December Animation Tidbits [#2]

Another round of bits...

How To Spoil Your Dragon

A recently released image showing Cate Blanchett's
character.

How To Train Your Dragon 2's trailer is right around the corner, but we all may have to avoid it. I got word from a good friend of mine, who found a source suggesting that the trailer might spoil a major twist in the film. It's said to be all Fox's doing, and that the people at DreamWorks begged the marketing department not to spoil said "mystery".

Attention Animation Fans: There is a new HTTYD2 Trailer coming out soon. Don't watch it unless you want the story's big mystery spoiled.
— Mygames19 (@Mygames19) December 14, 2013

I know the source isn't exactly reliable, but for those who don't want to be spoiled, it's better to assume it is. http://t.co/W3ZUb99Wxl
— Mygames19 (@Mygames19) December 14, 2013

If this turns out to be true, all I can say is: Really Fox? Really?

People just don't have a clue when it comes to marketing animated films, do they? That teaser was so excellent, suggesting that Fox was going to market DreamWorks' films correctly since Paramount did poorly at doing so in their final years with the studio. I mean come on! This is a highly anticipated sequel to a highly acclaimed animated film, and this is what you're going to do?

I hope it's all a rumor…

Moana Madness

Like that logo for Walt Disney Animation Studios' upcoming Polynesian-set adventure? Well, it's fake. You can tell too, with the two swooshes above and below the "Moana" text looking so basic and the Disney logo being in white, which contrasts heavily from everything else.

Also, people thought that these were newly leaked pieces of concept artwork… They aren't…

And it seems like people are just discovering this upcoming Ron and John project. I don't mean to brag (if you've been reading prior to May, you have the same bragging rights), but I've known about this for a while.

The good thing is, people know it exists. It's presumably not due out until 2018 (going by Blue Sky Disney's notes), but it's good that the word has gotten out somehow. The only post-Big Hero 6 film that Disney has officially mentioned or announced is Zootopia, but they didn't outright say that the film is set to open on March 4, 2016. Smart move, because if you ask me, picking a date for an animated film very early on might be detrimental to the production.

Keane Gets Work!

Wow… Already! Apparently he's set to work on a commercial for Motorola, going by a mysterious email Cartoon Brew's Amid Amidi received.

Now, how long until it's announced that an animated feature enters development at Glen Keane Productions?

90s Revival

On January 20th, Cartoon Network will take us back to the City of Townsville with a Powerpuff Girls special titled "Dance Pantsed"…

As the poster implies, this special will be done in a completely different animation style and will also feature Ringo Starr as a character named Fibonacci Sequins, an over-the-top mathematician. Hmmm, I wonder if he'll sing a song! Oh wait, he will! "I Wish I Was a Powerpuff Girl"!

Color me excited.

Also, the premise…

In 'Dance Pantsed', why is Mojo Jojo kidnapping a mathematician, an opera singer and a badger? To steal Chemical X, of course, and to finally take over Townsville. But when the Powerpuff Girls thwart his plan, he invents an evil video game called “Dance Pants R-EVILution” to control their minds and bodies to fulfill his evil plot! The Professor must visit his dark dancing past to save his girls so they can save all of Townsville!

It's good to see Cartoon Network revisiting one of their classic 90s shows, and while the new art style might leave some fans upset, I'm certainly looking forward to it. Here's hoping the writing is as good as the original show. Plus, Ringo Starr… You can't go wrong.

~

Will you check out the How To Train Your Dragon 2 trailer when it comes out? Do you think it will end up being spoilerific? When do you think Disney will officially announce Moana? What do think Glen Keane will work on next year? Does the upcoming Powerpuff Girls special excite you? Or not?

Sound off below!

Box of Brilliance

A new trailer for LAIKA's The BoxTrolls has unexpectedly arrived!

This is no ordinary trailer either, and I must say, distributor Focus Features made something truly cool here! Rather than going for a stupid trailer that is a hodgepodge of antics and kid-centric jokes (like ParaNorman's near-disastrous trailer), they instead decided to craft something that could help audiences appreciate the beauty of stop motion animation and LAIKA's work in general. No dialogue or announcers, just a song and footage of the animators and artists at work… What more could you ask for?

