End-of-Week Linkage

A few news items for your review, starting with:

TIME'S Richard Corliss explaining some of the creative origins of Despicable Me (with Steve Carell talking about it up above. I'll wager you didn't know it was a Disney movie, eh?):

... [Chris Meledandri] took Ken Daurio and Cinco Paul, the Horton screenwriters, to expand on an idea by Spanish animator Sergio Pablos. Meledandri handed the directing chores to Blue Sky veteran Chris Renaud and the French animator Pierre Coffin. The movie was developed by this Spanish-Franco-American team.

That explains the movie's Euro feel: its lithe simplicity of line, its occasionally noirish palette, its pointy rather than round character shapes. ...

Almost every company that jumped into the hand-drawn feature game in the mid-nineties flamed out. Yet a decade and a half later, many plunge into CGI features and triumph ....

Comic-Con 2010 reveals its monster schedule.

Friday July 23rd

10:00-11:00 Marvel X-Men— Following Second Coming, Marvel's merry mutants are unable to catch a quick breather. As Curse of the Mutants begins, there's no telling what the vampires have in store for the X-Men...or is there? You've got questions & these people have answers! [... etcetera ...]

The Washington Post tosses out a little animation snark.

... [T]he Pixar wizards are so good they've managed to obscure the fact they've been making the same movie over and over again for the last 15 years.

To reveal this secret, I have obtained a copy of the top-secret Pixar plot generator ...

The San Francisco Chronicle offers a digital photo album of the Gods who reside up there at the crest of the American Olympus. They were all, it seems, at an extra-special annual event in the piney woods a few days ago:

Investment bank Allen & Co. is once again hosting its rich white guy media summit in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Attendees include Google cofounder Larry Page, News Corp king Rupert Murdoch, Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg, and whole bunch of other people who flew in on their own jets. ...

London's Cartoon Museum wants to remind Brits of their teevee cartoon heritage:

... [It] has just launched a show that celebrates classic British children’s animation. "Toy Tales" showcases some of Britain’s favourite animations over the last fifty years – from the Clangers, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog and Bagpuss through Roobarb and Custard, Morph, Basil the Brush, the Snowman and Father Christmas to Wallace and Gromit, Fireman Sam and Peppa Pig. ...

Last of all, the L.A. Times pointed out a few days ago that though Shrek Forever After has been a bit of an under-achiever at home, the story is considerably different overseas:

... In France, it had the biggest ever opening for a DreamWorks film, slightly ahead of “Shrek the Third,” with $11.7 million. In Great Britain, it took in a healthy $13.1 million and it also had good starts in South Korea, Hong Kong and Austria. ...

Although it has a steep hill to climb to hit the $479 million and $476 million international grosses of the last two “Shrek” movies, “Forever After” still has a shot, particularly with potentially lucrative markets such as Italy, Japan, Mexico and Spain left to launch ...

Have a restful Sunday.

Add On: The Hollywood Reporter speculates about a Katzenberg-Murdoch meetup in Sun Valley:

... DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeff Katzenberg and Rupert Murdoch: We also spotted those two walking through Sun Valley together on Wednesday afternoon. Maybe just a friendly catch-up chat among moguls, but Wall Street has long wondered whether DWA may leave its current distribution deal with Paramount early. It runs through 2012, but DWA can end it with six months notice in 2011 -- meaning starting right around now. News Corp.'s Fox has its Blue Sky Studio, which currently turns out about one animated movie per year ("Ice Age," the upcoming "Rio"). Arguably, it could get a little crowded to add in a potential two DWA movies per year, but not undoable. Of course, Katzenberg has said he is happy with the Paramount relationship. So, maybe DWA just enjoys being popular and having us mention a public flirt with other distributors. And hey, looking popular could also help DWA get better terms with Paramount if they re-up ...