Check out this rather robust animation package for the Nintendo DSi. It’s called Inchworm Animation, and it has many of the features you’ll find in animation packages like Flash, Toon Boom or TVPaint. They boast a stop-motion camera, layers, onion-skinning, and a wide array of brushes. It’s not available until April 25th, when it will launch as DSiWare.
The latest tip from the animation hotline is that Cars 2, the Disney/Pixar sequel due in theaters on June 24, 2011, is back in the shop for a significant tune-up. After taking in a work-in-progress screening, Pixar chairman Steve Jobs supposedly asked John Lasseter, Pixar co-founder and Cars 2 co-director, to roll up his sleeves and make major revisions to the sequel. One particular note we hear is that there’s just too much racing in the film. A similar story about Cars 2 trouble was reported this summer, but our source is saying this happened very recently.
This type of overhaul doesn’t spell doom over at Pixar. Ratatouille, for instance, was originally helmed by Jan Pinkava, who was eventually pulled from the director’s chair in favor of Brad Bird who steered the production to completion and box office success ($623 million worldwide). The cost of these films is the trick. While DreamWorks spends in $130 or $175 million range on the animated CG films, Pixar recently crested the $200 million mark on Toy Story 3. Production struggles like those we’re seeing on Cars 2 can likely spell big budget over-runs, pushing recoup into the stratosphere.
A theatrically-released Family Guy movie is apparently just a matter of time, and we’re guessing it will be animated. Just a hunch.
Buuuuuut…. if it wasn’t animated, it might look something like this. Here’s our casting choices: Mad Men’s curvy Christina Hendricks as Lois and the recently sober Artie Lange as Peter Griffin.
There’s an interesting piece in the UK paper The Independent that caught my attention. James Mottram asks “Are adults finally getting the cartoon capers they deserve?,” before going into a brief history of animated features aimed at adults. As an adult, I go see Toy Story 3 without feeling like I’m ducking into a pre-school puppet show, but I know a great deal of film goers in the US feel otherwise. Animation is for kids, or so they think, but that’s starting to change. Mottram details the recent successes of films like Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir, but these films’ box office takes are drawfed by films like Shrek 3. There’s a quote from Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist) that sums it up, “We’ve all been growing with animation. We’ve been children before we are adults. Drawings and expressions speak to us. But animation has been restricted and has been frozen for a very long time by the people who created this beautiful art form, Walt Disney Studios.”
Will animated films aimed specifically at an adult audience ever find sustantial home in our cinemas?
Stop-motion maistro Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) turns 90 today, and below is a short but sharp-looking tribute film produced by long-time Harryhausen fan Mark Sullivan. It’s an homage to a poster design Harryhausen created for One Million Years B.C.. Happy Birthday, Ray!
And here’s some raw footage from the BAFTA and BFI Tribute to Ray Harryhausen, which was hosted by John Landis this past Saturday night. Read more »
The CTNX crew has begun uploading videos from their wonderful event last year, and here’s one titled How to Break Into Animation. It’s a talk hosted by Dreamworks Director Steve Hickner who has 30 years of animation industry experience, including work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Bee Movie. He’s working on a book on career longevity, but he shares his thoughts with the CTNX audience and us. One preview – he recommends having a great attitude. Hickner likes to hire the type of people who light up a room.
Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 hauled in a big toy chest full of cash this weekend. Estimated at $109 million, it was 10th biggest opening weekend in US history, 
and the 2nd highest for animated film, behind only Shrek the Third. And with a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s clear that this will be a rare double-whammy – a critically-lauded film that hits it big at the box office.
But not all critics fell in love with the film, and the two dissenting opinions are from Armond White at the New York Press (who didn’t like WALL-e or Up either) and Cole Smithey, the self-appointed “Smartest Film Critic in the World.” It’s a curiosity more than anything, but I find it interesting to inspect why this 1% falls outside the norm. Here’s what they said:
Armond White – 2.5 stars out of 5
“…a bored game that only the brainwashed will buy into.”
“…humor depends on the recognition of worn-out toys.”
“…it’s for non-thinking children and adults.”
Cole Smithey – 2 stars out of of 5
“…inappropriately cruel.”
“…too intense for younger children.”
“…Wrongheaded and overtly mature for young audiences.”
*** UPDATE ***
I probably should have hinted at my side on this issue. I’m merely fanning the flames, as any blogger worth his weight would do, but I surely support any critic’s right to bash whatever they want when the want. I’m more interested here in the way Pixar’s rabid fans aren’t having any of it. It speaks to something that might go beyond just “fandom” into something more holy.
Also, read Smithey’s reply to the fur that’s flown over the issue.
