Monday, June 29, 2009

Pre-order 'Snow White' on Blu-ray Now!


Briefly: The first feature-length animated movie of all-time is now available for pre-order on Blu-ray! Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be released on Blu-ray in early October. According to DisneyShopping.com, if you pre-order now the 2-disc Blu-ray set will ship on October 6. They have cristened this release the 'diamond edition'.

Also, as you can see by the bright circle attached to the above image, pre-ordering saves you $10 on a future purchase. Pretty good I guess, but you're spending that $10 on shipping which you wouldn't need to pay if you got it in the store...

Here's more on this special Blu-ray version right from Disney:

Snow White sparkles like never before on this DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition, with a brilliant, all-new state-of-the-art digital restoration and exciting new bonus features! The Diamond Edition debut of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will keep audiences spellbound for hours with exciting content exclusive to this historic release, presented with spectacular newly restored picture and 7.1 Digital Theater System Hi-Def Surround Sound. Utilizing the latest in technology, possible only by the power of Blu-ray, the release includes ''Disney Smart Navigation,'' allowing the magic and personality of Disney Characters to come to life as never before. ''Disney Family Play,'' the ultimate interactive Hi-Def experience, offers a variety of immersive games, activities and unprecedented levels of personalization and customization features, to transform how families experience home entertainment together.
Pre-order the Blu-ray here. Or read more about it here.

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The Ghostbusters, Simpsonized


One of my favorite movies of all-time is Ghostbusters. It has got it all: action, romance, comedy galore, and even Rick Moranis. Well, Dean over at Springfield Punx has done it again with this amazing collection of Simpsonized Ghostbusters! Check it out!

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Official 'Alice' Website Launched


I am getting more and more excited to see Burton's Alice in Wonderland. It looks weird, entertaining, funny, quirky, and the closest adaptation to Carroll's original work. I can't even wait to see a teaser for the flick. It has some of my favorite actors and actresses (Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Michael Sheen, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Christopher Lee, Stephen Fry, Crispin Glover...), is being directed by one of my favorite directors, and is based on one of my favorite novels. And I don't think I have to mention that it is being made by one of my favorite movie studios, Walt Disney Pictures.


OK, you get it. I think that Alice in Wonderland will be a good movie, and I am excited to see it. If you are as excited and hopeful as I am, you'll be happy to hear that the official site has just launched. There isn't much to the site right now: just a logo for the film, a cool picture of the Mad Hatter's hat, and the ability to sign up for updates.

Still, I am excited to see it. Read more about the film here.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

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Oscars Double Amount of Best Picture Nominations


Briefly: The Academy has upped the amount of Best Picture nominations for next year's 82nd annual award ceremony from 5 to 10 nominees.

This is very exciting news! Not only will predicting the winners be more difficult, but this also allows more films to be recognized for the wonderful films they are. I think that this is glorious news, which makes me wonder why they hadn't done this earlier. There are films every single year which I think are worthy of a Best Picture nomination, but are then muscled out by films with bigger budgets.

So, does this mean that Up will be nominated for Best Picture in February? I say, "absolutely". There are certainly not 10 other films that surpass the beauty and greatness of Up. Mark my words: Up will definitely be nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards. Will it win? I hope so, but am really not sure.

Source: Cinematical

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Monday, June 22, 2009

Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' Is Looking Weirder Than I Could Have Imagined [UPDATED]


Briefly: Here are some really cool photos that have been recently released for Tim Burton's upcoming re-imagining of some of the most beloved novels of all time: Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Above is the first official picture of some of the cast; Johnny Depp as the very odd-looking Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter (Burton's wife) as the pompous Red Queen, and Anne Hathaway as the striking White Queen. Read more about the film here, or look below for some really interesting (those are quite the tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum...) photographs that should make you as excited for the quirky, potentially creepy film as I am, which is hopefully better than Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:





Update: CC2K has gotten their hands on the script for the film! Read their article (which is packed with spoilers) if you want to learn much more about the movie which, from reading the article, looks a lot closer to Carroll's original story than any adaptation I've ever seen. Read all about it here.

