr. Brine is there, having hacked into the North Wind system.
12:25
Silas Lesnick: Unfortunately, the audio doesn’t work and there’s a great gag as he tried to get it right.
12:25
Silas Lesnick: “This happens evert time a villain calls!” says the seal.
12:26
Silas Lesnick: Brine reveals that he’s got lots more Medusa Serum and he’s going to use it to take over the world!
12:26
Silas Lesnick: They’re now announcing an app for the film, which allows users to drop penguin photobombs into their photos.
12:27
Comment From João Paulo – BR
The way Silas describe this, Penguins sounds like new hit for DreamWorks Animation, am I right?
12:27
Silas Lesnick: I’m pretty impressed by how funny all the clips are!
12:27
Silas Lesnick: Fan questions are about to start!
12:28
Comment From Roku
Sounds like a James Bond spy movie with penguins!
12:28
Silas Lesnick: Very much so a stylized parody of Bond/Mission: Impossible.
12:29
Silas Lesnick: Ferguson jokes that, if anyone asks about SHERLOCK, Comic-Con will be cancelled.
12:29
Silas Lesnick: The first question is about Cumbatch’s prep.
12:29
Comment From Roku
He didn’t say doctor strange though 😉
12:30
Silas Lesnick: He says that you need to go undercover and that he became a wolf in Yellowstone National Park for a bit.
12:30
Silas Lesnick: He was worried, he jokes, when he became the alpha male, but it was fine when he discovered that two of the other wolves were Christian Bale and Daniel Day Lewis 🙂
12:31
Silas Lesnick: (Not that it necessarily means anything, but Cumberbatch does NOT have DR. STRANGE beard.)
12:32
Comment From SeanWolf
Cumberbatch is Dr Strange? When was this announced?
12:32
Silas Lesnick: It’s just a rumor at this point!
12:32
Silas Lesnick: We’ll probably know for sure on Saturday.
12:32
Comment From MarvelWatch
You have to admit that sounds like something DDL would do in his downtime.
12:33
Silas Lesnick: Cumberbatch says he took the PENGUINS role because he’s a big fan of DreamWorks Animation and he’s never gotten to voice an animated character before.
12:33
Silas Lesnick: (Smaug, apparently, notwithstanding)
12:34
Silas Lesnick: Tom McGrath (Skipper’s voice) is talking about how influential STAR TREK was on him as a kid.
12:34
Silas Lesnick: “There’s a risk at Comic-Con!” laughs Ferguson.
12:35
Silas Lesnick: McGrath goes on to say that it was TREK and shows like it that helped define his tastes as a kid.
12:35
Silas Lesnick: Malkovich jokes that he likes a wide variety of things, but only if they start hate e-mails.
12:35
Silas Lesnick: As a kid, Cumberbatch says it was actually THE HOBBIT that fueled his childhood.
12:36
Silas Lesnick: He also lists KNIGHTRIDER and GENTLE BEN (because it shares his name) as two of his favorite childhood influences.
12:38
Silas Lesnick: Cumberbatch says he loves books primarily, though, because it’s like you’re playing every single part.
12:39
Silas Lesnick: Cumberbatch just mentioned SHERLOCK offhand, causing Ferguson to say that Comic-Con is officially cancelled.
12:39
Silas Lesnick: Blame Benedict Cumberbatch!
12:40
Silas Lesnick: Now Ferguson and Cumberbatch are talking about improvising.
12:41
Silas Lesnick: Malkovich says he never changed a word of a script until later in his career.
12:42
Silas Lesnick: He says it gets complicated with PENGUINS because they’re happy to have actors improv, although you have no idea what will be used in the end.
12:44
Silas Lesnick: Malkovich says he’s done every line of the script 100 times if not a thousand.
12:45
Silas Lesnick: He says some actors will want to stop after two takes, but most want to go through every different way of delivering a line.
12:45
Silas Lesnick: Delivering something simple properly, he explains, is a lot harder and more important than making up something new.
12:46
Silas Lesnick: The next question is asking the actors to compare doing a children’s film to an adult film.
12:47
Silas Lesnick: “One is happier in adult movies,” Malkovich laughs, playing up the pun.
