Tag: Disney

Remembering 2015’s Best Animated Works

The best animated works came from Netflix’s streaming service. And DreamWorks offered a lot which Loved.

Disney Pixar Inside Out Movie Poster
PIXAR’s film is a strong contender come Oscar season!

2015 was very good for many fans of the animation genre. The best animated works came from Netflix‘s streaming service. And DreamWorks offered a lot which Loved. Turbo FAST’s serialized offering was okay, but in what I loved was All Hail King Julian! Other programs like Dragons: Race to the Edge, Dawn of the Croods and Adventures of Puss in Boots shows that at least the studio is dedicated.

But what does that mean for other studios? Curiously, DreamWorks has not continued 2014’s Penguins of Madagascar movie. Has Nickelodeon said no to the studio making more or has Tom McGrath, the voice of Skipper, decided to move on? Currently, he’s working on Boss Baby, slated for release in 2017.

Disney/Pixar was busy with two releases, Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur, and while I favour the prehistoric adventure more than a look at what goes on inside a little girl’s head, I do see the former being a contender come Oscar season. I do have to wonder how long Minion-mania will last. It arrived in full force because of the movie and it showed no signs of slowing down over the holidays with merchandise being deeply discounted and the film put onto home video super early!

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Thoughts on Finding Dory, First Movie Trailer Release

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

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Just who is Dory remembering? Viewers will pick up on the fact that this regal blue tang fish is remembering her mother in her sleep in PIXAR / Disney‘s first trailer in the sequel, Finding Dory, due in theatres June 17, 2016.

This teaser shows that the story picks up months after the events in the first film, Finding Nemo, and as life in the Great Barrier Reef settles down. More adventures are to come when Dory starts to recall parts of her youth when she’s awake. She will no doubt set off (on her own) to discover where her family went.

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D23 Reveals Star Wars-Themed Land

By James Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

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Chairman and Disney CEO Bob Iger announced earlier today at the Disney Expo that Disney will be building a 14-acre space dedicated to the Star Wars licensing. The new attraction will be found at both Disney’s Orlando, Florida and Anaheim, California theme parks.

Both additions will allow fans to be immersed in a whole planet populated by droids, humanoids and aliens. Visitors will be able to see a life-sized Millennium Falcon and the Mos Eisley Cantina. Each store and restaurant in the Star Wars land

Have a look at the concept art.

Where is Tomorrow in Tomorrowland? A Movie Review

Tomorrowland_poster

E: I’m fairly sure I’ve heard a certain orchestral riff before in Tomorrowland’s soundtrack. It’s inspiring enough to make me want to soar to new heights, to explore the imagination, to dream of brighter tomorrows and well, quite simply, not to give up hope. Director Brad Bird has a good idea to work from, and I appreciate where he wants to go with this somewhat chaotic film, but is it enough to get that darned musical mosaic out of my head?

J: While Ed is haunted by music I am more haunted at how long it took to get this movie started. Too much time was spent on the origin of our two protagonists, Frank Walker (George Clooney) and Casey Newton (Britt Robertson). That slowed parts of the film down, when they really should have focused more on chase scenes involving the robots who were after them.

E: A lot of time is spent on Newt (that’s my nickname for her) and her obsession with finding Tomorrowland.  That place is almost like Jurassic Park in ruins when she finally makes it there and no, that’s not where the song is from. Instead of being faced with terror (well, there are those robots), they need to find answers as to why the future is doomed.

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Two Otaku’s Hopes for a Big Hero 6 Sequel

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
and James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

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Just what can fans expect from a sequel to Big Hero 6? The standard response is only if a great story exists to warrant a continuation. That was what co-director Chris Williams told CinemaBlend a week or so ago. But with an Academy Award under their belts, rumblings from voice actor Genesis Rodriguez and very good sales since this title’s release, to not continue in this cash cow can be considered remiss.

With news that a Frozen 2 sequel is indeed in the works, to not continue forth with another animated superhero action-adventure film will have some folks petitioning for a continuation somehow. A comic book follow-up is easier to create and a television series will not necessarily be as exciting as the movie. Sometimes the seeds of how a new franchise can grow are nestled into the first film and they may get explored when expanding a world is required.

From Big Hero 6, what we do know is that:
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Are Destinys Decided After Going Into the Woods to Sing and Dance?

Unless Disney fans love musicals, their adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods is not worth rushing out to see.

(or just how many D words can I use
to describe this Disney Film)

Into the Woods

Unless Disney fans love musicals, their adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods is not worth rushing out to see. Even weeks since its premiere, it’s showing signs of not necessarily being a timeless masterpiece since its Broadway debut in 1987. Although the movie version is certainly faithful to themes the creators wanted to explore, the alterations made to make it more widely accessible as a film is only one part of the problem. Although they were consulted for approving the changes, some bits were for the best and others for the worst.

In what gets explored in the film are that of each character’s darkest desires getting revealed when they enter the woods. The further they go, the more trouble they get into. And the lengthy discourse in setting up each of them (when there are six) can be detrimental to the length of the product. As a two-hour film, the struggle is with keeping audiences entertained in its prolonged pace.

The music heavy intro does not work in its set up about a poor baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) wanting a child, a needy girl (Lilla Crawford) possibly named Red demanding attention, an adventurous boy named Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) daring enough to tempt fate after selling off his favourite cow, a tawdry lady known as Cinderella (Anna Kendrick) yearning to go to a three-day ball and a wicked witch (Meryl Streep) showing that there is more to her than meets the eye. These character’s misdeeds can lead to the death of them all.

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