… And I Helped!

The Mouse House took in $4.73 billion at the international box office this past year…

$3 billion of that came from overseas grosses alone, and this is the fourth consecutive year where the studio had made over $2 billion around the globe.

Five of their films grossed over $200 million at the domestic box office, as opposed to just two last year: The Avengers and Brave.

Iron Man 3 was obviously going to be huge given the massive success of The Avengers before it, and the fact that Tony Stark is the Avenger who draws in the most crowds. 3D made things even better for this Marvel Cinematic Universe installment, $409 million stateside and over $1.5 billion worldwide is not too shabby!

Thor: The Dark World was also big because of this, but to a much lesser extent. Its marketing didn't really do all that good of a job making it look like it was worth seeing, but it's Thor, he's an Avenger and it pretty much kicked off the holiday season if Gravity didn't one month earlier. The sequel topped the original both stateside and globally. It's currently sitting at $629 million, you can't beat that!

Yes, the Marvel acquisition was an extremely smart business decision on Disney's part, wasn't it?

Oz the Great and Powerful seemed to benefit from the success of Alice in Wonderland and the rebooted fairy tale/classic children's stories fad. With a family-friendly PG rating and visual sparkle, Oz opened well and grossed a good amount here and overseas. While not a major success, it did break even. A near-$500 million total is still great!

Monsters University's success was a no-brainer: It's Pixar, it's a prequel to one of their beloved films, it was a summer release, its college setting got the teen audiences in easily. Its legs weren't the most spectacular, but it took in a massive $745 million worldwide making it Pixar's third biggest film behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo, and further proving that feature animation will be now and forever. Suits look at those numbers and they want more!

But something else happened to help Disney reach the new box office height this year… A lot, I might add…

It happened to be the Walt Disney Animation Studios film that was released just in time for the holidays…

That's right. Frozen.

Domestically, it's on track to actually beat The Lion King's initial release gross of $312 million, and it just topped Monsters University. It's back at #1, actually. Worldwide, it's currently sitting at $539 million and it will beat the God of Thunder in no time, and will probably dethrone the college-bound Mike and Sulley. Imagine that: Walt Disney Animation Studios' newest film outgrossing the Pixar entry domestically and worldwide (yes, Tangled beat Cars 2 in North America and internationally, but Cars 2 was poorly received), and on top of that, the big budget tentpole and the Marvel blockbuster.

You know what this means…

Disney is finally going to start treating Walt Disney Animation Studios with even more respect, now that Frozen has made quite a hefty amount of money in just two months. Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph were not "once in a lifetime" hits, the studio is roaring again now that people are catching onto the fact that they are currently making good quality films. (Of course, I want these same people who flocked to see Frozen to go rent Meet The Robinsons, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh.) Now, next up is a Marvel animated film. The pieces have all fallen into place, Disney is most likely going to give the San Fransokyo-set action-packed epic a really big marketing push that'll ensure a blockbuster-sized gross.

In turn, it should help their future films. The once-dormant studio is now more than a valuable asset to the company, as they now make big hits for them and will end up contributing to the big amounts of moolah the company makes in a calendar year. It ain't gonna be just Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm bringing in the massive amounts of dough. Quite a contrast from the fate I feared the studio would suffer. Earlier in the year, I irrationally worried that the bigwigs would possibly slowly phase the studio out and just get the big money from their acquisitions and live action franchises. Silly me…

What a way to start 2014, huh? Knowing that Walt Disney Animation Studios is really ready to go full steam ahead. All we need now is for each new film to be consistently and wholly satisfying.

Skating on Thin Ice

Hey folks, I hope you all had a fine Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or a fine day whatever holiday you happen to celebrate! Anyways… Back to blogging!

Distributor Phase 4 Films, in their attempts to cash-in on the recent Disney animated blockbuster Frozen (which happened to cross $200 million at the domestic box office), are essentially showing how foreign animation often gets treated here in the United States and how companies succeed at making money off of something else that isn't theirs…

This year's victim is a Canadian animated feature film called The Legend of Sarila, an Inuit tale that was released in its home country back in March. The picture was actually submitted for Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, though it's most likely not going to get a nod. While it's nice that the film got a US release, it's also annoying that it had to be sold like this. This "Disney Mockbuster" cheap buck cash-in scam has been a major thing since Disney animated films became available on home video.

With its snowy setting, Phase 4 Films did what all those other companies did. They saw Frozen and pretty much said, "Hey, let's put 'Frozen' in the title and fool all the grannies who pick this up for their grandkids for Christmas, thinking it's the Disney movie!" They called it… Frozen Land… And even went as far as making the cover's color scheme blue, pink and purple!

This particular distributor has done this kind of thing before, too. Last year, they took a 2011 Indian film called Super K and sold it here as Kiara the Brave, apparently the supposed Merida copycat is not even in the film that much. But hey, make the box art look like the recent Disney or Pixar smash that's playing in theaters and you're all set! Redbox picks up your piece of shovelware and unsuspecting parents get it for their kids. I actually saw some of these things (yes, DVDs in cases!) on the shelves at Target!

While these guys are no Video Brinquedo, they are literally poking a hawk's nest. Disney is after them now, and for a good reason. Not only did they put the word "frozen" in the title, but the logo bears a strong resemblance to the Disney one. Yeah, of course they need a whooping!

Anyways, I have no idea if The Legend of Sarila is bad or not. But the thing is, here's a film that was meant to be its own thing in its home country, and then some idiot company in the US sells it as a Frozen knock-off. I mean, that's kind of sad, don't you think? Even if the film is horrible, it's still kind of crappy that this had to happen. You make a film, then it gets used to fool people into thinking it's another film… You're essentially getting your moolah for your film through fraud, from someone else! But hey, the company is most likely okay with this! Any publicity is good publicity! *wince*

A lot of foreign animation gets the shaft here, unfortunately. Will we see films like O Apostol, Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury, The Fake and the like here in the United States in theaters or stores next year? (And no, I'm not talking about one-day screenings at one theater in LA for Oscar qualification!) Probably not, yet a said-to-be-mediocre animated film from another country is cherry-picked and given a release here, sold as a rip-off of one of the big animated films no less!

We need a foreign animated feature that'll get a big release here and change the game for international feature animation. Some felt that Argentina's Metegol (a.k.a. Foosball) could've been the one, but no dice. We play the waiting game… One everyone's been playing for decades…

On that note, have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! See you in a few days!

Freezing The King - A Rant

Yes, Frozen may actually freeze The Lion King… At the box office, that is…

Box Office Mojo's Ray Subers, in his write-up of this weekend's box office results, suggests that the new Walt Disney Animation Studios event could possibly make more than $300 million at the domestic box office.

You heard that right. $300 million…

This excites me and frustrates me at the same time.

Frozen may have a shot at being the first Disney Animation film to gross $300 million in North America, and it could also possibly be their highest-grossing of all time. The Lion King's "initial release" domestic take was a then-monolith $312 million. The 2002 IMAX re-release added another $15 million, the 2011 3D re-release added a shocking $94 million. Its total lifetime gross is $422 million, and there's no way Frozen will beat that. Of course, we don't expect it to. I don't count re-release totals when it comes to this. (i.e. The Rescuers was the biggest Disney animated film on initial release back in 1977, but of all-time counting re-issues? Nope.)

