Scissorhands Strikes Again?: 'Ballerina' Gets US Trailer

Ahhh, the Weinsteins... Not quite a great track record of animation you got there. Their latest, however, seems to be an exception.

The French production Ballerina was released in October in its country of origin, and its English dub received a general UK release a few weeks back. The picture, so far, has been met with pretty positive reviews. Here, in the states, the Weinstein Company is releasing it under the rather dumb new title Leap!, but their trailer for it indicates that we will be getting the film the UK saw.


That's a shocker!

As many an animation fan may know, the Weinsteins have butchered and sliced up animated films from other parts of the world. The Magic Roundabout is perhaps the best example, a 2005 CG adaptation of a popular 60s European stop-motion series. When brought here a year later, the whole script was rewritten and an all-star American cast did the voices. It was a disaster. They did the same thing not too long ago to the Argentinian Metegol, and constantly delayed it till it was sent straight to video back in July. Two years after it was set to debut in the US! Three years after it came out in Argentina! And get this... The film already had an English dub made up of UK actors that got released overseas!

Then of course, brother Harvey himself had to nerve to try and cut a Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece! That ended quite well, I'd say...

It's good to see that Ballerina (sorry, still calling it that) won't be just that, though anything is possible. Perhaps they've finally gotten the memo? They didn't scissor up and re-imagine Paddington, which ended up being a good-sized success in America, and won excellent reviews. This guy quite liked it, too - reminded me of an old-school live-action family film that you don't see too often these days. The sequel is out in Europe in the fall, hope we don't have to wait too long for it.

The trailer is pretty bad, though. The editing, the way it's put together, makes the film look like a run of the mill kids' flick... Watch the superior UK trailer instead, it makes the film look good, has more on the story, and it makes it seem a little heartfelt.


TWC is releasing Ballerina/Leap! on March 3, 2017, so I expect it to just come and go. Not a huge success, but it could be something of a tiny sleeper. I think the date does it little favors, having it right after Rock Dog (not saying that's gonna be a Finding Dory-sized titan, but you get the idea) and a few weeks before the live-action Beauty and the Beast. I just hope it does well enough, and that Weinstein gets it together when it comes to future animated releases.

Them dumping the American Underdogs and not tampering with this seems to suggest that lessons have been learned.

What say you?

Already Gearing Up: 'The Star' Logo and Website Revealed

Sony Animation's The Star isn't out till the next holiday season, but on Christmas Day, they already got the ball rolling...

The Star looks and sounds like a sort of modern-day Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey / The Small One, an animated take on the familiar Nativity story with the protagonist being the donkey. Originally, this film was going to be about a lamb, and was actually called The Lamb. Timothy Reckart, director of the acclaimed short Head over Heels, will helm the picture.

We have a new logo for the movie...

The recently-launched website reveals that Sony Animation is partnering up with Walden Media (best known for Holes and the Narnia films) to do this film, and will also bill it as a picture from their Christian film label Affirm Films. Cast announcements are supposed to come soon, says Patheos. A new plot synopsis has been released as well...

"In Sony Pictures Animation's The Star, a small but brave donkey named Bo yearns for a life beyond his daily grind at the village mill. One day he finds the courage to break free, and finally goes on the adventure of his dreams. On his journey, he teams up with Ruth, a lovable sheep who has lost her flock and Dave, a dove with lofty aspirations. Along with three wisecracking camels and some eccentric stable animals, Bo and his new friends follow the Star and become accidental heroes in the greatest story ever told – the first Christmas."

Sounds kind of like a combination of the usual animated critter romp and something more interesting. This sits cheek-and-jowl with two other Sony Animation films next year, both of which couldn't be anymore different: Smurfs: The Lost Village and The Emoji Movie. This film certainly excites me more than those two, but will it be a surprisingly good retelling of this story? Or will it be a forgettable matinee? Who knows.

What say you?

Another Breed of Superhero: First Look at DreamWorks' 'Captain Underpants'

Have no fear, your first look at DreamWorks' other 2017 release is here.

Captain Underpants...

Who would've thought, right? I bet many aren't digging the idea of a movie based on the Dav Pilkey book series, others probably aren't shocked that DreamWorks opted to adapt them. Even though DreamWorks has shown for over eight years that they can tell good stories that don't fall back on cheap toilet humor and such, some people out there still believe that every new DreamWorks movie is a fartfest. Captain Underpants moving forward more than "confirms" that for them.

For those not in the know, Captain Underpants is exactly what it says on the box. Two fourth graders hypnotize their school principal, whose is described as tyrannical, into becoming a superhero. A big man with no powers who is only wearing a curtain cape and underpants. It's as ridiculous as it looks, folks. Being a 90s kid, I remember the books being a big staple at every book fair at my elementary school. It was a big deal back then, and other schools weren't as welcoming to the series as mine was. They went as far as banning them, due to their fear of them being inappropriate for young readers and also fearing that they would encourage them to... Yes, disobey authorities.

It has quite a history, and it actually kind of seems like prime material to turn into a silly animated comedy. The first look at the film, provided by Entertainment Weekly, shows something that I think actually has some potential...

