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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Comic-Con 2014: Dreamworks Animation Panel For 'Home' and 'Penguins of Madagascar' With Plenty of Benedict Cumberbatch Pictures!

Written by Jami Ferguson
Here's our recap of the Dreamworks Animation Panel that was moderated by Craig Ferguson and featured the stars of the Penguins of Madagascar, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Malkovich, Tom McGrath,  as well as directors Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell. The second half of the panel also included an early look at Home with star Jim Parsons and director Tim Johnson.


This panel beings with moderator Craig Ferguson taking the opportunity to crack a few jokes at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s expense. Somehow, Spielberg and Geffen escape the panel without their names being brought up. The first film introduced is Home, a movie focused on aliens coming to Earth with one of them (Jim Parsons) befriending a human played by Rihanna. Director Tim Johnson and star Jim Parsons ("Big Bang Theory") show a clip, and go through the pre-planned spontaneous moments on Craig Ferguson’s notecards.
Rihanna is not present but they show a picture of one of her famously instagrammed outfits and bring out a cardboard cut-out of Parsons’ character dressed like Rihanna for a photo op. Ferguson makes as many jokes about the planned “spontaneity” as he does about Jeffrey Katzenberg making him audition for the How to Train Your Dragon movies.
Next up is The Penguins of Madagascar which is the continuation of the Madagascar films where the penguins finally get the spotlight. I’m always amazed at some of the really big stars that agree to voice these movies, and am even more amazed to see two of them John Malkovich and Benedict Cumberbatch, appear on stage. Cumberbatch makes a bit of Comic-Con sense thanks to his immense popularity with this crowd. Craig Ferguson even jokes that Comic-Con will be canceled if anyone dares to ask a "Sherlock" question during this panel. John Malkovich is not a face I’d expected to see at Comic-Con, but he is a great choice as the evil octopus scientist villain. Both Malkovich and Cumberbatch also make it clear they did not audition for their roles to the mock outrage of Ferguson.
I always pictured John Malkovich as a recluse who only leaves his home to shoot the weirdest movies. He talked about books from his childhood, television shows that he enjoyed (including "Leave it to Beaver") and spoke about how his sister resembled his character more than him. I never pictured John Malkovich as a part of a family with siblings, and I certainly can’t imagine him as a child. In my head, there is now the image of a tiny bald child in a suit, although I know he was probably a normal child. Unfounded Malkovich impressions aside, I enjoyed the first of many surprises Thursday’s program schedule in Hall H. Penguins looks like a lot of fun and much better than I anticipated. Of course the addition of these two big stars adds a lot of appeal to it too.

Here's some extra photos of the panel that you might enjoy and scroll down to the bottom of the page to view videos of the full panel:
Here are some videos of the panel if you'd like to experience it first hand:

1 comment:

  1. Oooh, so many pictures of Benedict! Sounds like a good panel and interesting movies coming up!

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