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Dinosaurs are Walking — Again

Oct 24th, 2014
by rodney.
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Seemingly out of nowhere, Disney/Pixar have announced that the CGI animated feature The Good Dinosaur is back in production — and back on track for release in the winter of 2015, according to an article over at Cartoon Brew. After Disney removed director Bob Petersen from the project (he had co-directed Up and played the voice of Dug the dog) we didn’t hear much about Good Dinosaur for a while, as Disney/Pixar began advertising their next big project Inside Out. Now Disney/Pixar have announced that the new director of The Good Dinosaur will be Peter Sohn. He’s well known behind the scenes at Pixar, having worked in the art and story departments on several projects and directed the short film Partly Cloudy. He’s also known for his voice acting (he was Emile in Ratatouille and Squishy in Monsters University) and for being the body model for the character Russell in Up. Yes, really. With this announcement it now seems that Disney/Pixar will actually have two releases in 2015: Inside Out in June and The Good Dinosaur in November. Which puts the latter film right up against Kung Fu Panda 3, by the way. If you haven’t heard, The Good Dinosaur follows the adventures of a talking dinosaur family in modern times — on an alternate Earth where the great beasts never died out.

image c. 2014 Disney/Pixar

image c. 2014 Disney/Pixar

One Lonely Shrew

Sep 18th, 2014
by rodney.
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Disney/Pixar have launched their new Studio Artist Showcase series with Over There, a full-color hardcover book for young readers written and illustrated by Steve Pilcher. “Shredder is a little shrew who lives by himself, and while he loves his forest home, he gets a bit lonely. There must be something more, he thinks. So when he sees a ‘silver line twinkling in the distance,’ he decides to find out what it is. He discovers a beautiful stream, but then he gets caught up in the current! Luckily, a mole named Nosey saves him. As they explore, Shredder begins to miss the forest, so he and Nosey return together, and Shredder realizes that all he really needed was a friend.” Over There is available later this month, and it’s been reviewed over at Publishers Weekly.

image c. 2014 Disney Publishing

image c. 2014 Disney Publishing

The Annie Award Winners

Feb 2nd, 2014
by rodney.
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Your humble ed-otter and his mate were honored to once again attend the 2014 Annie Awards, honoring the best in animation from the year 2013.  The event at UCLA’s Royce Hall (on Saturday the 1st of February) was hosted by Patrick Warburton, best known as Kronk from Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove but also appearing as a voice in the upcoming Peabody and Sherman movie. Though Disney’s Frozen won Best Feature and Best Directing (it was a favorite for both), no film or TV series really seemed to dominate the awards that night. Instead the honors were spread out over a wide swath of projects. Several furry projects — or projects with anthropomorphic characters in them, at least — were honored, which is good when you’re honoring a year like 2013 that, let’s face it, had rather a dearth of heavily furry works — especially compared to 2012. Overall Disney was one of the big winners of the night — no, not Pixar. Disney. Not only did Frozen take home the feature-length honors for Best Picture, Directing, Music, Production Design, and Voice Acting (Josh Gad as Olaf the snowman); but the Disney Mickey Mouse series of shorts won in TV/Broadcast categories for Editing, Character Design, and Music. What’s more, the popular Disney cartoon Get A Horse won the Best Short Subject award. Pixar was represented as well of course, both in feature awards (as Monsters University won for Storyboarding and Editing) and TV/Broadcast (where Toy Story of Terror took home awards for Storyboarding, Character Animation, and Directing). Dreamworks Animation’s biggest winner of the evening was The Croods, which took home feature awards in Character Design, Effects Animation, and Character Animation. In television Tom Kenny received the award for Best Voice Acting for his role as The Ice King in Adventure Time, and the show itself was honored as the Best Production for Children. Some popular furry projects were nominated in several categories but unfortunately the did not win any awards. Among them were the TV series Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Dragons: Riders of Berk, as well as the French feature film Ernest & Celestine. The Annie Awards are administered by ASIFA-Hollywood, the Southern California branch of the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA). You can visit the Annie Awards web site to see pictures and videos from the event as well as a full list of all the winners for 2013.

image c 2014 Walt Disney Animation

The Annie Winners!

