Saturday, March 31, 2012
Best Animated Short - 2000
Well, we've reached the final year of the second millennium, or the first year of the third millennium, depending on your stance on these definitions. At any rate, this year's Oscar race started out to be quite special, as the Chinese film 臥虎藏龍 (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) earned ten nominations, including Best Picture. Yet it ended up kind of a downer. While it won four Academy Awards in the end, including Best Foreign Language Film (the first for a Chinese film), it lost out on the two top prizes. Losing Best Picture was not entirely unexpected, but losing the Best Director award was a bit more crushing. 李安 (Ang Lee) won the DGA award, which should have made him a front-runner. Instead he became only the sixth person in 50 years to win the DGA and lose the Oscar. He would eventually win the Oscar in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain, but it would have been better to see him win for a Chinese film.
Anyways, enough of that tangent. This is supposed to be about Best Animated Short. There was something quite different about the race in this category, although this difference was once quite common. What is this difference? Well, there was only three nominees. It was the first time in nine years that happened, and it hasn't happened since. So why was there only three nominees? Well, it would be helpful to review the rules for the short film categories as stated on the Academy Awards website.
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Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Best Animated Short - 2001
So we've come to the ceremony ten years ago. This was the year that Lord of the Rings made a splash onto the scene, leading people to wonder whether or not this would finally overcome the Academy's bias against science fiction or fantasy films that cost Star Wars a Best Picture Oscar. (In the end, it wasn't.) This was also the first year of the Best Animated Feature Oscar, which Shrek pulled off the win over Monsters Inc. But it wasn't a total loss for Monsters Inc., as it helped end Randy Newman's streak of nominations without a first win at 16, when he won for his song "If I Didn't Have You." (The record is now at 20, held by sound mixer Kevin O'Connell). And then there's the Best Animated Short category. This was the first year when I became aware of the nominees of the year. Before then the nominees had always been nameless art-house independent films that I never really cared about, and that the popular stuff never gets nominated (more about that in a later entry). Then a few days before the Oscars, I went to IGN and saw this article showcasing the Oscar nominated animated shorts. They seemed interesting, but I wouldn't watch them for another five years, except for one of the nominees which I saw later that summer.
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Thoughts on the "Rise of the Guardians" Trailer
Today, the trailer for DreamWorks' animated film Rise of the Guardians was released. I checked it out and I must say, this looks like it's going to be one of DreamWorks' best films if not their best. The trailer was great, and I barely say that about trailers. Unlike the other trailers for DreamWorks' films, there was a lot of focus on the story and only one joke, which wasn't as cringeworthy as some of the other things we've seen in the trailers for their other films.
The trailer also mentioned "From the creators of How to Train Your Dragon" instead of the usual (Shrek, Madagascar, etc.) films. It also mentioned Guillermo del Toro and William Joyce, so basically the trailer made an effort to tell people who was involved with this production. The trailer also does a good job at giving you the gist of the story and who the characters are. Another stand-out is the animation, which is some of the best animation I've seen in a DreamWorks film. The character designs are fabulous, the art direction is inspired and the footage was just downright colorful.
We also get a good glimpse of the villain, the Boogeyman. It looks like this film will be a little darker than their usual films, and it's probably that way because of Del Toro. (After all, they are working on a film adaptation of Alma) Aside from that, the writing was good, no pointless jokes were thrown around and nothing that makes the film seem like it's trying too hard. This looks like another How to Train Your Dragon, an attempt at just telling a great story without pop culture references or what I call "wannabe adult" jokes.
After years of derivative variations of Shrek and Shrek 2, DreamWorks has been getting back to their pre-Shrek roots. Story is more important now, as the films have deviated from the Shrek 2 formula. Being an admirer of How to Train Your Dragon's strengths (where that film succeeds, it really succeeds), I am beyond excited for this film. From this trailer, it definitely looks like something worth seeing on opening weekend. In all, great animation, interesting storyline, colorful art direction and good writing. I am officially psyched for this film.
What were your thoughts on the trailer? Were you impressed? Or not? Do you think it looks like it's going to be DreamWorks' best film to date? Or one of their best? Sound off!
Autodesk announces 3ds Max 2013.