This weekend, the icy film lightly slipped a great 15% from its previous weekend. The film has grossed $192 million in nearly a month. The Christmas week will greatly add to it, and it'll have excellent legs afterwards. It's got the animation and family film world all to itself until The Lego Movie opens in February, because… Let's be honest here, The Nut Job ain't touching this film with a 39 1/2-foot pole.

The great thing about this is, it not only shows that Walt Disney Animation Studios is a worthy competitor at the box office (a few years ago, they weren't), but also a roost-ruler. Pixar currently sits on top alongside Illumination (though I have a feeling that outside of Despicable Me and Dr. Seuss, they'll be making good-sized hits at best), and occasionally DreamWorks. Very few animated films have topped $250 million at the domestic box office since 2010. Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 have raced past that mark, now it looks like Frozen will do the same. Yes, Disney is sitting up there with the giants… Finally…

But why am I also somewhat peeved about this? I should be all-out happy with this film's success, right? Right?

Well, I am happy - first and foremost - for the film itself and Walt Disney Animation Studios. They've deserved a $200M+ domestic hit since Bolt. But that's just it…

If you've seen my review of Frozen, you'll know that I am not gushing over the film. I didn't think it was a "great" movie, but a "very good" movie instead. I had problems with it, and at times I felt that it was very inconsistent and even a little undercooked. Considering the hell this project went through for nearly two decades, I guess we can all say that we should be happy that the film is decent at the least. This could've been a major league disaster, so I am thankful for it being good.

I can accept the fact that something like this went through a lot to get to the big screen, but I'm just not too keen on all the hyperbole. "Best Disney animated film since Lion King!" Stop that already, please take the time to watch films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh and Wreck-It Ralph. If you did and still consider this the best since Lion King, fine. At least you have seen the films, but I get the feeling that a lot of people haven't, or only saw them once when they were ten and rejected them.

If Frozen hits $300 million domestically, it'll have scored a 4.5x multiplier, which is a notch higher than Frog and Tangled's multipliers. I bet you if both of those films opened with $66 million like this film did, they would've grossed around the same amount in the end. Problem is, Frog opened with $24 million, Tangled opened with $48 million. This film would've opened with around the latter's amount if the marketing department didn't wise up and give us that wonderful "First Time in Forever" trailer, heavily plug the soundtrack and make the film look good to people over the age of twelve.

Frozen's got the legs that Bolt, Frog and Tangled had. It's only outgrossing them by a wide margin because of the opening weekend gross, plus some added hyperbole. When you put it out there that it's supposedly the "best" since Lion King, obviously people will flock to see it.

Now I'm not angry that Frozen is outgrossing what I believe are superior films (such as Bolt, Frog, Tangled and Ralph), I'm just cautious because Disney suits may react to this success the wrong way. Executives tend to do this kind of thing. I can hear it now, actually.

"They like modern princess movies! They like Broadway-style musicals! Make more!"

Okay fine, you can make more. I am anticipating Giants, which is essentially the third "modernized fairy tale musical", the first two being Tangled and this of course. I'd be down with one every three years, it's not a bad template. Tangled's story is very different from Frozen's. If there are any similarities, then they are very small. Snow White and Cinderella aren't the same, but they happen to have princess leads, handsome princes, cute animals and are based on fairy tales. Storywise, they are very different.

But if Disney executives push Disney Animation to just stick to fairy tales, I won't be pleased. Fairy tales may be what Disney is best known for, but other classics like Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, One Hundred and One Dalmatians and heck, freakin' Lion King, prove that Disney is more than just fairy tales. They are also more than just snarky comedy-drama Broadway musicals.

Why am I concerned though?

Well, Disney Animation's next two films are not fairy tales nor are they musicals in a "classic Disney" sense. Big Hero 6 is about as anti-Renaissance-era Disney as you can get, ditto Zootopia. I'm glad they are, because I'm not keen on Disney sticking to a formula. Walt hated formulas, he wanted to be diverse. I believe Disney Animation should be that way, all of the time. Try something different, but still revisit what you tried before every once in a while because it is a top menu on the item.

But here's a big concern of mine…

What if Disney were to view Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph as the sort of Oliver & Company and Great Mouse Detectives of the last 5 years? Or "lesser" films that were successful but not huge (i.e. Hunchback, Hercules, etc.)?

When Disney was finally smashing the box office left and right with popular hits like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and so on, those two 1980s films - one was a profitable and critically well-liked film, the other was a modest success that got mixed reviews - fell to the wayside. The Great Mouse Detective is never promoted with a lot of fanfare whenever it comes around, ditto Oliver & Company.

The Great Mouse Detective may not be a sweeping musical event like Beauty and the Beast, and I do consider Beast to be a better film than Mouse Detective, but that doesn't mean the Sherlock Holmesian rodent romp should be treated like a red-headed stepchild. Yes, I believe Disney treats it like that to an extent, at least it's listed in the classics canon. The Great Mouse Detective in my book is a brisk, fun, breezy, simple adventure story with some very likable characters, a highly enjoyable villain and some incredibly entertaining sequences. A film more people should at least watch. It was also the first film directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who would give us some of Disney's most beloved films after that. However, it's not really promoted like other Disney films, its DVD and Blu-ray releases lack the attention and care given to the disc releases of something like Beast (now I'm not asking for a packed mega 2-disc set, though that would be nice), and it's just really kind of… Obscure. It isn't dated, it's not a product of its time. It's a Victorian-set sleuth story, that's kind of timeless if you ask me.

I'm not saying Disney should shove Basil of Baker Street, David Q. Dawson, Olivia Flaversham, Professor Ratigan and the rest of the cast down your throat, but come on! A little push, maybe some more prominence in merchandise and theme parks? Maybe that could attract… You know… Potential fans? Yes it's on Netflix, but that isn't enough if you ask me. It's more than just an "obscure Disney film that happens to be on Netflix." (Over a decade ago, something like Disney's House of Mouse was a good way to keep many characters in the minds of fans, casual viewers and whatnot.)

As for Oliver & Company, well… That's kind of tricky. Again, I don't think Disney should shun any of their animated classics, but Oliver & Company is a near-embarassment because it was really just amped up to be hip in 1988, to make a safe, quick buck. That it did. It was the highest grossing animated film on initial release at the time, and it just functioned as a way to keep Disney Animation trucking and to also show Don Bluth that he wasn't going to be the only one ruling the roost. That being said, it should not be forgotten. It's a footnote, and Disney should treat it as that. Not as an obscure "Ehhh we're scraping the bottom of the barrel so we have to put it out on Blu-ray" film.

Then there's the post-Lion King Renaissance-era films. Films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules seem to only be discovered by nostalgic 90s folks today, Mulan and Tarzan are in good standing since they were sizable hits back in the day, ditto something like Robin Hood - which was always doing fine in video sales in the 1980s and 1990s - or Pocahontas, though they could get a little more push from the Mouse. Maybe more prominence in merch and parks, that always helps. Maybe some of these films, like Mouse Detective, aren't animated Citizen Kanes. Maybe they may not be iconic, but that doesn't mean they should be neglected or seen as "lesser". You can make films like these, well, popular enough.

