Now as this year comes slowly to its end, I am tying up the ends of the things I started and ended this year as I begin to prepare to open the new things to come in the next year in two months.
This year I sent out a total of 47 copies of the 2 hour and 28 minute long IClone 5 version of "The Wogglebug, and Sylvie, and the Enchanted Forest." While the feedback from both sides of my close friends and Richard Poshard's close friends, and also the people who participated as voice actors in the film, was generally excellent. The feedback I received when I began sending out a number of copies to total strangers for the purpose of receiving feedback from such, the responses were a mixed bag to say the least.
Because when it came to the animation, besides the mentioning of Woggie's "tummy glitch" and also a few moments i which the top of Antibo's staff appeared to go through his head for a moment, parents reported of their children finding the animation "scary" and "creepy" and "unnatural and unsettling" and "so obviously done on a computer in a look that reminded me of the Sims games." And added comments from their children such as "Tiffany says she'll pass." and "Our daughter had been so disenchanted by the animation lacking facial expressions and body language to emphasize in the characters that she couldn't even finish watching the movie." But then after these they would typically add favorable comments such as,"On a happier note we found the storyline to be interesting." "Our daughter loved the music and the story idea." "The script was cool. The storyline great. The characters perfect." And children have reported loving Mr. Wogglebug, and his voice and his laughter, and his singing and especially when he helped Sylvie across the bridge in song which Richard Poshard wrote himself. And they could feel for and emphasize with him when those "three animal-headed guys" bullied him and he started to cry.
So as Richard had stated and I agreed with, "So the thing that people seem to be liking the least is the animation. But that is a problem with IClone and not the movie itself." I was comfortable thinking this until I received at least three very negative reviews from three children. Haley Harrison, who's mother told me she is just way too honest. And Liam and Violet Sinhawk who's mother reported their feedback to me and Liam didn't like the movie at all and Violet was just not interested in it from start to finish. But Violet said she did like a few things such as the scene in which Sylvie chases the butterfly, and the scene in which the Wogglebug jumps off of the screen, and his hat, but not much else. While her brother, Liam, did not seem to like Woggie and when asked what he had learned from Woggie while watching the film it was just that "bragging is not right."
Ouch! I thought. And so that was why I made up my mind for certain then that the first movie in my animated series was not this movie but the second one and the one that should now be called first in the series is a movie titled "The Incredible Tale of Mr. Wogglebug." which details the full backstory of Mr. Wogglebug's origins up until he leaves the Taylor family who he stayed at for a total of six months (as indicated in the time connections in the two scripts) before he left for the castle of King Ethano because Professor Nowitall had said the time had come and also arranged for the Wogglebug to meet with Sylvie on the way there. So now all of every age who view the films will understand and love and accept Mr. Wogglebug as just the way he is, and why he is the way he is, of course.
I am also pleased to report with the arrival of the new IClone 7 I will very soon begin to update many past videos made previously including the first full-length feature film titled "The Wogglebug, and Sylvie, and the Enchanted Forest" that me and Richard Poshard wrote together, after I film "The Incredible Tale of Mr. Wogglebug, of course. I intend to release the movies to Amazon after I've refilmed them in better animation with many bonus features of what me and Richard have done over the past few years together. All of the problems in the IClone 5 animation noted by viewers above have been reported to be entirely fixed in IClone 7 animation from a new look that gives the videos a style closer to realistic Pixar animation, to a curve editor plug-in for professional animation that will add facial expressions and body language to the characters and prevent anyone's staff, or wand, or hand from going through anything it ought not to ever again. Also, I've lately found out a new add-on of how to incorporate the best and most professional of special effects directly into the IClone movies is to be released next year and this will be very much needed for my feature films at best.
But besides the looking forward to much more professional animated movies, I've felt lately I've been chasing my dreams like the scene in which Sylvie chases the butterfly outside and just hoping to get to see the Wogglebug appear on the big screen someday and jump right off of it and into a million people's hearts like he has done my own. And that someday may still come. As I have have finally signed up for an online workshop of How to Create My Own Production Company and can yet still fulfill my real true dream of developing the live action versions of the Wogglebug's movies with Sylvie in Genoma.