The underground city of Ember was built after a global catastrophe in order to save the human race. It was only meant to last two hundred years - but two hundred and forty-one years later it is grinding to a halt as the infrastructure breaks down. The massive generator that produces all the ... Read review
Jeanne DuPrau's first novel in the Book of Ember series brightens the screen in this ... more
fantasy from Gil Kenan (MONSTER HOUSE). The City of Ember is in danger of its beautiful lights going out, and a pair of teenagers embarks on a journey to save the town from darkness. CITY OF EMBER stars Bill Murray and Tim Robbins.
City Of Ember stars Bill Murray Tim Robbins Martin Landau Saoirse Ronan and Harry ... more
Treadaway! For generations the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing ... The great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker. Two teenagers must race against time to search Ember for clues that will unlock the ancient mystery of the city's existence and help the citizens escape before the lights go out forever.
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Production Year: 1993 - Family - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Michael Caine, The Muppets, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, David Rudman, Steve Whitmire
Family - Director: Frank Oz, Jim Henson - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, Jim Henson, The Muppets, Twiggy, Juliet Prowse, Peter Ustinov
Advantages: A good central concept and some nice ideas that will entertain the kids. Disadvantages: The budgetary constraints are clear.
The underground city of Ember was built after a global catastrophe in order to save the human race. It was only meant to last two hundred years - but two hundred and forty-one years later it is grinding to a halt as the infrastructure breaks down. The massive generator that produces all the heat and light is falling apart and the blackouts are getting more frequent and lasting longer. Food is in short supply and when the generator dies, the city ... ...map that may lead to the surface and a new start. But the youngsters have to fight against corrupt government officials that include the greedy mayor, who doesn't want to believe the encroaching darkness may be the end of them…
"Monster House" director Gil Kenan follows up his animated debut with this family fantasy romp. You'd have thought such a promising start would have prompted the production company to trust him, but ... more
The underground city of Ember was built after a global catastrophe in order to save the human race. It was only meant to last two hundred years - but two hundred and forty-one years later it is grinding to a halt as the infrastructure breaks down. The massive generator that produces all the heat and light is falling apart and the blackouts are getting more frequent and lasting longer. Food is in short supply and when the generator dies, the city dies with it. The only hope may be teenagers Doon and Lina who find a mysterious map that may lead to the surface and a new start. But the youngsters have to fight against corrupt government officials that include the greedy mayor, who doesn't want to believe the encroaching darkness may be the end of them…
"Monster House" director Gil Kenan follows up his animated debut with this family fantasy romp. You'd have thought such a promising start would have prompted the production company to trust him, but he's clearly working with a very small budget. The sets lack realism; you can tell the town and all the houses in it are made of wood and plaster. The palette of browns and beiges adds to the rundown ramshackle production design, suggesting the poverty the townsfolk are living in. This is in addition to the ragged, patchwork clothes everyone wears and the Heath Robinson-style inventions that are built from all kinds of odds and ends. The majority of the cast is British, but almost all are pretending to be American with varying degrees of success. Some of the effects are better than others - the giant computer-generated animals and bugs such as moles and moths are pretty good. But there's one big set-piece that looks like a theme park ride. There's also the sense that the world of the film doesn't extend beyond the edges of the frame - there are a few too many conspicuous gaps in the background and you get the odd extra who only starts to move once the scene has begun.
However Kenan is very good at contrasting the inquisitiveness of the two main characters with rest of the insular, incurious population. But the sense of adventure is stymied somewhat by most of Lina and Doon's snooping being rounded up into a single montage and some woolly timing. The pacing is stodgy in places, which further curtails the excitement. The director easily conveys the mass panic when the generator cuts out and the city is plunged into darkness, accompanying the shutdown with loud, creepy noises and then silence. This comes as a surprise because we've got used to the constant background hum of the machinery. It also plays into our primeval fear of the dark. Yet there is an absence of real danger, as if Kenan doesn't want to scare his younger viewers. Sadly it's a poorer movie for that decision, making it a mediocre ninety-five minutes of family entertainment that may keep kids amused but will probably have adults nodding off.
