Entries Tagged 'Animation' ↓

Every now and then, after I gratuitously kill an insect, I go into this weird thought space: I wonder what would happen if, one day, I opened the front door and outside was a huge, Kafka-sized roach, fly, or ant, there to avenge all the insects I’ve ever murdered, en toto.

What would happen? What would one see?

Probably something like this, above.

Infinity and beyond: Buzz Lightyear sketch from Toy Story (1995)

Pixar, the computer animation powerhouse behind such works as Toy Story, above, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, and, currently, the number one movie in the country, Wall•E, has created one of the strongest, most dominant brands in entertainment. But, in its early days, the company stumbled and faltered repeatedly, staying in business by the sheer dint of its tenacious founders.

So says David A. Price in his new book, The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company. David Price is today’s guest on my WBAI-NY / 99.5 FM radio show, NONFICTION, this afternoon, Friday, July 4th, 2 pm ET.

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“Heh, heh…keep laffin’, lil’ white chillun…”: Uncle Remus and friends

You probably know that Disney, global makers of fine family entertainment, has a rich history of racist characters in its long legacy of films, TV shows, and other properties. But any list of the company’s nine most offensive creations, like this one from Cracked.com, that merely ranks Song of the South‘s “Uncle Remus,” above, at number 2 has got to be a doozy.

This looks very familiar: C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) in The Clone Wars

Please: I want someone to tell me, and I want you to be honest:

Am I a bad person because, after looking at the trailer for Lucasfilm Animation’s upcoming CGI series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I feel almost nothing, except, perhaps, the loss of animation director Genndy Tartakovsky?

Tartakovsky (b. 1970) helmed the similarly-titled, Emmy Award-winning Star Wars: Clone Wars. The microseries aired on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005, much as the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars will run there this fall. (Tartakovsky first became known for the long-running Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory on that animation channel.)

I saw Clone Wars when it was released on DVD in 2005.

I’m still reeling from it.

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Come on: What more do you really need to know?  : )  Just click on it.

“Now, pretend that you’re Corey Clark”: Paula and Skat role-play

Was Paula Abdul on drugs?

Not last week, when she tried to judge American Idol contestant Jason Castro’s non-existent second performance. No, was she high in the early ’90s, when she agreed to a cameo in the video for MC Skat Kat’s solo debut, “Skat Strut,” a Fresh Prince-ish piffle over Earth Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove” bassline.

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The first time I saw the trailer for 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the images that threw me most for a loop were those of the panoramic space battle over planet Coruscant, pictured below.

With its massive, mile-long cruisers, acres of explosions and laser bolts, and the shimmering, metal world below, I found myself overwhelmed by the realization that digital tools in filmmaking had created new possibilities in the artform, not merely for effects, but for outright visual density.

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A funky minute of play from the video game Jedi Outcast. Here, Sariss, one of seven Dark Jedi, loses her cool over, and her noggin to, self-trained Jedi master and rebel operative Kyle Katarn. Yeah: Nerds rule.

Go ahead, Elastigirl: Look behind the door….

Here’s more proof, as if you needed it, that you can make anything look like anything else with a skilled-enough editor. On this trailer, a 22-year-old film student named Breanne (YouTube member name: forensicator8) decapitates director Brad Bird’s 2004 Oscar-winning masterpiece, The Incredibles, changing it from a high-spirited romp into a fever dream of dread.

Think of it as a meta-reversal on Rob Ryang’s 2005 Shining trailer, which reframed the terror of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, giving it back as a cheesy-but-tender father-son dramedy. Now, I’m just waiting to see if some Gandalf out there can turn Last Year at Marienbad into a high-speed action movie. Impress me.

Please: Would someone just shoot me?

According to this article in Animation Magazine, Tyler Perry is in discussions to do—help me—a Madea cartoon series:

Perry’s yet untitled project will follow his character Madea on her comedic trials and tribulations, and will teach “children about family values, in a way that only Madea could!” “After receiving thousands of letters from parents telling me how much their kids love Madea and realizing that a lot of the plays were not kid friendly,” says Perry, “I wanted to do something more appropriate and this seems to be it. A ‘Madea’ animation looks like the best way.”

Actually, the really best way would be for people to stop watching movies and plays with Madea in them, no?