Rio Animated Movie




The next work of Blue Sky Studios is an original 3-D feature called “Rio,” released in April 2011. Set in Rio de Janeiro, the movie is billed as a comedy-adventure that centers on Blu, a rare macaw who thinks he is the last of his kind. When he discovers there is another — and that it’s a she — he leaves his small Minnesota town for Rio. Mayhem ensues.

The cast includes Anne Hathaway, Tracy Morgan, George Lopez and Jesse Eisenberg, of “Zombieland” fame. Carlos Saldanha, the Brazilian-born director of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” among other Blue Sky films, will also direct “Rio.”
“We’re working really hard to raise the bar here — the realism of the harbor, how the slums look, the way the feathers on our bird characters move,” said Brian Keane, Blue Sky’s chief operating officer.

Source: New York Times
Official website: http://www.rio-themovie.com/
Link: Rio the movie on Wikipedia



Many fans may not realize that a real endangered species – the Spix’s Macaw, Cyanopsitta spixii, and a real individual bird – Presely, inspired director Carlos Saldanba to create the movie.
The Spix’s Macaw became extinct in the wild in the year 2000, when the last known male disappeared. He left no purebred offspring as, lacking a female Spix’s Macaw, he had mated with a Blue-Winged Macaw.

The ashy to brilliant blue Spix’s Macaw dwelled only in a tiny area of northeastern Brazil, where it was limited to a dry-scrub habitat dominated by Caatinga Trees (please see photo). Although there are no more wild Spix’s Macaws, plans are being made to reintroduce them to Brazil in time, and local schools are actively involved in the process (please see article below).
Seventy-one Spix’s Macaws are known to exist in captivity, with an estimated 50 additional individuals possibly being kept but not registered with conservation authorities.

Source: That pet blog

More infor about Spix's Macaws: http://www.macawlanding.org/lastspix.html


Tony Juniper's book about Spix Macaws: http://www.charliesbirdblog.com/~charlie/spixs/spixs.html























__________


A “Rio” meeting at Blue Sky.
While the studio works on few films at once, it is starting to challenge Pixar and DreamWorks.


A Blue Sky Studios sculptor working on Blu, a macaw in a 3-D feature from the studio, “Rio,” which is planned for release in 2011.

Eline 't Sant - Parrots Installations and Assemblages

Eline 't Sant is a Belgian contemporary graphic designer and painter, mostly mixed-media and assemblages. She frequently travels through the African and Asian continents which highly reflects in her work.

Eline 't Sant Website: http://www.elinetsant.be/


I’ve always been fascinated by anthropology and archaeology : the primitive state, the purity of materials, the essence of life. Throughout my many voyages I’ve been looking for new basic and raw materials. Elements out of the nomads’ daily life – red earth, blood, milk and cow dung – are either directly integrated into my works or hinted to by use of paint.

ABOUT HORNS, PARROTS AND COCKS
…and many things related, as the title could go on, is a downright statement: there is something animistic about these works, a spell that lingers on and consumes itself, showing scars of a ritual past. I just initiate what the works have to finish off, bridging the relation between present and past, linking vital forces with the frailty of the objects I reanimate, using ancestral means of packing, and practising wrapping and preserving as if meant for an afterlife.

Parrots – shown here without characteristic features, without the flamboyant colours, the playfulness or the remarkable gift of speech which made so many artists use them as religious symbols or metaphors for man. Strange imagery that rises questions as to what is revealed when the still recognizable birds are mummified, stilled, shrouded, drained from all colour and gagged into eternal silence?

There are hints, such as the horns. But no different from the other images, assemblages or objects, they are not evident, rather the result of a creative process. Comparable to the noble traditions of death-rites in primitive societies, they too go beyond the visible and the tangible.

Indeed, there is more than meets the eye. Strange fossils is what they look like, the buffalo-horns that used to go by pair to defend mighty animals, now stripped to the bare essentials. They’re on their own, unique, without the weakness of what’s missing, not maimed by alienation that seems to be stressed by the growth that completes their deformity and refers to recollections of organic fabrics. Seems and joints made of basic material keep them together : the animal element on one side, lifelessly stiff, and a sequel, an aftermath on the other.
Keeping balance between creation and resurrection.
Insurrection – next to the second life given to the chosen recycled materials, the worn tissue and torn ligaments, there is an other life for the “parrots” - reminiscent of a distant past, protected as it were by the glass bells, catalogued and labelled. Rebellious, yes, as art is supposed to be, and challenging, resisting as the “cocks” who complete the triad. Obviously, they also serve, who only stand and wait.