Anyways, it's always staggering to see how much goes into their films and it's also a nice callback to the days when Disney would put behind-the-scenes footage in their trailers for their films in the 1990s. Showing the audience small bits of what goes into making animated features is such a great idea for trailers, and the fact that they're doing this for a stop motion film makes me very happy.

Now hopefully the full trailer, which should explain the story and whatnot, will make the film look like something worth seeing and not a bogus kiddie flick that's too scary for kiddies but yet too silly for adults. ParaNorman would've been the hit it should've been had it not been advertised that way, so hopefully The BoxTrolls is LAIKA's deserved box office break out. It's high time a film like this does well and changes the game for mainstream feature animation.

What did you think of the trailer? Great idea? Or would you have preferred to have seen more story-based stuff? Sound off below!

Going Way Back

The trailer for DreamWorks' Mr. Peabody & Sherman has finally arrived!



It's a pretty decent trailer at best, no great shakes. That being said, I already like Mr. Peabody and I think Ty Burrell did a good job voicing him, judging by what we have been given. The design of the WABAC machine is great, and the brief glimpses at the time periods the characters will be visiting look nice. The animation works very well too, combining a simplistic, retro character design style with some good art direction.

Best of all, the film does not look like a stupid Alvin and the Chipmunks/Smurfs-style modernization of the original. Sure, it's a little amped up for today's audiences, but it looks to be fun rather than something that'll bombard you with toilet humor (save for the stupid Sphynx butt joke at the end) and pop culture references. I knew DreamWorks would do this film right.

Also, Patrick Warburton! Seems like it's been a while since he's been in an animated film! Well... A big one at least, he was in Space Chimps and the Hoodwinked! sequel, but yeah...

It looks like a fun little diversion, a nice little treat before the epics of How To Train Your Dragon 2. What did you think of the trailer? Sound off below!

Raising The Stakes... Again

The teaser trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the third installment of Marvel Studios' second phase of their cinematic universe, has surfaced...



It kicks off with a bang and a shred of humor, but then afterwards, it takes on the mood that the great but misleading Iron Man 3 trailers used. The trailer makes it quite obvious that the stakes are being raised, big time. Of course, they would have to do so for this film. Thor: The Dark World, on the other hand, "looks" like the further adventures of Thor with a pinch of darkness. Of course, I'm waiting for the film to prove me wrong, but for now the trailers surprisingly aren't doing a thing for me... And I loved the first Thor, and I guess I may be in the minority for loving it.

Anyways, what they are showing here looks fantastic. The final shot of the titular villain is great, the Helicarrier crashing into the ocean was a nice money shot, plus from the looks of it, the action will be pretty intense. I've heard things about the Comic-Con footage, and how those who attended the presentation felt that the action was on par with The Avengers. That'll probably work very well in its favor, considering that Iron Man 3's action was a mix of big blow-em-up thrills (particularly the third act) and clever, smaller-scale escapades (Stark sneaking into the Mandarin's mansion). Thor: The Dark World's action looks to be Thor's action, but amped up.

They also give us a taste of Rogers' unease with what S.H.I.E.L.D. is planning to do, which was mentioned in the Comic-Con footage descriptions. The glimpses at the Falcon, Cap's new suit and some of the new characters were also great additions. In all, it's a pretty solid teaser. Definitely Iron Man 3-like in a sense, except less "end-times" in its mood.

Iron Man 3's teaser was criticized by some for being more on the Nolan Batman side, since there wasn't a scrap of humor and the whole trailer was accompanied by descending music that suggested despair rather than fun. Personally, I liked that trailer a lot because it wasn't trying to be brooding or dark (everyone called it "The Iron Man Rises"), I thought it was basically saying, "Tony Stark is in big trouble this time!" The second trailer was more thrilling, and it ends with a funny bit.

This teaser, I feel, is like Iron Man 3's teaser except it suggests that the film will be more fun and more of a thrill ride than a bleak film - yet I still feel that things are going to get hairy in this sequel. So far, Cap in the modern world looks like it'll make for a damn good movie. Marvel knows what they're doing...

I'm really looking forward to this installment. What do you think of the teaser?

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!

More From the Animated Birds

More stuff on Free Birds and Rio 2...

The theatrical trailer for Turkeys... I mean, um... Free Birds, arrived yesterday alongside Frozen's trailer...

