Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Linkage in Mid-November

Linked bits of Animationland, just for you.

Mr. Newman admits it's just not the same.

[Princess and the Frog] composer Randy Newman ... said writing for traditional animation was a little different from writing for Pixar's GC toons. "The music has a diifferent movement. You can't really play too long because the mood will change ..."

("GC toons". It is the french "Graphique de Computer," in case you're wondering.)

The Globes catch up to the Oscars:

The Golden Globes' animated feature category has been expanded from three to five after a vote last week by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.

Fantastic Mr. Fox, an actor's paradise?

... The voice performances rank among the most richly nuanced ever captured for an animated feature, with Clooney (speaking slightly below his usual register, as if everything were a self-conscious aside) and Streep (resplendent as a former wildcat turned nurturing Earth mother) doing some of the best work of their illustrious careers. Among the movie's many virtues, they render an unusually convincing portrait of a marriage, a reminder that the most unexpected thing about Anderson's film is — underneath all the carefully affixed, wind-sensitive whiskers and fur — how deeply human it is.

And here's a story that makes me tingle. Mass Animation, the wonderful folks you brought you this ... are now inviting animators to join them for this:

Now Mass Animation is involved in another Facebook project with Sony Online Entertainment and DC Comics. This week the DC Universe Online Animation Contest was announced. This is being called version 2.0 of the Mass Animation FB app and will give DC fans, gamers, and animators a chance to animate characters from the DC Universe online game that Sony is developing. This is another example of Mass Animation allowing fans to collaborate on a big product. The contest will launch on December 7.

Exciting, no? It's the brave new world of indentured servitude.

And Sean Connery's come-back to film-making has been ricocheting around the intertubes, to wit:

Connery is making a semi-return as he’s voicing the lead character in the animated film, Sir Billi. Connery is a producer on the project and has been heavily involved with its production.

Lastly, Mr. Ross continues his winter house-cleaning at the Disney Co.

... Walt Disney Studios chief Rich Ross has pulled the plug on a planned $150-million production of "Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" -- the last project approved by his predecessor Dick Cook.

The family adventure movie -- a high priority for Disney that the studio had envisioned as a potential franchise along the lines of "Pirates of the Caribbean" -- was scheduled to begin shooting in February in Mexico. Disney had already spent about $10 million hiring crews, who were prepping the movie and planning to build elaborate sets in Rosarito Beach. Artwork and construction of models were underway. ...

It appears that mny of the projects beloved by Dick Cook now have the stink of death about them. Ah well. That's Hollywood.

Have a fine time plowing through the middle of your week.

<

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

That DC contest sounds less like Mass Animation and more like a cheap machinima contest to me. But anything for a cheap buck for executives I suppose. Who needs actual quality when they can sucker in Facebookers to their schemes for an embarrassingly small fee...

*sigh*

Anonymous said...

The media fawning over "Fantastic Mr. Fox" has reached the level of nauseating. I've seen it. It's an absurdist sketch, with some of the worst stop-motion animation I've ever seen, over-the-top voice work that, if anything, makes the characters using those voices seem even less real, and it's more than a little creepy. Not once are you able to NOT think about the fact that the animals are stiff stuffed figures. Part of the problem is that the animal characters are rendered to realistically, so that the stiff movements seem jarring and unnatural; kind of the same problem in the film "The Dark Crystal", in which the puppets look like real creatures but move like puppets. The script is decent but not brilliant or outstanding. The production looks incredibly cheap. I'm astonished at the love this film is getting. It's quite frankly rather terrible.

Anonymous said...

HAAAA!hhaaaaa ha hah a hah.

You know what this is?
It's FUNNY!
When you take a step back from it ALL.....
..it's FUNNY.

Ha!

Fun With Mr. Future said...

"Graphique de Computer"

---

Ah, the French have better , more specific terms for everything.

Hand drawn is "Dessin Animé"("animated drawing").

Steve Hulett said...

I am, of course, pulling legs.

I flunked out of college French. VARIETY made a typo (I assume.)

Fun With Mr. Future said...

No, no, Steve, it totally works.

I think "Graphique de Computer" can gain some traction.

We have to find something to replace "3D" (referencing computer animation) now that 3D once again means a way of projecting and viewing films (animated or not).

Anonymous said...

"I've seen it. It's an absurdist sketch." If this is what you got from watching Fantastic Mr Fox I feel kinda bad for you.

please enjoy 2012 or Fast & Furious 7 and work your way up slowly from there.

Anonymous said...

Wow, your comment really put me in my place! Not to mention your masterful grasp of the rules of grammar!:O

Anonymous said...

I too saw Mr. Fox. And the above mentioned review is accurate. It's a self concious, self absorbed piece of ego-mation. It's not particularly well made or written. in fact, it's rather dull, and will flop at the box office much like 9, Coraline, Astroboy, and Battle for Terra.

Check out the animated feature Metropia if you have the nerve. It's challenging, and quite funny, although the tone and look of the film does take a little getting used to. Not everyone's cup of tea, but worth seeing.

Anonymous said...

Said the douche before using his favorite emoticon.

Nice try though...

Hannah Barbontana said...

What do you know, a troll that's an English teacher..

Anonymous said...

Astro Boy and Coraline didn't deserve to flop. But this Fox abomination DOES. Animated roadkill. Arrgghh.

Anonymous said...

"What do you know, a troll that's an English teacher.."

The proper phrasing of the sentence above would be "a troll WHO's an English teacher."

Obviously you're a troll WHO was never an English student. Or at least, a very good one.

So where did you get your diploma, Ding Dong School?

Anonymous said...

"I too saw Metropia. And the above mentioned review is accurate. It's a self concious, self absorbed piece of ego-mation. It's not particularly well made or written. in fact, it's rather dull, and will flop at the box office much like 9, Coraline, Astroboy, and Battle for Terra.

Check out the animated feature Fantastic Mr Fox if you have the nerve. It's challenging, and quite funny, although the tone and look of the film does take a little getting used to. Not everyone's cup of tea, but worth seeing.

FTFY

Mesterius said...

Well, Coraline actually didn't flop at all.

Site Meter