Necropolis Installation
2008 - Assemblage, Installation - 200cmx60cm
Installation with 7 Parrots on metal operating table and light. Sounddesign: Heart-beat and breathing. Parrots are made of latex, fabric, clay, cotton, leather, bone, acrylic, natural pigments and paintings. Selection TEMPUS ARTI 2009




White Parrot view
2008 - assemblage - 46cmx13cm
Fabric, leather, clay, skin, bone, acrylic and natural pigments



Grey Parrot
2008 - Assemblage - 40cm x 13 cm
Fabric, pvc, acrylic, pigment, ash and clay




Blue Parrot detail
2008 - Assemblage - 66cmx16cm
Fabric, leather, clay, skin, bone, acrylic and natural pigments





Red Ngula Parrot- male
2009 - Assemblage - 66 cm x 15 xm
Fabric, clay, leather, Ngula pigment,acryl and rope





Alfred Edmund Brehm - Bird-life (1874)

Alfred Edmund Brehm (born February 2, 1829 in Unterrenthendorf, now called Renthendorf; died November 11, 1884 in Renthendorf) was a German zoologist, natural history illustrator and writer, the son of Christian Ludwig Brehm. Through the book title Brehms Tierleben, his name became a synonym for popular zoological literature.

Bird-life; being a history of the bird, its structure, and habits, together with sketches of fifty different species (1874).


link: Read all the "Bird Life" ebook










Iphone Pocket Parrot App


Pocket parrot talks to you with hilarious and cute voice.

He is good looking pet and one of the smartest parrots that can learn his master's words.

He is good at amusing you and make you laugh.

----------------------------------------------

Touch his head, he will repeat and learn what you talks to him.

Play the phonograph, he will dance with the music which you select.

Poke his belly, he will talk to you what he has learned.

Fondle his body, he will enjoy the pleasure.

Shake his house, he will yell and be frightened.

Let him fly up, but he may be tired.

Turn the light off, he will fell asleep.

When clock strikes on the hour, he will show funny gestures.

Put photo which you select in his house, he will like you more!

Anyway, he is talkative!


link: Pocket Parrot App on iTunes
link: Pocket Parrot Lite App on iTunes












 



 

 

 

Robinson Crusoe on Denslow's "Mother Goose"

Denslow's "Mother Goose"

Denslow's Mother Goose: Being the Old Familiar Rhymes and Jingles of Mother Goose
Edited and Illustrated by W.W. Denslow. New York: McClure, Phillips, 1901.




 



Illustrations by William Wallace Denslow (1856 – 1915).

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Robinson Crusoe, is a novel by Daniel Defoe. First published in 1719, it is sometimes considered to be the first novel in English. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela, encountering Native Americans, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.

The story was likely influenced by the real-life Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived four years on the Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island), Chile.

 


Illustration by Félix Lorioux (1872-1964).


Illustration by VojtÄ›ch KubaÅ¡ta (1914 – 1992).




CHAPTER VIII—SURVEYS HIS POSITION

I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I built my bower, and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side of the island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on that side; so, taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my store, I began my journey. When I had passed the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within view of the sea to the west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried land—whether an island or a continent I could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at a very great distance; by my guess it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off.

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all my observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe ordered everything for the best; I say I quieted my mind with this, and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there.

Besides, after some thought upon this affair, I considered that if this land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or other, see some vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was the savage coast between the Spanish country and Brazils, where are found the worst of savages; for they are cannibals or men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their hands.

With these considerations, I walked very leisurely forward. I found that side of the island where I now was much pleasanter than mine—the open or savannah fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak to me. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young parrot, for I knocked it down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it home; but it was some years before I could make him speak; however, at last I taught him to call me by name very familiarly. But the accident that followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place.


[...]
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little wandering journey, without settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me compared to that; and it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it should be my lot to stay on the island.

I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long journey; during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the poor kid which I had penned in within my little circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some food; accordingly I went, and found it where I left it, for indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for want of food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog: and as I continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it became from that time one of my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.


 
CHAPTER IX—A BOAT

But first I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed enough to sow above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I had a week’s work at least to make me a spade, which, when it was done, was but a sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double labour to work with it. However, I got through that, and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as I could find them to my mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge, the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which I had set before, and knew it would grow; so that, in a year’s time, I knew I should have a quick or living hedge, that would want but little repair. This work did not take me up less than three months, because a great part of that time was the wet season, when I could not go abroad. Within-doors, that is when it rained and I could not go out, I found employment in the following occupations—always observing, that all the while I was at work I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak; and I quickly taught him to know his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud, “Poll,” which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own. This, therefore, was not my work, but an assistance to my work; for now, as I said, I had a great employment upon my hands, as follows: I had long studied to make, by some means or other, some earthen vessels, which, indeed, I wanted sorely, but knew not where to come at them. However, considering the heat of the climate, I did not doubt but if I could find out any clay, I might make some pots that might, being dried in the sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold anything that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary in the preparing corn, meal, &c., which was the thing I was doing, I resolved to make some as large as I could, and fit only to stand like jars, to hold what should be put into them.

