Mid-Week Links - Rats in the Belfry

Oh crap. Another problem for the under-performing Ratatouille. It's creating a run on pet rats:

[There's a] a rat fad in France, where sales of the pets have increased by 40 percent since the film's release there in July.

"Since the film came out, rats have become a veritable fashion phenomenon," said Gerald Moreau of the Apra Association, a group that promotes rodents as pets.

Hey ho. Jerry Beck is far more than Cartoon Brew or an animation producer of author of many animation books. He's taking his animated cavalcade of "Worst Cartoons Ever!" on the road! This week in Ohio!

"I'm not here to celebrate these films or look at them in a new context, I'm here to bury them. Or burn them, burn them into your brain actually," Beck said with a laugh, as he misread from his notes...

Martin Grove has a long piece on Disney's upcoming Enchanted with director Kevin Lima talking of the movie's preparation and shoot:

... There are approximately 12 minutes of animation at the start and conclusion of "Enchanted," which runs around 104 minutes altogether. "There's eight minutes of animation at the beginning," he pointed out, "and that animation has to remind you of all the things you love about Disney movies. I call it 'a can of condensed Disney.' If you added water, the movie would expand to be 80 minutes long. I just tried to cram every single piece of Disney iconic imagery into that first eight minutes so then I could riff on it through the rest of the film."

Lastly, The New York Times details the coming travails for Disney and Bob Iger as the economy slows and unions go on strike ...

... for the first time under Mr. Iger’s watch, Disney is sailing into some choppy waters. Two of the company’s four growth engines — theme parks and consumer products — turn on the health of the economy, which indicators suggest is slowing. Striking television and movie writers threaten advertising income at ABC, which Disney owns.

Hollywood’s union problems also afflict Disney’s film studio, which faces life without a new installment of its money machine, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and could be dealing with delays on big-screen franchise films like “High School Musical 3.” ...

Stride on. You're halfway through the week.