Source: /Film, USAToday

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Ultimate Buzz Lightyear, More 'Toy Story' Toys Look Amazing [UPDATED]


With the looming release of not one, not two, but three Toy Story films in the next year, it makes sense that Disney is re-creating the line of merchandise for the films (with the help of John Lasseter, thankfully), to create 'The Definitive Toy Story Collection.' The Ultimate Buzz Lightyear (remind you of a certain expensive WALL-E toy from last year?...) looks like it will be very, very cool:

Standing 16 inches tall and sporting seven motors, more than 100 phrases, and responding to voice, this goes beyond toy. When you first take Buzz out of the box, he thinks he’s a real Space Ranger. If you say “Star Command” he tries to contact Star Command for real. Once you say “You’re A Toy!” his behavior changes accordingly. You can control Buzz with a 15-function wireless remote control, and the controller can be used to play a laser game with Buzz. What really blew me away was the “Puppeteering Programming” function. This function allows you to program a series of moves simply by moving his head, arms and legs in the sequence you want. Buzz will record the movements and play them back, including phrases and laser blasts.
Sound awesome? Well, I know it will be. Pricey, I'm sure, but awesome nonetheless. But that isn't all of the good news. More great toys inspired by October's re-release are coming out soon.


RC from the film is getting a reboot as well and it "has that peppy puppy bounce that RC had in the movie. The designers also gave the toy IR and bump sensors for collision avoidance. You can control RC using the normal controller, and you can call him to you by saying, 'Come here RC!' Using dual audio sensors, RC can figure out where you are and head over to you."

Another feature mentioned in the article is that upon clapping your hands, the new Mr. Potato Head will pop all of its parts out of its body. Very funny and cool.

I cannot wait to get my hands on some of these sure-to-be fun and entertaining toys.

Update: Popular gadget blog Gizmodo has more information on the Ultimate Buzz, including a price tag of around $140, and the following video of the amazing toy in action!

Buzz Lightyear Robot Toy from Gizmodo on Vimeo.



Source: Wired

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The 'Christmas Carol' Train: A Pictorial Tour


Robert Zemeckis has been hard at work on another Christmas-related film that will be released on November 6 of this year. The film is Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and stars Jim Carrey, Bob Hoskins, and Gary Oldman, among many others. It is a Disney film, and, from what I have seen of it, looks like it'll be a great adaptation of one of the world's most timeless stories.

The film's release is 5 months away, yet the promotional period has already begun. Touring the nation is a Christmas Carol Train. It has just arrived in Denver, but it still has 35 more stops until its tour ends. It features interactive stations, clips from the film, as well as other fun and technological things. I have just gotten back from touring the train, and here is a photo tour just for you (be sure to click on any images you like for a much, much higher resolution):


Here are some shots taken outside of the train. They are just of Victorian-style lampposts, the Christmas Carol logo, etc. Nothing too exciting:








The first room of the train is pretty neat. It has mannequins wearing costumes, presumably made as models for the animators, as well as portraits of the characters. Here's my favorite portrait of young Scrooge. The striking resemblance to what was most likely a kid Jim Carrey is absolutely hilarious:


Here are the rest of the portraits, some very cool and original Dickens documents, as well as the other photos I took in that car:


(Another funny, incredibly accurate Carrey resemblance!):




A kinda creepy-lookin' Gary Oldman as Tiny Tim. Why'd they pick one of the creepiest actors to play one of the most innocent characters of all time?...











These next couple of rooms have about 12 televisions cycling through conceptual art for the film, short featurettes about the art behind the film, etc. These cars also have various rare Dickens documents which have never been removed from the Dickens museum in London until now. They also have small models of the characters, and large models of Victorian architecture that can be found in the film. Very cool. Enjoy:








































The following cars contained information about the technological aspects of the production, which has made vast improvements in the area of motion capture. (Although there have been vast improvements on the medium, the bottom line is that it is still not animation, it needs a lot of work, and, if you ask me, it has nowhere near the depth or feel of a Pixar, or even a DreamWorks, film.) There are posed mannequins, over 50 different clips from the movie from different stages of development, even more featurettes (I watched well over an hour of non-repetitious commentary for the film. That'll be quite a DVD.), among other things from these cars. Interesting...


































There is one car with interactive stuff that didn't really need any pictures since it isn't all that interesting unless you are participating. They have a station where you can take your picture and morph it into one of the characters', and also a station with trivia. Fun if you're there, but not that great for an image tour.



This is the inflatable theater where we were shown a few scenes from the film, as well as the trailer...in 3D (ugh). No cameras were allowed into the theater for obvious reasons.


The film looks like it'll be a great adaptation of Dickens' classic story, but, once again, motion capture still looks kind of cold, and it is pretty difficult to get immersed into a story without convincing animation (and, heck, motion capture isn't even animation). I am very much looking forward to Disney's A Christmas Carol, and also to the advances that will surely make motion capture a better medium of filmmaking.


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