Another sneak peek at holiday Eureka: “Do You See What I See?”
by Doc on Dec.02, 2011, under Television
Thanks to Syfy and NMS I’ve received an updated copy of the Eureka holiday episode, which airs next Tuesday, December 6th at 8/7c. This version had more of the completed animated segments, so I thought I’d give a little preview on what the episode is about and what you’ll see (note that if you want to be completely surprised as to the styles of animation you’ll see, stop reading).
This Christmas, all Jack Carter wants is for there to be snow in town. So Henry, Fargo and Vince work on a projector that will at least make it seem like Eureka is a winter wonderland. But when a strange interaction occurs between a power generator and a interactive children’s book, the town is suddenly transformed in to an animated wonderland instead.The team works to find the source and stop it, while they experience a few “changes”…
Four distinct styles of animation are used:
1) CGI – everyone is transformed into a CGI representation of themselves, similar in style to The Polar Express, although some of the movements reminded me of earlier efforts. This was the least complete section though, so it may be improved before airing.
2) Traditional cartoon animation – Reminds me of Hanna-Barbera style cartoons like Yogi Bear. Jack looks a bit like Dudley Do-Right-style sheriff; Deputy Andy is of course a robot, but a little C-3PO-ish; Allison is Santa’s Helper; Fargo is a Bobblehead; Jo is Snow White; and Henry as a pull-string doll. And Jack’s jeep also comes to life, and let’s us know his name is Carl. And he’s voiced by Emmy award winning actor Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory). Towards the end of this segment, a few other cartoon styles are exhibited, but I’ll leave those as a surprise.
3) The coolest is the Rankin-Bass-style stop-motion animation – especially for a holiday special, nothing could be more appropriate. And check out Jack’s “luscious lips”, as they were referred to at a press event…
4) The final style was Japanese anime, which even included lip-synch issues and exaggerated gestures…
Chris Parnell also returns as the mysterious Dr. Noah Drummer from last year’s holiday episode. This is a very fun episode with lots of things for fans of all types of animation, and could be it’s own classic!
Here is a preview: