Reclaiming The Spot

Though it was kind of expected, LAIKA's The Boxtrolls will be opening nearly a month ahead of its last planned release date. The stop motion/computer animation hybrid is now set to open on September 26, 2014... Oddly enough, that very date was the first one distributor Focus Features had chosen despite the fact that Sony Pictures Animation had their Popeye film coming out the same day.

The Boxtrolls was then moved to October 17, 2014, which was a decent spot for it. Sony has delayed Popeye, which should be out in 2016 since they have two films coming out in 2015 (sequels to their biggest hits, no less). With that out of the way, I was wondering if anything would take the spot... Early, I had predicted that Henry Selick's The Shadow King would finally nab a release date and take that spot. But now, LAIKA is dominating it again.

Anyways, it's great to see that we're going to get this film a little earlier than expected. With this release date and good marketing, it could be LAIKA's first big hit... Something that even outgrosses Coraline even... But I'm probably being too hopeful here.

Just a Tweak

When I moved the monogrammed canvas (that is by far the most popular thing I’ve ever blogged about and most frequently pinned thing of mine ever) to my little closet vanity, it left a gaping hole in the guest bath.  I finally got around to moving a Ray Ellis print recently displaced from the living room up there and I love it!  Here’s the new look…

The bathroom only gets used when we have overnight guests so I’m not overly worried about exposing it to the humidity from the shower.  To see the rest of the room and all the gory details, click on over here!

xoxo

Really Thinking Ahead

It figures the moment I post an article about how Walt Disney Animation Studios is becoming more secretive about their upcoming slate, Disney announced that there's four untitled productions of theirs coming and the release dates have been secured! Their Emeryville comrades, Pixar, have locked dates for four films of their own.

The news broke this morning thanks to /Film, who got the confirmation from tweets by Exhibitor Relations' Twitter...

The Mouse House dropped some big cheese--UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION films are set for 3/4/16, 11/23/16, 3/9/18, 11/21/18.
— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) May 29, 2013

Animation domination! UNTITLED PIXAR FILMS are now set for 6/17/16, 6/16/17, 11/22/17, 6/15/18.
— Exhibitor Relations (@ERCboxoffice) May 29, 2013

Will you look at that... This slate goes up to 2018!

Okay, first off... Walt Disney Animation Studios...

Notice how 2015 and 2017 are out of the question? Notice how Pixar has two films coming out those years? I guess Disney Animation might end up sitting it out during those two years, making up for it with two films in another year. How unexpected!

March 2016's film could very well be Byron Howard's film or the Ron Clements/John Musker film. There is one little dilemma, DreamWorks' Mumbai Musical is currently on track for a March 18th release that year... I think DreamWorks may end up moving their film back a few weeks... For November 2016, March 2018 and November 2018... Who knows? It could be projects that have never been attempted at Disney before, or they can be ones that were announced a while back but ended up not working out (King of the Elves comes to mind). The feature-length Mickey Mouse film could be one of them as well...

I guess the plan is this: Whenever Pixar has two films ready for a certain year (both summer and autumn), Disney Animation will not have something out that year (which is kind of disappointing because a Disney Animation film every year is something worth looking forward to...) instead putting out two of their own in another year... Seems fair enough.

Disney made sure to get the pre-Thanksgiving spots and the early weeks of March, maybe to warn competition like Illumination or Blue Sky to back away. This is a smart strategy that could work for them, because March is a good time to release animated family films despite the fact that kids will be in school, but hey... The Lorax was able to make $200 million. (Well that was mostly due to a big opening...)

Anyways... This is nonetheless exciting. Walt Disney Animation Studios will still probably be very secretive on what's coming, but we know that Byron Howard's film and Ron & John's project are next in line...

Now, moving on to Pixar...

