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Kaena: The Prophecy
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Wikipedia article
'Kaena: The Prophecy' (French: 'Kaena: La prophtie') is a 2003 computer-animated fantasy adventure film. The United States release of the film is distributed by Destination Films and features the voices of Kirsten Dunst, Richard Harris (in his last role before his death), Anjelica Huston, Keith David and Ciara Janson.
Chris Delaporte started work on the film in 1995 after leaving at ric Chahi's company Amazing Studio halfway through development of the Studio's only game Heart of Darkness. Originally intended as a video game, the project spun off into a film. There was, however, a tie-in video game produced.
'Kaena' was released theatrically in France by BAC Films on June 4, 2003. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who criticized its story, although its animation was praised.
Plot
The film begins with an alien ship crash landing on a desert planet. The alien survivors, known as Vecarians, are quickly killed by the planet's predatory native inhabitants, the Selenites. The ship's core, Vecanoi, survives, and from it sprouts Axis, a massive tree reaching up into space.
600 years later, a race of human-like tree-dwellers have evolved living in the branches of Axis. One of them, a teenager named Kaena (voiced by Kirsten Dunst), is an adventurous daydreamer who longs to explore the world beyond the confines of her village. Kaena's inquisitiveness is opposed as heresy by the village elder, who commands his people to stay productive and toil for the villager's gods (who are, unbeknownst to them, the Selenites living in the planet below).
Led by prophetic dreams of a world with a blue sun and plentiful water, Kaena eventually defies the elder and climbs to the top of Axis. There, she encounters the ancient alien Opaz (voiced by Richard Harris), the last survivor of the Vecarian race that crash landed on the planet centuries ago. Opaz has used his technology to evolve a race of intelligent worms to serve him and help him escape the planet. Upon learning of Kaena's dreams, Opaz enlists her help in retrieving Vecanoi, which contains the collective memory of his people.
However, Vecanoi rests at the base of Axis, where the Selenites dwell. The Queen of the Selenites (voiced by Anjelica Huston) blames Vecanoi for the destruction of their planet, and has spent most of her life (and sacrificed the future of her people) attempting to destroy it.
Cast
French cast
* Ccile de France as Kaena* Michael Lonsdale as Opaz
* Victoria Abril as La reine
* Jean Piat as Le prtre
English cast
* Kirsten Dunst as Kaena* Richard Harris as Opaz
* Anjelica Huston as Queen of the Selenites
* Keith David as Voxem
* Michael McShane as Assad
* Greg Proops as Gommy
* Tom Kenny as Zehos
* Tara Strong as Essy
* Dwight Schultz as Ilpo
* John DiMaggio as Enode
* Ciara Janson as Kamou, Roya
* Jennifer Darling as Reya
* Cornell John as Demok
* Gary Martin as The Priest
* William Attenborough as Sambo
Production
The project started as a video game in 1995.
Reception
'Kaena' was a box office bomb and earned highly negative reviews. 'The New York Times', Entertainment Weekly, 'The L.A. Times' and 'The Boston Globe' all said that it was lifeless and dull with an overly convoluted plot. There were unflattering comparisons to a much better-received French animated film, 'The Triplets of Belleville', and the similarly unsuccessful CG film 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within'. A few nevertheless admired the visuals. The proportions of the main character drew comparisons to Lara Croft.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 7% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 3.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though 'Kaena: The Prophecy' is visually inventive, its story is incoherent, derivative, and dull." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 40 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."
References
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