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Beauty and the Beast 3-D: Review(ish)

Damon Houx — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:00:25 +0000

Since its release in 1991, Beauty and the Beast has been one of the crown jewels of Disney animation. Until 2009′s Up, it was the only animated film to be nominated for best picture, and showed that The Little Mermaid was no fluke. It signaled the great 90′s renaissance of the studio, leading to Aladdin and The Lion King. Now it’s hitting theaters in a 3-D edition. And here’s what you need to know.

What version is it?

This is the theatrical cut. There have two alternate version of the film available, a workprint version and an extended edition which included the song “Human Again.” Doing extended versions was a Disney trend for a moment (they also added a number back into The Lion King), but it seems with the reissues they are keeping to the theatrical cuts.

But is there anything new?

Well, with this release, they’re putting out the short film Tangled Ever After, which is a short/sequel to Tangled. As the lovers from the first film are set to marry, the chameleon Pascal and horse Maximus accidentally lose the wedding rings and must go on a chase to get them before the couple say I do. Though there’s not much story here, it’s charming in how it keeps making it harder to get the rings.

How’s the 3-D?

On this point you may be talking to the wrong person. I don’t really care about 3-D most of the time, and it doesn’t add much to my experience of a film. That said, it’s never distracting, though not as cleanly or effectively done as it was in The Lion King. That said, it didn’t seem to effect the color levels to any noticeable degree, and the dimensionality is achieved without every being distracting. The film wasn’t made for it, but the new 3-D does create a sense of space.If you love the film and own it, I can’t really see this as a selling point, but if this is a way for parents to take their children to the theater to see the films they loved as children, then everyone wins.

And the film?

What’s great about good animation (or great animation in this case) is that they tend to be narratively compact with cleanly drawn characters (pun intended). Belle and the Beast are fascinating to look at, but also create empathy. The story moves at a quick clip and there’s a reasonably good moral at the center of the film. And like classic Disney it recognizes that there is love and there may be hints of the sexual to it (I can’t think of another Disney film with such busty supporting players), but keeps it both believably tame and perfect for children.

Reasonably good moral?

Belle decides between Gaston – who’s boorish but handsome – and the Beast, who’s conventionally unattractive but way more interesting/into the stuff she likes. The only problem is that he starts out as an abusive jerk (which he does to hide his real feelings). Much like the Twilight films, that can be a sticking point, as she supposedly tames him in some ways. None of this is ever so obnoxious that it ruins the film, but College-age film critics can make hay with the sexual politics. Eh, the film works.

Any other notes?

I’ll say this. Watching it again, some of the legend stuff makes no sense. The Beast is supposed to die on his 21st birthday, and the servants suggest that they’ve been turned into inanimate objects for ten years, so he was cursed when he was eleven? The math is a little fuzzy on that. It’s also worth noting that Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury) has a son named Chip, and he seems to have a number of other brothers and sisters, but then when Mrs. Potts is (spoiler) turned back into human form, she looks to be a grandmother and her son looks to be about five. Some of this may have been the construction process of the film (the opening may have been a way to cleanly tell the set-up done after the fact), but thankfully none of it is distracting.

So?

The movie is good, if you love it check it out. As I said, I don’t know if you need the 3-D, but getting to see a great film in the theater is always a treat. Beauty and the Beast 3-D hits theaters January 13, 2012. Check it out.

How about a trailer?

Okay:

Tale as Old As Time Updated: Beauty and the Beast 3-D Trailer

Damon Houx — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:38:42 +0000

After the success of The Lion King 3-D, Disney announced they were going to dimensionalize some of the older films, and first up is Beauty and the Beast, the 1991 Academy Award Best Picture nominee. It’s going to hit theaters January 13, 2012, with a Tangled short film attached, Tangled Ever After. Not a bad package. Check out the trailer…

Disney had already prepared a 3-D version of Beauty and the Beast for home video, but after The Lion King reissue made nearly $100 Million domestic, the possiblity that other titles could also make money like that was too tempting to pass up, and so here we are.

In the pre-home video days, Disney would reissue their classics every couple years, and so generations go to see classics like Dumbo, Bambi and Fantasia in the theaters. But with all those titles now readily available on home video, it took them until the post-conversion boom to see how these titles could be repackaged to young kids and parents who were happy to take their children to the theater to see the films they loved growing up. And though this could be called a naked money grab, it at least feels like part of Disney tradition.