The screenplay by Caroline Thompson (who has previously written gothic fairytales such as "Edward Scissorhands" for Tim Burton) is based on the novel of the same name by Jeanne Duprau. It feels like a generic kids adventure tale; the plucky young leads have to save the city using only their wits and in the face of corrupt adults. Needless to say it all pans out well in the end and there's never any doubt it won't. Thompson sets up the initial premise swiftly, showing scientists handing over the box to the first mayor before showing it changing hands several times as the counter ticks down before it is lost and forgotten. But she could have spent longer establishing the resultant society and the main characters. Doon and Lina feel like terribly bland plucky hero archetypes; they don't have much in the way of distinct personalities. All we know is that Lina has lost both her parents and like running, while Doon lives with his inventor father and is more curious than most citizens. But they don't have enough depth to make them truly sympathetic. The adults are divided into two camps; the benevolent and the corrupt. The benevolent include Doon's father Loris and Lina's parents' friend Clary, while the corrupt include the greedy Mayor of Ember, his second-in-command Barton Snode and storekeeper Looper. But the good guys seem impotent and the villains are toothless. The dialogue isn't bad, but it isn't memorable either.
Young Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan is bright-eyed and inquisitive as Lina. She brings enthusiasm to the role and handles the American accent well. She does her best, but there isn't enough to the underwritten part for her to build on. Harry Treadaway, who plays Doon looks too old for the part and is often unaccountably wooden - I suspect he didn't get enough guidance from the director. So he spends most of his time looking like a scrawny emo that has inadvertently wandered onto the set.
Bill Murray is good value as smug, slippery, self-serving Mayor Cole. But I get the impression he wasn't really allowed to let loose and his fat-suit looks too much like a pillow down the front of his costume. Tim Robbins is warm as Doon's father Loris but doesn't get enough screen-time to develop the character. The same is true of Martin Landau as curmudgeonly, narcoleptic old-timer Sul. Mackenzie Crook makes the most of his unusual looks as the weasel-like Looper. He's all lank hair and nasty long teeth, but doesn't have enough of a personality to back it up. Also look out for Liz Smith as Lina's befuddled granny.
The original music by Andrew Lockington relies heavily on the string section of the orchestra to get his message across. Whether it's tense brass and string themes with choral undertones for the first time we see the town, sweeping strings and strutting rhythms for Assignment Day or creepy rising strings with woodwinds for snooping, the composer tries to do a lot. In fact he may be overambitious as the sweeping score often swamps the action instead of emphasising it.
"City of Ember" is a serviceable family film that will find favour with undemanding under-tens. It has enough adventure to keep them engaged throughout. But more discerning kids and adults may be disappointed by the low production values. The direction is often pedestrian, the writing lacks detail and the performances are very average in the main. I think the film will look and work better on the small screen where the lack of scope won't be such an issue. I didn't hate it, but I was by no means blown away by it either. It's the sort of movie that would suit an afternoon slot on television and if I happened to notice it in the TV listings, I might be tempted to give it another go.
Advantages: A fun, well told family adventure Disadvantages: Underdeveloped characters. Understated ending.
...see “City of Ember” at the cinema, but I had taken one look at the trailer and dismissed it out of hand. However, when it made a recent appearance on the Sky Movies schedule, I relented, thinking that, without the added investment of having to buy cinema tickets, a bucket of popcorn and perhaps more importantly, using up a rare night out, I could always fall asleep on the couch if I wanted to. ===SYNOPSIS=== The film starts out with a flashback to ... ...catastrophe is soon to make the earth uninhabitable, so a group of scientists (American obviously – they’re always American) create an underground city, called Ember, to which a select group of lucky souls will be sent – a modern day ark – to safeguard the future of the human race. A silver box, the contents of which are not known at this stage, is entrusted to the first mayor, with instructions to pass down the box from mayor to mayor until the ...
Hishyeness 08.11.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The City Of Ember
Advantages: Good initial concept, musical score ok, but that is about it. Disadvantages: Poor script, unimaginative, very slow with little to keep you engrossed.
...film, because I had seen the trailer at the cinema and it seemed quite exiting. I rented it from Lovefilm and it was just the film - no extras. I actually watched it twice as my children weren't able to watch it together. I have to say straight off, it didn't get better. Overall, I was very disappointed, because it had the potential to be good, but I feel it failed to deliver. ***Plot*** The basic idea is that the end of the world as we know it has ... ...to be done to reach the surface, is handed to a mayor for safe keeping. No one living underground (apart from the mayor) has any understanding of what existed before, so that they do not have to deal with their loss. It is their job to hand it down through the generations, so that when the time comes, everyone will know what to do. Unfortunately the box goes astray and is left to gather dust in a cupboard. The community go on living underground with ...