After Disney got the box office and critical power they had been waiting for in the early 1990s, they effectively shoved The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company out of sight. The latter, I can see why. Again, it was dated and just thrown together to make an easy buck. But why did the former have to get shut out? It wasn't dated or cobbled together, it was a genuinely enjoyable flick. Oh what? It didn't make a blockbuster total at the box office? Whatever. They should've used its modest success to its advantage, treat it like a little Sword in the Stone or Robin Hood. Something of the sort, a little profitable film that continues to do well and garner fans.

See, this is why I'm a bit worried about Disney possibly shutting out some of the last string of films. Bolt was a modest hit, as it did double its budget worldwide and sold well on DVD/Blu-ray. It got great reviews, too! Kind of like Great Mouse Detective, and Disney ignores that film even though it got good reviews and it has a sizable fan base.

Meet The Robinsons will probably get the shaft, big time. Wasn't a box office hit, got okay reviews at best, and is seemingly already forgotten. It's seen as a sort of slightly salvaged mess, one Lasseter could not save, etc. (I beg to differ, but…)

The Princess and the Frog and Tangled are safe, being familiar princess films and merchandising monsters.

Winnie the Pooh might not have been seen by many, but the character is now and forever. It's pretty much safe.

Wreck-It Ralph, box office-wise, is above the Oliver & Company spot. It wasn't a modest success, it was a success. Doubled its budget, sold well on home video, merchandise sold well. Out of the other films, that one is the least likely to be pushed aside. But the video game angle could hurt it, as some inside the company may view it as dated… Like Oliver & Company. Unlike that movie though, it was well-received, it took home a few awards as well! It's kind of in the middle.

But back to Frozen, now that I got the "forgetting thing" out of the way.

Another big concern of mine is this…

How will Disney approach future animated features now that a familiar tale has become their biggest hit since The Lion King?

Disney's marketing department has shown that they can't always market a film correctly, which is true of pretty much every other big studio. For instance, this year Warner Bros. totally botched the marketing for Pacific Rim, making something unique look like just another dull summer blockbuster or "Transformers with giant monsters". Fox couldn't make DreamWorks' Turbo look like anything but a silly kiddie film with its been-there done-that trailers and ads. Last summer, Paramount sold DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians as an action-packed film, something quasi-cool for action-loving teens, and the movie blew up in their faces. In the process they left out the whimsy and imaginative tone that would've attracted other demographics.

… and so on… Disney has had a history of bad marketing outside of animated films: John Carter, The Lone Ranger, Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice…

But… Bolt and Frog's marketing (done by the previous team, not the current one that was established in 2009 after Rich Ross took over) was inexcusably poor, Tangled's was too cynical. Yes, it gave the film its good-sized opening weekend gross, but it did alienate adults and fans in the process. Ralph's marketing also shut out adults, with its emphasis on "Hero's Doody" jokes and less emphasis on the story. Frozen's campaign smartly emphasized the story, music and characters (albeit at the last minute) which in turn got more adults to show up. Sorry Scott Mendelson of Forbes, but I feel that your defense of the kid-centric marketing is way off.

Had Ralph or Tangled's campaigns did what Frozen did in the end, they would've performed similarly to this new picture.

Now that the studio has a huge hit under its belt, the marketing needs to keep things going. Good marketing sells a movie, no matter how good or bad the movie is. Disney Animation, of all things, just needs to be sold properly to audiences. Big Hero 6 needs to be an event, Zootopia needs to be an event, Giants, Moana, all the future projects. All of them. They need to be events! They need to look appealing to moviegoers. The studio is firing on all cylinders and are delivering top notch stories with great characters, lovely animation and a diverse batch of settings, themes and narratives.

Let's hope that Disney emphasizes the future films' qualities in the trailers, ads and marketing materials instead of just slacking off, instead opting to be cliche and pelt the audiences with jokes, jokes and more jokes - like trailers for every other big-release animated movie out there. Big Hero 6 isn't a big musical fairy tale like Frozen, but so what? The Incredibles was an animated superhero film and that was big, Marvel movies are in, superheroes are in. Period. Strike the iron while it's hot! Big Hero 6 could very well nestle itself in the top five highest grossing Disney animated features league. Zootopia is a talking animals film, but that doesn't matter, make it look awesome to the general public! Show how cool the animals-only world of the film will be! Don't market it like Ice Age 12 or whatever, it's more than that!

The goal is to show audiences that Disney Animation isn't just about fairy tales, once upon a time stories, musicals and cutesy talking animal romps. Disney Animation can tackle anything, they can do a space opera, a mystery thriller, an epic fantasy, a small-scale drama… Anything! Audiences may think Disney can or "should only" do fairy tales, no. They can do more, Pixar wins because of this. Diversity rules in the end, and Disney can get other audiences to go see their animated films by tackling new genres. In turn, their audience will grow and grow. They can sit right alongside Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. No wait, they already do!

I'm not saying Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Giants, Moana and the rest should all be $300 million+ blockbusters… That's unreasonable to expect. Pixar couldn't do it, The Incredibles didn't come close to Finding Nemo's huge $339 million gross. (The press went all "What went wrong?", especially when Cars' opening weekend was a little below The Incredibles' opening weekend.) But I all want them to do very good, so they keep the studio going and also get the public to accept new kinds of stories from Disney, so no one goes "But Disney should only do fairy tales! That's what they do best!"

This kind of thing was attempted last decade, but corporate meddling and mismanagement ran that plan into the ground. Dinosaur was killed by the decision to make the dinosaurs talk in hip slang. Emperor's New Groove cost too much because it evolved out of another movie that was already costly enough, it looked bad from the previews and the actually good movie had to rely on word of mouth to make its money… And it still bombed. Atlantis was not allowed to be the cool epic action film it could've been, ditto Treasure Planet plus the marketing made it look like "Disney Extreme Sports… In Spaaaaaaaaace!" Brother Bear and Home on the Range were aimed at kids first, which alienated everyone else. It's quite telling that the derivative, cynical, Shrek-chasing Chicken Little did better than all these films. It's also quite telling that a good film like Lilo & Stitch outgrossed these films.

I see this new era as a revival of that failed plan, but this time, there's no David Stainton or executives having too much control over the product. If Wreck-It Ralph was made in 2002 during the Eisner-Stainton era, it would've tanked, because its screenplay would've been dumbed down, its better ideas would've hit the cutting room floor and the marketing would've made it look terrible. Nope, Wreck-It Ralph was a hit because the screenplay played to adults and kids - it didn't pander to them, bad ideas hit the cutting room floor and the marketing made it look good enough.

Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, Dean Wellins' "Space Race" film, King of the Elves and several others are risky and different like Dinosaur, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis, Treasure Planet and Sweating Bullets (yes, Bullets became Home on the Range, but that early incarnation of Disney's failed Western had lots of potential). The difference is, these films are going to be allowed to be good movies… And what they want to be. That's all thanks to the awful, horrible devils that are John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, plus the great writers and animators who bring these stories to life.