No different from the style used in Blue Sky's The Peanuts Movie, what they've got here looks pretty good and is pretty much the illustrations of the books brought to the big screen. What wasn't stated in the report is this: DreamWorks actually outsourced this production to Mikros, who have houses in Canada and France. A smart idea in hindsight, because spending Trolls money ($125 million) on this kind of movie isn't a good idea.

That's not all, though. Director David Soren (who directed DreamWorks' Turbo) said that the film will not only be irreverent like the books, but it will also have a lot of fun with its own visuals: Stylized CG isn't the only thing you'll see in it, you'll also see traditionally animated (!) scenes that will look like comic book panels come to life, and also sock puppets of all things, and more. A real mixed-media kind of animated feature.

Soren also revealed that the story will feel like something made by the two fourth grade protagonists. Back when it was announced, my question has always been, will DreamWorks be able to keep the series' style funny and not cringeworthy for a whole 90-or-so minutes? Unlike some of the DreamWorks movies of the 2000s, Captain Underpants isn't a series that uses toilet humor to get a laugh. It's a series that is pretty much built around grossness, I mean c'mon... That's in the title alone! Just looks at the volume titles, too. The movie could be like the cinematic equivalent of a Ren & Stimpy episode. In another way, it could subvert superhero movies, since those have been dominating.

I know, it's the last thing feature animation in America needs, but it's here, so I say... Might as well hope for the best. With the first look now out, I wonder when the teaser will surface?

What say you?

Strumming Pixar: First Image and More Details from 'Coco'

What a lovely Christmas present... A bit of Pixar's next original movie!

That's right, a lovely-looking image and some more plot details on Coco have been released. The film is set to open Thanksgiving week of this coming year.

The new look at the film from Entertainment Weekly sheds more light on the musical side of the picture. This will not be a Renaissance Disney-style musical, where characters break out into song. In director Lee Unkrich's words, the film is "set against the backdrop of musical performance." So, still a musical in some way, but not the kind of musical you may be thinking of. That's good!

When Pixar was making Toy Story back in the early-to-mid 1990s, the attitude was essentially, "Let's not make a modern Disney animated feature." Nothing with musical numbers sung by characters onscreen, nothing with "I Want" songs, the usual with Disney's early 90s juggernaut hits. Pixar didn't want to make the next The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast, and this is partially why Toy Story took off in 1995.

Years went by. Some Pixar films had songs that were sung offscreen (the Toy Story films, the Cars films), some incidental musical numbers (Brave's 'Song of Mor'du') showed up, but other than that Pixar has mostly avoided musical movies like the plague. So to see them doing a movie where singing is integrated in a more realistic way is quite exciting, showing that animated musicals can be more than just what may be accustomed to. They can be more than the dramatic types where characters break out into song.

The article went on to stress how Pixar is being very careful with this film, and how they didn't want to resort to stereotypes when telling a story based in another culture. Upon apologizing for Disney's attempt to trademark the Day of the Dead holiday, Unkrich said, "This is a story we want to share with the world, but it’s also been particularly important to us that when the Latino community sees the film, that it resonates and it feels like we got it right, and that’s what we’re really trying to do. We all feel the gravity."

This comes hot off the heels of the recent controversy that surrounded The Hollywood Reporter's misfired animation roundtable on diversity. Coco certainly got some sneers when it came on the scene, many folk being concerned about the film stereotyping and appropriating Mexican culture. Some even suggested that Pixar, an American studio and director Lee Unkrich - an American without a Hispanic background - have no right to tell stories like these. (Funny, I didn't see them say that about the Portland-based LAIKA and director/founder Travis Knight, when they were readying their Kubo and the Two Strings.) Others spoke out in support of the project, despite the fact that it's mostly being spearheaded by Americans. One of those very supporters is Jorge Guiterrez himself, the writer-director of the other Day of the Dead, music-flavored animated film The Book of Life.

About the Day of the Dead... A new plot detail reveals a little something neat. As we learned last time, the music-loving Miguel comes from a music-averse family. They ban it because the kid's great-great-great grandmother was abandoned by her husband, who jumped ship on the family to pursue a career in music. Ever since, everyone in Miguel's family won't allow it. One night, Miguel does a little well-intentioned grave-robbing of his long-decased musical hero: Ernesto De La Cruz. On the Day of the Dead... And that sends him to the Land of the Dead! His music-averse relatives are sure going to like the sound of that!

This report and the previous one reaffirm that this will be the kind of Pixar film that seems to gel with everyone. This won't be a deceptively simplistic film like The Good Dinosaur, nor will it be a traditional kind of story that Brave was. Films like those proved to be divisive, Coco looks to channel the beloved Inside Out and WALL-E more than those films. As someone who quite liked those "lesser" films, and as one who is tired of animation having to have plots that are "dizzying" or "complex", I'm still excited about Coco. That's not because it's "true Pixar", but because of what it's setting out to do and then some. I'm also excited to see Pixar branch out into other parts of the world, too! How long before we see films of theirs that are set in Africa, Asia, and whatnot?

What say you?