Feb 3rd, 2013
by rodney.
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The Annie Awards are often referred to as The Oscars of Animation. Presented each year by ASIFA-Hollywood (a division of the International Animated Film Society), the Annies celebrate the best in animated films and television as voted on by members of the animation industry from around the world. Needless to say, every year several anthropomorphic works are represented among the nominees — and sometimes even among the winners! On Saturday, February 2nd the Annie Awards for 2012 were presented at a gala ceremony at Royce Hall on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).  Unlike in previous years, this year’s ceremony didn’t really have a “host”: Each presenter basically introduced the next presenter. In the feature film category the night largely belonged to Disney Animation’s film Wreck It Ralph, which won for Music, Writing, Voice Acting (for Alan Tudyk as King Candy), Directing (Rich Moore), and of course Best Animated Feature. Disney/Pixar’s Brave was also represented, bringing home wins for Feature Editing and Feature Production Design. Dreamworks’ Rise of the Guardians also took home awards in two technical categories, Feature Storyboarding and Effects Animation. Over in the TV categories, the biggest winner of the night was Dreamworks’ Dragons: Riders of Berk. In addition to a win for Best TV Production for Children, Dragons won for Storyboarding, Music, and Directing. Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness won in a single category, TV Editing. In a surprise event, voice actor and animation legend June Foray (who started the Annie Awards herself back in 1973) was honored with the Texas Avery Animation Award — named after animation legend Tex Avery of course, and presented by REEL FX every year at the Dallas International Film Festival. You can find out more about the Annie Awards — and other activities for animation fans — at the ASIFA-Hollywood web site.

image c. 2012 Walt Disney Animation

Flying from the TV to the Movie Screen

Dec 23rd, 2012
by rodney.
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Disney and Pixar have announced an interesting change to their 2013 movie line-up. This is from Jerry Beck over at Cartoon Brew: “Disney has decided to chase after Dreamworks’ Turbo next summer with its new “Cars-inspired” movie: Planes. Disney has just announced it will release this film theatrically on August 9th, 2013. Originally designed to go direct-to-DVD, Planes will now play in theaters all over the U.S. Jon Cryer is voicing the lead plane, “Dusty”; Klay Hall (Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure), an aviator himself, is directing.” In the same article Cartoon Brew also re-posted the original trailer for Planes, in case you missed it before.

image c. 2012 Disney/Pixar

They Dress Up Too

Nov 29th, 2012
by rodney.
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Next February Marvel Comics (with the help of Disney and Pixar, of course) presents a new Monsters Inc. one-shot full-color comic. In Monster’s Inc.: The Humanween Party, “It’s that time of year again: Humanween! Monstropolis’ version of Halloween – where monsters dress up as humans – comes but once a year, and this time the annual party is at Mike and Sulley’s home. Mike goes into panic mode when he learns of an unplanned visit from his mother the day after the big bash!” It’s written by Alessandro Ferrari and illustrated by Elisabetta Melaranci, Federica Salfo, Michela Frare, and Paco Desiato (whew!). Look for more Monsters Inc. tie-in items in 2013 as the new animated sequel, Monsters University, gets closer. In the meantime, check out Humanween at Things from Another World.

image c. 2012 Marvel Comics

Monsters in Comics

Oct 10th, 2012
by rodney.
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Just in time for more Monsters, Inc, Marvel Comics brings us… Monsters, Inc! The full-color comic book adaptation, that is. The new 2-issue mini-series was adapted by Charles Bazaldua and illustrated by a team of artists from Italy. All of this in anticipation of the 3D re-release of Monsters, Inc — which is, of course, in anticipation of the new Pixar prequel film, Monsters University, which is due next year. (If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the Monsters University “Campus Brochure” that Disney/Pixar have created.) The comic book version of the original Mike and Sully movie, meanwhile, is due in stores this December.

image c. 2012 Disney/Pixar

 

New Disney/Pixar Films

Apr 29th, 2012
by rodney.
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The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation have announced several new films they’ll be completing and releasing over the next couple of years.  First up is a feature film called The Good Dinosaur, written and directed by Bob Peterson (Finding Nemo, Up — he was also the voice of Dug the dog in the latter movie). This new film (set for release in May of 2014) explores what might have happened if dinosaurs never went extinct. Would they wind up being our pets? Or would we wind up being theirs? Also in the pipe are a film based on the Mexican tradition of Dia de los Muertos, and an untitled film (set for release in 2015) about the inner workings of the human brain.

 

Pixar Scripts in Color

Nov 21st, 2011
by rodney.
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Folks who’d like to learn more about how animation is made — especially award-winning, box-0ffice conquering animation — might want to check out The Art of Pixar: Complete Color Scripts from 25 Years of Animation, written by Pixar Studio’s own John Lasseter and edited by Cartoon Brew’s own Amid Amidi. It’s available now in hardcover from Chronicle Books. Here’s the write-up from Amazon: “Over the past 25 years, Pixar s team of artists, writers, and directors have shaped the world of contemporary animation with their feature films and shorts. From classics such as Toy Story and A Bug s Life to recent masterpieces such as Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2, this comprehensive collection offers a behind-the-scenes tour of every Pixar film to date. Featuring a foreword by Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, the complete color scripts for every film published in full for the first time as well as stunning visual development art, The Art of Pixar is a treasure trove of rare artwork and an essential addition to the library of animation fans and Pixar enthusiasts.”

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