Star Fox 2 (film)

Star Fox 2 is a 2011 computer-animated adventure fantasy comedy action film directed by J. J. Abrams and co-written by Abrams, Jon Hoeber, and Erich Hoeber. It is the eleventh film in the Nintendo Cinematic Multiverse (NCM), and the sequel to Star Fox (2006). It features Chris Pine reprising his role as Fox McCloud, with Robert Downey Jr., Josh Gad, Woody Harrelson, Paul Rudd, Carl Weathers, Ben Mendelssohn, Tobey Maguire, and Justin Roiland, reprising their roles from the previous film. Scarlett Johansson, Michael Yurchak, Rosemary Harris, and Johnny Depp are also in the film's principal cast.

After the release of the first film, Abrams, Miyamoto, Starkey, Rapke, and MacDonald agreed to produce its sequel. Filming began in November 2009. Animal Logic designed computer-animated dinosaurs and added them to the backdrop. The film was converted to 3D during its post-production stage.

It premiered at Pacific Theatres in Los Angeles, on May 10, 2011, and was released in the U.S. on May 27, 2011, and in Japan on June 14, 2011, as part of Phase Two in the NCM. The film was commercially successful, grossing over $370 million worldwide, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2011. Critics particularly praised Pine and Johannson's performances, and Abrams direction.

Plot
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Cast

 * Chris Pine as Fox McCloud (motion-capture)
 * Mike West as Fox McCloud (voice)
 * Robert Downey Jr. as Falco Lombardi (motion-capture)
 * Chris Pratt as Falco Lombardi (voice)
 * Josh Gad as Slippy Toad (motion-capture)
 * Evan Peters as Slippy Toad (voice)
 * Woody Harreldon as Peppy Hare (motion-capture)
 * Vincent D'Onofrio as Peppy Hare (voice)


 * Scarlett Johansson as Krystal and Katt Monroe (motion-capture)
 * Ana de Armas as Krystal (voice)
 * Lily James as Katt Monroe (voice)


 * Paul Rudd as ROB (motion-capture)
 * Bill Hader as ROB (voice)
 * Carl Weathers as General Pepper (motion-capture)
 * Jeffrey Wright as General Pepper (voice)


 * Michael Yurchak as Tricky (voice)
 * Rosemary Harris as ??? (voice)
 * Ewan McGregor as Wolf O'Donnell
 * Johnny Depp as Wolf O'Donnell
 * Ben Mendelsohn as Leon Powalski (motion-capture)
 * Daniel Radcliffe as Leon Powalski (voice)
 * Tobey Maguire as Panther Caroso (motion-capture)
 * Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Panther Caroso (voice)
 * Justin Roland as Andrew Oikonny

Production
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Animation
Star Fox 2 needed an enormous group of computers, and Animal Logic worked with IBM to build a server farm with sufficient processing potential. The film took four years to make. Ben Gunsberger, Lighting Supervisor and VFX Department Supervisor, says this was partly because they needed to build new infrastructure and tools. The server farm used IBM BladeCenter framework and BladeCenter HS20 blade servers, which are extremely dense separate computer units each with two Intel Xeon processors. Rendering took up 17 million CPU hours over a nine-month period. The animation is invested heavily in motion capture technology, with the dance scenes acted out by human dancers. The film features computer-animated creatures in live-action settings.

Character designer David Krentz, who also worked on Disney Animation's Dinosaur (2000), designed about 20 creatures for the film and worked with 5-6 palaeontologists. The characters were based on creatures found at fossil sites in Alaska and in Canada. Krentz initially designed the creatures in pencil then modeled them with the software ZBrush to send to animators. In addition, palaeontologists provided Animal Logic with technical drawings of dinosaur skeletons so animators could construct the skeletons virtually. The animators collaborated with the palaeontologists to validate the basic movements of the computer-animated dinosaurs. Software was used to overlay muscle to fit the movements. Animal Logic adapted the software Quill, which they used to animate penguin feathers in their work on Happy Feet (2006), into new software called RepTile to animate dinosaur skin and scales. It also added feathers for some dinosaurs, including the Troodon and the Hesperonychus. The color palette and feather pattern of a golden pheasant was used for the appearance of the Hesperonychus. The natural history unit archives were used to create a "behaviour matrix" that matched dinosaurs' anatomically correct gestures to their moods. Animal Logic ultimately created 800 animated shots for the film, which director Cook said was a low number for an animated film.

Release
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Reception
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Sequels
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Transcripts
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