Purebred: Details on Wes Anderson's Next Stop-Motion Film Revealed

Holy cuss! We finally have something of a first look at the next stop-motion animated film from Wes Anderson!

Who doesn't love Mr. Anderson's 2009 stop-mo adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox? No matter how far it may be from the Dahl classic, it's a one-of-a-kind animated film. Anderson brought his style to animation with finesse, the result was a film with a razor-sharp script, lowkey but prominent heart, a wonderful score, and splendid visuals. When it was announced that he was giving the medium another go for an original, mysterious picture about dogs, I was beyond excited!

We now know the name of the new canine film... Isle of Dogs...

Here's a first look at the Rex character, extracted from the man's Vimeo announcement...

It looks like Anderson and crew won't veer too far away from the overall aesthetic they used for Fantastic Mr. Fox.


It's a tiny first look, but exciting nonetheless! The expanded cast has also been revealed, and it's a knockout... Bill Murray (obviously), Bryan Cranston, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Scarlett Johansson, Greta Gerwig, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Harvey Keitel, Akira Ito, Akira Takayama, Koyu Rankin, Courtney B. Vance, Yoko Ono, and Edward Norton...

Wow...

Are you cussing ready? I sure as cuss am!

Doomsday?: 'The Emoji Movie' Trailer Surfaces

Finally here, and I'm late to the party due to out-of-blogging responsibilities... The teaser for The Emoji Movie is finally here...

So is this the apocalypse? Did my eyes fall out of their sockets? Did my ears explode?


I didn't hate it.

Yes... But I didn't necessarily like it.

I'm more amused by the fact that the marketing seems self-aware, as if it's either saying "Yeah, we're sorry" or "We know you're not looking forward to this." We have this Eeyore Emoji who is quite thrilled to announce the movie to us, that I found kind of funny in a way. This could've been way worse.

Anyways. Check list.

Use of a classic or well-known song? Check.

A near "adult" joke? Check.

Toilet humor? Check. Gotta have that poop emoji in the movie!

It looks like your typical run-of-the-mill come-and-go animated comedy. Flavor of the week. I've pretty much been against the idea of this movie from the get-go, although I don't doubt that it could be decent. I'm actually willing to eat crow on this, but... This teaser really didn't leave me with much. Why is this movie here? Sony Pictures Animation could've gone forward with Genndy Tartakovsky's Popeye and Can You Imagine?, they could've gone forward with Lauren Faust's Medusa, or the stop-mo hybrid Superbago...

On the bright side, there's still The Star, Animated Spider-Man, and Vivo. Those sound like they have potential.

Another plus... It's not called Emojimovie: Express Yourself anymore.

I've got nothing. I'll be like the emoji in the trailer and give it a "meh".

What say you?

Short Rocker: New, Brief 'Rock Dog' Trailer Surfaces

With a little more than two months to go, Lionsgate has released a new trailer for Rock Dog...

A refresher: Rock Dog is an American-Chinese co-production that hit theaters in the Middle Kingdom this past summer. Reel FX, the good folks who gave us The Book of Life, was contracted to do the animation for the film. Lionsgate will be releasing it here in February.


Like I've been saying, I'm digging this. The short trailer is pretty decent, ping-pongs a bit here and there, but the movie I think looks and sounds promising.

It looks like a fun The Gods Must Be Crazy-type adventure story set in an all-animals world (that setting really did dominate 2016's animated feature field, didn't it?), and both trailers haven't left me disappointed. I've heard some word on the street, saying that it indeed is something to look out for. Makes me wish Lionsgate didn't get it, because they normally don't put much effort into marketing their animated releases - good or bad.

Anyways, yes, I'm still on board. What say you?

No Longer Bare Bones: 'Coco' Details Surface

After months and months of vague hints and minor announcements, we finally have learned a lot more about Pixar's next original movie...

Directed by long-time Pixarian and Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich, Coco will be the Emeryville studio's take on the Day of the Dead holiday. It's been talked about for years, and it got its concrete release over a year ago. A more detailed plot synopsis is one of the many great tidbits we got today.

"Coco follows the secret musical ambitions of Miguel, who resides in a lively, loud Mexican village but comes from a family of shoemakers that may be the town’s only music-hating household. For generations, the Riveras have banned music because they believe they’ve been cursed by it; as their family history goes, Miguel’s great-great-grandfather abandoned his wife decades earlier to follow his own dreams of performing, leaving Imelda (Miguel’s great-great-grandmother) to take control as the matriarch of the now-thriving Rivera line and declare music dead to the family forever."

It's interesting how music is going to be worked into this story, but it's been clarified that Coco won't really be a musical. Randy Newman, in an interview, described Unkrich's film as a "musical"... But I guess it's not the case anymore. I've heard hints before this that suggested it wouldn't be a typical musical, either. There will be singing from the cast, we'll hear traditional and original songs, but Pixar - according to Vanity Fair - isn't keen on calling it a musical.

In addition to the plot synopsis, we got a new piece of concept art that gives you a good idea how the final product will look. It is indeed gorgeous...

Voicing main character Miguel is a newcomer named Anthony Gonzalez, he'll be joined by Benjamin Bratt (who previously let it slip that he was part of the cast), Gael Garcia Bernal, and Renee Victor.

There's even more to the released synopsis...

"But Miguel harbors a secret desire to seize his musical moment, inspired by his favorite singer of all time, the late Ernesto de la Cruz (Bratt). It’s only after Miguel discovers an amazing link between himself and De la Cruz that he takes action to emulate the famous singer and, in doing so, accidentally enters the Land of the Dead.

In the beautiful underworld, it’s not long until Miguel encounters the souls of his own family — generations’ worth of long-dead but no less vivacious Rivera ancestors, including great-great-grandmother Imelda. Still, given the opportunity to roam around the Land of the Dead, Miguel decides to track down De la Cruz himself. He teams up with another friendly (and skeletal) spirit — a trickster named Hector, voiced by Bernal — to find De la Cruz, earn his family’s blessing to perform, and return to the Land of the Living before time runs out."

Vanity Fair describes Pixar's version of the Land of the Dead as "a dazzlingly vibrant, stacked metropolis inspired by the Mexican city of Guanajuato". I hope that the film experiments with different styles of CGI, not dissimilar to how The Book of Life threw the CG rule book out the window with glee.

Now right off the bat, this is a very exciting storyline and it has enough to differentiate it from Jorge Guiterrez's visually exciting animated Day of the Dead tale, and it looks to have all that heart and humor. While it all sounds a bit dizzying, let's hope they balance it all out and hopefully explore some dark paths, too. This is Day and the Dead, and the title? It suggests that the actual Coco will be involved, the Coco (one of a few spellings, to my understanding) is a Hispanic folklore monster/bogeyman.

I also think it's the right step for Pixar to take. It looks as if they want to keep challenging themselves when it comes to original stories, especially after the reception the more traditional Brave got. The Good Dinosaur, to me, was more off the beaten path than some might believe. Of course, the inventive Inside Out was praised out the wazoo. Coco looks to be just as ambitious, but I love that they'll be focusing on another culture, because if there's one thing Pixar needs to do more, it's be diverse. So many American and a few European-set stories (Brave, Ratatouille), it's time to explore.

One slight downside for now? Michael Giacchino is doing the score. But wait a minute... Shouldn't I be excited that Giacchino is scoring it? I love Giacchino's work! But... I'd rather they get a Latin composer to do the job. With all due respect to Mr. Giacchino, he is one of the guys who normally scores Pixar's films. If it isn't him, then it's either Randy Newman or Thomas Newman. Few Pixar films used other composers; Patrick Doyle did Brave, and Mychael and Jeff Dana did The Good Dinosaur.

Anyways... I was always looking forward to this for obvious reasons. It's Pixar, it's an original story, it sounds exciting... Now I'm really geared up for it.

What say you?

Poster Rush: 'Cars 3' Teaser Posters Unveiled

Unusually arriving a little after the release of the teaser, the Cars 3 posters are here!

Both are, for the most part, not unusual for Pixar teaser posters. Minimal, not needing much, just a few images and such to get the point across. The American one and the international one are both radically different...

Our poster aligns with the film's much talked about teaser. McQueen's big wreck...

The international one is the beach scene that we saw in the great concept art earlier in the year.

Both are quite nice, the first is rather striking for some. For many who aren't all that fond of the Cars series, the rather gritty mood of the teaser and the US poster could be off-putting, almost laughable in a way. Others who are accustomed to Cars' lighter side have been surprised as well.

For me, I see the wreck itself as being no different from what Doc Hudson or The King went through. I'm seeing all this talk, all this "McQueen died!" talk, and I can only scratch my head. The Cars series may be lightweight compared to some other Pixar heavies out there, but for me the series didn't hold back on some rough stuff. Races can be dangerous, and death is a thing in the world of cars. Several autos are blown up or killed in Cars 2, Cars climaxes with the King getting in a very bad crash. The first Cars nearly had a sequence where McQueen ends up in a graveyard of broken cars after getting separated from Mack, and of course Stanley has been long dead.

As for the wreck, McQueen is essentially following in the tire tracks of Doc Hudson, and having him wreck makes sense for this kind of a story. We were told back in June that Cars 3 will have a lot of focus on the deceased Hudson Hornet. I can understand how the tone itself has shocked some folk, but you see... Disney marketing did their job! They got people talking! "A gritty Cars movie? What the heck?!" It's still buzz. I have a feeling the first full trailer for this thing will be the typical "gags-story-gags-story" ping-ponging.

The international poster eschews the grit, and focuses on vibrant colors and pretty scenery. No wreckage, no greyed out racetracks, just a pretty, sunny beach and a really cool shot of McQueen kicking up water. It's very nice to look at, and in a way it's not much different from some other Cars-related promo materials. One of the earlier posters for the first Cars was very minimal as well, it was Lightning covered in a tarp, and you could only see some of his smile.

Anyways, both are very cool. The US one doesn't show the film's proper logo, Disney has been doing this with posters and teasers these days. The teaser for Pirates of the Caribbean: Insert Super-Long Subtitle Here ends with the Pirates skull, but no logo. The poster itself doesn't have the logo, either. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2? That teaser just ends with "Coming Soon", but the poster shows the logo. I wonder if Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok's marketing will be similar.