What Disney film would most like to see reissued and post-converted?

D23: Wrap Up on The Avengers, Pirates of the Caribbean and Monsters University

Damon Houx — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:58:41 +0000

D23, named after the year the Walt Disney Company was founded, was started as fan service. For most people, Disney is the films they grew up with and watched with their parents, and watch with their children – or even by themselves – and Disneyland (especially if you don’t live in California) is a place to go to once, maybe twice. For the D23 crowd, Walt Disney and its various products are a lifestyle choice. The hardcore run the gamut. From babies to the very old, from the physically fit to the couch potato, being at D23 means you probably have a season pass to Disneyland.

Which means that the event was almost entirely for the fans, but in that it replicated the Disneyland experience: everything involved waiting in long lines, and buying (possibly overpriced) Disney-brand items. One of the biggest lines on the first day was for the Disney store, which had D23 limited edition Disney toys and trinkets. Some may have been going to make money on Ebay, but it seems most were just going to get exclusives for themselves.

The floor was made up mostly of sellers, along with areas for more Disney related stuff (there was a section for the young TV shows, and another for improvements being made to the parks), but every section were in some way selling Disney-related materials. The sales floor had people who did airbrushed Disney drawings (officially), there was a booth for people wanting animatronic figures, another for Disneyland resort packages, and smaller areas with shirts and paraphernalia. There was also an autograph booth, but the stars they had were limited (Cindy Morgan, Bruce Boxleightner and Billy Dee Williams would be the highlights). The more official areas offered promotions for upcoming Disney productions, with little emphasis on theatrical titles. There was a Pirates of Caribbean: On Stranger Tides showcase, along with an area for Disney-based video games, food products, nail polish, and toys. This was – to be fair – no different than any other convention floor.

The majority of the panels then connected to other things. I went to see Don Hahn (producer of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast) give a presentation that was about creativity. What I didn’t realize was that he was also selling a book about the same thing. So instead of talking about the creative process in a way that was practical (though he did offer good advice), it was more of an ad for his book. Fair enough.

The big event for film writers was the movie panel, which ran from 10:30-ish to a little after 1:00. Over ten films were covered, and at an event like Comic-con, that would be enough for a day in Hall H. But while Comic-con is marked by its interactivity, D23 functioned as more of a sales presentation. Where Comic-con brings out the talent to talk about their project, show clips, and interact with the crowd, here stars mostly showed up to wave, and there was little activity from the stars other than brief (in the case of The Avengers, one sentence) platitudes about the films they were in. And press didn’t get a chance to talk with the talent, other than some brief video interviews during the presentation.

The film panels (for Monsters University and Brave) were basically extensions of their presentations on the main stage. Mostly they talked about the design, though (because of the no electronic equipment policy for the movies panel) they didn’t offer as much footage, nor were they as flashy. Like the Pixar nerds who presented them, they came off as really solid, but slightly dull power-point presentations.

And when Joe Quesada – Chief Creative Officer over at Marvel – hit the stage for an Arena event, instead of doing his normal pitch about what’s coming up and a heavy fan Q&A, he was told that most of the audience weren’t huge comic book fans, and so he settled on doing more of a “history of Marvel” discussion. He also wanted to show The Avengers footage, but couldn’t because everyone had their cell phones and such.

When Disney pulled out of Comic-con this year (for the most part, DreamWorks’s Fright Night and Real Steel were at the Con, and there were no DreamWorks booths at D23), there was a sense that it was partly to bolster their D23 presentations. Instead, Comic-con as a driving force for hype may be dying, and we may yet see it return to its less Hollywood-driven roots if studios begin to abandon it as a place to launch titles. This is the second year in a row that Universal had a film play at comic-con and die at the box office (Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Cowboys and Aliens), and it’s hard to know how much it helps a film, period. Comic book titan titles The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel didn’t show at Comic-con. Realistically, they didn’t need to be.

But for other studios, it would be impossible to have a D23-esque presentation, as Warner Brothers or 20th Century fox don’t have that sort of brand-name loyalty. But such is the power of Disney.