Illustration by Milo Winter (1888- 1956).
Robinson Crusoe: I Wanted No Sort of Earthenware.




CHAPTER X—TAMES GOATS

[..]
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had been before, when I travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and umbrella, for it was exceedingly hot, I began my march. The way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as I had been upon, and I reached my old bower in the evening, where I found everything standing as I left it; for I always kept it in good order, being, as I said before, my country house.

I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep; but judge you, if you can, that read my story, what a surprise I must be in when I was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling me by my name several times, “Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe: poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where are you? Where have you been?”
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or part of the day, and with walking the latter part, that I did not wake thoroughly; but dozing thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me; but as the voice continued to repeat, “Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,” at last I began to wake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened, and started up in the utmost consternation; but no sooner were my eyes open, but I saw my Poll sitting on the top of the hedge; and immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning language I had used to talk to him and teach him; and he had learned it so perfectly that he would sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face and cry, “Poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you been? How came you here?” and such things as I had taught him.

However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before I could compose myself. First, I was amazed how the creature got thither; and then, how he should just keep about the place, and nowhere else; but as I was well satisfied it could be nobody but honest Poll, I got over it; and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name, “Poll,” the sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to do, and continued talking to me, “Poor Robin Crusoe! and how did I come here? and where had I been?” just as if he had been overjoyed to see me again; and so I carried him home along with me.
[...]


Illustration by Alexander Frank Lydon (1836-1917).
"Robinson Crusoe awakened from sleep by his parrot".
Very well bearded by this time, he lies on the ground in his garden, a rude fence in the rear.


Illustration by Alexander Frank Lydon (1836-1917).
"Robinson Crusoe at dinner with his little family".
His dog, two cats and the parrot sit nearby as he has a meal in his house.



CHAPTER XI—FINDS PRINT OF MAN’S FOOT ON THE SAND

It would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and my little family sit down to dinner. There was my majesty the prince and lord of the whole island; I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command; I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among all my subjects. Then, to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone, attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was now grown old and crazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of especial favour.
[...]

Illustration by Elenore Plaisted Abbott (1875 – 1935).
Robinson Crusoe with His Parrots and Cats.


Robinson Crusoe with His Parrots and Cats.


Robinson Crusoe with His Parrots and Cats.


 
Lit Defoe Robinson Crusoe B 192 (Ii).



CHAPTER XIII—WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP

I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island, and was so naturalised to the place and the manner of living, that, could I but have enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the place to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated for spending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before—first, I had taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than six-and-twenty years. How long he might have lived afterwards I know not, though I know they have a notion in the Brazils that they live a hundred years.
[...]
Crusoe teaches his parrot to talk.


Crusoe teaches his parrot to talk.



Robinson Crusoe Talks to Parrot
Date: ca. 1980-1996
Photographer: Leonard de Selva
Collection: Corbis Art




 

CHAPTER XV—FRIDAY’S EDUCATION

After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock; and bring it home and dress it; but as I was going I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday. “Hold,” said I, “stand still;” and made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presented my piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who had at a distance, indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not know, nor could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he would have sunk down. He did not see the kid I shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was not wounded; and, as I found presently, thought I was resolved to kill him: for he came and kneeled down to me, and embracing my knees, said a great many things I did not understand; but I could easily see the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did: and while he was wondering, and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again. By-and-by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sitting upon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let him see I would make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly, I fired, and bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again, notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I found he was the more amazed, because he did not see me put anything into the gun, but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything near or far off; and the astonishment this created in him was such as could not wear off for a long time; and I believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days after; but he would speak to it and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him. Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, had fluttered away a good distance from the place where she fell: however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not to let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other mark that might present; but nothing more offered at that time: so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth. After I had begun to eat some I gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat; and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it: on the other hand, I took some meat into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as much as he had done at the salt; but it would not do; he would never care for salt with meat or in his broth; at least, not for a great while, and then but a very little.

Shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe and Friday in their desert island abode with cat, parrot and and goat, from Daniel Defoe's novel, "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe."
Date taken: 1901
source: LIFE photo archive hosted by Google




Illustration by Albert Edward Jackson (1873-1952).


Illustration by Albert Edward Jackson (1873-1952).


Illustration by Albert Edward Jackson (1873-1952).


Illustration by Elenore Plaisted Abbott (1875 – 1935).
Robinson Crusoe Shoots a Parrot Which He and Friday Eat for Supper.


Illustration by VojtÄ›ch KubaÅ¡ta (1914 – 1992).


Robinson Crusoe and Friday.