Now also…

Attendance and grosses are two different things…

The Lion King's initial $312 million domestic total translates to roughly 74 million tickets today. If Frozen finishes up with $300 million, it'll have sold less than 40 million tickets. Still a big amount of tickets, but…

Grosses don't mean everything. People still saw films like Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph. People have discovered the likes of Bolt and Frog on video, television or other ways. Frozen may make a lot, but Disney better not reserve a throne for that film whilst telling the canine, the frogs and the video game wrecker to take a hike. They already did that to the hunchback, the super-strong hero and several others.

So hopefully the success of Frozen doesn't continue Disney's rather unfair trend of picking and choosing, and hopefully it doesn't drive Disney to go about selling their future animated films the wrong way. They should use the success of Frozen and the films before it to their advantage. Even though Bolt and Frog didn't outgross Chicken Little, they still outgrossed films like Treasure Planet, Brother Bear and Home on the Range. Chicken Little was lucky, because in 2005, if you were CGI and had a DreamWorks-y attitude, you were a hit. Today? Not so much.

Since Bolt and Frog outgrossed the non-fad films from the studio during the 2000-2005 period (minus you know who, of course), they could be used to demonstrate a growing momentum. It's kind of similar to how Disney used the grosses of Oliver, Mermaid and Beast to prove that Disney Animation was getting bigger and bigger. Bolt and Frog could be them saying: "Look. We're slowly winning back the audiences we lost." Now add in the success of Tangled and Ralph, they'll show: "Look! We got even bigger with those two!" Then Frozen can be their capper, their Aladdin/Lion King smash: "We're back in action now!"

This in turn could really hype up the next string of films, it could drive the marketing department to want to keep the gravy train going. The Renaissance fell after The Lion King because we started getting films like Pocahontas; films that were messes, byproducts of misguided intentions clashing and executive meddling. The declining quality of films got good amounts of people to stay away, not marketing. The marketing still gave it their all when readying films like Hunchback, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan to at least help the films make their money back. Guess what? The films did good at the box office! Hunchback, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan were by all means "hit films" back in the day. Lion King was that rare, once-in-a-lifetime freak success that also hit the summit of the momentum mountain. Did they really think that Pocahontas would repeat that? Or Aladdin's then-enormous $217 million gross? It doesn't work that way. The ignorant higher ups scoffed at the post-Lion King films just because they didn't make Aladdin or Lion King numbers despite being very profitable and selling like mad on home video afterwards. Boo-frickity-hoo…

The quality is consistent with these new films, thanks to the studio's current environment. No formulas, no repeating, no annoyances in the films that drive audiences away. No focus groups telling them what to do, no executives taking their cool ideas and watering them down for toddlers. The current Disney brass better know this, and they better take advantage. A new Renaissance is upon the studio, one that could last a very, very long time.

Time to go big or go home.

In fact… That should be Big Hero 6's tagline. "This Fall… Go BIG or go home!"

Not So Golden

It's old news by now, but yes… The Golden Globe nominations are out… And I'll put it bluntly, I'm not pleased with the animation results.

Only three nominees this year. A paltry three, instead of five. Who made the cut? The Croods, Despicable Me 2 and Frozen. Aside from Frozen's nomination - which I'm totally fine with - my reaction is a resounding, "Are you kidding me?"

No offense to anyone who enjoyed or loved The Croods or Despicable Me 2, but where is The Wind Rises? Oh wait, that's nominated for Best Foreign Film. Sheesh, these people like to put animation in its own category, yet don't nominate what is arguably the year's greatest animated film as Best Animated Feature. Who would've thought?

Where's Ernest & Celestine? Apparently that wasn't good enough, or they didn't even see it. Then again, we are talking about the same people who completely snubbed ParaNorman last year yet allowed the much inferior Hotel Transylvania to make the cut. Apparently box office plays a major role in this ceremony too, sorry, I don't follow it enough. I should know…

Anyways, if box office performances are taken in account, then… (and this is the biggest question…)

Where is Monsters University???

Did the voters truly not care for this year's Pixar offering? Or was it a clear case of them thinking, "It's a sequel/prequel, and Pixar totally fails at making those!" Probably the latter, but maybe the former. Monsters University garnered better critical reception than The Croods and Despicable Me 2, I certainly felt that it was way better than The Croods. I didn't see Despicable Me 2, but I for the life of me don't understand the appeal of The Croods. Good as the animation and art direction was, I couldn't get into it. All I saw was a good-looking movie with a bland story, one-dimensional characters and major tonal imbalances. Was it trying to be a good for-the-whole-family adventure? Or a slap-happy gabfest for little kids?

Basically, meh to this line-up. It should've been five slots, that way we get both Monsters University and The Wind Rises in. If they can't nominate The Wind Rises, then they need to rethink their ways a bit. I don't care if The Wind Rises was made in Japan, it's still an animated feature-length film. It should have been nominated for Best Animated Feature, simple as that. By leaving that out, they also leave out the praised Ernest & Celestine. Had it been five slots, those two could've gotten in and could've sat alongside the three American films.

Oh well, we'll see who wins… I'm guessing it'll most likely be Frozen, since that got the best reception of the bunch, is well-liked and touted as a new Disney masterpiece, and it is the safest choice. After all, Brave took the grand prize last year. Predictable, but damn… The results this year are disappointing as all hell. Hopefully the Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature are a little more balanced…

What's your take? Do you think the choices for the nominees are just fine? Or do you think certain films got snubbed? Who do you think will win? Sound off below!

Top Dog

Frozen has officially claimed the record for biggest opening of a Walt Disney Animation Studios film…

Beating out previous record-holder Wreck-It Ralph ($49 million), the new film from the Burbank studios has taken in an estimated $66 million (!) over the weekend. Since the film opened on Wednesday, it's now sitting at a huge $93 million, beating out the Thanksgiving opener record held for 14 years by Toy Story 2 ($80 million).

Boy… Walt Disney Animation Studios must be super happy. Again, that's what happens when you emphasize on what your movie is really about when marketing it. The final trailer and the constant plugging of the soundtrack did the trick, because many were certain that this film was going to underperform on opening weekend at best. (Boxoffice.com had predicted $38 million!) The teaser and the trailer upset many animation fans and many had already made up their minds about the film… Until that Elsa-centric trailer!

That weekend gross, though…

For a while, very few animated films released after 2010 - other than Pixar's - seemed to gross over $50 million on opening weekend. DreamWorks scored one film that did so in 2012, but that was a sequel - Madagascar 3 ($60 million). Illumination's The Lorax inexplicably opened with $70 million earlier that year, Despicable Me 2 inevitably opened with $83 million. Anything else besides the three previous Pixar films? Nope. Pixar earns their $60 million weekends given their history of great films, and thus they have a built-in adult audience that shows up on opening weekend.

Since Frozen was sold - albeit very late in the game - as a heartfelt and humorous musical fairy tale Disney classic, it got the audiences, the fans and adults into the theater. Now, Disney marketing, I beg you… Please dedicate the same amount of care and effort into the marketing campaigns for all future Walt Disney Animation Studios films. Treat all the future films, that includes the non-fairy tale/musical films, as events. Big Hero 6 is an event, Zootopia is an event, Giants is an event, Moana is an event. Your previous six films are events, regardless of how they did at the box office. A Walt Disney Animation Studios film is an event!

