Part two of my Beauty and the Beast article isn’t ready yet and my backup plan just fell through. So in the meantime, please enjoy this short video of Belle and the Beast (and one stowaway) presenting the award for Best Animated Short Film at the 64th Academy Awards. Who knew that Beast wore reading glasses?
I found this clip, which I hadn’t seen since its original broadcast, in an article from the Mouse House with Brent Nachman series at Fused Film.
Though I usually hate picking a single favorite anything, I will tell you that Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie.
This is not a surprise to anyone who knows me and even less of a surprise to anyone who knew me as a teenager. For many years, Beauty and the Beast was my greatest obsession. I saw the film over twenty times in theaters, labored over countless drawings of the characters, purchased all manner of books, toys, posters, t-shirts, and other memorabilia, clipped out newspaper and magazine articles about the film, and dragged my family to the Disney on Ice adaptation. I’m sure that my age had something to do with just how hard I fell for the film. I was thirteen when it came out, exactly the right age to love a movie as wholeheartedly as I ended up loving this one. The film’s message of looking past appearances to the character within was also particularly resonant to an awkward teenager with little confidence in her looks. And yet, when I go back and watch it today, I feel something more than nostalgia. What I’m enjoying is not just the comfortable familiarity of something I loved when I was younger, but the amazing achievement of a dream team of talented filmmakers at the top of their game. To me, this movie remains the Disney fairy tale’s high water mark, the most perfect example of the genre.
Most people have at least heard of Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon, two of this years’ three Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature. The Illusionist is less well known, but has been receiving more attention since it added an Oscar nomination to its list of accolades. It’s currently playing in a variety of theaters across the U.S. and is scheduled to open in still more over the next few months, giving audiences ample opportunity to see it. Is this quiet and melancholy film worth checking out?
Creating a new version of a well-known and well-loved story is a big undertaking, full of both opportunities and potential challenges. In the world of manga and anime, Astro Boy is one such beloved story. Osamu Tezuka‘s tale of a super powered boy robot is one of his major manga works and widely regarded as the origin of the anime style. Imagi animation Studios‘ feature film is not the first retelling of the Astro Boy story, but it faced a unique set of obstacles. Could the film appeal to both existing fans who already loved Tezuka’s work and viewers who were completely unfamiliar with Astro? Would Tezuka’s decades old designs translate into computer animation? How would the new movie balance remaining true to the original story with appealing to modern day audiences?
Song Of The Sea – Conceptual Trailer from Cartoon Saloon on Vimeo.
Two snow days in a row have sapped my energy for a longer post. I may get it finished later this week. In the meantime, here’s a short one with a video.
Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon got a lot of attention when their debut feature film The Secret of Kells received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. Not content to bask in their first movie’s success, the studio is working on a couple of other features, including Song of the Sea, which appears to be furthest along in production, judging by the footage seen above.
The video is identified as a “conceptual trailer,” which I’m guessing means that its only meant to suggest the main ideas of the film and isn’t necessarily footage we’ll be seeing in the final film. The trailer has apparently been kicking around for a year or so, but I only just found out about it (thanks to Charles Kenny of The Animation Anomaly). The comments on Cartoon Saloon’s site suggest that we’re unlikely to see this film in theaters before 2013. For fans of The Secret of Kells, the trailer offers a tempting glimpse of a movie in a similar style focused on the legends of selkies (seals with the power to shed their skins and become human). For those of you haven’t checked out Kells yet, consider this a reminder.
So the 2011 Oscar nominations are out and I have a confession to make.
I have only seen one of the Best Animated Feature nominees.
I think I can be forgiven for not having seen The Illusionist yet. This latest film from Sylvain Chomet – director of 2004 Best Animated Feature nominee The Triplets of Belleville – is still gradually making its way across the country and won’t be playing near me until this Friday. (To see when and where it’s playing near you, check the official site.) But I have no excuse beyond bad timing for missing How To Train Your Dragon. Despite numerous reports from critics and friends whose opinions I respect that it’s quite good, I just haven’t made the time to see it. It’s a problem I intend to remedy before the Oscars are handed out.