So here's an update on some more cool stuff in the the new 'Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite' 2013, listing all the new features found in 3ds Max/3ds Max Design, which are two seperate but similar programs, one being used by game developers and animators and such, the other ('Design), is favored by and tailored to the needs of architectual designers.
In the past software developers took several years to come up with a new and improved version of their program. Today, it's all developing at such a rate, shipping dates have been cut back to 18 months or less. Adobe, who has just introduced the new Photoshop CS6, which will soon be part of their new CS6 Suite, have declared they will now bring a new version of their Suites every other year, the odd years using to release a .5 version, featuring a lot of improvements, tweaks and some cool new stuff. Autodesk however, brings a range of new suites covering the complete scale of all their major products every twelve months.
Okay, so there's so much stuff, you might want to check out some vids below. The Playlist contains 14 clips, most of them are about 2 to 3 minutes or less.
So there are a lot of new feats found in 3ds Max/3ds Max Design, and maybe also some stuff you already knew about. A complete list of all things new can be found after the jump.
Adobe After Effects Interoperability
If you use Adobe After Effects software, you’ll find a level of interoperability in Autodesk 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2013 that sets a higher standard for 2D/3D data exchange. The new Media Sync functionality provides two-way transfer of cameras, lights, null objects, plane objects/solids, footage, footage layering, blend modes, opacity, and effects; with it, you can iterate more effectively and reduce rework to complete projects in less time.
Render Pass System and Photoshop Interoperability
Scenes can now be more easily segmented for downstream compositing. Thanks to an entirely new render pass system in Autodesk 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design, you can now create render elements for Autodesk Smoke 2013 software, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop software, or certain other image compositing applications more efficiently. A state recorder enables you to capture, edit, and save the current state, while a visual interface shows how compositing and render elements are wired together to create the final result. You can quickly set up and execute multiple render passes from a single file; individual passes can be modified without the need to re-render the whole scene, enhancing productivity.
ActiveShade Interactive iray Rendering
Experience an interactive creative process for finalizing renderings, with new ActiveShade support for the NVIDIA iray renderer. ActiveShade enables you to iterate more effectively by providing an interactive rendering session that constantly updates as changes are made to cameras, lighting, materials, and geometry. By shortening the feedback loop, you can more efficiently fine-tune your scene, making it faster and easier to achieve your intended look.
Slate Compositing Editor
Perform simple compositing operations directly within Autodesk 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design 2013 with the new Slate Compositing Editor. The schematic node-based interface enables you to easily wire together rendered layers and passes and combine them with compositing nodes (like blends and color corrections); the resulting composite can then be sent to Adobe After Effects or Adobe Photoshop for further refinement.Nitrous Viewport Performance and Quality
The Nitrous accelerated graphics core has received a number of enhancements in Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max Design 2013. You’ll find increased interactivity on large scenes, together with new support for image-based lighting, depth of field, and accelerated particle flow display. In addition, improved support for shadows in large scenes and improved workflows for interior scenes all extend the Nitrous functionality.
Enhanced Interoperability with AutoCAD and Revit
Facilities working with both Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2013 and Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 software can now take advantage of more efficient data exchange. Revit files (.RVT) can now be directly imported into 3ds Max Design 2013, enabling you to select a data view of choice to load from within the Revit file. New support has also been added for lights, daylight system, and exposure control in the importer for AutoCAD 2013 files.
DirectConnect Support
New support for the Autodesk DirectConnect family of translators enables you to exchange industrial design data with engineers using leading CAD software: AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor software, Autodesk Alias software, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks and Catia system, PTC Pro/ENGINEER, Siemens PLM Software NX, JT™, and certain other applications.
A wide range of file formats is supported; for certain of these you must have the CAD product also installed for it to work. The data is imported as native solids Body objects that can be interactively retesselated as needed. Users of 3ds Max Design 2013 can refine the data until they get the precision they need in their renderings.
MassFX Enhancements
Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max Design 2013 provide a more integrated and accurate dynamic toolset, with a wide range of enhancements and additions to the MassFX unified system of simulation solvers. Highlights include a new mCloth module that features tearable fabric and support for dynamic ragdoll hierarchies. In addition, improved constraints, better handling of pivot points, and enhanced UI readability help improve overall workflow.
