Welcome, Spyro fans, to Spyro World! We are the fastest growing Spyro the Dragon site on the internet, so you’ve come to the right place for all your Spyro news and reviews. Our network includes a news site, wiki, image gallery and a forum. In addition to news and reviews, we provide your Spyro fix with Spyro videos, artwork and more! Keep an eye out for special Spyro exclusives you won’t find anywhere else, coming your way! We hope to become not only one of the most comprehensive Spyro sites available, but also your favorite. Look no further to keep up-to-date on Spyro.
Any strange, semi-obscure (possibly double entendre) references in my article title aside, this week's Spyro media Friday is another PlayStation Underground special, this time on the making of Spyro the Dragon for the PS1 with lots of interesting behind-the-scenes looks.
Since SpyroWorld's launch last August, we have consistently updated weekly with more news, reviews and other Spyro-related material. Our meter says we've gotten 8342 hits. We've been live for 59 days. That should average out to be about 142 hits a day. We've made 123 news posts in those 59 days which means we made a little over 2 news posts a day. Your responses? 9 of them. In 59 days we've had just 9 responses to our 123 posts and those 9 are spread among 4 people. That means for every 14 posts we make we get 1 comment back. What's going on here?!?
Is it that you don't have time to comment on an article? Don't like having to sign in to comment? You aren't registered so you CAN'T comment? You don't like my style of writing so you leave, offended. You don't care about our news? Come on...you're killing us, here. If ever you were going to read a news article and respond make it now. Please tell us what the heck is going on! How come no one ever wants to make a response to any of our news posts? Please, share your voice. Stop and take a second to tell us what you think is the reason we've had next to no comments on any of our articles. Tell us what YOUR reason for not commenting is. This information helps us to continue our job and to do it better, as well. Share with us, why in your humble opinion, no one has commented on any of our posts and furthermore...why haven't YOU either?
Is it just that I'm too hot to handle? You don't want to make yourself sound dumb for that sexy beast? That's it, isn't it.
...but seriously. Tell us the reasons. We need to know!
Gabriel Valles works as a character designer and concept artist and has been involved in many games including Over the Hedge and X-Men 2. He also was the character concept artist for Spyro: Shadow Legacy, for the Nintendo DS. His art above is just a sample of what you can find on his site. He has posted thirty-one of his Shadow Legacy artworks. The art shown above includes Bandit, Sensei, a shadow realm creature and The Sorcerer. We have never had any official artwork for these characters before.
His website is in flash, so you'll have to let the arts load. They are in the right sidebar and you'll have to scroll down to find them.
Video game news site Play (separate from the magazine which is also called Play) has weighed in on the PS2 version of TEN.
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There have been comments that there are sections that are just too difficult to master thus resulting in a frustrating playing experience for some Spyro fans. I'm not, however, sure that I concur personally; in all honesty I have a very short tolerance level with games and lose it fairly often but not so with this game. ...Overall I became quite fond of the violet dude, probably more appealing to the younger audiences but nevertheless fans of the series should not be disappointed.
In the end, Spyro scored a 7.2 out of 10. It's good to see some more of the kind, informed reviews coming out to balance those that were more scathing early on. However, reviews have slowed down to a trickle at best now that nearly three months have passed since the release of Eternal Night.
Hopefully a few more good reviews like this are released before the reviews stop altogether.
Remember that funky but cool music from Spyro's PS1 days? If not, you should track down a copy of one of the first three games immediately just to have a listen. Stewart Copeland, band member of The Police composed the tracks that helped make Spyro's infant years so memorable. Have you ever been curious how Copeland made these distinct pieces of music? This week's Spyro Media Friday is a video from the PlayStation Underground that took us behind the scenes of the process that Copeland underwent to deliver Spyro some musical pizazz.