So what can I say about this year’s Best Animated Feature nominees? Sizing up the competitors
Though Rover Dangerfield has become a little less lost since the Nostalgia Critic made it the subject of a recent review, it is still not a well known film. I imagine that most people would be surprised to learn that famed stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield once wrote, executive produced, and starred in an animated film about a dog from Las Vegas who gets dumped on a farm. Like a number of animated movies in the 90s, it came and went without much fanfare. In this, case, the film’s obscurity is not surprising, for Rover Dangerfield buries what unique material it does have in piles of worn-out cliches.
My friend and sometimes Ink and Pixel Club contributor Nick Nadel has a new article up on Premiere.com about animated title sequences from live-action movies. Animated opening credits are always a fun surprise when they show up and can set the tone for the movie to come or even surpass the film itself. Many of my personal favorites are among those listed, including the brilliant titles to Catch Me If You Can.
We’re quickly approaching the wrap-up phase of the story, where all but the most major problems facing the toys will be solved in a quick yet satisfying way. As in Toy Story 2, the seemingly impossible task of getting the toys home in turns out to be far less difficult than it looks. Sid’s earlier cameo pays off by allowing the toys to identify the garbage truck that will take them back to Andy. Even if we don’t realize that the garbageman is Sid, we and the toys both remember his penchant for rocking out. Why the garbage truck is visiting Andy’s home for the second time in less than a week is never explained, but it’s a minor detail and again, the movie provides solid answers to most other questions we might have, so I’m okay with letting one or two slide. The toys return to Andy’s house and hose themselves off, keeping Andy’s happiness at discovering his old toys weren’t thrown away from being tempered by puzzlement over why they’re covered in grim and non-toxic finger paints and smell like a dump. Since Andy’s room is nearly empty, Mrs. Potato Head can easily locate her missing eye. The only issue that isn’t yet resolved is the one that has been plaguing the toys since the start of the movie: where do they belong now that Andy has outgrown them?
The holiday craziness has finally caught up with me. The good news is that I had a great time with lots of friends and family who I don’t get to see very often and among the gifts I received are a couple of items that will likely be fodder for future articles. The bad news is that I haven’t had time to put together the final installment of my Toy Story 3 analysis. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have anything for you this week. With something as interesting as the ad campaign to get Toy Story 3 nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.
Studios putting out ads asking Academy voters to consider their films for particular honors is nothing new. But the aggressive push to get an animated film into the running for the top honor is a more recent phenomenon. The expansion of the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten has put the top prize (or at least advancement to the final round) within the reach of a greater range of movies. Up being chosen as one of the Elite Ten for the 2010 Academy Awards made it clear that animated films had an equal shot at being nominated. Disney and Pixar aren’t alone in seeking Best Picture consideration for their animated offerings; I’ve seen ads from Dreamworks promoting How To Train Your Dragon as a potential Best Picture nominee. What’s garnering attention for the Toy Story 3 campaign is the comparisons it draws between the Pixar film and past Best Picture winners. The intent is not to suggest that Toy Story 3 is like all of these movies rolled into one, but to remind Academy voters of past winners that may not have fit the stereotypical Best Picture mold. Combined with the mention of the movie’s near-universal critical acclaim, it makes a strong case for Toy Story 3 as a Best Picture nominee.
Will it work? I wouldn’t be surprised, at least as far as the nomination goes. Toy Story 3 has enjoyed both commercial and critical success. It’s shown up on enough “Best of the Year” lists that it’s exclusion from the field of Best Picture nominees would raise quite a few eyebrows. But can it go all the way? I want to believe that an animated movie can win the Oscar for Best Picture. All the same, I realize that animation hasn’t completely escaped the unfair “kiddie flicks” label it’s been saddled with in the U.S. Even putting that aside, Toy Story 3 is a film that can be enjoyed by young kids as well as adults. It’s a fantastic family film, but the Academy isn’t known for handing the Best Picture award to family films (or comedies or anything other than a drama). While I do love the movie, I haven’t seen every other film that came out this year, so I can’t say for certain whether it will be the most deserving of the ten films up for the award. I can see Toy Story 3 getting a Best Picture nomination and possibly walking away with the Best Animated Feature award. But I’ll be very surprised if Pixar manages to crack the animation glass ceiling and take the Best Picture Oscar home.
Image in this article is copyright Disney/Pixar.
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