Tabbed Layouts
With Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max Design 2013 you can easily create and switch between a number of viewport layout configurations, giving you efficient access to the views required for a particular task. Layouts can include both 3D and extended viewports. Selecting a different layout is as simple as clicking on its icon, or pressing a hotkey. You can share customized View Tabs with other artists and designers by saving and loading presets.
Customizable Workspaces
You can now adapt 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design to your personal way of working by selecting from a choice of default or custom workspaces. Each workspace can have individual settings for menus, toolbars, ribbon, and viewport tab presets; in addition, selecting a new workspace can automatically execute a MAXScript. This enables you to more easily configure the workspace to suit your preferences or to fit the task at hand; as an example, you might configure one workspace for modeling, and a different one for animating.
Track View Retiming
With Autodesk 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2013 you can now retime portions of animations to increase or decrease their speed. The retiming is achieved by changing the tangency of the existing animation curve; there is no requirement to have keyframes present in the portion to be retimed, and no extra keyframes are created in the resulting high-quality curve.
Autodesk announces Maya 2013.
Today Autodesk introduced all new version of their major software suites. Most of them center around new versions of their flagship products like AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and Revit, used around the world in industrial design, architecture and general product design. The 'Entertainment Creation Suite' centers around Maya and 3ds Max, SoftImage, Motionbuilder, and Mudbox, software used by 3D graphic artists in the creation of new and upcoming games, animations and the coolest visual effects in future Hollywood blockbuster movies!
Ever wonder how everything you see and touch is designed before it was created? From the buildings on the street, to the infrastructure of your city, to the latest gizmo's and appliances you buy in stores everywhere. All professional designers, engineers, architects and artists watch out every year this month for Autodesk to come up with an upgrade to their main software products, giving them the tools to look ahead, envision and build the world the way it'll look like in a couple of years.
Above: One of the new features is a new node editor, enabling you to rewire nodes in a more intuitive environment than the Connection Editor. It allows you to distinguish different data types through color coding.
It takes years to design, plan and create a brand new shopping mall or cruise ship to it's minute detail, but it also takes a lot of time to develop a full length animated feature or video game, or a theatrical movie. So, while Autodesk may have introduced their latest software versions today, with all new features and such, it may take some time for you to catch up with all the cool stuff people will be creating with it.
Check out the videos below and get more information on the new features in Maya 2013, part of the Autodesk 'Entertainment Creation Suite 2013' (playlist contains 5 videos).
The Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite will be available later this year, usually in April. Here's a complete list of all the new features found in the Maya 2013:
Maya nHair:
Create stunning, highly realistic hair and other curve-based dynamics with the new Maya nHair module for the Maya Nucleus unified simulation framework. Create complex simulations with multiple dynamic entities all working together, with the ability to interact bidirectionally with both Maya nCloth and Maya nParticles. Use a common system of fields, forces, and constraints for all Nucleus modules.
Viewport 2.0 Enhancements:
Evaluate your work in a higher fidelity interactive environment in order to make better creative decisions. Viewport 2.0 now offers a more functionally complete high-performance, high-quality viewport, featuring High-quality depth sorting, support for image planes and animation ghosting and the ability to use the same hardware rendering technology to batch render larger-than-screen-size frames, producing high-quality animatics and previsualizations in less time
New Node Editor:
Create, edit, and debug node networks more easily with the new Node Editor. Choose from three levels of detail. Rewire nodes in a more intuitive environment than the Connection Editor with drag-and-drop connection editing. Distinguish different data types at a glance through color coding.
Bullet Physics:
Simulate both soft and rigid bodies in a single system, with the high-performance, open source AMD Bullet Physics engine. Create highly realistic simulations of cloth, rope, deformable objects, and ragdoll skeletons. Take advantage of discrete and continuous 3D collision detection.
Heat Map Skinning:
Enjoy a more accurate initial binding of geometry to skeletons in Maya 2013, thanks to a new Heat Map Skinning method that is better able to assign skin to the intended bone as opposed to an adjacent but unrelated one and requires less manual refinement.Trax Clip Matching:
Visualize how Trax clips overlap in Maya 2013 to build complete character performances from individual animations.Clip Ghosts enable you to view the start and end frames of clips as skeletal wireframes in the 3D view. Match clips with the help of these visual cues, or automatically, using a choice of options for translation and rotation.
