Tuesday, January 31, 2012

New 'Lady and the Tramp' song



Briefly: Above find a video featuring a never-before-heard song that was cut from Disney's 1955 classic The Lady and the Tramp. Nice song, but I can see why it was cut.

Still, pretty neat.

Source: WSJ

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Ray Bradbury on Disneyland

Holiday was a popular magazine published from 1946-1977. Last week, a blog archiving the articles of the old periodical published a 1956 article from prolific science-fiction author, Ray Bradbury. In his article, The Machine-Tooled Happyland, he summarizes--quite emphatically, poetically, and philosophically--how great and influential Disneyland is.

It is definitely worth the read.

Check it out here.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Academy has spoken . . . (and so have I).


The nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards were announced earlier this morning in Beverly Hills, California.

There are some surprises, but overall they're fairly predictable. Cars 2 has no chance of seeing any Oscar glory, without a nomination in the Animated Feature category. I'm not very surprised by this, since Pixar really broke its streak with that picture. However, Pixar can redeem itself with Enrico Casarosa's short La Luna, which has a nomination in the Animated Shorts category. From what I've heard of this elusive short, it is a stunning shoe-in for the prize.

Surprisingly, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots both got a nomination, but Tintin didn't, perhaps as a result of the impassioned debates surrounding motion capture's place among the world of animation. I was very glad that Tintin won the Golden Globe for Animated Feature--it tells a great story with eye-catching visuals, and really shows what the future of mo-cap holds.

My biggest beef this year is with Hugo. It has the most nominations at 11. It is beautifully nostalgic with stunning visuals, but the story of Selznick's original The Invention of Hugo Cabret is sucked dry by Scorsese's ignorance of character depth. The film is pretty to look at, but it does not tell a compelling story. Scorsese won the Golden Globe for Directing, and I think it is egregious. I did not like the film one bit, if you couldn't tell.

However, I am ecstatic about the attention that The Artist is getting. It is a true film--a crowning achievement of the modern filmmaking world. It is funny, emotional, and musical with great acting and set pieces that you can't help but get lost in...all without a spoken word.

Another thing I'm ecstatic about? The Muppets' "Man or Muppet" not only being nominated for Best Original Song, but also being a surefire winner in the sparse category. It is a bang-up song from the most outstanding film of last year.

Below, find the full list of nominations. My predictions for who will win are in red, but who I want to win is in bold. I didn't make predictions in every category, since I don't even pretend to be qualified to do that. There's also the occasional commentary on my selections. You'll notice a lot of things are bolded and red. This is just because I, perhaps naively, think that the Academy will be just this year. Enjoy . . .

Read More...

Monday, January 9, 2012

'Tangled Ever After' clip


Above you'll find the set-up for Tangled Ever After, a short that will be preceding the highly-anticipated Beauty and the Beast 3D later this month on the 13th.

Here's the official press release:
The Walt Disney Studios proudly announced today that directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, the talented team behind Disney Animation Studio’s global blockbuster Tangled, will premiere a delightful new animated short film spotlighting the royal wedding of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) and Flynn Rider – a.k.a Eugene – (Zachary Levi) in front of each screening of Beauty and the Beast in 3D, which opens on January 13, 2012.By popular demand, Greno and Howard are bringing back some of Disney’s most beloved characters when Tangled Ever After picks up where Tangled left off. The Kingdom is in a festive mood as everyone gathers for the royal wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn. However, when Pascal and Maximus, as flower chameleon and ring bearer, respectively, lose the gold bands, a frenzied search and recovery mission gets underway. As the desperate duo tries to find the rings before anyone discovers that they’re missing, they leave behind a trail of comical chaos that includes flying lanterns, a flock of doves, a wine barrel barricade and a very sticky finale. Will Maximus and Pascal save the day and make it to the church in time? And will they ever get Flynn’s nose right?
Awesome Tolkien reference with the ring. One of the best animated characters of all time.

I'm excited.