Slated for release in 2013 Planes is a direct to home market spinoff of Cars about a single propeller cropduster who dreams of racing against some of the fastest flyers in the skies. The movie was made at DisneyToon Studios which is supposedly out of the sequel game, but still produces spinoffs of Disney and Pixar features.
Are you excited to see what’s going on above Lightning McQueen and Mater? Or have you had enough talking vehicle movies?
What could be a more appropriate Friday Fun Link than a site called Mr. Fun? And when Mr. Fun is animator and story artist Floyd Norman, you know you’re in for some juicy stories about the history of animation from someone who was there to see it happen. Floyd Norman has worked at the Disney studios on and off for decades. He was there when Walt Disney and the Nine Old Men were still part of the studio. He has worked on TV shows and specials from Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert to Smurfs to Beverly Hills Teens. He also co-founded the AfroKids animation studio. More recently, he’s been back at Disney and Pixar, storyboarding on a variety of films.
When Floyd Norman writes about animation, it’s well worth reading. He doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of what goes into making animation. His firsthand accounts of life at Disney when the original legends of the studio walked the halls are fascinating. The site is divided into short blog posts, longer stories, and gag drawings poking fun at the animation industry. No matter what kind of take on animation you’re in the mood for, Mr. Fun has something to keep you entertained.
Another Oscar Night has come and gone and another lucky few animated films have been recognized by the Academy. I just barely managed to stay up for the animation awards this year. (This week’s Monday Movie post explains why.) As usual, I’m not taking the Oscars too seriously, but I do think they’re an interesting look at how Hollywood perceives animation and how that changes as the years go by.
Since my last article was on the controversy over this year’s Annie Awards, I thought it was only fair to show one of the highlights of the ceremony as well. Brad Bird was one of the three winners of the 2011 Winsor McCay Award, which recognizes individuals whose work has made a significant contribution to the art of animation. (The other two equally deserving winners were Eric Goldberg and Matt Groening.) The above video includes a retrospective of Bird’s animation career and his prerecorded acceptance speech. If you’re not already familiar with Brad Bird, this is a great introduction to his work in animation, including films and shows your probably know and others you may want to checkout. If you already know who he is, skip ahead to about four and a half minutes in for the not-to-be-missed acceptance speech.
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
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.
We know almost right away that Mr. Potato Head’s attempted escape is part of the plan. Even before the tortilla comes into play, we see that it’s a diversion to keep the cymbal monkey occupied so that Slinky can escape. What Barbie is up to is a little less clear. There’s no acknowledgement from either Barbie or the other characters that her plea for Ken to take her back is also part of the plan. We still don’t know Barbie quite as well as we know the rest of the toys, so it’s not beyond thinking that she really has broken down under the stress of incarceration in the Butterfly Room. She has started to prove her loyalty to the toys by choosing to share their fate rather than stay with her new boyfriend. But when we learn what she’s really doing at Ken’s Dream House, her status as part of the toys’ family is confirmed.
The reveal of Lotso’s true nature comes slowly. We might suspect that he knew more than he let on about the kind of playtime the toys could expect in the Caterpillar Room. As the toy in charge at Sunnyside, how could he not? But when Buzz breaks out of the Caterpillar Room and discovers the Butterfly Room elite gambling in the top of a vending machine, it raises the possibility that something is going on behind Lotso’s back. These are the toys that we and Buzz hear dismissing the newcomers as “toddler fodder” unlikely to last very long. And when Lotso discovers that the other toys have tied Buzz up to interrogate him, his concern seems genuine. Even his explanation for the way Sunnyside is run doesn’t sound unreasonable to either Buzz or the audience. It’s not possible for all of the toys to stay in the Butterfly Room; some of them would inevitably be moved back into the Caterpillar Room by Sunnyside’s human staff. And the idea of putting the newest toys in with the toddlers, with the promise of someday moving up to the Butterfly Room, sounds like a fair system. But the other toys’ suggestions from earlier that Buzz and his friends are unlikely to last a week at Sunnyside hints at how the system is completely stacked against any new toy. Buzz doesn’t know this yet. He gets on Lotso’s bad side not by figuring out that the Caterpillar Room toys don’t stand a chance, but by turning down Lotso’s offer to move into the Butterfly Room while his friends remain where they are,
Andy’s mom pulls into the parking lot and the toys get their first look at their possible new home: Sunnyside Daycare. Woody is still trying to maintain order. All he wants is to get everyone back to Andy’s house and that’s not going to happen if the other toys start to see daycare as a viable alternative to the attic. But that’s exactly what’s happening. I particularly love Rex’s line here. All of the other toys are excited by glimpses of the playground and the promise of happy children who will play with them, but Rex concludes that daycare must be a nice place solely because they have a rainbow on the door.
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