Alembic Caching:
Read and write the Alembic open source computer graphics interchange framework format, initially developed in 2010 by teams from Sony Pictures Imageworks and Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. Distill complex animated and simulated data into application-independent baked geometry. Reduce the overhead and loss of interactivity associated with transferring fully editable scene data between disciplines.
ATOM Animation Transfer:
Transfer animation between characters via the new ATOM (Animation Transfer Object Model) offline file format, in order to repurpose existing animation data as new characters are created. ATOM natively supports keyframes, constraints, animation layers, and Set Driven Keys.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
extra credit : This Friday attend Academic Showcase and/or SURCA. Attend at least 2 design-related posters. Ask questions! Find out about the project and write a short reflection. Sketch! You could sketch the poster layout and critique it, sketch based on some other aspect of the poster. Submit a handwritten or typed, with sketches single page reflection. Academic Showcase 9:00 a.m.–noon M.G. Carey Senior Ballroom, Compton Union Building (CUB) Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) Noon–5:00 p.m. • CUB Ballrooms
Thoughts on "Wreck-It Ralph"
This isn't a "thoughts on upcoming animation" sort of thing, since I'm finished with that. This isn't a series either, this is basically my thoughts on a certain upcoming animated film that doesn't have any trailer out. Today I'll be focusing on Walt Disney Animation Studios' next animated feature, Wreck-It Ralph, which will be #52 in the animated feature "canon". It is supposed to hit theaters this autumn, on November 2nd.
Wreck-It Ralph tells the story of... Well... Wreck-It Ralph. Who is Wreck-It Ralph? He's a gigantic man who is the villain of a 1980s (arcade) video game named Fix-It Felix Jr. His life? Wrecking big buildings. A little hero's job is to fix the buildings Ralph has destroyed. Basically it's similar the original Donkey Kong arcade game from 1981, a little guy vs. a big brute. Instead being the bad guy, Ralph wants to prove that he can be a good guy. Ralph travels through several elaborate video games to defeat a threat that he ultimately started.
The story sounds interesting, and it's definitely unlike anything Disney's animation studio has tackled. It's not an adaptation of a fairy tale or a classic novel. It's an original idea, much like one of their more recent films, Bolt. This story is more akin to Tron than anything else. This story screams "ambitious". A family-friendly adventure comedy about video games? Well, if Tron: Legacy worked, so could this. Looking at the whole plot and the details from last summer's D23 expo, it seems like a lot of effort was put into the storyline.
A few comparisons have been made to Illumination's Despicable Me and DreamWorks' Megamind, since Wreck-It Ralph is the bad guy who wants to be the good guy. If you look at the story, however, it's different. If it's similar to any of the two, it's Megamind, since Megamind himself creates a hero to fight after finishing off his rival. The hero ultimately turns into a threat. On the other hand, this story is more interesting because I felt that, despite a few impressive moments, Megamind didn't go all out. It was a rather restrained superhero spoof that tried a little too hard to be serious, although I appreciate the effort on the behalf of DreamWorks. At least they were trying to tell a story here. Given Disney's good track record as of late (Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Winnie the Pooh), it's possible that this film will have a great story, great characters and good writing. Why wouldn't it?
We don't know if Disney went all out with this story or not. They would have to, since they have several different video games. One of which is "Hero's Duty", a sort of science fiction shooter game with enemies called Cy-Bugs. Another video game in the story is "Sugar Land", a bright and colorful Mario Kart meets Candy Land world. That's what we know so far. What we also know is that several video game villains will have cameos in the film. Among the cameos are Bowser, Dr. Robotnik, a Pac-Man ghost, Dr. Wily from Mega Man, Kano from Mortal Kombat and Coily the snake from Q*Bert. It's obviously that the crew is taking this project seriously. Apparently, Kano pulls his classic Mortal Kombat fatality on someone in the film. Hard PG rating? Maybe? Or will it be implied?