What say you?

Aliens and Mutants: Fox Updates Tentpole Slate, 'Avatar 2' Dated?

20th Century Fox has re-shuffled their line-up of tentpoles...

The biggest gasp here is the inclusion of an Untitled Fox/Lightstorm Film...

Lightstorm is James Cameron's studio. What has Mr. Cameron been working on all these years? No, not Alita: Battle Angel. He's producing that, while Robert Rodriguez directs. That's also already set for July 2018. If the answer wasn't obvious... Avatar 2...

Word on the street is that James Cameron is playing nice with Disney, and the reason makes sense... Pandora - The World of Avatar in Disney's Animal Kingdom. Some rumors from earlier in the week suggested that Disney was going to move the untitled Han Solo Anthology film to the mid-December slot, but it looks like the smuggler will remain in the traditional mid-May station. It adds up, since the first Avatar was a big December release back in 2009.

I mean, what else could it be? A long-awaited sequel to The Abyss?

Several other Fox biggies moved around.

Alien: Covenant has sort-of traded places with Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Alien: Covenant is now set to open on May 19, 2017, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is set for October 6, 2017. Slight bummer on the latter.

The Marvel side of things saw big updates. The 10/6/2017 Fox/Marvel film is now off the slate. Their slate now...

03/02/2018 *previously scheduled*
06/29/2018 *previously scheduled*
11/02/2018 *new addition*
02/14/2019 *new addition*

The Fox/Marvel slate has been something of a jumble these days. Deadpool 2 lost director Tim Miller, Fox hastily got his replacement. New Mutants has been on the table, X-Force has been teased, and Gambit has been on-and-off. I'm thinking Deadpool 2 nabs the Valentine's Day 2019 slot, much like its predecessor. Not sure about the other dates.

Interestingly, Paramount scheduled an untitled "event" film for 11/2/2018. So it'll be duking it out with an untitled Fox/Marvel film and Disney's live-action Mulan. I have a feeling it's going to be hauling its way out of that slot.

Anyways...

Alien: Covenant? Could be good, but I kinda want Alien 5 more. Kingsman: The Golden Circle? I adored the first one, I'm there day one. Avatar 2? I don't dislike the first film, if two has more of a story and fleshes out characters, I'll check it out. All the upcoming Fox/Marvels? I'm interested to see what direction they go in, because Deadpool was like a turbo shot, Logan looks great, and we'll see a new beginning after we bid the old X-Men crew adieu.

What say you?

Not-So-New Blue: 'Smurfs: The Lost Village' Trailer Surfaces

Well, a real look at the revamped Sony Animation Smurfs is here... The full trailer for Smurfs: The Lost Village...


Honestly, I'm not too impressed.

Visually, it's gorgeous. Of course, anything other than a tired half live-action "they come to the real world" thing was already nice, but they actually did go all out here. The color work and lighting in particular is very pretty, as is the art direction. Too bad the writing doesn't seem to stack up. Lots of forced one-liners here, and the picture seems like it will be another fast-paced, loudmouth, frenetic romp.

But a trailer is a trailer, so maybe the film could be pretty decent. See, I was hoping for something a little more, because it was emphasized many times how much this Smurfs movie was not going to be like the two hybrid movies, and that it would be closer to the Peyo comics. To me, it looks like just another hyperactive kids flick, and it just happens to star the Smurfs. Hopefully I'm wrong on this one. There were a few funny bits here and there - like one of the Smurfs eating all his rations, but that was about it.

What say you?

Big Vroom!: 'Cars 3' Teaser Goes an Unexpected Route

After quite a wait, the teaser trailer for Pixar's next is finally here!

For a while, we've heard that Cars 3 was not going to go the route of its maligned predecessor. It would go back to racing and the road and everything that worked about the first film. The teaser confirms that racing is indeed the main focus, and we get some glimpses of new characters of like Jackson Storm, the new sort-of antagonist of the picture.


Just look at it... The muted colors, the rather dramatic tone, the ending. This is far away from most Pixar teasers, this puts it more in line with Brave's humorless teaser. Pixar teasers are normally fun little skits with a few jokes here and there, these two are real anomalies, as is the teaser for The Good Dinosaur, which was a set-up of the premise followed a dialogue-less montage of scenes from the movie. I love this, it's to the point, and it establishes nicely in 50 seconds what it will be about: Lightning McQueen might not be to able stack up against all the new competitors in the field...

As I've said before, I love the first Cars, I don't mind the second one, and I'm looking forward to this third installment because of what's been said about it over the last few months. Now that the teaser is out, I'm in!

What say you?

Creecher Feature: Second, Short 'Monster Trucks' Trailer Surfaces

Ahhhhh, Monster Trucks.

Paramount Animation's mostly live-action movie with hyper-real CG creatures is something of a joke right now, as it was revealed months back that Paramount is treating this like an oncoming band-aid ripping. Its first trailer drew very mixed responses, some taking note of the original and gleefully kooky premise, others saying it looks really, really stupid. Me? I like the premise fine, the execution just seems rather "there". Who is really excited about it?