It is high time that Walt Disney Animation Studios films regularly open with more than $50 million at the domestic box office. (Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph all had the potential to do so.) Why's that? Because Walt Disney Animation Studios films are, once again, events. Treat them all as such, even the previous string of films. Audiences need to see these films!

Frozen Frenzy

Frozen is most likely going to score the biggest opening weekend gross for a Disney animated film, beating out the previous record-holder held by last year's Wreck-It Ralph (which took in a solid $49 million) while also possibly being one of the rare non-Pixar films to cross the $250 million mark at the domestic box office. That's what good marketing does for you!

On Wednesday, it took in a very good $15 million, which is higher than Tangled's $11 million first day gross. Already great, then on Thursday, it took in $11 million. Also good… Yesterday, however…

$26 million…

You read that right… $26 million on Friday alone. I heard reports of the movie selling out all over the country, of all things! It's in second place behind The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, which didn't outgross it by much! $26 million… That beat out the likes of Brave and Cars 2, both of which opened with $66 million domestically. It also outdid several other recent animated films, and it legitimately has a shot at grossing over $70 million this weekend. Maybe even a lot more since it's the holiday season! There is talk of it topping the Thanksgiving 5-day record held by Toy Story 2 ($80 million), and possibly making more than $90 million by Sunday… It's very doable!

See Disney, that's what happens you advertise a film the way it should be advertised. That final trailer must've done the trick, while the more pandering marketing (meaning, everything up until the third "Elsa" trailer came out) helped a little bit. Now please, market all of your future films correctly, please walk away with a valuable lesson from this film's success! (And no, not an "audiences only want 90s-style Disney fairy tales!" lesson, more like a "we need to make movies look good to the audiences!" lesson.)

Now if only The Princess and the Frog was that successful… Tangled would've opened with this much had the marketing not made it look like a Shrek-era DreamWorks film… But, that's what crappy marketing does to your films, it limits them from doing better. If Disney were smart, they'd market their future Disney animated films the way they marketed Frozen. They need to fully convince their audiences that Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Giants and Moana are events, not throwaway animation hit-of-the-week films. Films worth seeing over and over in theaters! I know they can do it, the question is… Will they? That's another story...

An Ice Movie and Mickey's Return

Sorry, I could not resist that ice pun.

*Warning: The following review contains spoilers*

Walt Disney Animation Studios' latest is good, and since a certain holiday is around the corner, I can say… I'm thankful for that! I'm thankful for Walt Disney Animation Studios in general because of how good they are now that the shackles have been off since the big change in 2006. Frozen continues to show that animated films are good or great when you let the artists and creatives handle the ship, not suits, not focus groups, not consumer products people…

Frozen is classic Disney fairy tale goodness in pretty much every sense, but it doesn't fully go the Renaissance route. It doesn't reheat elements, there is no major love story where the leads share a ballad together… Oh wait, Anna and suitor Hans fall in love just moments after they have met, but the film is merely riffing on the short-term romances that tended to define some Disney classics (note: Some of the Renaissance ones where they develop a great relationship in a matter of 2-3 days, nothing wrong with those, though). I mean, she declares she wants to marry the man in a single night's worth of hanging out. Elsa writes it off, and by extension, so does the film. Kristoff hammers it in a little more… That was definitely a nice touch!

But at the same time, it does try on some Disney Renaissance-era favorites, mainly… Broadway songs! Penned by Robert and Kristen-Marie Lopez (Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon), the songs are surprisingly kind of a mixed bag. First of all, "First Time in Forever" and "Let It Go" are awesome. Definitely instant Disney classic songs right there, "Frozen Heart" also kicks things off to a nice start, but "Let's Build a Snowman" is simply good, "Love is an Open Door" is also just alright. "In Summer", I honestly did not care for. "Fixer Upper"? The one song that I actually disliked…

"Fixer Upper", to me, recalls those unnecessary goofball songs from the 90s films, mainly "A Guy Like You" and "Trashin' the Camp". The song just butts itself into the story, a scene where Kristoff needs to explain to his weird troll family that Anna is in dire need of help… But no, a silly song! Complete with lyrics about tinkling in the woods! Talk about a tonal imbalance, in fact this film had a quite a few. Something I had a problem with. Luckily, most of that jarring stuff is in the film's middle part. It is at times cringeworthy, but definitely not detrimental to the film as a whole.

Frozen's main strengths lie within the story and the characters, the story is very well-crafted but its our two leads that really make it shine. Anna and Elsa's relationship is very strong, it ends up carrying the film and producing all of the heartfelt moments. Every moment where they are onscreen together is just fantastic, Elsa is a very complex character and someone who is very scared. It's a nice change of pace, as always. I give the current Disney team props for trying new things with each story, Frozen is definitely no Tangled.

The story throws a core romance out the window, just when you think that there is going to be one, with build-up to boot! I was a little let down at one point, when it's implied that Anna's curse that Elsa accidentally gives her can only be cured by a true love's kiss. I thought to myself, "Oh no… That's kind of typical!" But no, she gets back to Arendelle only to find out that Hans is a two-faced jerk who would just let her die and would also kill Elsa so he can rule Arendelle. That's right there on the level of Wreck-It Ralph's great third act reveal. The audience reaction was also very audible. It all makes for an incredibly great third act that makes up for what I did not like in the second act.

The second act isn't bad by any means, it's just that it has a bigger dose of that overly-modern slang dialogue that I'm just not a fan of. I didn't care for it in Tangled, nor did I care for it in the 90s films. Olaf's number, "In Summer", while not terrible, doesn't really add much. There's also too many modern touches and details, this is a fairy tale setting! Also, comedy is inserted where it shouldn't be and thus it does feel cheap at times. The comic relief is handled much better in the first act and the third act. That being said, the second act does give us a few good scenes with Anna and Kristoff, a fun scene in a summer shack shop and best of all… Anna seeing Elsa for the first time since her exit from Arendelle.

Most importantly though, Frozen packs an emotional punch and has a very rock-solid story. I just wish that the screenplay's dialogue was a little better, and that the comedy and drama were balanced a lot better in the second act. When the comedy works, it really works. Most of the songs suit the film, while some are a little disposable and then there's that one I don't care for, but it's mostly a good soundtrack with a good score by Christophe Beck. The piece "Vuelie", which opens the film, immediately plunges you into the setting… They even played it over the Disney and Walt Disney Animation Studios logos instead of the typical soundtracks for those! Please do that with more films, Disney, please?

Do I even need to praise the animation? From the art direction to Elsa's powers to the character animation, it all shines. From snowy mountains to Elsa's elaborate new home to kingdoms with a Norwegian flair, it's all nice to look at, as usual for a Disney animated film. Some shots are just strikingly beautiful. Color is used to the film's advantage as well, with some striking use saved for the more dramatic moments. Also, the film's snowier color palette during the third act kicks all those teal-and-orange "gritty" live action films in their collective faces; that's how you do scenes that are a little bit on the darker side!