It seems like Pixar won't gravitate away from the mid-June spot these days, one that's worked in their favor. But like their plans for Finding Dory, they have another film that's tentatively slated for an autumn release... And the second in its respective year! Years ago, Pixar used to be the ones with the autumnal/pre-Thanksgiving releases, with Disney releasing their hits during the summer. But it looks like Pixar may go back to those days... So, what will be released?

If Finding Dory will definitely come out in November 2015 (I still have a feeling that it might move to summer 2016 to make room for Walt Disney Animation Studios' film), then the June 2016 film will probably be Dia De Los Muertos, even though that's a couple of months before the actual Day of the Dead holiday. Maybe Pixar will give it a release here in the summer, but a late October release in Mexico to coincide with the holiday... But according to the tweet, the film will be released the 17th... You know what comes out on the 17th? DreamWorks How To Train Your Dragon 3! Will there be a head-to-head animation battle? Or will one of them move? I'm thinking the latter... Dragon 3 may end up moving to the first week of June or something.

June 2017? Well, that could be the Teddy Newton film. Or the Mark Andrews one. It depends on what's ready...

November 2017? That sequel, maybe? Supposedly one more after Finding Dory is in the works, but we need to take Iger's recent comment on that with a grain of salt. However, if it is a sequel... Could Brad Bird return to deliver a powerhouse sequel to The Incredibles? Or will Disney have Pixar milk the anthropomorphic autos franchise with a Cars threequel? Or will the November 2017 release be another all-original film? (What film is Buffy writer Marti Noxon working on? What about that mystery film Giacchino is scoring?) Will Pixar finally start regularly releasing more than one film a year starting with 2015?

June 2018? Probably another original... Newt perhaps? Okay I know, I'm probably being too optimistic! If anything, it'll either be the Andrews film or the Newton... Again, which ever one is ready, assuming that the 11/2017 film is the sequel.

What are your predictions? Do you think Disney should keep releasing their own animated films every year? Or are you okay with their new strategy? Do you think Pixar will actually release two films a year? Or not? Sound off below!

Best Animated Short - 1952

Ah, we have arrived at 1952. Apologies to everybody that was born in 1952 (including my aunt who would probably never read this blog entry), but 1952 just feels like an undistinguished year to me. Other than the birth year of my aunt I really can't think of anything significant from this year. Yeah, 1951 has the dual debuts of Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, the Shot Heard Around the World, and an epic lineup of Best Picture nominees. 1953 saw the birth of George Brett, Mickey Mantle's legendary 565-foot home run (that probably didn't go 565 feet), and the fifth consecutive World Series win by the Yankees. And what did 1952 have? The birth of my aunt, which is much more of a personal thing.

Perhaps it's due to the fact that the films of 1952 were rather undistinguished. There is only one film that really stands out today, and that was the delightful Gene Kelly musical Singin' in the Rain. But Singin' in the Rain was only a modest hit at the box office, and scored only two Oscar nominations. The Gary Cooper Western melodrama High Noon is also highly regarded today, but it did even worse at the box office and was highly criticized for its supposed allegory on the Hollywood blacklisting.

Read more »

Summer Garden

We planted our garden back over the Easter holiday and have loved watching our little seedlings and plants grow over the last month! 



I found the little basket on clearance at Hobby Lobby and gave it a coat of turquoise spray paint to liven it up. 



We had a serious problem with voles last spring (not to be confused with moles.)  They gobbled up the entire root balls of most of our crop.  This year, honey dug way down in the dirt and lined the bottom of the beds with hardware cloth hoping that would prevent them from tunneling under.  So far, so good!  We’ve got cucumbers (they are so itty bitty you can’t see them), squash, okra, and strawberries in this bed.



Three tomato plants, red peppers, green peppers, chives, parsley and lavender in the middle bed.  The lavender survived the winter and is doing great!  I love to throw a spring in my water or sweet tea.

‘
And the last bed has mint, rosemary (both from last year), basil, green beans and three more sweet 100 tomato plants.



