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Description
the main characters from "Alpha and Omega," based on their concept art.

I decided to watch "Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure" since apparently it's the real-deal and not another bogus sequel rumor floating around. I had my issues with the first movie--I try not to compare animated films from lesser-known companies to big-time names like Disney or Dreamworks, everyone has their own way of doing things/telling stories and not all animated films have to be masterpieces or tell the world's next most dramatic story. That said, I thought the first movie was cute--I thought the characters were likeable, though a bit bland; I liked the designs, I know a lot of people had issues with the "anime-hairstyles" but I kept an open mind and it didn't bother me; I didn't have much of a problem with the comedy itself, it was a kid's movie after all, but I thought some of the jokes were awkwardly paced; I will give the movie credit where it's due, though, I thought the soundtrack was really good, it's nothing you'd expect to hear on Broadway or anything, but for the type of light-hearted fluff aura that the movie was portraying the soundtrack could have been a lot lazier, but, honestly, I think the soundtrack was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the film.

All that being said, I bunkered down and watched the sequel, especially after reading a few critic/viewer reviews, which seemed mixed--I don't really pay attention to IMDB rating systems, since what's good to one person may suck to another, but based on a lot of viewer reviews, a lot of people seemed to really like the movie and praise it as a major step-up from the first film. Aaaand after watching the film....yeah, I'm not too impressed.

I hear there's already confirmation for at least a third, and possibly fourth, sequel, so I guess the film is ok in the regard that it seemed really rushed and left a lot open--which also doesn't surprise me, since the movie was only 45 minutes long, isn't that odd? For what the film is, I didn't have too much of a problem with it--the voice cast in entirely different, but I don't think they're bad, sometimes I even forget I wasn't listening to the original cast; the characters seemed pretty much in-character to their first movie personas, but it was a little hard to tell, considering every character seemed to only get snippets of screen-time. The movie, to me, tried to shove a whole bunch of plot points into one movie, allowing for little character build-up and just a jumble of storylines all trying to compete for space in such a short window of time.
I kinda wanted to meet Kate and HUmphrey's pups more; I wanted to see Garth and Lily and their "alternative" lifestyle more; I wanted to see how Kate/Humphrey and Lily/Garth were dealing with being the few, if not the first, alpha and omega couples; even this rogue pack that was introduced--I can kinda gather they had a "Simba's Pride" Zira-esque backstory (felt betrayed by past packmates/allies or strongly disagreed with others' views, etc.)--I didn't really care for them, except for the female (I think her name was Princess) that watched over Runt.

Bottom line, I don't think it's a god-awful sequel, but if you're looking for a step-up from the first movie I don't think you'll find it here. I don't think it's that the story's bad, I actually think the creators had some really good ideas going, but I think they tried to shove too many ideas into one movie--if they focused on the relationships of the characters post alpha-and-omega marriages, great; if they focused on just Kate and Humphrey and having to save one of their pups, great; if they focused on just some rogue pack coming in to take names, great! Oh, and I forgot that all of this is supposed to be around the holidays, which doesn't play into the movie much at all--the fact that it's close to the holidays could have been taken out of the film and nothing would have been lost.

It's cute, but this is a sequel I won't feel compelled to buy on DVD....

ANYWAY! My long rant on the sequel is done (but feel free to give feedback, I'm actually really curious to discuss with movie/why people like it so much already!), so now onto the drawing: after watching the movie, I decided to draw some Kate & Humphrey! I like their CGI designs, but the concept art is just really cool to me, I think a traditional version of A&O would have been a lot of fun, at least from a character design standpoint.
I'm probably going to do more of these in the future, since there's a lot you can play around with in terms of design for these two...and because I think Kate looks a tad too much like a fox for me to just leave this alone....

Description
the main characters from "Alpha and Omega," based on their concept art.

I decided to watch "Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure" since apparently it's the real-deal and not another bogus sequel rumor floating around. I had my issues with the first movie--I try not to compare animated films from lesser-known companies to big-time names like Disney or Dreamworks, everyone has their own way of doing things/telling stories and not all animated films have to be masterpieces or tell the world's next most dramatic story. That said, I thought the first movie was cute--I thought the characters were likeable, though a bit bland; I liked the designs, I know a lot of people had issues with the "anime-hairstyles" but I kept an open mind and it didn't bother me; I didn't have much of a problem with the comedy itself, it was a kid's movie after all, but I thought some of the jokes were awkwardly paced; I will give the movie credit where it's due, though, I thought the soundtrack was really good, it's nothing you'd expect to hear on Broadway or anything, but for the type of light-hearted fluff aura that the movie was portraying the soundtrack could have been a lot lazier, but, honestly, I think the soundtrack was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the film.

All that being said, I bunkered down and watched the sequel, especially after reading a few critic/viewer reviews, which seemed mixed--I don't really pay attention to IMDB rating systems, since what's good to one person may suck to another, but based on a lot of viewer reviews, a lot of people seemed to really like the movie and praise it as a major step-up from the first film. Aaaand after watching the film....yeah, I'm not too impressed.

I hear there's already confirmation for at least a third, and possibly fourth, sequel, so I guess the film is ok in the regard that it seemed really rushed and left a lot open--which also doesn't surprise me, since the movie was only 45 minutes long, isn't that odd? For what the film is, I didn't have too much of a problem with it--the voice cast in entirely different, but I don't think they're bad, sometimes I even forget I wasn't listening to the original cast; the characters seemed pretty much in-character to their first movie personas, but it was a little hard to tell, considering every character seemed to only get snippets of screen-time. The movie, to me, tried to shove a whole bunch of plot points into one movie, allowing for little character build-up and just a jumble of storylines all trying to compete for space in such a short window of time.
I kinda wanted to meet Kate and HUmphrey's pups more; I wanted to see Garth and Lily and their "alternative" lifestyle more; I wanted to see how Kate/Humphrey and Lily/Garth were dealing with being the few, if not the first, alpha and omega couples; even this rogue pack that was introduced--I can kinda gather they had a "Simba's Pride" Zira-esque backstory (felt betrayed by past packmates/allies or strongly disagreed with others' views, etc.)--I didn't really care for them, except for the female (I think her name was Princess) that watched over Runt.

Bottom line, I don't think it's a god-awful sequel, but if you're looking for a step-up from the first movie I don't think you'll find it here. I don't think it's that the story's bad, I actually think the creators had some really good ideas going, but I think they tried to shove too many ideas into one movie--if they focused on the relationships of the characters post alpha-and-omega marriages, great; if they focused on just Kate and Humphrey and having to save one of their pups, great; if they focused on just some rogue pack coming in to take names, great! Oh, and I forgot that all of this is supposed to be around the holidays, which doesn't play into the movie much at all--the fact that it's close to the holidays could have been taken out of the film and nothing would have been lost.

It's cute, but this is a sequel I won't feel compelled to buy on DVD....

ANYWAY! My long rant on the sequel is done (but feel free to give feedback, I'm actually really curious to discuss with movie/why people like it so much already!), so now onto the drawing: after watching the movie, I decided to draw some Kate & Humphrey! I like their CGI designs, but the concept art is just really cool to me, I think a traditional version of A&O would have been a lot of fun, at least from a character design standpoint.
I'm probably going to do more of these in the future, since there's a lot you can play around with in terms of design for these two...and because I think Kate looks a tad too much like a fox for me to just leave this alone....