How many times have you gone to Disneyland?

Cars 2: Movie Review

Brendan Walsh — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:26:45 +0000

I’m often inclined to give family movies a pass (as evidenced by my favorable review of Mr. Popper’s Penguins), if only because sometimes you’ve got to drag the family to a movie theater just to get them all to shut up for 2 hours. Don’t worry, I sympathize here for you. If you needed this critic’s permission to pack up the family and go to the multiplex, here it is: Cars 2 is the ticket to buy this weekend. It’s a big, colorful, noisy spectacle that will please broad audiences looking for a good time, especially small children.

But this is a Pixar film! They’ve made some of the most emotionally resonant films of the last decade! It’s impossible not to compare Cars 2 to the rest of their catalogue, and as soon as you begin to, it breaks down. Read the rest of the review (and more car puns!), after the jump…

The Players

Directors- John Lasseter, Brad Lewis
Writers- Ben Queen, Dan Fogleman, John Lasseter, Brad Lewis
Stars- Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro
Original Music by- Michael Giacchino

Review Prequel:

Now before I even get into the sequel, let’s discuss for a moment why the first Cars movie is generally the most reviled of the Pixar works. Its story is derivative and unimaginative (who here remembers Doc Hollywood?), its characters are cliché and stereotypical (and racist! don’t forget, they’re kinda racist!), and its emotional substance is almost completely unmemorable. Cars is Pixar pandering to audiences who would rather have something familiar and easy, rather than living up to the potential they’ve proven to have film after film.

But it worked! Cars remains Disney and Pixar’s most profitable property, beating out Toy Story with over $2 Billion in merchandise and licensing sales per year. Every little boy in the world goes through a car phase, so all you have to do is slap a pair of googley eyes on the windshield, and a price tag on the box, and you’re good to start raking it in. Better Pixar than anyone else, I suppose. And a few critics’ whiney reviews about how “disappointed” they are couldn’t possibly stop them from taking this rainmaker out for another spin. Which brings me to…

The Plot:

When a loud mouthed Formula One race car (Turturro) goads Lightning McQueen (Wilson) into joining a worldwide racing tournament sponsored by an alternative energy impresario (Izzard), the gang hits the road! Along the way, McQueen’s best friend ‘Mater (the Cable Guy) accidentally joins a pair of English special agents (Caine & Mortimer) in an international spy plot, a la James Bond.

That’s right, a spy plot…a la James Bond. There’s gadgets, and chases, and explosions, and fighting (Like, kung-fu? How is this even possible?). In fact, we practically see more of these spy cars than we do of the characters from the first film! The ones who, according to revenue reports, adored and beloved by all! They’re barely in the movie! Except for ‘Mater, the lovable, idiot redneck. He’s all over this movie.

The plot moves at breakneck speed from the very beginning, and is full of more convoluted and contrived twists than I could count (which is to say, higher than 4). They’re the kind of plot elements that feel like they would only confuse a child. But I guess the little kids aren’t in it for the plot…they just wanna see the cars go vroom.

The story behind Cars 2 bears almost no resemblance to the first film, and just leaves you wondering why they even bothered putting these characters in it. You know what, I’m getting ahead of myself here. After all, there are a few nice things to be said about this movie. I’m not a complete monster.

The Good:

The World- True to the spy movie genre, there’s a whole lot of globetrotting in this film. We visit Japan, Italy, France, and England. Each new place is fully realized, bright, vivid, and overflowing with things to look at. The racetracks are much more interesting, now that they’re not circular Nascar tracks. They’re through cities, and towns, and mountains, letting the animators and designers really show their craft. Moreover, the 3-D adds wonderful depth and texture to the settings. Pixar really understand that 3-D is most effectively used when it creates an immersive world for the audience to feel like they’re entering this other world, rather than having it invade theirs.
Broader is Better?- To say that the first Cars spoke to a broader audience is actually a misstatement, I think. It’s actually speaking to a very specific audience: Nascar fans. Maybe their sensibilities are broader, but the fact is that film turns me off because it focuses on a sport which I couldn’t care less about. But you know what I love? Action movies. Who doesn’t love action movies?! And I don’t know how many Bond movies you’ve watched recently, but most of them are pretty dumb. But it doesn’t matter, because they’re lots of fun! That’s how it feels watching Cars 2; it’s fun in the moment, as long as you try not to think too hard during that moment.
John Turturro- Is always great. He puts on a funny Italian accent, and really seems to have the most appropriate amount of character and energy for his role. Now that the comic relief (‘Mater) is the star of the film, they needed a new character to fill that void, and they nailed it with John Turturro’s Francesco Bernoulli.

