Public Enemies - What Did You Think?
The full theatrical trailer for the animated 3D film Planet 51 has appeared at Yahoo. The film is about a human astronaut (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) who lands on an alien planet, only to discover that it looks exactly like Earth. Sure, the denizens are green aliens, but otherwise they’re just like us…and not too happy to have an alien invader in their midst. Gary Oldman, Jessica Biel, Justin Long and John Cleese are also in the voice cast. Joe Stillman (Shrek and Shrek 2, the upcoming Gulliver’s Travels) is credited with the script and Jorge Blanco, Javier Abad and Marcos Martinezare co-directed. See the trailer after the jump. Read More »
Everyone knows what its like to be awakened by an alarm clock before you’re ready to wake up and start the day. Director Moo-hyun Jang and independent South Korean animation team Mesai capture this feeling in a 9-minutes animated short titled Alarm. It’s hard to believe that the animation and lighting was created by such a small team. These guys have a bright future ahead of them. Watch the short after the jump.
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With characters that included a titular, homeless-footed superhero with a fan for teeth and a pot-bellied, psycho-analyzing mass-rapist in a tiki mask, MTV’s The Maxx definitely has its fans. The cartoon—an adaptation of the feted and trippy Image comic book by Sam Kieth—originally aired in ‘95 and remains officially unavailable on DVD. This week, MTV posted six full episodes for free streaming, and they are a great refresher and/or requisite viewing if you dig slightly-adulterated, “offbeat” animation.
Watching The Maxx kabob an endless wave of his primary adversary, an otherworldly critter species called The Isz, never gets old. But it’s the episodes’ stream-of-consciousness editing and alternating narration, which borders on an open-mic bohemian poetry night, that sticks with you. We’ve included the first episode after the jump, but episode three (cow-udder shaving cream) and episode five (Beavis cameo, teenagey writer pains) are personal faves.
Walt Disney Pictures has released the movie trailer for the American redub of Legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie Ponyo. The film will be released on over 800 screens, the largest American release yet for Miyazaki. And the trailer features some fantastic visuals which will hopefully appeal to the masses. You can see this trailer in theaters this weekend attached to My Sister’s Keeper or watch it now after the jump. As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Tenacious D Have Written A Song For New Heavy Metal Movie
Posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 by Russ Fischer
Buried in a video interview with MTV, Jack Black mentions that he and Kyle Gass, aka Tenacious D, have written a song for the new Heavy Metal movie. Which doesn’t mean that we’ll ever hear it, because the project could be perennially stuck in development hell, but the very idea of having a song in the film by the ‘D is great. Black also mentions that he’s working on a musical comedy with producer JJ Abrams. Read More »
Dreamworks Animation Aims For Monsters Inc Meets Casper With Boo U.
Posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Last month, DreamWorks Animation announced their plans for the next three years. The animation studio was developing three possible projects for the November 12th 2012 release date: Chris Sanders’ caveman comedy The Croods, Andrew Adamson’s adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Truckers, and a Super Secret Ghost project which asks what ghosts think about humans. Apparently DreamWorks has settled on the ghost film, titled internally Boo U.
According to an interview at MTV, Pixar’s Up was originally an even more overt adventure movie, as a subplot featured Carl Fredricksen protecting a giant egg (laid by the bird Kevin) that is believed to be a sort of fountain of youth. The fact that a subplot was dropped from the film isn’t a big deal, as it happens all the time in many films of all types during development, but this detail provides an interesting glimpse into the film as it was originally conceived. Read More »
High Res Photos: Disney’s The Princess and The Frog
Posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Walt Disney Animation Studios has released a batch of new images from The Princess and the Frog. This is Disney’s return to hand-drawn animation, a new take on E.D. Baker’s novel The Frog Princess (which was actually the original title of the film). If you haven’t seen the theatrical trailer, check that out here. The new images that Disney has released are just so beautiful and stunning, they beg to be viewed in high resolution. I’ve included the 4000 pixel wide digital files. Click on any of the images after the jump to view them in super high resolution.
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In yesterday’s Page 2, we referred to a rumor from Collider that Comedy Central had ordered 13 new episodes of the animated series Futurama. Today, we’re hearing from a variety of sources that Futurama is not only back, but that Comedy Central has ordered 26 new episodes. The episodes are scheduled to begin airing in mid-2010.
This is not the first time such a revival has taken place, as many of you will probably remember Family Guy’s resurrection after monstrously strong DVD sales. According to 20th Century Fox TV Chairmen Gary Newman and Dana Walden:
When we brought back Family Guy several years ago, everyone said that it was a once in a lifetime thing — that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived. But Futurama was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back, and we couldn’t have been happier when Matt and David agreed that there were many more stories yet to tell.
Since Sam Raimi and Quentin Tarantino sky-rocketed Stephen Chow’s US reputation with their effusive praise of Shaolin Soccer, you’ll probably find that the least well received picture in Chow’s ouevre has been the sci-fi family film CJ7. Personally though, I absolutely love it, and this is in spite of its sometimes woeful CG work and the occasionally confusing slapstick non-sequiturs (see also: Drag Me to Hell). Despite the director’s long standing promise of a sequel to the masterful Kung Fu Hustle, it seems the first direct follow up to be spawned from one of Chow’s pictures will be a CJ7 continuation - CJ72, if you will. Instead of being live action like the first installment, however, this one is to be all-animated.
Essay: Is Kevin, the Tropical Bird in Pixar’s UP, a Nod to the LGBT Movement?
Posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 by Hunter Stephenson
Yesterday, CBS News aired a segment on an “ongoing blogger debate” over the representation of black people and negative stereotypes in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. Of course, after previous and longer segments on the failing economy and Air France, even the way in which Katie Couric mentioned “bloggers” carried a decidedly trivial tone connoting birds-on-a-wire. Snob. However, given that hardly anyone has seen a near-complete version of the fourth-quarter film, I have to agree that any “chirped” anger, feigned or genuine, is premature. Also: the world is mad, get over it.
But heated discussions about Disney’s movies, especially in this case, do have precedent: clips from the studio’s infamous 1946 film, Song of the South, are forever available to support and fan the issues of political correctness. Moreover, theories about sociological, hidden and subliminal messages in Disney films and characters are so prevailing that I have enjoyed intriguing classes on the very subject in junior high (for free) and at university (for a repossessed Porsche).
Which brings me to Disney’s Pixar, where animated films are made to awe kids and—and arguably more-so—adults. Feted, beloved, and at times “progressive” as it may be, Pixar is not immune to similarly “bloggy” issues regarding political correctness; a debate over the absence of female lead characters in their films began earlier this year and remains a valid and popular talking point.
Before Kung Fu Panda and SpongeBob SquarePants, Mark Osborne wrote and directed a stop-animated shot film titled More. The Academy Award-nominated short tells the story of a lonely inventor, whose colorless existence is brightened only by dreams of the carefree bliss of his youth.
By day, he is trapped in a dehumanizing job in a joyless world. But by night, he tinkers away on a visionary invention, desperate to translate his inspiration into something meaningful. When his invention is complete, it will change the way people see the world. But he will find that success comes at a high price, as it changes himself, as well.
The movie was the first short film to be shot in the IMAX format, and took nine months to complete. The 6-minute short also won the special jury prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Best Animated short at the 1999 South by Southwest Film Festival, and ranks #10 on IMDB’s top 50 user ranked best short films of all time list. Watch the short embedded after the jump.