So what have we got so far? A story that's unlike anything else in a Disney animated film, well known video game characters making cameos, ambition, and various video game settings. There's a lot that we don't know. Will the animation change styles as the film progresses? Will the different video game lands have a different style of animation? We've seen art shifts in Disney films before, especially in the more recent films. We had the "Barking at the Moon" scene in Bolt, where the trio's travels are illustrated through a flat art style for the US map in addition to the painterly look they used for the film's backgrounds. The "Almost There" scene from The Princess and the Frog is done in an Art Deco/Harlem Renaissance style. Winnie the Pooh has the "Backson Song" scene where everything looks like it was drawn on a chalkboard. Will Wreck-It Ralph have this too?
Just think about it. One minute, everything looks like an 8-bit video game. Then the next minute it's really good computer animation. Then next minute, everything is hand-drawn or done in a less realistic style. Imagine that, an animated film with so many art shifts. (which is what TV Tropes calls them) That could make the film worth seeing, even if the story is flimsy or the writing isn't up to par.
Who is working on the film? Rich Moore, who has directed several episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama (which already reminds me of the episode "Anthology of Interest II" which featured a segment where the world is like a video game, Moore wrote "Anthology of Interest I"), is a fabulous choice. Having never directed an animated feature before, who knows how his leap to a feature-length film will be. From what I've heard about the film's first five minutes, it looks like he's going to put a lot of adult humor in this. Adult humor that works. A PG rating is guaranteed, something the Disney animated features rarely get. (Tangled didn't deserve that PG rating if you ask me, ditto Home on the Range) The producer is Clark Spencer, who produced Lilo & Stitch, Bolt and Winnie the Pooh. He was also an executive producer for Meet the Robinsons. John Lasseter is of course the executive producer of the film. The cast includes John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman and Jamie Elman. While these people have comedy backgrounds, they can still work wonders. It just depends on how good the screenplay is, along with the story.
About that... The last few Disney animated films have received positive reviews. Meet the Robinsons is a slight exception, but that's because that film was produced when Michael Eisner stepped down as CEO, Robert Iger took his place, and Lasseter rejuvenated Walt Disney Animation Studios. Still, it has a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes. I believe it got those reviews because the first half of the film is out of control, whereas the second half feels like a Pixar film. Well-written, heartfelt and devoid of anything that doesn't ruin the flow of the story.
Everything else has gotten very good reviews. Bolt's charm and simplicity, along with its likable characters, won itself great reviews. The Princess and the Frog got good reviews as most critics felt it was a very good return to hand-drawn animation and the Disney musical format. Tangled was very entertaining, thus it got great reviews. Winnie the Pooh may have been a box office flop, but got extremely positive reviews. With a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, it stands higher than the recent crop. Will Wreck-It Ralph continue this streak? I'd say a big maybe, if the storytellers at Disney offer an engaging story with great characters. Why? Films based on video games or films about video gaming usually don't have any of that. Disney's own Tron: Legacy was criticized for being a cold, hollow film that lacked a strong story and great characters. All Wreck-It Ralph needs is likable characters, a great story and heart. It doesn't need to be a love story or anything, but still, the film has to have characters that you root for. Disney can still aim for fun action and spectacle, but they can also tell a very good story at the same time.
Why am I rooting for Wreck-It Ralph so much? The answer: It's a big risk. A HUGE risk. I love it when Disney takes risks, and pulls them off.
Wreck-It Ralph, to me, is a risk along the lines of Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet. Both of those films had a more sci-fi/fantasy-like tone and boasted pulse-pounding blockbuster action. Animation is perfect for this kind of thing, but unfortunately, those two films fell short of their ambitions. Atlantis: The Lost Empire was originally envisioned as a Jules Verne-styled adventure film (and Disney has tackled Verne before, with the masterful 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1954, In Search of the Castaways in 1961 and The Island at the Top of the World in 1974) with tons of battles with monsters. It was going to be an epic 2-hour adventure film, and it showed that directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale wanted to break away from the Disney formula that plagued the 1990s films.
It would've been perfect, coming off of The Emperor's New Groove, a film that mocked the studio's own formula. (In return, that poorly-marketed film turned out to be a sleeper hit of sorts) Shirts that said "Less Songs. More Explosions." were worn by the crew during production. This was shaping up to be one of Disney's most ambitious, non-formulaic projects yet. Something Walt would've made. What happened? Well, Disney Animation was dictated by executives. Several cuts were made, and the story turned out to be a mess. It couldn't appeal to critics, family audiences or adults. It was perceived as too violent for kids (naturally, given the attitudes towards Disney and most animation in general) and too juvenile for kids over 13 years old, because the film wasn't mature enough for "them".