The Bad:

Mater – The breakout star of the first Cars was its comic relief, Tow ‘Mater, voiced by Larry T. Cableguy. But some one along the way must have misunderstood the function of a comic relief character when they insisted that he be the main character in this film. That never works, and is exactly why spin-off films for auxiliary characters in kid movies usually end up going straight to video. I can just hear the pitch meeting now: ”Reports indicate that kids love him the most, and I quote, ‘because he farts.’ So he’s got to be at the center of this flick. He should also fall in love with a pink car, so we can get the girls to buy some crap too.”
Toys - That’s all I see when I look at this movie. It’s just a vehicle (get it?!?) for introducing a whole new bunch of plastic junk for your kids to buy. The F-1 car, the rally car, the flying car, etc. When I look at Marlin, from Finding Nemo, I see a concerned father. Or when I look at Remy from Ratatouille, I see an artist struggling to gain recognition for his talents. Or when I look at Woody from Toy Story, I see…well, I see a toy. But he’s a toy with purpose, and friends, and feelings! There is not one reason to like or care about any of the characters in this movie, because there’s almost no opportunities for them to display any admirable qualities. The film is too caught up in its plot’s breakneck pace, so we’re just going to have to take them at their word when they tell us that Lightning and Mater are the best of friends. And that’s why you need to buy both action figures.
WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?! - This is something I’ve never been able to get past. Something about this universe has fried my suspension of disbelief circuits. I just don’t understand why everyone is car, and more importantly, what happened to all the humans? This is a world in which there are buildings, oil refineries, airports (the cars travel around in LIVING airplanes and boats, by the way), and stairs. Why are there stairs anywhere on this planet?!
Pope Problem: There’s one particularly brain melting shot during the race in Italy, where they show that the Pope-mobile is in attendance…and he’s riding in an identical, larger, sentient, Pope-mobile-mobile. This raises even more ridiculous questions: First of all, WHY DO CARS NEED A POPE?!? And if the Pope-Mobile-Mobile is secure, and identical to the Pope-mobile inside, why isn’t that just secure enough? It’s still bullet proof, right?! And why doesn’t the Car-God just prevent anything bad from ever happening to the Pope-Mobile?! By the way, I often have that last thought about the regular Pope.
World: As far as I’m concerned, this world is just some kind of weird parallel dimension in which the Terminator actually came back and killed Sarah Connor while she was pregnant. The machines took over the planet, killed all the humans, and then decided to build themselves as happy, adorable cars. Then they found religion, apparently.

Overall:

Though they’ve managed to broaden the appeal beyond Nascar audiences, and create a more viscerally enjoyable film than the first one, Cars 2 remains Pixar’s weakest film. But it doesn’t matter, because they’ll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Rating: 5/10

Cars 2 is in theaters June 24th!

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Interview: Cars 2 – John Lasseter, Michael Caine, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard

Brendan Walsh — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:25:20 +0000

Disney and Pixar have really revved up the publicity for this week’s release of Cars 2! Did you see what I did back there, by the way? That was a hilarious car pun. Listen, I’m just trying to appeal to the Cars crowd here. It seemed to work for those studios, at least. Do you have any idea how popular this franchise is?! $2 Billion dollars a year in merchandise and licensing! I’m just trying to follow the formula here. Anyway, director John Lasseter (pictured above) gathered with the film’s stars, Michael Caine, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Emily Mortimer, and Eddie Izzard, to discuss the new film with members of the press. Check out some highlights of what was said, after the jump…

As we’ve learned from the Toy Story 2 and especially in Toy Story 3, Pixar is extremely ambitious with their sequels. For Cars 2, Lasseter decided to take the cast of characters from the first film out of the sleepy town of Radiator Springs, and introduce them to the rest of the world. As if that weren’t enough, the gang also gets caught up in a case of international espionage. So it seems that this isn’t going to be a homespun yarn about enjoying a peaceful, quiet life, but will be an all out action/spy flick.

