I was searching for some actual footage of the upcoming Wii exclusive Epic Mickey. But aside for some concept art, there doesn’t appear to be any actual game footage from Warren Spector’s Junction Point studio. What we do know is very little, but sounds very cool, especially that insane steampunk, trippy, nightmarish vibe of the game.
Goddamn, if I didn’t shed a tear with Randy Newman singing over the montage of Andy growing up. Men of a certain age and time have been there when the difficult decision to put away childish things comes, and yet, we hold on to toys and action figures and recycle our memories into sugar-coated summer movies in the hopes of feeling a fleeting moment of happiness that we felt then.
It’s obvious this one, written by Oscar-winner Michael Arndt, is aiming for the themes of homelessness and abandonment and finding a place in the world as it prepares to leave you behind.
By James Furbush | September 29th, 2009 | 6:20 am PDT
The season 8 premiere of Family Guy (”Road To the Multiverse”) sees Stewie and Brian travel all around the multiverse to different animated worlds. The episode was pretty good, if only to see all the different animation styles applied to the show. Besides Disney, Stewie and Brian became a Washington Post political cartoon, were depicted IRL, etc.
By James Furbush | September 9th, 2009 | 5:49 am PDT
Disney has just debuted the second full-length theatrical trailer for The Princess and the Frog, their return to both hand-drawn animation and classic princess fairy tales. Truth be told, I want this movie to succeed way more than I have an interest in watching it. But it feels like if this movie succeeds then tradition 2D, hand-drawn animation will be in vogue again and if it fails we may have to rely on Japan’s animation industry for that fix.
In exchange for $4 Billion, Disney acquires Marvel’s staple of 5,000+ characters. The news comes as a bit of a surprise for a deal of this magnitude. The terms of the deal seem to be similar to the one they struck with Pixar several years ago, with Disney acting as a distribution/marketing side and Marvel obtaining creative control of their properties.
The most exciting news? Pixar head John Lasseter met with Marvel executives last week, “about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got ‘pretty excited, pretty fast.’ They say there’s definitely an opportunity there.” Yes, yes there would. If nothing comes of this deal except Pixar being involved with Marvel Animation then it’s totally worth it.
Though I suppose, Disney ruining the Marvel characters by making them family-friendly would also be a terrible thing.
UPDATE: The L.A. Times weighs in on how Disney can broaden its brand with the purchase of Marvel. The Beat has a good roundup of news related to the deal, too.
I confess, I’ve never seen the original Tron. What? I know. I just sacrificed my entire lifetime’s worth of geek cred. Just one of those movies I missed growing up. Obviously with the first official teaser trailer for Joseph Kosinski’s long-awaited, recently-named Tron sequel, Tron Legacy, the original has been added to my Netflix queue and bumped up near the top.
Jeff Bridges, reprising his role as arcade owner Kevin Flynn, stars alongside Garrett Hedlund, who plays his 27-year-old son, and Olivia Wilde, in the role of Kevin’s friend and confidant. Bruce Boxleitner also returns. I’m sold, especially with Daft Punk doing the soundtrack. Hard to believe I’m sucked in just by seeing two light cycles race each other.
I’m surprised by how quickly this was released but Tim Burton’s adaptation/sequel looks quite good. You can get a sense of where the 3D will be used, even if the floating cat head is scaring the beejesus out of me.
And we know it’s a Burton flick because we’ve got Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and music by Danny Elfman.
Alice in Wonderland hits theaters on March 5, 2010. And after how much this summer movie season has sucked, next year has to be better, right?
Disney used to hold the rights for Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and in 1983 they had a young man by the name of John Lasseter , interested in using computers to render 3D backgrounds. Lasseter created some short animations based on the book as a test for another project he had in mind – The Brave Little Toaster. Neither project ended up manifesting itself, with the Toaster being made in traditional 2D animation. For his efforts, Lasseter was fired by Disney because his superiors felt he was stepping on their toes with his new technology.
Whoops! Talk about your all-time gaffs. Lasseter saw the future in the early 80s for how new technology could be applied to the medium. Instead he was fired and then went on to help start Pixar. So in a way, I guess, we should all be thankful these events all indirectly led to the creation of what is inarguably the best animation studio right now.
Lasseter always seems to be ahead of the curb and the above clip is damn impressive, even looking better than some present day computer animated movies. Even if it’s not quite ready for primetime.
Chalk this up to the what if dustbin and normally these types of things make me sad, but given how awesome Spike Jonze’s live-action adaptation looks, well, it’s hard to complain. Every single time the trailer has shown in front of an audience, the entire place inevitably yelps and shouts along at the end of the trailer. [via theseplaces]
Could go either way on this Disney-produced sci-fi flick, based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti, and starring Bruce Willis. I’ve heard that the movie looks a little too pretty in comparison — that the movie should have been a bit more gritty, a bit more in the style of Blade Runner.
But it’s Disney, so you take what you can get. Bonus points for filming in Boston.
There has been some speculation that Disney/ABC would eventually become partners with online video site Hulu, but now it is official.
Financials of the deal were not revealed and it’s still pending approval, but what this means in terms of conent is that ABC shows (Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, etc.) and Disney movies will be side by side with NBC/Universal and Fox content.
Hulu now has three of the four major networks under its belt, along with three of the major film studios.
This pretty much means that Hulu is no the de facto leader in online television, as if it weren’t already. Again, content is king.
The details are actually quite impressive in hi res. Apparantly there’s an urban myth that Disney actually tried to make an animated version of the movie. [via Superpunch]
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