Cassiopeia (film)

Cassiopeia
DVD cover for Cassiopeia.
Directed by	Clóvis Veira
Produced by	Nello de'Rossi
Written by	Aloisio Castro José Feliciano Robin Geld Clóvis Vieira
Starring	Osmar Prado Jonas Mello Aldo César Marcelo Campos Cassius Romero Rosa Maria Barolli
Music by	Vicente Sálvia
Edited by	Marc de'Rossi
Distributed by	NDR Filmes
Release dates	April 1, 1996 (Brazil)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	Brazil
Language	Portuguese
Budget	US$ 1.5 million

Cassiopeia is a 1996 Brazilian CGI animated feature film produced and released by NDR Filmes in Brazil on April 1, 1996. The film is an adventure about the invasion of planet Ateneia by intruders trying to steal their energy.^[1] Cassiopeia is the first fully CGI film - Toy Story came out the previous year, but it used scanned molds to produce the characters. The controversy was launched when Disney knew that Cassiopeia was being produced in Brazil (it was 40 minutes ready at time), and then Disney invested $ 50 million to come out ahead, launching a strong marketing campaign, saying that Toy Story was the first fully computer-created movie. That was not true because Disney used clay models to create before the computer and Cassiopeia used CGI in all process.^[2]

Plot

The planet Ateneia, located in the constellation of Cassiopeia, is attacked by space invaders who begin to drain its vital energy. A distress signal is sent into outer space by the local astronomer, Liza, and received by four heroes who travel across the galaxy to the rescue.

The four heroes (Chip, Chop, Feel and Thot) venture through the galaxy facing many dangers as they try to rescue the planet of Ateneia. Each has a specific function in their spaceship: Chop is the captain and pilot, Feel and Thot monitor space, and Chip is the gunman, working also as comic relief. Liza is an astronomer in Ateneia's main lab, working on all of the scientific details of the planet's life. On the way to defeat the evil forces of Shadowseat, the foursome meet Leonardo, a scientist from an undeveloped planet who creates crazy gadgets.

Development

Production began in January 1992 with environment and character modeling and the creation of the script. Animation began in January 1993, and the image generation work was completed on August, 1995. The soundtrack was finished in December 1995, and the first copy was printed in January 1996.

The film was animated using Crystal Graphics' Topas Animator, running on 17 486 DX2-66 computers. The first character model was made on a 20 MHz 386 SX. Cassiopeia animation team was composed of seven computer animators, three traditional animators (who served as consultants and directors of animation), and some freelancers.

Midway through production, some of the computers were stolen, requiring some scenes to be re-animated.