(I'll make an exception for Mister Coat, for he is unabashedly a big fan of director Chris Wedge!)

The company has already issued a $115 million write-down on the $125 million-costing movie, one that they couldn't crack since its inception. Was it a PG-13 blockbuster? Or was it going to be a family-friendly funfest? Delayed for nearly two years, there were problems. Big problems. The original, fully animated creature reportedly terrified half of the young audience at a test screening, prompting a complete re-design as the movie went from big PG-13 tentpole to family picture. Its live action portions were filmed as far back as spring 2014, and supposedly several reshoots occurred. Also notice that Nickelodeon Movies is finally mentioned. Original, there wasn't going to be any Nick connection.


I guess it doesn't matter to Paramount, they are dumping this film and they pretty much know it's not going to be a profit-maker. The trailer is unusually short, clocking in at under a minute and a half. It doesn't really show anything new, it feels like a remake of the teaser: Boy meets monster, monster goes into his truck, mayhem ensues. For some reason, the trailer emphasizes the heck out of the creature's nickname... Creech. Meet Creech, like he's the next big lovable character out there.

Paramount Animation seemed to start off on the wrong foot. They function similarly to Warner Animation Group, having a variety of studios handle the animation for their films. Unlike WAG, they don't have a special logo. Monster Trucks comes from Disruption Entertainment, while 2018's Sherlock Gnomes will be a co-production between Rocket Pictures, Starz, MGM, and Mikros. 2019's Amusement Park will be done by Ilion, SpongeBob 3 of course is obviously going to be a UPP/Nick pic.

While Sponge out of Water was quite the success story, Paramount tripped up by ditching The Little Prince at last minute, not like they were marketing it very well to begin with. Then months later, they made up their minds about this festering movie. Viacom recently saw a CEO change, so maybe Paramount Animation will set off on a different path in the coming years. For now, they'll be dealing with the consequences of the product of the previous guard.

Again, ripping the band-aid.

Oncoming Nerds and Apes: 'Nerdland' and 'Spark' Get Release Dates

Two features have locked release dates...

Titmouse, the house behind Adult Swim favorites like Metalocalypse and China, IL, completed Nerdland a while back and it screened at festivals earlier in the year. Now, it has a concrete release date. Previously, we learned that The Samuel Goldwyn Company was distributing the picture sometime next month. The official date is now December 6th.

But the catch? A very limited Fathom Events theatrical release, it's actually going to be a VOD release. Kind of a shame, because it looks like it cost nothing to make, and could probably make a small profit as an indie theatrical release. Little Prince route it is.

Perhaps it finally getting something of a release is all due to Sausage Party's success, which is good, hopefully that film succeeding makes the industry more confident in adults-only fare. Like I've said, if it's going to take a string of raunchy immature comedies to get to the good stuff, I'm all in. A new trailer has also been released...

Getting a wide release on the other hand is ToonBox's Spark. Like Nerdland, Spark was finished a while ago and even screened at a festival towards the beginning of the year. It was always meant to open between The Nut Job and its sequel. Open Road Films, distributor of the Nut Jobs, has finally picked it up. They will release the film on April 14, 2017. That's one week after Sony's Smurfs: The Lost Village, and that pic opens a week after DreamWorks' The Boss Baby. C'mon guys, space 'em out!

Spark is lower budget, so they don't have to worry. Smurfs: The Lost Village should cost around the amount of Sony Animation's more recent films, it'll mostly get its help from the worldwide box office given the fact that the Smurfs themselves originate from Europe. It's The Boss Baby I'm worried about, being a $120 million DreamWorks flick... but then again, Fox is probably willingly dumping this and Captain Underpants. I just hope, even though DreamWorks is now part of Comcast, that the animators don't get hit for these films flopping, should the films do so.

Spark is also one of three animated movies that Open Road is unleashing next year, alongside ToonBox's own The Nut Job 2 (5/19/2017) and Mass' Blazing Samurai (8/4/2017). No proper trailer is out, yet. I've only seen a clip months and months ago that unfortunately got pulled, wasn't too bad.

Anyways, it's good to see films locking dates. As far as 2017 animated movies go, we're still waiting on Blue Dream's Animal Crackers and Parallax's Musical to get distributors/dates. There's probably a couple others at the moment that could be squeezed in as well, but 2017 is almost rounded out.

What say you?

Cuss Yeah!: Wes Anderson's New Animated Film in Production

What's this? Wes Anderson's new stop-motion film is closer than we thought?

During an interview with Alexander Olch in GQ, Mr. Anderson let it slip that his new animated film is currently in production...

Wes Anderson, renowned auteur, entered the feature animation world with a bang with his stop-motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox. Definitely quirkier than most mainstream animated fare, it was beautifully done in stop-motion, had a razor-sharp script, and it just knew where it was at. There was a confidence oozing from that picture like no other, and it excelled at pretty much everything else. It's a personal favorite of mine, from the writing to the staging to the tone to the subtle but potent emotional side.