Here are a few more details.  Know that I am far, far from being an expert on gardening!
- Honey built the garden area last spring using three raised garden bed kits from Home Depot, giving us a 12’x4’ planting area.
- He constructed a basic fence of 2’x4’s and hardware cloth and painted it black.  We left a 3’ border on all sides to be able to easily maneuver inside the fence.  The completed size is 18’x10’.  The obvious goal of the fence is to keep out the rabbits and other large animals roaming around but it’s probably already saved our tender little vegetables one thousand times from stray soccer  balls and children in pursuit.
- We fertilize with E.B. Stone Organic Tomato & Vegetable Food and in past years have used Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew to fight those pesky garden invaders.  I found both at Atlanta’s Pike Nurseries.
- I labeled our garden tags with vinyl letters.

We’ve already been enjoying the herbs and positively cannot wait for the veggies to start to ripen up as well!

Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't send a big birthday wish out to my sweet nephew Jay.  I can hardly believe he's FOUR!
xoxo

Animation Box Office Update (May 2013)

Blue Sky's Epic was no dud over the holiday weekend, as expected...

Early on, I had predicted Rio numbers for its entire box office run. It looks like this film will perform just like that colorful comedy did two years ago. Over the weekend, the film took in a solid $33 million. While that isn't terribly great for a big animated release, it's not necessarily bad either. Puss in Boots opened around the same region back in October 2011. Luckily, Fox opted to release this film on Memorial Day weekend, which helped it climb to $42 million. Right now the film is on par with Rio, but it probably won't make as much in the end since big competition is less than a month away...

DreamWorks' The Croods has taken in $563 million to date. It's currently DreamWorks' second highest grossing non-sequel film, behind the original Kung Fu Panda ($631 million) which wasn't a 3D film. I bet 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks (especially!) are happy... A real rebound after Rise of the Guardians, a film that (in my opinion) deserved to be the bigger hit. From the beginning it looked like The Croods would essentially be the DreamWorks equivalent Ice Age franchise, a safe bet that'll explode at the international box office. I'm surprised DreamWorks hasn't already announced a third film, but the sequel is already in the works and a TV show is on its way...

The other animated release that came out this year happened to be a clunker... Escape from Planet Earth did solid business domestically given the lack of family-friendly fare after the relatively unsuccessful re-release of Monsters, Inc. back in December. I didn't expect it to be a hit to begin with, since it looked like strictly kids stuff... But it couldn't double that $40 million budget. For some odd reason, the other films Weinstein planned to release this year have been off the schedule for months: Leo the Lion, The Trick or Treaters and Santapprentice.

Will the animation box office get a real boost in the coming months? Monsters University is undoubtedly going to be big, but how big? I keep thinking $300 million domestically since this is a follow up to a beloved Pixar film that came out nearly 12 years ago. I think that it'll get a Toy Story 3-sized boost since nostalgic teenagers and college students will flock to see this, not to mention it's a college film! But Box Office Mojo and BoxOffice.com's predictions say otherwise... I think it'll clear $300 million. Despicable Me 2 on the other hand might as well, but I really can't see it hitting $300 million... I think it'll come very very close though. But whatever they make, they'll be BIG. Of course it'll be exciting to track both...

Turbo ought to do well enough since it looks like fun, despite being crammed between Despicable Me 2 and The Smurfs 2, which of course will do good business. Planes will cap off the summer with a good-sized gross... $100 million might even be in play for this one.

What are your predictions? Will Epic gross as much as Rio? Or not? What are you predicting for Monsters University, Despicable Me 2 and Turbo? Sound off below!

To The Sky?

Looks like the UK got a brand new trailer for Planes, the DisneyToon-produced spin-off of the Cars franchise...



This film is nice to look at, I will admit that. The animation is good for a DisneyToon production and the flight sequences will look like they'll be well-staged and exciting. Like the Cars films, I love the character designs... It must be the car/auto/machine nut in me, really. It's eye candy, that's for sure. The sizzle reel actually impressed me and I actually got a little excited about the film after watching it, but that excitement kind of vanquished after seeing this trailer...