John Lasseter on the spy genre of Cars 2:

Lasseter: The spy movie came from Cars, [we had] a scene where Lightning and Sally were having a first date and it was set in a drive in movie theater, and we had a movie playing on the screen. And I love spy movies, my favorite TV show growing up was The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and my sons and I all love the Bourne movies…So we came up with this movie within a movie, and we had this character named Finn McMissile. That scene got cut, but I never forgot about it…Because in our world the spy and the cool spy car could be one and the same, and how cool would that be?

Lasseter on taking these characters around the world:

Lasseter: As I was traveling around the world after Cars doing publicity for it, I had cars characters on the brain, and as I went to places like Tokyo, London, Germany, Paris, Italy, I kept looking out the window and thinking how fun it would be to take our characters to these places. Because each of these places has their own automotive heritage and highways and types of driving…I also got turned on to the different types of racing, and [after] my first formula 1 race, I thought ‘Wow, this is cool.’ I just felt like a little kid, and I always trust that little boy in me for the stuff I find really fun.

These new story elements added a unique challenge of making everything in this newly expanded world more exciting and exotic. Lasseter went on to explain where they drew inspiration for some of the chase sequences:

Lasseter: The film’s pace has to do with the genre of the film, because I love spy movies and I think the Bourne movies upped the ante on how fast paced they can be. We set out not to make a parody of a spy movie, we set out to make a spy movie that just has cars as characters. So we studied the history of car chases, and really studied how they shoot them and cut them, and the energy. And you don’t get anything for free in animation, you really have to craft that.

Lasseter: We studied Ronin, the Robert DeNiro movie, we watched the Bourne Identity where he’s got the mini in Paris. We did an interesting study of the Ronin chases, because most of those chases cut in on the driver, but we don’t have that opportunity in a movie where the cars are the characters. So we did an experiment where we took those chases and we cut out all the shots of the drivers, and kept only the cars, and we learned a lot from that.

This film marks Lasseter’s return to directing (on top of his duties as chief creative officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation Studios). This was exciting news to the film’s star, Owen Wilson, who had this to say:

Wilson: The first voice session I went into a couple years back, all of a sudden he was there. I think he sort of decided at the last minute that he was going to be able, with his new duties at Disney, to direct this. So I was excited to work with him… [Working with John] It struck me how democratic it felt there…He’s not the big boss. It felt very collaborative, and he’s always excited like this is first movie.

Wilson on the differences between the two films:

Wilson: I thought it sounded like a completely new movie, and that it was now going to be this international racing, and I was excited to see how Pixar would show these cities, and this world, and it just seemed like a bigger canvas that the animators were going to get to paint on. The other one felt more heartfelt, and this felt more like a funny, bigger story.

Another stark difference between the two Cars films seems to be the significance of Larry the Cable Guy’s character, Tow Mater. Here, Larry discusses his realization that his character was much more central to the film’s plot:

Larry the Cable Guy: I’ve been involved with cars now since 2003…and I don’t use a sound alike, because I’m really proud of Mater, and when my kids hear mater, I want them to know that’s me I want. So every month, I do toys, games, video games– I’ve never really left the character. So when I heard we were gonna do Cars 2, I said, ‘oh, okay, that’s cool, awesome.” And I met with John [Lasseter], and he storyboarded it for me, and I was noticing there were a lot of scenes with mater, but it still had McQueen all through it. So I didn’t really think too much about it, ‘til when we started filming it [sic], almost every line I thought was really funny, and I’d say, ‘that’s a great line.’ But I just started noticing more…and I told john, and he said ‘Oh, well this is almost like Mater’s movie!’“

Larry the Cable Guy: Only then did I realize that Mater was really taking over that movie. But I’m glad I didn’t [‘til then]. I didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to show up and do my job right, because if I knew I was gonna be the main guy I might do something different.