It ends well, with an excellent resolution to everything that had gone down in the film. Its heart is right there on the surface, and overall… It's another Disney animated classic. It has some bigger flaws, but as a whole? It's very enjoyable.

The hyperbole surrounding it, however… Well, I can't say I'm happy with that. That's another story for another post for another day, but the time is not right.

Now… To say nothing of Get A Horse!

My oh my… This is how a modern Mickey Mouse cartoon should be done! This is more than a great return for the character - he hadn't graced the silver screen in a roughly 6-minute short since 1995's Runaway Brain - it's just a blast and it does something different for a change. It begins like a Golden Age-era Mickey short, as it was an unearthed scrapped Mickey short from 1929, but then our characters go in and out of the movie theater screen. The film throws one fun inventive thing on top of the other, with the characters turning into computer animated versions of themselves when they come out of the screen!

But the best thing is, it's really funny. This is the real Mickey Mouse, not the politically correct preschool show version that's aggressively shoved down your throat. This is the old Mickey, with the energy and personality that made him so instantly likable. The cartoon was full of raucous slapstick and lots of inventiveness… It's a whole lot of fun and it's definitely worth the price of admission!

October Animation Tidbits [#4]

Another round of tidbits…

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An adaptation of Captain Underpants has been on DreamWorks' docket for a long while, and given its commercial potential, it's understandably moving forward. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that a director has been attached, and a writer. Rob Letterman, who co-directed Shark Tale and Monsters vs. Aliens - will helm it, Nicholas Stoller (writer of The Muppets and its upcoming sequel) will pen the screenplay. Seems like the right duo for this kind of film.

Of course, when I was young, the books were a staple at my elementary school's annual book fairs and I imagine they were huge with every other school too. While I didn't really bother with the series back then, it'd be interesting to see how it's pulled off in feature-length form. It will be DreamWorks' first potty humor-loaded flick since the Shrek 2 days, which will make it a draw for kids and fans... Anyone else? Maybe not, making it kind of a gamble for DreamWorks.

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Even though this film is not out until next summer, a teaser is already up... Yep, Planes: Fire and Rescue...

I will admit, it's nice that this won't be Cars with airplanes like the first film was (I didn't see Planes and I don't really plan to), plus the animation does look like nice for a roughly $50 million DisneyToon production.



Yeah, surprisingly, it doesn't look half bad. Yes, the Planes films are mostly for kids, they are pretty harmless as a result. I thought the first one looked positively lame, this one just looks... Okay. Not that I plan on seeing it or anything, but please oh pretty please Disney, this stuff shouldn't be theatrical. Keep it out of the cinemas!

Other than that, its existence doesn't really bother me in the slightest. What bothers me, personally, is how furious and enraged some people are getting over this franchise. Listening to some people, you would've thought that the Cars series is the worst thing since cancer or something...

Whoever is angry needs to consider that Pixar isn't making these films, neither is Disney Animation. They've both got cool stuff in the works, these little cash grab flicks aren't really affecting them or animation that much; why worry about this when you can anticipate something like Big Hero 6 or Inside Out?

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Well, whaddaya know? More Frozen stills, straight from Stitch Kingdom...

All fine-looking, and they give you a good idea of what this film is like. That, and the current trailer that's out. That being said, the stills showcase the fine animation and art direction. It does have a bit of a Tangled-esque look, but of course it'll be different in the story department and what not.

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Some reviews for Reel FX's debut film Free Birds are in… And they are unfortunately not so positive… (Though it'll be interesting to see where it lands, I thought the first teaser had some pretty funny bits.)

Rotten Tomatoes holds three rotten reviews, plus recent screening results have been pretty negative. A real shame, because I'm rooting for Reel FX and I do hope this one makes them enough so that they can embrace the risky stuff that they have in their pipeline.

I figured for a while that Free Birds was meant to be a sort of safe film, one that would do well enough and secure them enough financial backing to make The Book of Life, which sounds intriguing from what I've been hearing. Of course, as you all may know, they have two other films in the works: An adaptation of the not-so-family-friendly Beasts of Burden and a rather dark-sounding film called W.I.S.H. Police, the latter appropriately being from the directors of Nocturna.

I have a feeling that Reel FX's future works will be more akin to Rango (especially The Book of Life) and LAIKA's films, rather than stuff from Sony Animation or Illumination. They seem to have that ambition, so we'll see how that all plays out - cute family-friendly turkey movie notwithstanding.

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What's your take on a Captain Underpants movie? What do you think of the Planes: Fire and Rescue teaser? Bad? Evil? Okay? Meh? What do you think of the Frozen stills? Do you think Free Birds will be a dud? Or surprisingly decent? Sound off below!

The Event

To the people at Disney marketing... I have one thing to say...

Now that's how you do a trailer!



That all being said, I'm not watching it again for fear of any potentially spoilerific shots. Despite my criticisms of Disney's marketing department, I have to hand it to them... I was in awe during this trailer, because it got a lot of things right and it made the film look exciting. I'd say it's their best (spoiler stuff aside) trailer since Brave's final theatrical trailer; if we exclude spoilery stuff, the best one in a while.

It featured at least one song, and it dominates the last half of the trailer. That was truly great. There was even text saying "The music"!

The trailer also said "Experience the greatest Disney animated event since The Lion King"... Okay, I'm glad they said animated event, because every film of theirs as of late is an animated event, but the whole Lion King thing is all subjective of course. But it's a good way to entice audiences to see it since The Lion King is often named the best Disney animated film by many.

The mix was mostly even, but I'm just happy to see a trailer where the story was the main focus and not the gags. Disney marketing may realize that this routine won't work this time around given how a lot of family-friendly animated comedies just didn't do so well at the box office this year, so it was great to see them differentiate this film from the rest. Now if only this was done for trailers as far back as 2008, when Bolt was coming out. Hopefully they keep it up for their future films, now that the studio is financially successful again and the next slate of films delivers a boatload of promise.

Given their expertise with viral marketing, this trailer shows that Disney's marketing department people do have the ability to cut very good, effective trailers.

So yes... Watch it!

Zero Identity

Earlier this year, I talked about how Disney's animated output doesn't have that "event status" anymore and what they could do to bring it back...

This year, Disney's very questionable marketing department proved how inept they can be with the studio's upcoming Frozen. Aside from a cute throwaway teaser that obviously wasn't meant to really hype it up, the marketing team hasn't given this film or Disney's own animated output much of an identity. They had the perfect opportunity to do so with this film, with the success of Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph behind them, but they blew it.

Frozen's sole theatrical trailer (if another one comes, it'll be nice, but...) makes the film look like - as many have said - "Tangled on Ice" or better yet, every other animated film that's playing or opening soon. I'm more than tired of the new approach to marketing animated films, where the focus is on the comedy. Yes, I know, adults seem to only embrace "warm" and "funny" animation... But we need to find ways to make them embrace animation in general. Some films coming out in 2015 look to do that, that is if they are marketed correctly!