To be honest, I wasn't fond of everything else on display here. I don't have a problem with the story or the characters, that all seems okay. It's the tone and some of the humor, it's too childish for my taste. I am well aware that two of my associates at The Rotoscopers saw the film itself at a test screening and said it was plain good fun, but I didn't really see that in this trailer... All I really saw was a kiddie flick. A lot of the jokes misfired for me (especially the one John Cleese's Bulldog character cracks at the end), but I'm not this film's target audience... Unless Lasseter intended this spin-off to be a genuine family film and not a kids-only flick. It really looks like a children's film to me, and it will thrill the younger set, obviously.

There's nothing wrong with that, really. Like I've said many times here, I'm glad that the franchise is being expanded by others so that Pixar doesn't have to do it. I'm just hoping that this film is the only theatrical installment in this spin-off series, because a sequel is definitely coming. Disney can keep milking it while Pixar can do whatever they want, and the franchise can also pay for bigger things as well. I'll probably skip this when it theaters in August...

What were your thoughts on this trailer? Do you think the film looks like fun? Or disastrous? Sound off below!

Project Curb Appeal: Porticos & Paint

Lots of good things have been happening around these parts over the last week or so.  Construction on the main portico facelift and two new side entry porticos is complete, the paint is totally done, and the trees finally came down (much to the delight of a certain four year old).  Here’s a sneak peek…











It seems that there is a sod shortage in Atlanta (say whaaaat?) and thus our landscaping has been delayed.  We were offered a different variety of sod available immediately to the tune of an additional $700.  Um… no thanks, I am not spending one thin dime more than we’ve already signed up for.  I suppose it will be going down at the pinnacle of summer heat.  *womp womp* 

Even with the current state of disaster in the yard, I gaze at the house and its like the heavens open and a choir of angels sing in exaltation.  I couldn’t love it more!!!!!!!!!!!!
xoxo

Read all about our Curb Appeal Project here

Project Curb Appeal: The Paint

Project Curb Appeal: Portico Progress

Patriotic Sangria + Our Weekend

I do adore this first official holiday of the summer season!  First things first, a patriotic sangria was the libation of choice…

Patriotic Sangria
- Mix together 2/3 each of sugar, orange juice and lemon juice.  Stir until sugar dissolves.
- Add a large 150mL bottle of red wine.  I used a very cheap merlot.  That’s the beauty of sangria.
- Chock full of cut fruit.  To make it patriotic, I used pineapples cut into stars, halved strawberries and blueberries.

As for how we spent our weekend, we pretty much lived outside, relishing in the gorgeous weather before it gets too hot to step foot outside without wilting.  We went to pool parties, a corn hole tourney and kicked around the house half dressed (apparently.)












Above all, a humble THANK YOU goes out to all of the brave men and women that have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so that we can enjoy freedom in this great nation!
xoxo

Find me at: My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tatertots and Jello, A Stroll Through Life, French Country Cottage, No Minimalist Here, The36th Avenue, It's Overflowing, Shine on Fridays, DIY Show Off, House of Hepworth, 52 Mantels, I Heart Nap Time, The Frugal Girls,Six Sisters Stuff, One Project Closer, Jennifer Rizzo, Le Chateau des Fleurs, Common Ground, Liz Marie Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Miss Mustard Seed, Sugar Bee Crafts, Elizabeth and Co, Rain on a Tin Roof, Coastal Charm

May Animation News Roundup

Alrighty, here are a few things that slipped through the cracks a.k.a. animation news that I did not cover yet...

The UK recently got a new trailer for Turbo that is very similar to the last one we got, but it does show off some new footage.



