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The Legend of Ochi feels like a film that shouldn't exist today. It's an original story, not an adaptation of an already popular book or comic. It's filled with complex puppetry and practical effects, something many films avoid because CG is simply easier to deal with. And it evokes some of the scarier children's films of the '80s and '90s, like the nightmare-inducing adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches. According to Isaiah Saxon, the film's writer and director, it was a struggle to get The Legend of Ochi made. "The attempt to make the film took longer than the making of the film," he said in an interview on the Engadget Podcast. " I think it's extremely hard to reach kids with your first film because kids are kind of behind this kind of corporatized IP world now. But I really wanted to reach kids with my first film and, and so that's why it took so long." Whenever he received a bit of funding for the film, Saxon says he used it to prototype creatures with London's John Nolan Studios, which has built animatronics for films like Jurassic World Dominion, as well as scouted locations in Romania. "And so, through the three-and-a-half years of this work before I got a green light [to make the film], I had then accrued this visual package that was kind of undeniable," he said. "That's when A24 finally just said, okay we're gonna be bold and risky and this isn't what anyone normally does, but we're gonna believe in you here." The result is a film that feels incredibly personal and distinct. It centers on a young girl, Yuri (Helena Zengel), who is growing up in a tiny village on the island of Carpathia. There the people fear the Ochi, mysterious primates who live in the forests and attack farm animals. Her father Maxim (Willem Dafoe in another unhinged A24 film performance) is a conservative, overly-macho man who leads a band of boys to hunt Ochi. Oh yeah, and he occasionally wears Viking armor. A24 The film begins with the Ochi, who from afar look like menacing monkeys. Yuri was raised to fear them, but after encountering one young Ochi, she begins to reject everything her father taught her. It also helps that the creature looks adorable, with large eyes and protruding ears, it's a bit like The Mandalorian's Grogu (AKA Baby Yoda), but with fur. The infant Ochi is also a complex puppet created by John Nolan Studios, and it looks uncanny at first, since these days we expect it to be computer generated. But it's clearly a physical object, with actual facial movements that Yuri can react to. "Puppetry is such an ancient art form," Saxon said, when I asked why he pushed to make the Ochi a puppet and not a purely CG creature. "We've been making shadows on the cave wall for thousands of years, and our brain as we watch the human hand give life to a character is just fully accepting of it." "And then there's also the charm of the failure space of puppetry. Even when you're not doing it just right, it feels alive. And especially for this baby primate, we found immediately as we were testing the puppet, that the little imperfections that came through rod puppeteering were actually exactly the way that a little baby monkey would be just discovering how to move their own body." A24 Creating a believable puppet is just one problem though, another is orchestrating it effectively on a movie set. "[John Nolan Studios] pushed the limits of what you could do at a really small scale with animatronics," Saxon said. "We were able to prototype for years to build these creatures. And then on set, we have extensively rehearsed every single scene with all these puppeteers. There's five on the body led by Rob Tygner, who's doing the head, and he's kind of calling out the internal monologue of the animal all its thinking, all its vocalization so that everyone can sync." Another two people control the puppet's face while staring at monitors, so there's a challenge to making them all work as one entity, Saxon says. The film's sets are also built to hold all of the people who control the Ochi puppet, and who often need to be hidden from view. And then there are the suit performers. "We have small people in ape suits with hand extensions with heavy animatronic heads that they can barely see out of. They're hot and they're out in the Carpathian wilderness in the mountains of Transylvania," Saxon said. After seeing what he accomplished with The Legend of Ochi, it's not hard to see Disney tapping Saxon for something in the Marvel universe, like it has with so many independent filmmakers. But that likely won't happen. "I've already said no," Saxon remarked in regards to making a Marvel film, and he also has no desire to make anything based on an existing IP. Saxon isn't entirely against using digital tools, despite his obvious love for puppetry. The Legend of Ochi still uses CG for distant shots of the Ochi, and for creating virtual sets. "I've also, over the years, learned CG and I've made purely animated 3D films. And I know the software myself and I know that it's a bespoke craft art that is tedious and full of love and attention to detail." "It doesn't get the respect it deserves," he added. "And that's partly because there's been a kind of corporatization and overuse of CG a lot. Saxon says he was well aware a CG character couldnt carry the film, but he also knew that it was the best way to create a 3D river that didnt exist in Romania. (Its also reminiscent of the music video he directed for Bjorks Wanderlust.) "You have to look at each opportunity and come to the technique organically for the task. You can't have philosophies about this." This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/it-feels-alive-the-legend-of-ochi-director-on-the-power-of-puppets-183043579.html?src=rss