LAURALILIA 25.03.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The City Of Ember
When the world comes to an end, the Mayor decides that the safest curse to save mankind would be for them all to live in a city underground for 200 years - with the instructions for how to leave the city when the time comes sealed in a locked box that will open when the time is right . As the box counts down from 200 to 0, mayors die and are replaced, and somewhere along the line, the box gets shoved to the back of a wardrobe and forgotten about ... ...truly passed, and the residents of Ember are still below ground, unaware that somewhere, miles above, is a whole new world . They are running into problems - food supplies and stocks of medications are low, and the generator that provides all the power and light for the city is failing, causing frequent terrifying blackouts. Two teenagers who have just come of age and gotten their first jobs, one in the pipeworks and one as a messenger, soon come ...
Thehonesttruth 11.11.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The City Of Ember
Advantages: Good idea and decent cast Disadvantages: Movie is over too quickly
Take the best ideas from Dark City, The Island, Logans Run & The Goonies and you think it'd make for a truly awesome movie. With the acting talents of Tim Robbins, Bill Murray & Martin Landau you do have 3 performances worth watching (especially Landau). Set in some dystopian future after an unknown apocalyptic event the people who make decisions decide to create an underground city and leave it isolated for 200 years leaving them a box that would ... ...to do next. The box is passed down by the cities Mayors until 1 dies and the box is then forgotten from memory and lost in a cupboard. An unknown amount of years pass but the city called Ember by its inhabitants is decaying. It is running out of food and its power generators are gradually failing. Enter our protagonists, 3 children. 2 of whom are allocated jobs that introduce them and us to various parts of Ember, we also get to see exactly how bad ...
atytyut2434 09.01.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The City Of Ember
Advantages: Lots of well know faces. Disadvantages: None
...*********************
~Introduction~
****************
On the day the world ended the fate of mankind was carried in a small metal box.
In a secret location scientist, engineers and scholars met and concluded that there was only one thing to do to save mankind. Build an underground city to keep the people alive and safe for the generations to come. The box is then time locked for 200 years and passed down from mayor to mayor. But the box became ... ...the route to the surface through many tests trials and labyrinths.
The city is loosing power and a solution must once again be found to save the populace.
In a cupboard , right at the back, the box quietly clicks open…………….
~The Story~
**************
Doon and Lina have now reached adult hood and have to randomly pick their future jobs, by pot luck.
They don't get want they want and so swap jobs and thus the adventure begins for both of them.
...
Maximus-Qualitus 11.11.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The City Of Ember
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Advantages: Phenomenal animation, fantastic deep story and good characters Disadvantages: Not appropriate for younger kids
himself in demand to work on projects with top names in the business, including Tom Hanks who Kenan is currently directing in The City of Ember due for release next October
***Characters/Voice-overs***
The characters in this film were without question the most visually lifelike and realistic characters of any recent animation project and the personality given to each character, via effective and accurate voice-overs as well as successful script writing is phenomenal. Whether the voices compliment the animated characteristics of each person or the animated characteristics of each person compliment the voices is difficult to determine. Either way, watching the interaction, response and personality coming from each vibrant and individual character is breath-taking.
My favourite character, for his sarcasm, quick wit and physical ...
Jeanne DuPrau's first novel in the Book of Ember series brightens the screen in this fantasy from Gil Kenan (MONSTER HOUSE). The City of Ember is in danger of its beautiful lights going out, and a pair of teenagers embarks on a journey to save the town from darkness. CITY OF EMBER stars Bill Murray and Tim Robbins.
Release details
Studio(s)
ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO; CINRAM LOGISTICS
DVD Region
DVD
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Aspect Ratio
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital
DVD Description
MONSTER HOUSE director Gil Kenan takes the helm for this children's fantasy about two young heroes who attempt to solve an ancient mystery in time to prevent their underground city from being swallowed by darkness. The City of Ember was built over 200 year ago, deep below the earth, where the destruction of a mass-scale disaster couldn't reach it. Equipped with a massive generator and vast supplies, the people of Ember have thrived happily for generations -- but the city wasn't meant to be lived in forever. The generator is breaking down and the supplies are running out, but two centuries in isolation have robbed the Emberites of their knowledge -- nobody knows how the electric lights work anymore, and nobody understands that there's something beyond the city besides darkness. Nobody, that is, besides Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon (Harry Treadaway), two teenagers who still have the hope that everyone else has lost to ignorance and apathy -- not to mention a sheet of instructions left by the Builders themselves explaining how to leave the city. But the 200-year-old paper is falling apart, and pieces are missing. So with the lights threatening to flicker out for the last time and leave Ember in darkness forever, Lina and Doon set out on an adventure through the streets, sewers, and dark caverns of Ember to put the pieces back together. To solve the mystery, they'll have to get inside the Builders' heads, and avoid the grasp of corrupt Mayor Cole (Bill Murray), who wants to keep Ember the way it is -- no matter what the cost.
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