Mr. The Cable Guy went on to explain his acting method:

Larry the Cable Guy: I don’t get real technical with these things. I’m Mater, Mater is me…How would I say this line? That’s how I’ll say this line. The hardest part for me with this movie was showing the different emotional ranges because Mater’s never done that. He’s always just the guy that did the funny little quip, and everyone laughs and moves on. This is a whole different range, especially towards the end, and I just put myself in those situations, and I think it turned out pretty good.

Veteran star Michael Caine joins the cast of vehicles as Finn McMissile, super spy extraordinaire. Caine talked a bit about exactly why he was drawn to this film:

Michael Caine: I’ve got three grandchildren, and of course the reason I really wanted to do it was because I wanted them to see me. They gave me a car with my voice, a little model car, and I brought a model car back to them, and they played with it, and they know it’s me. So I’ve got this tremendous bond with my grandchildren because of this film. If you think about it, the films that I make, little children can’t go and see them. So it was a wonderful opportunity for me.”

The film also co-stars Emily Mortimer, who you likely remember as the Jack Donneghy’s hollow boned fiance from 30 Rock‘s second season. Her character, a rookie spy, was originally a peripheral character, but Lasseter loved her performance so much that they continued to expand her role.

Here, Miss Mortimer discusses the growth of her character:

Emily Mortimer: I thought it was just going to be like a day long gig, at first, and they kept bringing me back for more and more. It’s a really interesting way of working, because it’s so organic. You’re collaborating from the very beginning on development on your character, and it changed a lot. The first few sessions are where you put down the main body of the part, then you keep coming back and finessing it, and by the very end, I’d gone quite far away from how I’d started off.”

Emily Mortimer: I think John just likes hanging out, though…It was so easy being there with him, it was one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve ever done. My husband thinks I’ve got a crush on him, and he’s probably right. It’s what filmmaking should be…so conscientious, so infectiously enthusiastic about what they’re doing. They’re passionate in a way that isn’t pretentious and annoying. They love what they do, and they’re incredibly rigorous and collaborative.

Rounding out the cast is the ever charming Eddie Izzard. Izzard seemed thrilled to have been included, and in his characteristic stammering stream of consciousness, seemed to sum up exactly why this film is going to be a success:

Eddie Izzard It’s a fun big romp, and they’re all cars as well…It’s quite weird that they’re all cars. I had toy trains when I was a kid, and toy story– well, they’re not really humans– but the fact that they’re cars [in this film] keeps throwing me…The second one is more about friendship, adventure, and cars that can shoot things into walls, and then fly…which is something I think we all want to be able to do.

So there you have it. Thoughts on the film from the folks who made it. Check back later in the week for ScreenCrave’s review of Pixar’s Cars 2!

Mickey Mouse To Finally Get His First Feature Film?

traviswoods — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:10:05 +0000

Mickey Mouse fans, get this: did you know that the 80-something icon, despite having been featured in a bevy of short films, cameo roles, cartoons, straight-to-video releases, and video games, has never actually starred in his own theatrical feature?

That is, until now. Maybe.

/Film has it that the iconic mouse might be getting his own feature in the near future—which is kind of a big deal, gang.

“Speaking to Bleeding Cool about his work on Winnie the Pooh, long-time Disney veteran Burny Mattinson said, ‘I am working on just an idea of my own which is basically a Mickey, Donald, Goofy feature film idea. We have to present it first to the bosses to get the green light.’”

Part of the impetus to release a Mickey film seems to be that Disney if finally looking to retool/ rebrand the icon, according to a New York Times piece of the game Epic Mickey:

“…in a parallel but separate effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character’s personality, from the way Mickey walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web — even what his house looks like at Disney World.”

Interesting. Mickey film in 2011-12 might be just what is needed to reintroduce the character to a new audience. That said, it might not work—after all, kids might not dig a mouse that runs around in a pair of shorts and yellow shoes and constantly yells in high pitched voice. I have an elderly neighbor who does that every Friday when he hits the sauce and it’s just annoying.

What do you think about a Mickey film?

Screenwriter Sues Disney And Pixar For Allegedly Stealing ‘Cars’ And ‘Cars 2′

traviswoods — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:02:00 +0000

Well, this could get interesting—turns out that a U.K. screenwriter, Jake Mandeville-Anthony, is suing Disney and Pixar for allegedly basing Cars and its upcoming sequel, the cleverly-titled Cars 2, on his original scripts that were written and submitted in the 1990s. Reminds me of the time Michael Bay totally swiped my original filmscript, A Bunch of Lights Flash Before Some Noises Go Off and Then a Hot Chick Does Something Hot Chick-ish Near a Sports Car and Then End Credits, and turned it into a career-long series of adaptations. Not cool, Bay!