While I'm looking forward to this film, I think this trailer is just another typical animated film trailer that doesn't make the film look that good. In fact, I think the first trailer is much better in terms of the editing and structure. Also, the "Hold Onto Your Nuggets" tagline? Please...

Oh well, that's typical animation marketing. I have a feeling that this film will surprise me in some way. What do you think of the trailer? Are you looking forward to this film? Or not?

USA also gave us a first look at Rio 2 earlier this week...

From the images and plot details, it sounds decent. There's probably going to be lots of wacky comedy and whatnot (expected from a Blue Sky film), and probably lots of pop music to go with the samba. Also, the daughter having an iPod (pictured above) only reminds me of the iPod's prominence in the studio's previous feature, Epic.

Anyways, it's great that they aren't completely rehashing the first film, which I did enjoy very much. I like the idea of more macaws and Nigel returning, he was one of the best things about the first film if you ask me. I'm not exactly sure if I'm looking forward to this sequel or not, given that 2014 has us animation fanatics spoiled with the likes of How To Train Your Dragon 2, The BoxTrolls, Book of Life, Big Hero 6. I guess if this was coming out this year, I'd be anticipating it more.

I'm just getting tired of the American animation marketplace being saturated with goofy family-friendly comedies, but Rio was one done right and maybe the sequel will be the same. What do you think?

Out of the Box

LAIKA's third film, The BoxTrolls, is not due out until the autumn of next year... But that's not stopping Focus Features from getting the word out right now with a teaser! Despite what I may think of the way they advertise LAIKA's films, I will commend them for actually drumming up buzz a year and a half before the studio's next film even opens.

Since Universal's international distribution arm wants to be unfair and block it from YouTube in your country, you'll have to head over to iTunes to give it a watch for the time being...

Taking the Pixar route, this teaser shows us a fun little set of jokes, the setting and the BoxTrolls themselves. This will probably not be in the finished film. Visually, it's a lot like ParaNorman with its unconventional human designs, fun troll designs and the jagged, asymmetrical architecture. I absolutely loved that building style in ParaNorman. In this Victorian setting, it looks wonderful and refreshing. Aside from the usual lovely animation, this teaser is already notable (and soon, it'll be controversial) for its overt nods to same-sex couples.

LAIKA already got heat for a particular reveal in ParaNorman (which I won't spoil for you if you haven't seen it), so I imagine that this film will get some flack right off the bat. LAIKA isn't afraid to do this, though, and good for them I say. Being a studio whose films don't get the really wide audience that most other animated films get, they can somewhat slip under the radar with something like this. It begs the question: When will other studios do that? Or something similar?

All that aside, this is a great little teaser and the film is going to be another gem. LAIKA showed us with two back-to-back masterpieces that they a "new Pixar" of sorts, a studio that's going to try new things whilst also delivering good films. Their films may not be box office smashes, but they are a refreshing break from a lot of the animated films that litter the landscape today.

Thawed...

It's finally here folks, the teaser trailer to Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen! Chances are, you probably already saw it, but... Here it is!



Surprisingly enough - well to me, at least - this teaser seems to be very, very divisive. Some think it's a cute, hilarious little teaser. I certainly thought so. Others really dislike it, criticizing it for many things - one criticism being that it is too much like the Ice Age teasers that focus on Scrat. Others may have been let down simply because it doesn't feature the leads... Well, I saw that coming so I can't complain myself. Some don't like the fact that the reindeer Sven is too much like Tangled's Maximus. Okay, I can see why some would be upset because the idea of this character is essentially a repeat of what made that character hilarious. I too was worried that this film would be a rehash of that 2010 film, and yes Sven is a little too much like Maximus except he has a different attitude. But Olaf is no Pascal, and the two are definitely going to interact in different ways, so I didn't have a problem with that. Others just simply dislike it, to the point where they are writing off the whole film...

Ummm, it's a teaser! It's very likely that none of this footage will even be in the finished film. Olaf and Sven could very well be hilarious in the final product, supposedly they aren't annoying comic relief sidekicks (some people were lucky to see a screening recently) and they do add to the story. That's all I'm looking for, and the slapstick between the two made me laugh. I'm sure it'll make audiences of non-animation fanatics laugh too, because most of the marketing for these films cater to them anyway. (No matter how bad it may be to us.)

