[CAYOM Magazine]

Kind of makes me wish the real movie industry were like this. . .

[CAYOM YEAR 8 - PART I - MOVIE SUBMISSION]

The Insect God

 

Studio: Fossil Record Productions  

Director: Daniel Ulrich McBroom*

Genre: Science-Fiction/Horror (2D animated)

Release Date: Monday, April 22nd (limited release) Friday, April 26th,(wide release)

Rating: PG-13 (language and violence)

Budget: $8 million 
Theater Count: 1987 (widest release)

Running time: 95 minutes

Principal Cast: 

Tone Loc as Cyxil 

David Pryce* as Fergus Hartman

Susan Morris* as Lindsey Hartman

Harry Richard Milhouse* as Dr. Ken Thorton 

Don Mydas* as Azmyth

Stephan J. Colditz* as P'kokwi Queen

Frank Welker as Maxine.

 

Tagline:  It's their world now. We just live in it. 

 

Summary:

Spoiler

 

A US Navy nuclear submarine, the USS Wilmington, disappears from radar during a routine training exercise in the Molokai Fracture Zone, a deep-sea trench off the coast of Hawaii. Moments before it vanishes into the depths, it sends back a photograph of a monstrous aquatic creature-- resembling a cross between a centipede and a lobster, but as large as an ocean liner-- moving towards it. As scientists and military personnel struggle to decipher the photo, ships and aircraft are sent out to search for the missing submarine. They, too, vanish. 

 

Meanwhile, in the suburbs of North Carolina, a ten-year-old boy named Fergus Hartman makes a truly remarkable discovery. Exploring the woods around his house, he stumbles upon a creature that, by all logic, should not exist-- a five-foot-tall humanoid insect. The giant insect speaks to him, telling him his name is Cyxil, and that he needs help making his way back to the island that was once his home. Fergus vows to help him, with the reluctant assistance of his older sister Lindsey, but all three of them are kidnapped by the US government, who believe they could be the key to finding out what happened to the missing submarine. They believe that Cyxil's species are somehow responsible for the disappearance of ships and airplanes, and they think Fergus is the key to communicating with them.

 

Also brought on board by the government is an ornithologist named Dr. Ken Thorton, who has spent years studying the communication of his pet African gray parrot, Maxine. The government scientists believe this could give them an edge in communicating with these non-human creatures. Fergus, Lindsey, Cyxil, Dr. Thorton, and Maxine are brought onto a ship that takes them to the Molokai Fracture Zone, where they discover a "lost world" hidden in the crater of an old volcano. Entering it, they learn that it has been isolated since the Carboniferous period, over 300 million years ago. It is inhabited by two species of intelligent insects. One are the Drish, the species to which Cyxil belongs. They are a species of simple, non-technological farmers whose lifestyle has remained unchanged for millions of years. The other are the P'kokwi, who are psychologically very different from humans. 

 

The expedition team are immediately attacked by swarms of P'kokwi and their genetically engineered beasts. While they suffer heavy causalties, they also gain valuable intelligence about their new foes when they manage to capture two P'kokwi soldiers alive. They prove to be highly intelligent, able to solve every problem their human captors present them with, but they seem to lack any sort of self-awareness. Everything they do is instinctive-- they are intelligent, yet they lack what humans would recognize as sapience. 

 

The P'kokwi, it turns out, are a hive-mind species who can manipulate genomes as easily as humans control electricity. They have no sense of individuality, and in fact they see species that have individual self-awareness as threats and try to exterminate them with their army of genetically engineered creatures. What follows is an insight on humanity's relationship to nature, and what it means to be an intelligent life form. Fergus wonders is humans can never truly live in harmony with nature, because self-awareness itself is holding us back. From the perspective of the P'Kokwi, self-awareness leads species to waste resources on things like industry and warfare, which the hive-minded P'kokwi see as a threat. 

 

The P'Kokwi have utterly crushed the Drish, and now use them as slaves. The protagonists learn this when they meet Cyxil's old friend Azmith, another Drish. Azmith suggests that the Drish simply do not register any species besides themselves as intelligent. He offers them shelter, but the Drish spot him speaking to Fergus, Lindsey, Dr. Thorton, and Cyxil. This causes them to see him as a traitor, and they attack him and kill him. The heroes are also captured by the P'Kokwi and put on "trial" for humanity's perceived crimes, at which point they are to be fed to a giant labyrinthodont. They manage to escape, except for Dr. Thorton, who is eaten-- along with a P'Kokwi soldier-- by the monster.

 

Upon escaping, they learn of a plan to destroy the hidden crater with a nuclear bomb. Cyxil and Fergus try to warn the government agents that they aren't going to accomplish what they want, but they fail, and the P'kokwe (the titular "Insect Gods") launch an all-out attack on the city of Chicago, with the military powerless to stop them. Fergus desperately attempts to appeal to the P'kokwi Queen, and to explain to her that the humans the P'kokwi are destroying are every bit as intelligent in their own way as the P'kokwi themselves. Finally, he is able to convince the P'kokwi Queen to make an official apology for the things she has done, and tell her followers to stand down. He explains that while humans do terrible things, they also have the potential to improve. 

 

With the three intelligent species now living in harmony, Cyxil stays in the crater as a peacekeeper between humanity, the P'kowki, and the Drish. Fergus and Lindsey return home, along with Maxine. The movie ends with Fergus looking down in the grass in his yard at some insects. 

 

 

 

 

*fictional

[CAYOM - New Franchise Rights Thread]

Girl Genius, the webcomic by Phil and Kaja Foglio. 

[CAYOM Magazine]

So, new member here. I'm thinking of pitching a movie for this year's CAYOM. It's an adult-oriented animated sci-fi movie based on a short story I wrote for a project when I was in high school. So I have a few questions. 

One, how realistic is it for such a movie-- that is, an animated movie aimed at adults that isn't a comedy-- to be successful? 

Two, I'm not sure who to name as the director. Very few animation directors (in the US, anyway) do feature films aimed at adults, and of those who do, none really seem like a good fit for the kind of story I had in mind. So is it OK if I name a fictional director?