But that's not the point, the point is, Disney needs to market Walt Disney Animation Studios film as... Well... Walt Disney Animation Studios films. The attempt to break any studio confusion with the "From the creators of Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph" headings is not going to help. They need to create a new identity now that everyone else has excelled in the family-friendly animation market.

Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph certainly didn't feel Disney-esque from the marketing, the former's campaign was way too cynical and Shrek-like while the other relied on the video game jokes and the comedy in general, rather than immersing us in Ralph's story or the different video game worlds. Nope, "Hero's Doody" is what sells, not Ralph's dissatisfaction or the worlds he discovers on his journey.

Secondly, stop with this "Disney" branding. Disney is a corporation, yes, and it's okay to put just "Disney" on a box for a toy or some kind of consumer product, but... When presenting films, why in the world did you have to get rid of Walt Disney Pictures Presents? The last I saw of the name in print was on the posters for The Princess and the Frog, and as far as home video covers go, the Blu-ray and DVD of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were the last to say "Walt Disney". (This was the end of that phase where Disney removed the 's from Walt Disney's on their video covers of the Walt films.)

Then in 2011, they got rid of the "Walt" and "Pictures" in the film logo itself. Everything from The Muppets and onwards opens with a logo that just says "Disney". Sorry, no defense there. It just seems so bland and corporate... Walt Disney Pictures has such a cinematic feel to it, take that away and you're left with something so... Shallow. I know Disney is a corporation, but I want to separate that fact from when I watch one of their films. I don't know, Walt Disney Pictures just complete it for me. Not only in the films, but on the posters and video covers.

But the biggest thing that is preventing Walt Disney Animation Studios from having an identity outside of their films is the suits' paranoia over young boys. You know how much I hate their fear of what young boys want to see in theaters.

Disney brass... Boys aren't your target demographic! Kids aren't your target demographic!

Who is your target demographic?

EVERYONE.

Play to everyone, families, kids, adults, moviegoers... You'll get a big success on your hands, it's not freakin' rocket science! By trying too hard to appeal to boys, you alienate the adults who will make your films more successful than they are. You also come off as sexist, and you also make young girls feel left out. What is this? A boys-only treehouse? This is Disney, something everyone deserves to experience.

Also, if you treat Disney animation as a treehouse for boys that doesn't allow girls... Then you're limiting your audience. Teens and adults don't want to go into a boys treehouse, because that's kids' stuff. Is Disney animation kids' stuff? No. Need I remind the suits about beloved films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast??? Good thing those weren't made today, they probably would've done decent business at best.

This obsession with pleasing one minor chunk of their audience all stems from The Princess and the Frog. Disney's newly-hired staff came on board when that film was released, and those "geniuses" failed to realize that Frog's campaign was lame (Even I thought it looked terrible back then!) and that the film had other pre-release baggage. But in corporation fashion, the suits and marketing are never wrong... It's obviously the fault of the film, or the title. *proceeds to bang head against the wall*

Now I will be seeing the film, and all future Walt Disney Animation Studios films, because I'm a fan of Disney and I'm not a casual moviegoer. I'm an animation aficionado and a Disney nutcase. Is a lot of America like me or other animation fans? No.

Frozen's campaign has only lead to extreme skepticism. Many are doubting that this film can be good or anything decent, and a lot of people are up in arms over the character designs thanks to what a lead animators stated recently, people are angry about the revisions to the original tale (hello, Disney does this!) and people are also mad because it seems too much like Tangled. See Disney, you probably lost a good chunk of potential moviegoers. Even some animation fans aren't willing to see it, and this campaign probably is the reason. People go by marketing, not what they imagine about the film. It's a yay or nay decision when it comes to viewing the trailer in theaters, and it determines the opening weekend at the box office - and if your opening weekend gross isn't up to snuff, then you're deemed dead on arrival.

I fear that if Frozen does not meet expectations (I still think it's going to do well, since Tangled's awful marketing campaign still worked to some degree - but if that film had better marketing, it probably would've opened with a lot more than $60 million), then Disney will make another dumb assumption like "People don't like fairy tales" or "Fairy tales are old-fashioned". Disney was convinced that Tangled wouldn't do well based on how Princess and the Frog performed, and they were quick to say "no more fairy tales". I can only thank goodness that Wreck-It Ralph was not only profitable, but a hit that audiences really liked. Imagine if that didn't do well? *shudder*

Luckily, Disney has Giants coming. Not saying Frozen will underperform, but if it does, then that 2016 release would be a sort of test to see if audiences reject fairy tales or not. If anything, Disney should be asking, "What can we do to make audiences care about Anna and Elsa? We don't want this to go over badly" not "Do audiences like fairy tales anymore?" Why don't they consider how Disney anything would go over in the 1990s? Audiences had no hesitation showing up for The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, because both looked great and people were rediscovering Disney - something they had missed. Audiences also didn't hesitate to see the Arabian Nights-flavored Aladdin or the all-animal Shakespearian The Lion King. Even Disney was a bit worried about that one at the time, but look! People flocked to see! It's one of Disney's most popular films!

Why? Because it looked great. Make it look great, and when people realize how good the movie is, the word of mouth spreads and BOOM! Success! The marketing seemed to forget that when they compiled the trailers and designed the posters for Tangled and Frozen. I'd say Wreck-It Ralph is their only success, but barely, because the second trailer wallows in animated trailer formula a little too much. If anything, Disney's marketing department succeeds in the viral department. Now they are great there!

I absolutely loved Toy Story 3's viral campaign, which played directly to college-aged folk and teenagers so that the trailers and TV spots did not have to. (For the record, Toy Story 3's final domestic trailer was bad.) It also had quirky little things, like the 80s-styled Lots-O-Huggin' Bear ad, the Japanese Lotso ad and other things. Wreck-It Ralph's campaign had those super cool advertisements for Litwak's, arcade flyers and some cute fun stuff like the Fix-It Felix hammer advertisement. Now that's smart viral marketing.

But the sad thing is, they excel at this but not at doing the real marketing: The trailers, the posters and the TV spots. Maybe Disney needs a top wing of people that'll handle that stuff, and let the current marketing people do the viral stuff. That would be great, but will Disney do this? Probably not.

If this happened, then they could approach the films the way the 90s marketing team approached films like Beauty and the Beast. Look at these posters...

The first poster is appealing to adults. It makes the film look like a grand event, something they should go see - regardless of whether they have children or not. I've read about how Beauty and the Beast was promoted as a "date film", well I can believe that because Disney did do this for some re-releases at the time (late 1980s), such as Sleeping Beauty. That re-release did pretty well! Give the adults a reason to go by themselves and see it, they'll go see it!

Now the second poster is definitely kiddie. Its color scheme is very bright and saturated, it's definitely nothing like the film's color scheme! Everyone's all happy and chipper, there's heavy emphasis on the comic relief and side characters. Where's the Beast? Oh he's brooding in the clouds, but that's in the far background.


Now look at that! Now this is not a perfect trailer by any means, but it at least gives you a good idea of what the story is, the editing isn't slip-shod, they make room for both comedy and the other aspects (points off for showing the mob trying to get into the castle), plus it pleases both adults and kids. It makes the film look good to both. Oh, and it has *gasp* SONGS! Yes, that's right! This film has songs in it! Oh yeah that's right, it's a Disney movie. Tangled and Frozen's marketing went to great lengths to hide the musical numbers, with the exception of this year's D23, since the people running D23 know that the fans are present.

