A Soaring Teaser

After months and months of waiting and seeing leaked images that were unfortunately pulled, we finally got a teaser for DreamWorks' hugely anticipated sequel to one of their best films... How To Train Your Dragon 2!



This teaser, simply put, is great. It gets fans and audiences alike pumped up for this sequel, as it seems like it is going to surpass the already impressive original. It packs the thrills, showing a great flight sequence that in many ways shows what's in store for us. More epic action will certainly be present, and an equally amazing score from John Powell. The teaser hints at how much bigger the story will be, if the plot synopsis alone didn't...

It's also interesting to note that DreamWorks has kicked off the campaign for this film first, and not the film that's coming out before it... Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Of course, they're probably doing this because the world is looking forward to this potential smash more than a film based on a classic cartoon. Smart move on DreamWorks' part, getting it out so early.

What do you think of the teaser?

By the way, does the lack of a title in this trailer (regardless of the fact that it's labelled How To Train Your Dragon 2 Teaser Trailer by DreamWorks' YouTube channel) imply that this film won't be called How To Train Your Dragon 2? After all, when Fox unveiled their full 2013-2018 animation slate, they put [working title] next to this film... Hmmmmmm...

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.

A Winner or a Turkey?

Well, we finally got the first trailer for Reel FX's debut theatrical animated feature film Free Birds, formerly known as Turkeys...

Despite the competent animation and the irreverent tone (which I particularly liked), I'm just not really impressed. Seems like it is what I feared it would be... I just don't like the whole plot. I mean, turkeys going back in time to stop people from eating turkey for Thanksgiving? Then again, why would a big mainstream animated film be a thinly-veiled 90-minute PETA video saying "Don't eat turkey"? I'm certain the writers will pull off something unexpected with this concept, but right now I'm just not feeling it.

What's your take on this trailer and the film itself?

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!

Breaking The Ice

Surprise, surprise! Disney has kindly told us on the Facebook page for Frozen that the film's teaser is coming in 5 days! Yep, we all knew it would be attached to Monsters University, and now we're finally going to see it a few days before Pixar's college prequel bows in theaters.

From what I've heard, this teaser won't feature the lead characters. This implies that it'll feature the two sidekicks, Kristoff's reindeer Sven and the hapless snowman Olaf. Whatever is shown, I hope it's funny and I also hope that we get a good look at the film's art direction.

Are you ready for awesomeness? I know I can't wait to see what it looks like!