Alina Chau lives in Los Angeles, California and works for a production service studio as a 3D character animator, storyboard/concept artist, and a part time CG animation professor at a university. Alina worked on The Legend of Spyro: A New Begining opening cinematic and commercial. She also did the storyboards for all the cinematics. These were done under Technicolor Interactive. Below are links to all the storyboards. I cut the links from her blog so you could access them directly. In the blog they are accompanied by her other, non-Spyro work. Here are the links:
Alina's work is amazing! I love how cute Sparx is. In my opinion, he should have looked like that in the game. Some interesting notes - Spyro's blushing when talking with Cynder in one scene, that didn't appear in the game. Did it give too much away? Also, the ending originally took place outside in the snow, not on a balcony. The most intriguing art however is the flashback scene. Whatever that is, it didn't appear in the game and those humans with spears have got me extremely curious. Why are they stealing the eggs? Was it a story element that got removed entirely or will TLoS 3 reveal the secret behind those images?
The ANB storyboards and cinematic work took about six months from from pre-production to finish.
Alina also worked on God of War II. The majority of the postings in her blog are quick ideas and experimental sketches for our evaluation. It isn't right for me to post all these storyboards directly which allows you to bypass her blog. All of her sketches are colorful and unique and I urge you to go look at them and comment on her work. You will find the Spyro storyboards as they were originally posted there, as well.
Peter Hartlaub doesn't like Spyro. In fact, one might say he hates Spyro...with a passion. In a recent article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mr. Hartlaub didn't sugarcoat how he felt about a certain diminutive, purple dragon. In what can only be described as a rant he proceeded to tell us how seven video game series - including that of our scaled hero - have gone awry in today's ever-changing world of gaming entertainment. I'm not usually one to defend something purely because I'm a fan or supporter of it - I will admit the Legend of Spyro arc is not my cup of tea - but Hartlaub wasn't solely referring to the new games - he said the series as a whole shouldn't ever have existed.
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Spyro the Dragon needed to be thrown into a wood chipper from day one.
The original three games were timeless classics and I'm neither blind nor nostalgic - I have a slew of reviewers far more creditable than Hartlaub who'd agree with me right now in a heartbeat.
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Spyro the Dragon: Spyro is getting singled out because he's especially purple and annoying, but we could also add Crash Bandicoot, Frogger and Sonic the Hedgehog to the list. And all of those look like a Halo sequel compared with the licensed properties for products such as Bratz and movies such as "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Video games for children are repetitive and unimaginative, poorly written and prone to glitches, with just a few exceptions. Buy a copy of Katamari Damacy, Lego Star Wars or one of the better Nintendo DS titles and hope for a better future.
Mr Hartlaub - poppycock! Mario Galaxy is also considered a "video game for children". I'm guessing you're one of the two people who called it bad. You're confused. Yes, there's no denying that Bratz and Alivn and the Chipmunks should join the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari 2600 game in its maggot-infested landfill somewhere beyond the American-Mexico border. In fact, it'd be better if we just jettisoned them to space now and saved ourselves the wasted space. Those are movie and toy franchise games which are notorious for being made purely to milk the udders of the franchise raw, not actually to entertain.
Spyro, Crash, Rayman and friends are original IPs and have nothing to do with those aforementioned crap-fests. Lumping them altogether in one category called "children's games" is just plain wrong.
However, for someone whose favorite games include Burnout, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Half Life, Ratchet & Clank, and Resident Evil, we shouldn't have expected anything else. It DOESN'T jeopardize your masculinity to like something without drugs, sex, killing, blood and prostitutes. Really, it doesn't.
Oh, and by the way, the makers of Ratchet and Clank made the original Spyro games. Thought you'd like to know.
Hartlaub works as the pop-culture analyst for the San Francisco Chronicle. His columns include Pop Culture and Playing Games. He assists in writing about movies, television and the media as well.
After a long holiday hiatus, Spyro Media Friday is back! This time we have a cameo of Spyro from the video game Crash:Twinsanity. Spyro and Crash have had a habit of popping up in each other's games all the way back to the days of Naughty Dog and Insomniac. Although this cameo is old, you may not have seen it before so enjoy!