Treasure Planet's story was stronger, but the characters weren't as likable as the ones in Atlantis. While some of the characters (John Silver, Doppler) were likable, the others were either okay or just uninteresting. You also had the typical annoying sidekick. (B.E.N.) Treasure Planet and Atlantis suffer from what I like to call the Titan A.E. syndrome. That 2000 Don Bluth film was aimed at preteen boys who normally shun animated films as kids' stuff, with its sci-fi tone and blockbuster-style action. The film received mixed reviews, but it bombed at the box office. Atlantis managed to gross $84 million stateside, but it still underperformed. Treasure Planet went on to become one of Disney's biggest box office bombs, although it did very well on home video.
How come that couldn't at least take in $50 million? Well, a terrible choice of release date (Disney has a love for picking bad dates to release their animated films) and poor marketing killed it. I remember when I saw the trailer for it at the age of 9 back in early 2002 or so. I was not interested. With Jim Hawkins flying around on his solar surfer, I felt that the movie was trying too hard to be "awesome!" and "kewl!" When I saw it for the first time not too long ago, I really liked it. I wasn't too fond of the story or how they handled the character development, but the ambition and the incredible visuals make it worthwhile.
Wreck-It Ralph is similar to these two films, but it most likely won't be plagued with the problems that plagued them. Those films were produced when Disney executives had their way. Read up on all the horror stories. A love song called "If I Never Knew You" being cut from Pocahontas because kids at test screenings got antsy, the decision to throw comic relief into something dark and adult like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the various cuts done to Lilo & Stitch (not counting the revised final chase scene, they had a good reason for altering that) and the butchering of Atlantis... The list goes on. Now that the Eisner era is over, Walt Disney Animation Studios' artists and storytellers don't have to worry about this. No more pandering to kids, no attempts to make the film more appealing to younger audiences. They're following Walt Disney's footsteps, creating great films for all ages without having to pander to any particular audience.
This is why the recent output is superior to a majority of the films released in the last 15 years. I'll take Bolt, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Winnie the Pooh over Dinosaur, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear and Home on the Range any day. Still, fascinating work shines through in these films. Look past the executive meddling and you'd be surprised. Now we're in an era where we don't have to look past that. I have a feeling that Wreck-It Ralph could be the first ambitious Disney animated film that will work, because no executives will be sticking their spoons into the broth. Disney hasn't made a risky, ambitious film that worked for a while. Now the time has come...
So if the film turns out to be a risky, ambitious film that delivers, will it be a box office hit? Bolt, The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh got great reviews. Bolt had a small opening weekend, but pulled a good-sized multiplier and crept past $110 million domestically. The Princess and the Frog performed similarly. Winnie the Pooh came and went, grossing only $30 million domestically making it one of Disney's least-attended animated films of all time if not the lowest. Yet it was a very good film. What happened? How come these films couldn't clear $150 million domestically? $200 million?
Bolt was poorly marketed. I remember when they played the trailer before WALL-E in the summer of 2008. I thought it looked horrible (part of me was angry that Chris Sanders' original American Dog concept had to go), not to mention the marketing department felt the need to advertise John Travolta and Miley Cyrus' names on the poster as if it were a DreamWorks film. Miley Cyrus' character isn't in it that much. If they wanted to promote the two leads, they should've promoted Susie Essman. Mittens was a much more important character. Oh, and people know who Susie Essman is. It's not like she's an unknown. They promoted Cyrus because they probably felt that the Hannah Montana crowd would race to see the film. Pandering. Not the film itself, but the marketing. It was a combination of bad blunders that caused that film to score such a low opening, losing to the inferior Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa during the holiday season. The Princess and the Frog was released right before James Cameron's Avatar along with tough competition like Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel (which probably stole the film's family audiences), and the marketing made it look like a lame revival of the Disney Renaissance. Seriously, the marketing was terrible! Tangled's was even worse, but yet that film was a hit. At least the marketing was a little more energetic and in your face. Winnie the Pooh was barely promoted. It was thrown into a battlefield that included the final Harry Potter film, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Smurfs. Okay, maybe the stuffed bear wouldn't make $150 million, but it could've been a small sleeper hit! Disney blew it. Again.