Also, notice anything else?

Disney's 30th full-length animated motion picture? The canon numbers don't matter anymore, do they? When Tangled came out, Walt Disney Animation Studios put out this awesome "50 Classics" montage... Why wasn't that in the trailers? Or a teaser?

Dozens of all new Disney characters? Disney characters in the 1990s were treated as one big family, and Disney would act as if new faces like Belle, Beast, Aladdin, Jasmine, Simba, etc. were new to the Disney family. "The Disney family grew even larger with new friends like Ariel, Flounder and Scuttle..." said announcer Mark Eliot on the Beauty and the Beast behind-the-scenes first look from mid-1991. (This appears on the 1991 VHS of The Jungle Book.)

Featuring 6 new songs from the composers and lyricists of The Little Mermaid? Yes, remember when songs mattered? Not to mention the people who crafted the songs?

What happened to announcers? Now we get quick text saying quick things. "She's Been Grounded... Like... Forever!" Jokes dominate, the story takes a backseat to pretty much everything and... Ugh...

These things that gave Disney an identity are gone, it's time for them to come back. It's time for Disney marketing to give Disney animation its own identity - in turn, they'll entice many fans, adults and other people to see their films in droves.

October Animation Tidbits

Tidbits, tidbits...

We got our first official trailer for Rio 2, after two teasers...



Cute. Colorful. That's about it, really. No doubt the family audiences will eat it up next April, and the plot at least isn't a rehash of the original. I'm just on the fence about this one. Also, what's with Blue Sky's recent iPod product placement?

But oh well, Nigel is still funny.

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Evan Goldberg dropped some more details on Sausage Party, his upcoming R-rated animated collaboration with Seth Rogen...

First off, he says it's an "existential mock-Pixar movie".

"... We are very, very proud of it. It's our opus. It's like Mr. Holland's Opus! It’s our take on a Pixar movie. It is very, very R rated."

It's all in good fun, though, as he also said, "I wish there were fifty Pixar movies every year. But listen, someone should take those motherf*ckers down a notch. Those high and mighty bastards. We're mocking all animated movies, with a special eye on Pixar."

A mockery of the current American animated feature landscape sounds ideal for an R-rated animated film, but here's hoping that the film is a fun send-up and will also be really funny regardless of any lowbrow or juvenile humor. This will be what Shrek almost was, a great parody of what's big in animation right now.

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Also, Frozen images... Boy do they look stunning!

Elsa's kingdom... With a Mike Giaimo sky! He's the art director of this film, and he was originally going to direct it back when it was actually called The Snow Queen. It's much like Pocahontas' color scheme, which gravitated towards heavy blues, lavenders and purples.

This one is just stunning... It's my favorite of the bunch. The pointedness of everything combined with the icy atmosphere. It just perfectly sums up Elsa's character.

These images alone make me anticipate this film even more now, not some poorly-edited slapdash trailer that assumes that audiences can't sit through two quiet minutes of anything animated. Of course, we know that Disney marketing won't make Frozen look like a grand must-see event spectacle, instead opting to bombard you with jokes, silly snowmen and one-liners. Like I said in my post regarding spoilers in Pixar trailers, I'll just stick to images and the teasers for these films and quite frankly... I'm fine with that.

Where did these images come from? Disney Russia's Facebook page... Why not Disney's other pages for different countries? If they don't come the other pages (American, European, etc.), I'll only shake my head in disbelief. At this point, I believe Disney's ever-so-wise marketing department would do that.

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What's your take on the new Rio 2 trailer? What do you think of the Frozen images? What do you think of Sausage Party and the writers' plans to mock Pixar films?

Sound off below!

Melted

Well here it is folks, the theatrical trailer for Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen...



And to be honest, it's not that bad of a trailer... Okay, it isn't perfect, not even great by any means... But it does its job, audiences will go see it because it essentially looks like "Tangled Mach II". It's the typical animated film trailer: Frenetic, joke-centric and it probably doesn't give you a feel of what the film will ultimately be like. But at least there's some pretty animation to gaze at here, and there are some moments that generate excitement.

This will probably be the only time I'll watch it, but here it is... Enjoy!

September Animation Tidbits

More tidbits for ya... Some rather interesting ones, too...

Aardman's next feature-length stop motion animated film finally has a release date...

As confirmed by writer/director Richard Starzak on his Twitter, Shaun the Sheep (based on Aardman's long-running television series of the same name) will hit theaters on March 20, 2015...

Now first thing's first, is that the UK/Europe-only date? Or is this when it's supposed to open in the US as well?

Here in the states, DreamWorks' The Penguins of Madagascar opens the weekend after March 20th. Columbia essentially dumped Aardman's last film, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, in a spot where it would be eaten up by both 3D and family-friendly competition (shame on them) so if that's the US release date, I won't be surprised. I had last predicted that the film would hit theaters in April, but it looks like they're going for the mid-March spot.

I have a feeling that it will be an April release here in the states, what do you think? Either way, it's great to know that they finally have an idea of when it will be completed. Hopefully we get dates on other planned 2015 animated films, such as Ratchet & Clank, soon.

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It was announced today that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are currently working on an R-rated animated comedy called Sausage Party.

Get this, it's about a sausage who goes on a journey to discover the "truth about his existence"... Where does this journey take place? In a supermarket... And the main sausage must get back to his aisle before the Fourth of July sale...

DreamWorks stalwart Conrad Vernon will direct with Greg Tiernan (bizarre choice, considering that his background is only direct-to-video Thomas the Tank Engine movies), and the film will be released by Columbia Pictures presumably sometime in 2015.

I'm not too sure about this one just yet. While it's nice to have a mainstream R-rated animated film come around, I have a feeling that this one will be no different from all of the "adult" animation that catches on in America. You know, the Family Guy and South Park variety. When are we going to start getting real "adult" animated films? Films that are mature to begin with, not ones that are raunchy and juvenile.

Then again, I loved This Is The End so this could be very, very funny. The concept though... Talking food? That's... New...

Well, for an animated feature-length film that is...

Update (9/25/13): Cartoon Brew confirmed that the film is being produced by Canadian animation house Nitrogen Studios, and the film will be computer animated.

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Europe got four Frozen posters today... And boy do they beat the domestic one. Well not by much, but still...

The UK one on the left? Sven seems too front and center here. The one on the right is a bit better, even though it still makes the film look like a goofy comedy.

The one on the left? Great! Finally, some focus on Elsa for a change! The one without Elsa? Ehhhhh...

Oh, and I already saw the trailer that we're getting on Thursday. It's no great shakes, though the footage looked beautiful. I do anticipate seeing it in good quality this come Thursday but it doesn't come anywhere close to the short Japanese teaser. Typical of Disney's North American marketing...

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And that's it... Some animation tidbits. What do you think of the international Frozen posters? What's your take on Sausage Party? Are you excited about Aardman's next film - a stop motion one no less? Sound off below!