His next animated film, also a stop-motion project, involves dogs, and its cast is pretty impressive so far: Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray (obviously), Edward Norton, and Bob Balaban.

Anyways, yes... In production! That means it could show up either next year or in 2018. It's interesting that Anderson is keeping it rather secretive, which I think could indicate that it is not based on a book. Whatever it does with talking dogs, I'm intrigued. I have a feeling it'll be a bittersweet comedy like its foxy predecessor, and one of all-time great animated talking dog films. If we get it next year, it'll be one heck of a coincidence: This, Rock Dog, and Blazing Samurai, all animated, all about talking dogs.

What say you?

Rockin' Around the Corner: US Trailer for 'Rock Dog' Debuts

Ever since it was announced that Lionsgate picked up Reel FX's Chinese co-production Rock Dog for distribution in the US, some wondered when a trailer would drop...

Now one is here, and the film is still on track to open in late February of next year... Judging by this scattershot trailer, this looks like another one that Lionsgate is going to toss off.


It's weird because the first half, while a bit noisy, does a decent job at giving you the gist of the story. I was always interested in this picture because it looks to be a sort of The Gods Must Be Crazy-like story set in an all-animals version of our world, taking place in a Chinese village that's akin to an Amish community, and how one of its own ventures off into the modern world. Reel FX did the animation work, while this is mostly a Mandoo Pictures/Huayi Brothers film.

Lionsgate, however, has a history of dumping animated movies in theaters. They manage to get them wide, 2,000+ theater releases... But their marketing does little to sell them. It isn't just because of quality, they did this to Aardman's Shaun the Sheep Movie last year, and that had one of the highest scores of any movie released last year. Completely. Dumped. It. They've always been unsuccessful with feature animation, whether it's picking up less-than-desirable flicks or doing nothing with decent ones.

Anyways, at least we're getting this feature on the big screen. It looks stronger than Lionsgate's other non-Shaun movies, and I like the premise, so hopefully it's pretty decent. Sadly, due to theater politics, it bombed in its home country. I don't see it doing any better here.

What say you?

Uncovered: New Pixar Short Revealed

Well how about that? Information on Pixar's next mini-picture...

It's titled Lou.

The news was broken by Pixar animation supervisor Dave Mullins, who is directing the short. The glimpse comes from his Instagram...

I'm so excited to announce that I'm directing Pixar's next short film "Lou"! #insidepixar #himom

A video posted by Dave Mullins (@dave.mullins) on Sep 28, 2016 at 1:43pm PDT

Interesting... It appears to be about someone disappearing into their toy chest. The title is quite clever, and fits into Pixar's short-and-sweet title league.

Of course, we can all assume that we'll see this in theaters next summer, before Cars 3. Of course, like many Pixar shorts, it'll probably make its debut at a festival or somewhere else before the general release. (i.e. Lava debuting around a year before Inside Out was released.) Either way, it already looks and sounds pretty cool!

Now I wonder if Pixar will get a short attached to Coco. The first time they did a double header, last year, they delivered. Inside Out had a short, so did Good Dinosaur. Walt Disney Animation Studios oddly didn't give us a short with Zootopia, but will with Moana. (Inner Workings) Wonder if they repeat that in 2018, because I'd like to see shorts before both 2018 releases.

I also wonder what kind of tech will be used here. Will it experiment like Sanjay's Super Team did? Or will it be another exercise in near-photorealism?

What say you?

Better Blue: Teaser for 'Smurfs: The Lost Village' Debuts

Well, we now have a real look at Sony Animation's upcoming Smurfs: The Lost Village...

Before we start, I didn't bother with the US trailer, which apparently uses an unfitting song during the final half... Watch the international one instead:


Well, it's nothing special, and I could do without some of the gags here, but... Visually it looks pretty darn good, just like the teaser poster from yesterday and the other images. I've said it before, but I really like the look that Sony Animation is going for with this feature. Not only does it eschew the hyper-real CG of the live-action hybrids, it aligns more with The Peanuts Movie and the scrapped Genndy Tartakovsky iteration of their still-in-the-works Popeye film. I like the environment it's set in, and the animation has that painterly, more 2D-esque quality to it.

A teaser's a teaser so I won't say too much about the forced humor and such. I'll wait for the official trailer before I can say anything, but how do I feel about it right now? The way I've felt since the day they announced the project. I hope it's what Sony and director Kelly Asbury are making it out to be: A fun adventure that takes cues from the original comics by Peyo, and not the Hanna-Barbera TV show adaptation.

What do you think of the teaser? Are you looking forward to this film? Sound off below!

Monster Misfire: Paramount Declares 'Monster Trucks' A Massive Flop?

The Paramount Animation group is still having a rough time taking off...

Their second feature, a weird high-octane boy-and-his-pet story called Monster Trucks, was supposed to come out two years ago. Conceived some time around the group's founding in 2012, the Chris Wedge-directed live-action/vfx flick was mostly filmed in spring of 2014, back when the picture was aiming for a Memorial Day weekend release in 2015. Now, we weren't aware of what went on behind-the-scenes because Paramount Animation made it clear from the get-go that they were going to be secretive. Highly secretive. Like, J. J. Abrams-level secretive.