12:47
Silas Lesnick: He says he doesn’t know or understand film ratings and thinks the way they’re delivered is peculiar.
12:48
Silas Lesnick: The next guy asking a question is holding a life-size Rocket Raccoon. He says he wants a raccoon in a sequel.
12:48
Silas Lesnick: “We’ll get right on it!” says the directors.
12:49
Silas Lesnick: They also tell him to check out OVER THE HEDGE.
12:50
Silas Lesnick: The next woman has a question that has already been asked, so Cumberbatch says to ask what his shoe size is.
12:51
Silas Lesnick: Cumberbatch was asked if he might come back next year for SHERLOCK. He says it’s a possibility!
12:52
Silas Lesnick: For MADAGASCAR continuity nuts, the directors say that the TV show is another reality and that this is firmly set in the world of the films only.
12:53
Silas Lesnick: Malkovich and Cumberbatch have just been asked what comic book hero they’d want to play!
12:53
Silas Lesnick: Loooooong pause as they look at each other.
12:53
Silas Lesnick: “Lois Lane,” says Malkovich.
12:54
Silas Lesnick: “Batman, I guess,” says Cumberbatch.
12:54
Silas Lesnick: That’s it for the cast and crew of PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR!
12:54
Silas Lesnick: Ferguson says they have one more treat…
12:55
Silas Lesnick: They’re showing a rough assembly of the first six minutes of PENGUINS. Be back with a recap shortly!
1:02
Silas Lesnick: PENGUINS begins with a cameo voice from none other than Werner Herzog!
1:02
Silas Lesnick: He’s parodying himself, playing a documentarian filmmaker in the arctic, narrating about the lives of penguins.
1:02
Silas Lesnick: We see baby versions of Skipper, Rico and Kowalski, walking in line with the other penguins.
1:03
Silas Lesnick: An egg rolls down past the group, but most of the penguins ignore it.
1:03
Silas Lesnick: Skipper says they should go get it, but an older penguin tells him that that’s not what penguins do. They tend to stay in line and be cute and cuddly.
1:03
Silas Lesnick: “Why do you think there are always documentary crews following us?” he asks.
1:04
Silas Lesnick: The frame moves back to reveal a several man camera and sound crew.
1:04
Silas Lesnick: The Penguin trio have no interest in how penguins *should* act and go off to get the egg.
1:04
Silas Lesnick: Unfortunately, the egg has been rolling through the snow and is a massive snowball when it flies off a cliff onto an abandoned boat along the icy shore.
1:05
Silas Lesnick: It’s dangerous to go down, however, because it’s infested with leopard seals.
1:05
Silas Lesnick: “Leopard seals,” says Skipper. “Nature’s snakes.”
1:05
Silas Lesnick: “Aren’t snakes nature’s snakes,” another one asks.
1:06
Silas Lesnick: “The penguins know that if they go off the edge they will surely die,” says Herzog.
1:06
Silas Lesnick: He turns to his boom guy. “Give them a little push.”
1:06
Silas Lesnick: The penguins fall onto the boat. Dodging seals, they recover the egg and make it to a large spear gun at the end of the boat.
1:07
Silas Lesnick: “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!” says Skipper as the trio prepares to ride the spear to safety.
1:07
Silas Lesnick: He’s reminded that the seals don’t really have white in their eyes.
1:07
Silas Lesnick: “Not even if they look really far to the left?” Skipper asks.
1:07
Silas Lesnick: They wind up launching and shooting to safety aboard an iceberg.
1:08
Silas Lesnick: As they recover, the egg hatches.
1:08
Silas Lesnick: “Are you my family,” asks the baby.
1:08
Silas Lesnick: There’s a long pause as Skipper looks around. They’re all together, but the iceberg is drifting off to sea.
1:09
Silas Lesnick: “No,” says Kowalksi matter-of-factly. “You don’t have a family and we’re all going to die.”
1:09
Silas Lesnick: Skipper is told that they’ve got a 95% chance of dying.
1:09
Silas Lesnick: But a 5% chance of adventure on beyond anything they can imagine.
1:10
Silas Lesnick: “I’ll take those odds,” Skipper beams as the iceberg drifts off into the sunset.
1:10
Silas Lesnick: That’s it for DreamWorks animation!
