Commentary 20 Nov 2010 09:07 am
Cars 2 / Panda 2 / Signe 1 / Zemeckis 0
- In case you haven’t seen the first trailer for Pixar’s CARS 2, here it is, complete with explosions, Japan, guns, rocket launchers and more explosions. It’s getting to look like Pixar might like doing effects for live-action films. They’re not too far off the mark. The trailer, and no doubt the film, is loud enough to catch somebody’s attention. It should be another winner unless Dreamworks figures out a way to have even louder explosions.
To quote the old SCTV skit: “They blowed him up real good.”
- John Lasseter didn’t have to fire anyone, this time, when he made himself co-director of Cars 2. First time director, Brad Lewis, got himself a partner with Lasseter. I wonder how much time the new co-director will have to spend on the film given all the other chores he’s taken on running both Disney and Pixar. This is old news, but I heven’t talked about this film before.
And you’ve probably seen the trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2 which actually gets my interest, as opposed to the awful Cars 2 trailer. It’s funny. In case you haven’t seen it, here it is.
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Lately, one of my favorite blog-spots is Signe Bauman‘s blog. Essentially, this was started to promote a feature she’s trying to get funded, called Rocks In My Pockets. She writes once or twice a week, and each of her pieces is so personal and informative that I can’t help but getting enveloped in what she has to say. She has a good seven part series on fundraising for a film, especially when the film is not very commercial. She writes about the difficulty of accepting rejection when you’ve applied for a grant and don’t get it. She’s even written about Depression. Check out the site and go back a bit to read her commentary. Very interesting stuff.
- When the story of Robert Zemeckis having been approached to remake The Wizard of Oz from the original 1939 script hit the blogs, everything went wacko. Lots of rumors flew like monkeys in the sky.
Well the truth is that Zemeckis turned down the job when discussing it with WB. Of course, this doesn’t mean the film won’t get remade; it just means that the #1 Motion Capture guy isn’t planning to do it until he can tear apart The Yellow Submarine. That, of course, will be his next opus – due out in 2012. Maybe entering it in the Oscars, that year, will give us 16 entries.
Speaking of which, I notice that there are only 15 accepted feature documentaries for the Oscar. Somehow, they’ll still have five nominees, while animation – with the same 15 acceptable number – will only be allowed 3 nominees. Something smells rotten in Hollywood.
- Today I’ll be out all day screening the animated shorts which were deemed eligible for Oscar consideration. That should take about 5½ to 7 hours of watching shorts. It’s grueling, but I love doing it. I see that Cartoon Brew has listed the shorts that’ll be screened. Two years ago I listed the shorts and was chastised by the Academy in a very formal letter. The following year, they started listing the titles. So I like to think that I pushed them into realizing that the shorts could be treated no differently than the features, and they could be announced to the public without hurting their chances. (It gives a little more publicity to the shorts filmmakers, and they’re the ones who could use it.)
on 20 Nov 2010 at 10:20 am 1.richard o'connor said …
Looks like a generally interesting -if long- programme of eligible shorts.
I can’t agree more about Signe’s blog. It’s a great read!
on 20 Nov 2010 at 1:05 pm 2.Eric Noble said …
I might have to check out the shorts as well to see if I like any. Actually, the teaser trailer for Kung Fu Panda 2 doesn’t look half bad. As for Zemeckis, in the immortal words of Doctor Who, “He must be stopped!”. Seriously, he cannot keep doing movies like this. I don’t want a remake of Yellow Submarine or The Wizard of Oz. They are fine the way they are.
on 20 Nov 2010 at 5:04 pm 3.Neal said …
Cars 2 trailer COULD have looked much worse. Especially if they’d not gotten rid of that first director. I wonder what they were thinking letting the co-producer of Ratatouille direct a movie?
on 20 Nov 2010 at 6:56 pm 4.Steven Hartley said …
Cars 2 looks good to me – it looks a lot funnier than the first film – Cars 1 bored me!
on 20 Nov 2010 at 8:37 pm 5.Michael said …
I agree that Kun Fu Panda 2 looks promising; at least the trailer’s good. Cars 2 looks unwatchable.
The Academy shorts ended up being a depressing and long screening. I came away not even sure of what animation is.
on 20 Nov 2010 at 10:03 pm 6.Eric Noble said …
“The Academy shorts ended up being a depressing and long screening. I came away not even sure of what animation is.”
So you’re telling us to give the shorts nominees a skip?
on 21 Nov 2010 at 1:43 am 7.Michael said …
I’m telling you how I felt after viewing them. I think you should go and judge for yourself.
However, the show in LA was last weekend. NY had the program this past Saturday, so I don’t know where you’d be going.
It was a program for Academy voters only judging six hours of animation as a preliminary to the nominations.
on 21 Nov 2010 at 6:27 am 8.Josef said …
Don’t get me wrong, I love the first Kung Fu Panda, but the trailer for the sequel doesn’t show much of anything.
on 21 Nov 2010 at 8:42 am 9.Elliot Cowan said …
Michael – I attended one of these marathon screenings a few years back and it was unbearable.
If THAT screening was awful, and these at least look interesting in stills, I can’t imagine how depressing it might have been.
on 21 Nov 2010 at 9:11 am 10.Michael said …
Elliot, the films were visually dark and thematically down or sarcastic, predominantly cgi. The funny ones amounted to 3 unless you include the new cgi/3D Road Runner cartoon. I only heard laughs in one film. There was only one abstract film. And only one wherein the Twin Towers get hit by a plane.
There were a few very good films and no great ones. I can’t get specific about any of them so as not to influence the voters in LA (though they’ve already voted.) The show went for 6½ hours and felt it.
on 21 Nov 2010 at 9:16 am 11.Elliot Cowan said …
I think you’ve been specific enough, matey…
on 21 Nov 2010 at 2:53 pm 12.Sue said …
I went to the marathon session here in LA last weekend (as a spectator), and couldn’t agree more with your assessment. In fact, I went for a beer afterward for a much-needed laugh with friends and to get the bitter taste of the films out of my mouth. Truly disappointing.