Anyways, I still think this film looks like fun. It's just surreal that this concept was actually pulled off well, because I'll admit, long before the teaser showed up, I kind of trashed it. I didn't think that this crazy cartoonish idea would work for a feature-length film... But it seems like it will, and the titular snail is likable enough. Yes the Ratatouille vibe is there, but I don't think DreamWorks was aiming for a very original story here... Just a sit-back-and-relax one. Some of the jokes are pretty funny, some are not. Overall, it looks enjoyable.

~

A teaser for Rio 2 has finally arrived. Just in time too, since Blue Sky's Epic opens this coming weekend...



It's your typical teaser: Nothing on the plot, but we do get to see Blu and Jewel's children and we get a nice little scene with Nigel at the end. To me, he was one of the best things about the film so it'll be fun to see him return. Also, the new Blue Sky Studios logo is pretty cool!

~

The next bit of news is a bit... Interesting. Al Pacino had provided the voice for a villain named Eduardo in Despicable Me 2, but he's left the project over creative differences (!) and the film opens in less than two (!!) months, so the studio already got a replacement... Benjamin Bratt. First of all, what "differences" did Mr. Pacino have with the studio? And wasn't all of his work recorded already? I guess he didn't want his voice in the finished film since he left over such differences... I don't know, it all sounds silly to me.

~

The other day, Disney released a sizzle reel for DisneyToon Studios' Planes, a sizzle reel that's actually kind of impressive... Well, visually...

It's surprising that Disney would dedicate a whole reel to a film that was really meant to be a cash cow from the start, and a direct-to-video one at that! Yes I did admit that it could be good after hearing what The Rotoscopers had said about it (they saw a test screening of the film last month), and the animation is surprisingly not too bad for a DisneyToon production. I will say one thing, it looks much better than the Tinker Bell movies! What the dialogue and writing will be like, I have no idea. The teaser only has a few lines along with the first clip, which is cheesy, but not horrible. It could be a bit of harmless fun.

That doesn't mean I'm looking forward to it, though. I can simply take it or leave it at this rate...

~

For a while I didn't think this film was going to arrive this year since we've heard very, very little about it... It looks like we're actually getting Walking with Dinosaurs 3D (well according to the trailers, it's now Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie) in theaters this holiday season... The film, based on the BBC series of the same name, has been listed for quite some time but yet we didn't hear too much about it. Here's the international trailer that first appeared at the beginning of the month...



There's also a domestic trailer that just debuted recently, but it's really nothing special. It's loaded with cheesy first-person narration, making the film seem like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron's poorly-written cousin. If anything, this film better not have any dialogue whatsoever. If it doesn't, then it will be the film that The Land Before Time and Disney's Dinosaur should have been. That, and the first excellent animated film that's about prehistoric beasts... Unless Pixar's The Good Dinosaur claims that title. (Your mileage may vary on Land and Dinosaur.)

Like Dinosaur, the beasts are animated but everything else is live action. The CGI is questionable, considering that $65 million was spent on this production. The movements are a bit wonky and they kind of clash with the backgrounds, not to mention, there doesn't seem to be much exaggeration or caricature like there was in Dinosaur. The animation of the dinos just seems restrained. Other than that, the adventure itself seems cool. It was said that it'll be more of a film for movie-goers than an accurate representation of dinosaurs, and this trailer pretty much seals the deal.

Disney veteran Barry Cook is the director of this film along with documentary veteran Neil Nightingale, and it comes out on December 20th. This will be an interesting one to track.

~

What are your thoughts on the different trailers? What do think of the whole Al Pacino fiasco with Despicable Me 2? Did the Planes sizzle reel impress you? Or do you think the film looks deplorable? What is your take on Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie? Sound off below!

Vince Dorse wins Reuben Award for 'Best Online Comic'.