But I'm just baffled at the fact that some people are already not looking forward to the film simply because of this teaser. Does anyone remember Tangled's wretched teaser? I remember cringing at what I saw on the hot night of June 18th in 2010, waiting for Toy Story 3 to unspool before my eyes. Lots of people hated it, from the Shrek-esque dialogue to the seemingly cynical attitude. Oh, and Rapunzel's hair beating up Flynn Rider as if it were alive? And this teaser is making people not want to see this film? I'm sorry, but I think that's unfair. If anything, the Tangled marketing as a whole should've taught us all a lesson... Never trust marketing that much! Also, let's not forget a lot of bad/meh Pixar teasers that make the films look lame. Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille, anyone?

Anyways, I give props to the marketers for actually putting "From the creators of Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph" in the trailer, at the beginning no less! It's about damn time, too, because people confuse the two studios. Disney marketing needs to separate Disney Animation from Pixar and make their work stand out, seem unique and make it look like it's worth seeing. Some of us may not like this teaser, but it's going to work in the long run. People will be hooked.

If there's one little gripe I had with the teaser, it's that it doesn't really show how beautiful this film will look since we only got an icy lake and the surrounding tundra. It's pretty enough, but I would've liked to have seen more. That's just me, though. I also predict (this will probably be obvious) that the marketing will hide the fact that this is a musical and it may focus on action/humor only.

What did you think of this teaser? Good? Horrible beyond belief? Hilarious? Meh? Sound off below!

"Wreck-It Ralph" International Trailer Review

Like most Disney animation releases, Wreck-It Ralph will open in other countries on different dates over the course of roughly five months. The UK, most notably, doesn't get the film until February 15th. It's also scheduled to come out in Japan a month later. In the mean time, they get this really nice international trailer that is superior to both of the US trailers.



Now I still like the US trailers, they do get right what most trailers for animated films get wrong. However, this one balances the story and the comedic parts perfectly. The only big problem with this trailer is that a lot of things in it can be considered pretty good-sized spoilers. The trailer is also trying harder to play up the Toy Story similarities ("When the game is over... A new world comes to life"), but overall, it just focuses more on what's going to happen. The international trailers aren't shy of spoilers, the most notable example being the final international trailer for Cars 2, which showed the outcome of the first two races along with several other things.

Plus, the Disney logo... Not only did they do it in 8-bit, they also stylized it to make it look like the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures logo. Now that's just awesome. Why didn't they include that on the latest US trailer?

Anyways, a very good trailer but one I'm only watching once. Too many spoilers for me. What do you think?

The Next Classic

It's finally here! The new trailer for Walt Disney Animation Studios' Wreck-It Ralph.



The Pros:
- We get to see more of Fix-It Felix, Jr., Ralph's game. It looks wonderful, and it actually looks a lot different from the concept image we got months and months ago in terms of the color and lighting.
- The 8-bit movements of the Fix-It Felix, Jr. characters? A clever addition.
- Sonic the Hedgehog's cameo. We also get to see more and more cameos here.
- We get a brief glimpse of what the big threat to the arcade is. It definitely tells us more about how Ralph's game-jumping will not bode well for the arcade and his game.
- The animation looks fantastic as always. It actually looks much better and more detailed in this trailer, plus we get to see a lot more of Sugar Rush. It looks great.
- The trailer also tells us that Vanellope von Schweetz is not well-liked in her game. We got info on this in various interviews beforehand.
- Sergeant Calhoun means business. This character is probably going to steal the show. Also, we see that Fix-It Felix is willing to game-jump.

The Cons:
- The editing is rather choppy in the second half.
- I could've really done without the "Hero's Doody" joke. I seriously hope this character (Vanellope) isn't obnoxious like some other Disney sidekicks. Since the side characters in Bolt, The Princess and the Frog and Tangled were fun and never annoying, I have some hope here.
- Perhaps there is a little too much focus on jokes in general, but hey, this is a trailer for an animated film.
- A lack of action. Sure, the story matters most, but perhaps they could focus more on what happens rather than a handful of jokes. Again, another thing I have against most trailers for animated films.

So, all in all, a decent trailer but not great. It's nowhere as good as the film's first trailer, but we'll see what impact it has on audiences. What is your take on the trailer? Do you think it looks good? Or do you think it's step down from the previous trailer? Sound off!