This movie was pushed back... And pushed back... And pushed back... How and why? Opening in January, the answer seemed to come in the form of an anonymous person who worked on the movie years back. Apparently the initial design of the creature that the main character befriends terrified the living daylights out of a test audience of kids, which resulted in delays and reshoots, and a complete redesign of the monster. (The person in question said it looked like Judge Doom, a squid, and a [he used an ableist slur here] E.T. combined.)

A recent anonymous comment that the trades mentioned indicates a possible other reason why it was delayed... Apparently it began life as a tentpole-like picture for a "broad" audience, before being watered down into a more kid-friendly affair. So does this mean Monster Trucks was almost a PG-13 Transformers-esque blockbuster-to-be? The trailer definitely gives off a Nickelodeon Movies kind of vibe, and apparently they were attached for quite some time too.

Anyways... Paramount, if we are to believe the trades' speculation, has already made up their mind. They are preparing to take a massive $115 million+ writedown because of this feature. Now Paramount said "the expected performance of an unreleased film", sources said they were referring to the truck movie. Monster Trucks or not, that's quite something... The studio declaring a movie to be a bomb many months before its release, like out loud. Usually the lack of confidence is subtly shown, via bad marketing or a dodgy release date. Nope, Paramount is upfront announcing "Yeah, this thing's gonna crash."

Monster Trucks cost $125 million to make, a ridiculously high budget for something that's quite risky. Why the shift from tentpole to family-friendly picture? Was the alleged scary monster design deliberate because at the time they weren't aiming for an audience that would include little kids?

It seems like Paramount, or should we say the V of Doom themselves - Viacom, is having a hard time getting a feature animation slate going. The Paramount Animation group, which to my understanding is more a "outside studios make the movies, we distribute" sort-of thing (think Warner Animation Group), was launched in 2012. This was done because DreamWorks was leaving the mountain after the fall 2012 release of Rise of the Guardians (which Paramount's marketing department seriously botched), so Paramount/Viacom needed something new, and fast. Happy with how the offbeat Rango did back in early 2011, in mid-2012, Paramount Animation was announced.

Right from the get-go, there were issues. They appointed the notorious David Stainton, one of the very men who poisoned Walt Disney Feature Animation during the latter Eisner years, to the top brass and then he left shortly afterwards. Then they announced a slate, and various projects here and there. They started getting top talent like Pixar's Teddy Newton and WDAS' Lino DiSalvo... The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water, debuted in February 2015 to good critical reception and impressive box office results. All was fine, right?

But they were quiet on Monster Trucks, and soon we heard that they were picking up things like... Sherlock Gnomes. Then they were going to give the acclaimed The Little Prince a US release in March of this year, even though - as far back as mid-2014, *mid-2014* - they implied that they were going to be the ones to give that feature a US release. They stalled and stalled on it, only to pull it at the very last minute. Netflix scooped it up and did it much more favors than Paramount ever did, but what a loss.

What exactly is their plan? Monster Trucks is now officially deemed a flop, and after that it's Sherlock Gnomes in early 2018. A third SpongeBob is set for early 2019, alongside a cryptic original called Amusement Park, which has a cast. Apparently that one is going to be all-animated, and not a live-action/vfx thing. With Viacom CEO Thomas Dooley on his way out in a matter of days, maybe things will change, maybe not.

But hopefully Paramount, one day, gets something going with animation. After the success of Rango and the worldwide take off of The Adventures of Tintin, naive me anticipated their future, hoping that they would be the ones. The offbeat guys who would be delivering the animated features to the mainstream that no one else was. Instead, we're stuck with a group that's being screwed over, and doesn't have a sturdy slate.

What say you?

Blue Reboot: Poster for Sony's All-Animated 'Smurfs' Surfaces

With its teaser arriving tomorrow, just in time for the release of Warner Animation Group's Storks (ironically, the animation for that was done by Sony ImageWorks, hence the SPA-esque aesthetic), a poster for Smurfs: The Lost Village has arrived.

For anyone not in the know, here's what Smurfs: The Lost Village isn't... An installment in the live-action/hybrid film series that Sony Animation jumpstarted five years ago. Smurfs: The Lost Village is in no way connected or related to those movies, it is a full-on reboot and one that promises to be closer to the original comics by Peyo, not the more familiar 1980s Hanna-Barbera TV series adaptation. All animated this time, no live-action, no venturing into the real world...

Opening next spring, the poster gives off a good idea of how this film is going to look. We already got some images beforehand, as they seemed to line up more with The Peanuts Movie than a more photoreal Pixar film like The Good Dinosaur. That being said... So much blue in this forest setting, it almost looks like Avatar, that is all kinds of bizarre because...

If you've lived under a rock for years, Avatar was and has been jokingly called "Dances with Smurfs"...

All that aside, it is a pretty image even though the poster doesn't let us see all of it. It works fine for what it is, and I'm looking forward to the teaser tomorrow. Hopefully we're in for something that honors the comic, and is overall more than just a pleasing diversion.

What do you think of Smurfs: The Lost Village?