Comic Relief

Marmaduke covers the initiation of the Great Dane into a Dog Park,which is nothing but high school in human terms,as he tells us,filled with geeks,pretty ladies and camps.

Remaining faithful to the original is probably the toughest part of making a movie if the source material is inspired by a book As director Thor Freudanthal says in an exhaustive behind-the-scenes extra feature of the DVD of his movie Diary Of A Wimpy Kid DOAWK,staying true to the characters and their quirks was a major challenge for him and his team. DOAWK is a popular comic series book on the same name written by Jeff Kinney who is also the executive producer on the feature film.

In a rare and detailed narrative on the film,Freudanthal actually plays the entire movie again while his voice in the background tells you little known details about the actors and the setting. Most of the actors were auditioned in Vancouver in Canada where the film was shot. Along the way,Freudanthal talks of how he kept the story of the film linear by focussing on the relationship of eleven-year-old Greg Heffley with his heavy and uncool friend Rowley Jefferson.

The film follows the single plot point wherein Greg aims to be the topper in the popularity charts at the end of his first year in middle school. Gregs irascible family,his run-ins with brash seniors and the mysterious story of the cursed cheese lying on the schools basketball field all come together in a heart-breakingly funny movie that talks about growing up by making the correct choices and standing up for the right person.

Freudanthal says working with kids was a challenge that took many pies and chocolates before he could get some of the younger actors to act like he wanted. Never try this unless absolutely necessary, he forewarns while a scene with a dozen four-year-olds being led in a straight line by Greg shows up on screen. Getting them to stand in a line took almost the entire day. It was an unforgettable experience, Freudanthal says. Another challenge was shooting against a green scale for some of the special effects shot that were incorporated later. Making them understand how the scene will look and how these young actors must act is another part of filmmaking that directors working with children must know. As he finishes speaking,you get a feeling that Freudanthal himself has passed through a direction school,with flying colours.

Marmaduke is a movie about a dog who plays the title character and is voiced by Owen Wilson. This film,too,is based on a popular newspaper comic stripdrawn by Brad Anderson from 1954. In the film,Marmaduke is a Great Dane who moves to Californias Orange County from rural Kansas. Directed by Tom Dey,the film is a live action adaptation featuring the voices of George Lopez,Fergie and Kiefer Sutherland. At the O.C.,Marmaduke is initiated into a Dog Park,which is nothing but high school in human terms,as he tells us,filled with geeks,pretty ladies and camps.

Some of the sequences look impossible to be filmed as they are,such as a stunning choreography with at least two dozen dogs in one frame performing the same steps and the scene where the dogs surf among high waves in a competition. It is only when director Dey explains that shooting with dogs entails three important pointers,in a special video on the DVD that you really sit up and take notice. Dey says that Marmaduke,whose real name is George,was selected after an exhaustive round of auditions and then matched with other dogs and the cat voiced by Lopez to see how they would react to each other. For the surf scene,Dey says he made use of three factors: the dogs must love water a recurrent theme in the movie and the setting for the climax,if they dont they must be initiated into the scene by training them up against artificial waves and using really good trainers. Dey also reveals how Marmaduke got his name in an extra scene. The name is an amalgamation of marmalade and Duke.