I find it hard to believe with the amount of names behind the Spyro movie that it won't be happening, but some fans still remain skeptical. As we posted earlier, a company called Velvet Octopus posted a button link (that isn't working yet) to a page that I presume will discuss their role in this project. They are a Worldwide Sales Distribution company, so they will oversee the shipping of the film. This, to me, labels it a direct-to-DVD feature.
The button, shown below, has the first image of CGI Spyro. His tail seems a bit longer and he seems taller, but the angle may be playing tricks.
From the producers of Eragon? That worries me a little...their first dragon movie was an err... miss at best so hopefully they do it right this time.
As for the credits, here they are thanks to Hollywood .com
Full Cast & Crew
Production Credits - Credit
Daniel Chuba - Producer
John Davis - Producer
Mark Dippe - Producer
Brian D Manis - Producer
Ash Shah - Producer
Steve Altiere - Screenplay Writer
Daniel Altiere - Screenplay Writer
Velvet Octopus - Worldwide Distribution Sales
...most of those are old but I thought I'd share them again. The Altiere brothers are currently writing the script for Dr. Doolittle 4. The Animation Picture company's most recent CGI film was Garfield Gets Real. While they don't seem have much credential-wise, that image seems reassuring.
Also, not mentioned above we seem to have a Production Company named:
...Wonderworld Studios. Some digging told be the heads of the company are the Spyro movie's producers Mark Dippe and Ash Shah. Not a huge surprise...producer and production company... one in the same.
Their only film produced thus far has been Shark Bait which was a terribly made clone of Finding Nemo and Shark Tale.
However, doesn't this cause a conflict? Originally the Animation Picture Company was the production company. Of course, two production companies can work on the same film. Here's some information on the Animation Picture Co. :
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The Animation Picture Co. was founded in late 2006 by Dan Chuba, John Davis, Mark Dippe, Brian Manis and Ash Shah, who will all serve as producers on a Spyro film. Chuba is the founder and exec producer of digital effects and animation company Hammerhead Prods., and has overseen digital effects and animation on 70 major motion pictures. Davis is a veteran feature film and television producer, whose credits include I, Robot, Norbit and Predator. Dippe directed the features Spawn and Frankenfish, and has also served as a visual effects supervisor at ILM, working on such films as Jurassic Park, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Ghost. Shaw has produced more than 40 features films, while Manis, exec VP of John Davis’ Davis Ent., recently exec produced the features Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, and Dr. Dolittle 3.
This Mark Dippe sounds like he jumps between production companies which may explain why we have two separate companies named to produce the Spyro film.
This information was found in an overview of the film Shark Bait, which is also known as The Reef.
Sounds like a spotty history. Hopefully that doesn't continue with Spyro. For that whole article click here.
On a final note, at the Velvet Octopus site it says the film will be in 'Real D'. Real D is 3D - like the classic blue & red glasses type of 3D. This might bolster the chance of it going to theaters as some current Real D films include Open Season, Monster House, Beowulf, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Superman Returns. All of these appeared in both non-3D and 3D versions. Real D 3D theaters are hard to come by with an estimated 900 around the world. That's not many. There certainly aren't any around where I live.
It seems as if theres going to be some more info about the offical 2009 spyro move pretty soon... a company called Velvet Octopus has a button on their site that current doesn't work, but looks like as if they are going to provide info for the movie...
From the producers of Eragon? That worries me a little...their first dragon movie was a miss so hopefully they do it right this time.
Take a look at their site, and see what you think.
Welcome, Spyro fans, to Spyro World! We are the fastest growing Spyro the Dragon site on the internet, so you’ve come to the right place for all your Spyro news and reviews. Our network includes a news site, wiki, image gallery and a forum. In addition to news and reviews, we provide your Spyro fix with Spyro videos, artwork and more! Keep an eye out for special Spyro exclusives you won’t find anywhere else, coming your way! We hope to become not only one of the most comprehensive Spyro sites available, but also your favorite. Look no further to keep up-to-date on Spyro.
