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!

"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?