Last night, the National Cartoonists Society (NCS) presented the 67th annual Reubens awards at the Omni William Penn hotel in Pittsburgh. After the NCS had added the category 'Best Online Comic Strip' in 2011, this year the society had divided the Award for webcomics further into two different categories. It was Vince Dorse that had the honor of taking home the first Reuben Award for 'Best On-Line Comics Long Form' last night for his brilliant webcomic 'Untold Tales of Bigfoot'. Graham Harrop won the Award in the category 'On-Line Comics Short Form' for 'Ten Cats'.

Above: This year's official poster by Tom Richmond ( also current president NCS). From left to right the guest speakers: Mo Willems, Brad Anderson and Drew Friedman (top row) Terri Libenson, Joe Wos and Rob Rogers (left) with Jason Chatfield and Lee Salem (right) More about this poster on Tom Richmond's site.

Also nominated in the category webcomics long-form were Meredith Gran for 'Octopus Pie' and Pat Lewis for 'Muscles Diablo in Where Terror Lurks'. In the category short-form Jonathan Lemmon was nominated for 'Rabbits against Magic' and Michael MacParlane for 'Mac'. In all, there were 46 divisional award nominees in fifteen categories, along with three previously announced artists that were nominated for the 'Cartoonist of the Year' award (Brian Crane, Rick Kirkman and Stephan Pastis). For a full list of all winners Check here.

The NCS was founded on March 1, 1946 as The Cartoonists Society with Rube Goldberg as first president (hence the 'Reubens') and Milton Caniff as treasurer. The first Awards of the society were named the 'Billy DeBeck Memorial Award' aka 'the Barneys' (after Barney Google, DeBeck's popular comic character). 

Comic legends Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff, Al Capp and Chic Young were among the first recipients between 1946 and 1953. Since 1954 the award was named the 'Reuben' Awards.

Below: To speak with the words of another great comic legend, 'Lo and behold!' Vince holding his award for 'Best in On-Line Comic Strips Division, Long Form 2012' (click to enlarge). For more information and photo's check Vince's great website here and make sure to follow 'Untold Tales of Bigfoot' if you didn't already!  

Teacher Appreciation Round-Up No. 2 + A Winner

With the school year drawing to a close and teacher appreciation weeks abounding, I thought it would be fun to do another round up some of the treats we’ve given to our teachers over the last couple of school years!  A few of them even have free printables when you click on the link!

High Fives for Teacher - A Book of Money and Quotes

Owl Fingerprint Canvas


Tote-ally Awesome Personalized Tote Bag 1

Tote-ally Awesome Personalized Tote Bag 2 

I'm Special Today Chair


Valentine's Hot Chocolate Basket

Gift Card Tree

S'more Halloween Fun Kit 

Favorite Team Cupcake Kit 

Book and Book Plates

Fun the Sun this Summer

I couldn't have picked a better teacher!

Lucky to have you for a teacher!

 Class Gift

Hot Chocolate Baskets

A teacher can't survive on apples alone (gift card packaging)

Happy Fall Yall

One Smart Cookie

Looking forward to a sweet year with you!

It’s hard to believe it’s time to start thinking about end of year gifts!

xoxo


PS. Thank you, thank you to all that entered my Grits Bits Giveaway!!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:45

The lucky winner is...Gypsy Heart said... Of course I'm a follower of your blog and I subscribe via email.  Thanks for the opportunity to win!  xo Pat

Congrats, Pat!!  Shoot me an email at peachstatebelle at yahoo dot com with your mailing addy and they will be on their merry way :-)




Find me at: My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Tatertots and Jello, A Stroll Through Life, French Country Cottage, No Minimalist Here, The36th Avenue, It's Overflowing, Shine on Fridays, DIY Show Off, House of Hepworth, 52 Mantels, I Heart Nap Time, The Frugal Girls,Six Sisters Stuff, One Project Closer, Jennifer Rizzo, Le Chateau des Fleurs, Common Ground, Liz Marie Blog, Not Just a Housewife, Miss Mustard Seed, Sugar Bee Crafts, Elizabeth and Co, Rain on a Tin Roof, Coastal Charm