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Boox, a company that makes E Ink gear ranging from palm-sized devices to desktop monitors, has a new pair of ereaders. The Go 7 and Go Color 7 (Gen II) combine a Kindle Oasis-like form factor with Android 13. For the first time in this lineup, they support handwriting, courtesy of a $46 stylus. And since the E Ink tablets ship with the Play Store, you can use any ebook storefront you like. The Boox Go Color 7 (Gen II) uses E Ink Kaleido 3 tech, also found in the Kobo Libra Colour and Kindle Colorsoft. (However, Amazon modified the latter with a custom display stack.) Like those competitors, the Go Color 7 shows color content at 150 ppi and black and white at 300 ppi. Meanwhile, the Go 7 has a monochrome Carta 1300 Monochrome display that shows content at 300 ppi. Boox Both devices have an asymmetrical form factor with physical page turn buttons on one side. They're the latest design inspired by the Kindle Oasis, which Amazon discontinued last year. Variations of this form are also found in the Kobo Libra, Sage and Elipsa lines. If you've never tried one of these offshoots, they're made for maximum one-handed ease. One advantage Boox's readers have over competitors is that, since they run Android and include the Play Store, you can install whatever reading app you like. Ditto for note-taking apps, browsers, mail clients, social apps or anything else you want. (But don't expect anything with video to be usable on E Ink screens.) The Go 7 and Go Color 7 each have 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and microSD support. Each device weighs 195g (6.9oz). Boox Although both Go 7 readers support pen input for note-taking, highlights and markups, you'll have to spend more to enjoy that. That's because, alongside the devices, Boox is launching a $46 InkSense stylus with 4,096 pressure levels of sensitivity. The pen, which looks a bit like a gray Apple Pencil, has a multifunction button on the side and recharges via USB-C. You can preorder the $250 monochrome Go 7 from Boox's website today. The company expects it to ship around May 7. Meanwhile, the $280 Go Color 7 is listed as "coming soon." This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/booxs-new-go-7-e-ink-tablets-support-handwriting-with-a-46-stylus-182026839.html?src=rss
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Google has announced that it will no longer be bringing new Nest Thermostats to Europe due to the "unique" requirements of heating systems in the region. The company launched its redesigned fourth-generation Nest Learning Thermostat in 2024. "Heating systems in Europe are unique and have a variety of hardware and software requirements that make it challenging to build for the diverse set of homes," Google says. "Therefore moving forward well no longer launch new Nest thermostats in Europe." The third-generation Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Thermostat E will continue to function, receive security updates and be sold while supplies last. If you're in the market for a new thermostat that works with Google Home, though, you'll have to turn to a third-party option. Besides leaving behind a whole continent's worth of customers, Google announced that it's also ending software support for a few older Nest devices. The first and second generation Nest Learning Thermostats, along with the second generation model released in Europe, will no longer receive software updates or connect to the Google Home app starting October 25, 2025. Google says any routines you've programmed will still work and you can manually adjust the temperature on the Nest Thermostat themselves, they'll just otherwise become a bit less "smart" after October. As a consolation, Google is offering $130 off a new fourth-generation Nest Thermostat to affected customers in the US, $160 off for customers in Canada, and 50 percent off a Tado Smart Thermostat X for European customers. All three thermostat models Google is dropping are over a decade old, so on one hand, the decision makes sense. On the other hand, most people don't purchase a thermostat and expect it to have an expiration date. That's one of a few reasons to be skeptical of Google's continued commitment to its Nest products. It's nice that there's a snazzy new Nest Thermostat, but there's been little indication the company will ever make a new Nest Hub or Nest Audio, beyond plans to incorporate Gemini.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/google-wont-bring-new-nest-thermostats-to-europe-181136806.html?src=rss
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