The Hollywood Reporter has it that:

“According to the complaint, he created a three-part screenplay titled “Cookie & Co.,” about the true-life adventure race-car driver Michael Owen Perkins, who won a 1988 race, and a second work titled “Cars,” which included a treatment, sample screenplay, 46 animated car character descriptions, 10 cars character sketches, and a marketing and merchandising plan.”

Ok, fair enough, but not exactly proof positive, right? I mean coincidences happen and…

“Mandeville says he sent copies of the works to various production companies, including Disney. The plaintiff also says he met in person with a Lucasfilm executive named Jim Morris in 1993 and delivered copies of his work. Pixar and Lucasfilm have had relations with each other since the 1980s, when Pixar acquired certain divisions of the George Lucas company. In 2005, according to the complaint, Morris joined Pixar and is currently general manager at the company.”

Ok, well, yeah, that doesn’t look good, Mr. Mandville-Anthony, but there are still plenty of accidental similarities in art that…

“In Manderville’s latest complaint, he points to a long list of similarities among the characters in each of the works. Both have characters named ”Stanley” modeled after a Model T Ford. Both have lead characters modeled after a “James Aston-Martin” sports car. Both feature broken down truck characters, doctors as authority figures, glitzy showgirl movie star females, Italians, rich business cars past their prime, and so on.”

Oh. Ouch.

Mandeville-Anthony is “alleging copyright infringement and breach of implied contract,” and since Cars grossed around $450 million, he might want to start practicing saying “ch-ching, ch-ching, ch-ching!” every morning when he wakes up.

What do you think of the lawsuit?

Marc Forster Circling Disney’s The Runner

Krystal Clark — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:44:34 +0000

Walt Disney has confirmed a report that director Marc Forster is in talks to helm their new sci-fi property, The Runner. Over at Deadline, that got word that the studio acquired a pitch for the film that also has super producer Brian Grazer attached. With the power of Disney, the business savvy of Grazer, and the creative vision of Forster, they might be on to something.

In the message from the studio they said:

The Walt Disney Studios has acquired and is in development on the science fiction project THE RUNNER. Disney is currently collaborating with writer Dave Andron, Apparatus Entertainment’s Marc Forster and Brad Simpson, Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, and Blacklight Transmedia’s Zak Kadison and Eric Lieb.We look forward to sharing more details on this exciting project as they become available.

Over at Deadline, they already seem to have the details. The story takes place in 2027 and centers on “a group of survivors living in the Rocky Mountains have discovered a way to send a man back in time. While the volunteer departs under the guise of trying to stop the devastating attack, he has an ulterior motive: to save the love of his life.”

We have time travel, drastic living conditions, and 20 plus years of future technology at the center of this story. That’s a lot to take in, but as fans of Forster we have no doubts in his ability. The love story at the center of it all, seems a bit much, but we’ll let it slide. With so much science fiction, you have to throw in some humanity for good measure.

What do you think of Forster possibly directing this film? Good move?

New Cars 2 Theatrical Trailer

Krystal Clark — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:17:04 +0000

Over on MSN, Disney-Pixar has released a new theatrical trailer for Cars 2. The film is a follow up to the 2006 movie that centers on, you guessed it, a group of cars and their adventures in a small town. This time, they’ll be new vehicles, new adventures, and an international location. Lighting McQueen and Mater are going overseas! Check out the trailer…

Star race car Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to exciting new places in “Cars 2” when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Adding to the fast-paced fun is a colorful new all-car cast that includes secret agents, menacing villains and international racing competitors.

We thought the first Cars, was a decent movie but not the best in Pixar’s long line of high class films. If we can get a sequel to this, can we entertain the idea The Incredibles 2? Come on Pixar. Let’s make this happen!

Cars 2 hits theaters on June 24, 2011 and it will be available in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D.

What do you think of the full trailer for Cars 2? Are you interested in seeing the sequel?

Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, Queen Latifah Channel Disney Icons

Krystal Clark — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 23:40:08 +0000

Over the past few years, Walt Disney Pictures has been teaming up with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz to recreate some of their most iconic characters. They get Hollywood’s hottest stars and place them in scenarios from classic Disney films. Some of the previous photos they’ve done included Rachel Weisz as Snow White, Beyonce as Alice in Wonderland, and Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony as Princess Jasmine and Aladdin.

This latest batch features Tron Legacy stars Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Alec Baldwin, and Queen Latifah. Take a look…

Oddly enough, Olivia Wilde’s bone structure really lends itself to the Evil Queen. She looks like she was taken straight from a film. The make up artists and costume designers did a great job on her. As for Beauty in the Beast, we thought they’d have Bridges in make up to play the Prince in monster form but this will work. He does have the flowing hair to play the part. Cruz on the other hand, doesn’t look like Belle. Her hair is too tousled. It should be tighter up top (picky we know).

We wouldn’t have even thought of Latifah as Ursula from The Little Mermaid, but she’s another perfect fit. The background is a bit cartoonish for the photo but it works!

What do you think of the latest batch of Disney inspired images? Which is your favorite?

Source: Slashfilm

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen Cast in Disney’s Jungle Cruise?

Krystal Clark — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:10:06 +0000

Tom Hanks and Tim Allen want to turn their big screen partnership into a live action feature. The duo have worked “together” on all three Toy Story films as Buzz Lightyear and the Cowboy Woody and now they’re ready for a new collaboration. According to Deadline, Hanks and Allen are looking to star in a family film called Jungle Cruise for, you guessed it, Disney.

Staying in the same spirit as Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney wants to adapt their Magic Kingdom theme park ride Jungle Cruise for the big screen. They’re making moves to nab Hanks and Allen to headline the project, which they’ve been trying to produce for years. They’ve hired Roger S.H. Schulman to write the script but a director has yet to be found.

Jungle Cruise will be a great segue for Allen who’s set to return to television next year in a new pilot for ABC. This will be his first regular TV gig since “Home Improvement.”

The actual Jungle Cruise attraction, features a boat ride throughout various rivers where different animatronic jungle animals pop up during the journey. We think we have an idea of how they can work that into a story. It reminds us of Allen’s 1997 film Jungle 2 Jungle.

Can Jungle Cruise be turned into a movie?

Cars 2: Meet Rod ‘Torque’ Redline and Siddeley

Krystal Clark — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 20:17:31 +0000

Disney and Pixar have released two new photos from their upcoming sequel Cars 2. The film is a follow up to the 2006 hit starring Owen Wilson. Today we have a couple of beautiful specimens to showcase in the form of a blue muscle car and a sneaky spy jet. Out of the two, we personally love the car but which one is your favorite? Take a look…

Rod “Torque” Redline (voice of Bruce Campbell)

Rod “Torque” Redline is considered by many as the greatest American spy in the world. Recruited after the Cold War for both his brains and brawn, Torque is a tough-as-nails Detroit muscle car with a mastery of disguises. In his latest deep-cover operation, he obtained vital information about the plot to sabotage the World Grand Prix. So Rod plans a rendezvous with his British counterparts to share his discoveries at the World Grand Prix welcome reception in Tokyo, Japan. But with the bad guys hot on his tailpipe, Rod is forced to ditch the intel early and with the first party guest he sees – a rusty American tow truck named Mater.

Siddeley (voice of Jason Isaacs)

Siddeley is a state-of-the-art British twin-engine spy jet. At 176 feet from nose to tail and an impressive 157-foot wingspan, the super sleek silver-bodied Siddeley streaks through international skies at record-breaking mach 1 speeds. Outfitted with all the latest in high-tech spy equipment, including cloaking technology, defensive weaponry and afterburners, Siddeley is Finn’s steadfast partner-in-fighting-crime around the globe.

Cars 2 opens in theaters everywhere on June 24th.

What do you think of the latest photos and videos from Cars 2?

ScreenCrave.com » disney

Beauty and the Beast 3-D: Review(ish)

What version is it?

But is there anything new?

How’s the 3-D?

And the film?

Reasonably good moral?

Any other notes?

So?

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