Film Experience Blog (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Robert here. My initial thought for my series on the directors who shaped the past decade was to combine the Pixar guys into one big entry. Five minutes later I was filled with great shame. How dare I think that just because these men make animated films, they don’t deserve their own entries. It was ghettoization all over again! Sure, Pixar films all tend to have similar themes but that doesn’t...
Dictionopolis in Digitopolis (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
It was bad enough that he seems to have been sucked so deep into the Uncanny Valley (look it up) that he's confused it with real animation (you know, what Pixar and Brad Bird do). At least when Zemeckis made Roger Rabbit , he had the rare good sense to hire the incredibly gifted Richard Williams to do the animated parts of the film. You'd think that would've taught him an important lesson, but apparently...
Ghost Word (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
McSweeney’s has announced some details of its newspaper-sized edition focusing on San Francisco and northern California. The 380-page broadsheet will go on sale the first week of December and feature an investigation into the reconstruction of the Bay Bridge, the growth of pot farms in Mendocino County, a 116-page book section, a 112 page magazine and three pull out posters. Lots of well-known...
Ramblin' with Roger (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
I have been fascinated by the Academy Awards, a/k/a the Oscars , for a very long time. As a kid, I'd watch the stars that I'd heard about for years, even though I had not seen much of, or ANY of their work. It was a great thrill. But the person in those days I was most fascinated with in the 1960s was Edith Head , the costume designer, who won eight awards. I liked her name and I especially loved the...
Hecate (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
Well, this could be either awful or fun: DreamWorks gets 'Wicked' rights Benay brothers to adapt young adult book series By TATIANA SIEGEL DreamWorks has acquired the rights to the young adult book series "Wicked." Brothers Aaron and Matthew Benay have signed on to write the adaptation based on their own pitch. The Gotham Group will produce. Written by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie, the...
FirstShowing.net (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
DreamWorks has acquired the rights to the Wicked book series, written by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie, according to Variety. No, not the musical Wicked. Or the book said musical was based on. But the young adult book series centered on a young woman who discovers she's the descendant of a powerful coven of witches. But, in a cruel twist of fate, she falls in love with a boy who just so happens to...
Philadelphia Inquirer (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
The problem with Astro Boy, a computer-animated take on the vintage Japanese cartoon series, is that like its supersonic, jets-in-his-feet hero, the movie itself feels totally robotic. The digitally drawn characters never seem to manage eye contact, the dialogue is mechanical, and the nods to Disney (shades of Pinocchio), to Miyazaki (shades of Laputa: Castle in the Sky) and Brad Bird (The Iron Giant),...
ComingSoon.net (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
DreamWorks has acquired the film rights to the young adult book series "Wicked," according to Variety . Brothers Aaron and Matthew Benay (Brad Bird's upcoming 1906 ) have signed on to write the adaptation. Written by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie, the five-book series centers on a young woman who learns she is a descendant of a powerful coven of witches. Complications arise when she falls...
Dan's Media Digest (Free subscription) | 10/18/2009
There was a fantastic reponse to my poll last week, with 167 people voting for their favourite Pixar movie . The results are above in a pie-chart, but let's break it down in reverse order below: 9. A Bug's Life Only 3% voted for this early insect animation. I'm not surprised it's so low, but is it really the worst? 8. Cars Most people consider Cars to be Pixar's biggest mistake, and only 4% think it's...
Must Read Stuff (Free subscription) | 10/13/2009
Ratatouille (dir. Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava, 2007) A love song to Paris – its food, its characters, its romance – this giddy tale of a rodent who dreams of being a chef contains more magic moments per frame than any of Pixar film. The Incredibles (dir. Brad Bird, 2004) John Lasseter may be more famous and [...]
The House Next Door (Free subscription) | 10/10/2009
by Tom Elrod (Part of Pixar Week ) Earlier this year, the National Review published a list of the top 25 conservative movies. Number two on this list was Pixar's The Incredibles : This animated film skips pop-culture references and gross jokes in favor of a story that celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement. A family of superheroes — Mr. Incredible, his wife Elastigirl,...
The House Next Door (Free subscription) | 10/09/2009
by Ryland Walker Knight (Part of Pixar Week ) —It starts with a book. A couple years ago I wrote a comparison review pitching Satoshi Kon's Paprika as, if not an answer to, then a conversant partner with Brad Bird's Ratatouille . You can click right here and read it . Watching the film again while preparing the image-essay to follow, I was struck by a few things in my new, two-years-later (more...
Vinyl Is Heavy (Free subscription) | 10/09/2009
by Ryland Walker Knight —It starts with a book. I put together a little image-essay for Todd's Pixar Week over at The House on Brad Bird's Ratatouille as it's easily my favorite Pixar film. Click here to see-drink-eat it. (If that takes some time to load, click here for VINYL IS IMAGES.) Every viewing gives me good things, and its pathos really hits hard what with its ideas about creativity and...
Divers and Sundry (Free subscription) | 10/09/2009
/film has the top 20 from a Time Out London list of the "Top 50 Animated Movies of All Time Curated by Terry Gilliam": 1. My Neighbour Totoro (1988) Hayao Miyazaki 2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) David Hand 3. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979) Chuck Jones and Phil Monroe 4. Fantasia (1940) 5. Toy Story (1995) John Lasseter 6. Spirited Away (2001) Hayao Miyazaki 7. Yellow Submarine...
The House Next Door (Free subscription) | 10/08/2009
by Scott Nye (Part of Pixar Week ) Between the ages of 17 and 18, still with so much growing up to do, I saw a slew of films that would redefine what the medium was capable of and completely change my world perspective. Some people read books about inspirational, anti-authoritarian figures that became a rallying cry for a generation; I saw The Big Lebowski . Shortly after, a simple laid-back attitude...
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