In response to the oil spill disaster, Spanish website The Blog of Chibiboto published a bunch of proposed movie posters for Finding Nemo 2, a co production of Disney/Pixar and BP. The film’s title should probably be called “Saving Nemo”. Check out a couple other poster designs after the jump.
Posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 by Peter Sciretta
Chilean-based graphic designer Juan Pablo Bravo put together an awesome infographic showing “100 pixar characters” with their estimated sizes. While it is not perfect (For example, I think Flick from A Bug’s Life is a few times bigger than a normal ant), the graphic gives you a good idea of how most of the Pixar characters measure up.
Bravo created this piece of awesomeness without the help/assistance/encouragement of Pixar, as a personal exercise. It features characters from all of Pixar’s productions — both the short films and the feature films. It even features some of the new toys from the yet-to-be-released Toy Story 3. Check out the full poster after the jump. Click on the image to enlarge.
Posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Wikipedia has a list of the highest grossing films of this decade so far, and kottke noticed that of the top 20 films at the box office, only one movie was not based on a past film or tv show (remake/sequel), or an adaptation of an established property (be it a comic, book, play, toy…etc).
Which is the only original feature film to make it into the the top 20 grossing films of this decade (so far)? Answer after the jump.
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.
Posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
What would Pixar’s WALL-E look like if it was an anime series starring human characters instead of robots? Or what about Finding Nemo set on land instead of the ocean? These two Pixar/Andrew Stanton reimaginings were found on 4chan. The Finding Nemo art (available after the jump) is credited to Andrew Kalko, but I’m not sure who created the Wall-E piece.
Posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
Does Pixar have a gender problem? A blog called Vast Public Indifference thinks so, claiming that the Emmeryville computer animation studio doesn’t have any good women characters as the central protagonists in their stories. Caitlin GD Hopkins claims that most of Pixar’s female characters are “helpers, love interests, and moral compasses to the male characters whose problems, feelings, and desires drive the narratives.” I highly recommend reading Hopkins’ rant as she examines each and every Pixar film, one by one, even taking a look at the studio’s future projects.
Does Pixar have a problem with creating strong female protagonists? I’m a Pixar fanatic and this is a question that has never even occured to me. I would like to think that Hellen/Elasticgirl and Violet were well rounded female characters in Brad Bird’s The Incredibles, and you could argue that WALL-E‘s EVE is both smart and strong. While she is the romantic love interest of the film’s title robot, EVE is a driving force within the story, many levels above Dory from Finding Nemo or Ratatouille‘s only female lead, Colette.
But I do see the point — why does Remy have to be a male rat anyways? Or as someone quickly pointed out in the comments, would that then open the argument up to perpetuating a stereotype by making a female the one who is good at cooking. It might have been more interesting if Linguini was a woman. Heck, even Colette said that it’s harder for a female to make it in the kitchen.
Discuss: Does Pixar Have a Problem Creating Good Female Characters?
via: Kottke
I just got done watching David Poland‘s 37 minute interview with Finding Nemo and WALL-E director Andrew Stanton, and WOW. If you’re at all interested in the way Pixar makes films, this interview is a much watch. I highly recommend you check it out. You can even put it on and listen to it play in the background as you work. I’m actually surprised that Polland doesn’t also release these interviews as a iTunes podecast.
Stanton spends a lot of time talking about what makes he Pixar creative process different, and how ideas are developed in the Emeryville-based animation studio. He talks about the idea of WALL-E came up, and how Finding Nemo allowed him to make the film and gave him the freedom to take chances like the inclusion of the songs from “Hello, Dolly”. He talks about how the Animation industry became restrained by ridiculous rules and forgot that anything should be possible if it fits/helps the story, and taking advantage of the medium that you’re in. He talks about how Pixar only test screens their films once to the public, but more-so internally. And he talks breifly about working on John Carter of Mars. I’ve embedded the video after the jump, so you have no excuse.
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For me, The Incredibles is the most worthy Pixar film deserving of the sequel treatment. But for one reason or another, Pixar would rather make Cars 2 (boo) and another Toy Story film (which to be fair, could be good… but seems unnecessary) . Instead, The Incredibles sequel (which is being referred to by writer Mark Waid as “Incredibles 1.5″) is being wasted as a comic book series, which will begin to hit comic book store shelves in April. Waid reveals to MTV that the story will take place shortly after the events of the original Brad Bird film, and the first four-issue arc will tell the story of Mr. Incredible, whose powers are begining to fade. Basically, he’s getting older, and he doesn’t want to tell his family or go to the doctor.
Six issues have been written, Darwyn Cooke is doing the cover art, but no artist has been hired yet for the actual inside art. Apparently the plan is to launch other Pixar franchises as monthly comic book series. Toy Story is next, with eventual plans to have six different titles released per month. I’m guessing the line-up will be: The Incredibles, Toy Story, Monster’s Inc, WALL-E, Finding Nemo and Cars As much as I’m actually looking forward to these comics, I’d disappointed that Disney won’t take The Incredibles to the big screen one more time. The storyline in the comic book seems perfect for a sequel. It also seems like they are attracting big name comic talent to provide the art for the books. I’d much rather see some of the in house Pixar arts provide something more unique, rather than the same old comic book style art.