With no teaser for Wreck-It Ralph out, or any marketing, I fear that this will be another underperformer. If it underperforms, Disney might can any ambitious projects. Frozen, Disney's Snow Queen project, was thought to be a hand-drawn film. Apparently, Frog and Pooh's performances probably convinced them that no one cares for hand-drawn animation anymore. People do care for hand-drawn animation. You have to make them care! Better marketing, come on! The Princess and the Frog had strong legs that carried it to $100 million. It could've made twice that amount if it had a better opening weekend, but no, marketing held it back.
I fear that this will happen to Wreck-It Ralph. It's already a hard sell, and a lot of hard work went into it like any good animated film, and with some very good trailers, they can get people interested. This should be an event that everyone will want to see, like any good Disney film. If they market it the same way they did with the last few films, then it will underperform. Less than $150 million won't satisfy Disney. They can't be blamed, right? Right?! Audiences didn't like the films! That's why they didn't do well! This is why Disney's films aren't doing well. The same goes for their live action output. (Must I bring up John Carter's horrendous marketing?) They'll promote the hell out of Pixar's films, but how come they can't do the same for their animated films? Their big budget live action films?
Anyways, before this turns into a Disney marketing rant, I will say this: If Wreck-It Ralph turns out to be a great film that exceeds expectations but it doesn't do well, I won't be happy. This won't spell a good future for Disney animation, they'll play it safe after that. While I'm very happy with the recent output, some of it feels a little too safe. This film doesn't look safe at all, and while I can't make any judgments, I have high hopes for this film. This is the ambitious blockbuster Disney has been waiting for. We need the marketing campaign to kick off now, before it's too late. If Disney were smart, they'd give us the first trailer before The Avengers. Being a Disney release, and being a film that's sure to clear $300 million at the domestic box office, attaching the trailer could bring things off to a great start. That is, if the trailer is any good. Maybe they'll wait until Brave comes out. Maybe not, but they better get the word out soon.
What are your thoughts on this upcoming film? Do you think it looks good? Or do you think it looks like an absolute turkey? When do you think the first trailer will debut? Do you think it will be a success? Sound off!
Let the battle begin: Marvel's Avengers vs. X-Men starts tomorrow.
The two biggest franchises in comics history go to war! Tomorrow Marvel will start it's latest 'clash of the titans' and this year's summer spectacle, when the prologue issue #0 of their new limited hit series 'Avengers vs. X-men' (AvX) reaches comic shops everywhere!
'Avengers vs. X-Men' is a 12-issue series, written by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Jonathan Hickman, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction with art by John Romita Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert and features a war between the New Avengers/Secret Avengers and the X-Men.
'Avengers vs. X-Men' starts with the Phoenix Force returning to Earth. It's looking for a new host who will possess all of its power, which may be the mutant teenager Hope Summers turning her into the 'Mutant Messiah'.
The X-Men, believing that the Phoenix's return means the re-emergence of the mutant species, are trying to protect and prepare Hope, while the Avengers, believing that the Phoenix's return means the destruction of the world, want to take her into protective custody before the Phoenix arrives.
In Marvel's legendary comic universe, 'The Phoenix' is among the most feared beings in all of existence. It is an immortal and mutable manifestation that has the power to cut and re-grow any part of the universe, as well as destroy it entirely, which is part of the Phoenix's purpose, to burn away the obsolete, known as 'The Judgment of the Phoenix'.
The character first appeared in 'Uncanny X-Men #101' (October 1976) and was created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. In their version, it took on the form of Jean Grey.
Below: artwork for the covers of the first two issues, hitting the stores on April 4th and 18th. 'Avengers vs. X-men' was preluded by the mini series 'Avengers: X-Sanction', which took off in February and the 'X-Men: Regenesis' storyline that ran through multiple comic titles from Marvel and began in October last year. It followed the earlier 5-part 'X-men: Schism' miniseries written by Jason Aaron.
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