Happy Independence Day Holiday
Wishing a safe and enjoyable Independence Day holiday weekend to all of Walt’s fans! Thanks to him, there’s a love of Americana in all of us!
disney
The Lone Ranger Rides Into Cinemas With Fun on its Mind
Disney’s The Lone Ranger rides into cinemas everywhere this weekend bringing a updated take on the classic TV show masked avenger to modern audiences. The film is a success and a failure to varying degrees. How much you feel of one or the other probably depends on your ability to just let go and have a good time. Although dark at times, the film isn’t meant to be taken too seriously and certainly pokes fun at some of the conventions we expect in a Lone Ranger story. Once you figure out who the villain is, and he reveals himself fairly early on, the pieces fall into place and the rest of the film is a can be enjoyed for what it is – well produced Hollywood fun.
Like Johnny Depp, I grew up watching reruns of the classic TV show edition of The Lone Ranger. The villains were inevitably corrupt businessmen and politicians or the standard mustache twirling dreamer up of evil plots. Tonto did his best to keep the outlaw lawman John Reid out of trouble and often swooped in for a well timed attack to save the masked avenger’s life. It was inspiring stuff to an 8 year old.
Sadly, I can’t recommend today’s 8-year olds watch this new edition of The Lone Ranger. The PG-13 rating is to be taken seriously for both violent scenes and fairly heavy subject matter.
Frankly, I don’t get why Disney is marketing The Lone Ranger to young kids with Halloween costumes, action figures, and the like. Was the part about cutting out and eating the still beating heart of one of the heroes not in the script when merchandise got their hands on it?
On the other hand, I recent sat through World War Z, a fairly graphic and bloody zombie attack movie, with a young kid right in front of me. He suffered no ill effect and was even suggesting dinner options on the way out of the theater (he must have had an iron stomach to go with his tolerance for horror and gore). But I digress.
Ostensibly about the journey John Reid takes to become The Lone Ranger, the movie actually dedicates more pages of the script to Tonto’s backstory. It makes sense since a large portion of the plot is driven by elements in Tonto’s life. The two start off as adversaries, but by the end of the film are ready to work together as a team to right the wrongs and bring the bad guys to justice.Read More »The Lone Ranger Rides Into Cinemas With Fun on its Mind
Monsters University Director Appears at Google
Google has a long running series where they bring in important authors and artists for a lunch length talk about their latest projects. Two of Pixar’s brightest stars — Director Dan Scanlon and Producer Kori Rae — took the short drive from Emeryville to the… Read More »Monsters University Director Appears at Google
Monsters University Schools Competition at Box Office
I hope someone in Burbank is sending a big box of chocolates to Emeryville this week. Monsters University debuted number one at the box office with a take of $82 million domestic and $136.5 worldwide. That’s well above average for Pixar film openings, placing it… Read More »Monsters University Schools Competition at Box Office
TV Binge Watching: America’s Newest Pastime
Recently, the biggest TV news stories have been revivals of beloved shows Arrested Development and Boy Meets World, with the latter getting a sequel/reboot and the former being resurrected on Netflix. Those stories then encouraged devoted fans, or wannabe fans, to binge watch the old… Read More »TV Binge Watching: America’s Newest Pastime
Monsters University Shows Pixar Still Has The Magic
Prior to Monsters University most audiences will be lucky enough to see the newest short from Pixar – The Blue Umbrella. It’s the least Pixar short of the series in terms of its photo-realistic design, but also somehow completely Pixar too. I don’t want to give anything away, but there is a definite connection between the world of the Umbrellas and Monstropolis.
It’s been 12 years since Monsters, Inc first made audiences fall in love with a short one-eyed monster and his giant fluffy blue friend. The kids that saw that film in theaters then have since grown up and are ready to introduce another generation of kids to the world of Monstropolis. But rather than making a sequel, Pixar decided to set the next film in the past.
“One of the challenges with a prequel is that by definition, everyone knows how the story ends. So it can be difficult to uncover the drama because we already know everything’s going to work out. It’s hard to define those stakes. You have to learn something new about the characters—which we ultimately do in ‘MU.’,” said director Dan Scanlon.Read More »Monsters University Shows Pixar Still Has The Magic
Trailer for Disney’s Frozen Goes for Guffaws
The first trailer for Disney’s Frozen is not what I expected at all. The movie is adapted from The Snow Queen, and instead of focusing on the Princess Anna, the Snow Queen Elsa, or even the Mountain Man Kristoff, we get a dose of interaction… Read More »Trailer for Disney’s Frozen Goes for Guffaws
Wreck-it Ralph as if it were Hand Drawn Animation
I’m a big fan of Hand Drawn animation, as are many Disney fans. But we haven’t been enough to save the artform from withering on the tree at Walt Disney Animation Studios. In April, Burbank let go most of the hand-drawn animation team. It’s a shame, because artists like Nick Ranieri can still crank out some pretty amazing stuff with pen and and paper.
Here’s a pencil test for Wreck-it Ralph from Ranieri. The film’s directors used it to get a sense for how the character would move and act while the CG Animation Department was still working in early stages.
Below the jump is another pencil test, this time from Eric Goldberg, of King Candy:
Read More »Wreck-it Ralph as if it were Hand Drawn Animation