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!