Endless Possibilities

Disney wants it. Director Rich Moore is enthusiastic about it. Fans want it, too. What do they want?

A sequel to Wreck-It Ralph...

If Disney will approve of a sequel to Rich Moore's video game adventure comedy, it'll be a rare moment where Walt Disney Animation Studios will actually produce a theatrical sequel to one of their animated films. In their 89 years of existence, only two sequels have been produced: The Rescuers Down Under and Fantasia 2000, though calling the latter a "sequel" per se, is debatable. You could also argue that Winnie the Pooh is a sequel to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, but I've never seen it officially listed as a sequel to the 1977 film.

Out of all the canon films, Wreck-It Ralph begs for a sequel since the first one took place in an arcade and three game worlds. Like Toy Story, there's so many other worlds outside of Litwak's to explore, from console games to massive online games. Moore has made some comments on a sequel over the last few weeks, but recently, he mentioned that he wants Mario to make an appearance this time.

Mario did not appear in Wreck-It Ralph because the team felt that him making a cameo appearance wasn't enough, not because it would've cost too much to include him. If Moore does want the famed Italian plumber in the film, that means that he'll have to have a bigger role. Perhaps he, and other licensed characters, could play a more important role in the plot in the sequel. Some were hoping that Q*Bert, Sonic and the other characters featured in the marketing would have good-sized roles in the story, but they obviously didn't.

Moore also talked about a game world that was completely scrapped from the film, a Grand Theft Auto/Sims parody called Extreme EZ Livin' 2. It being included in a sequel was alluded to, so maybe that'll make a comeback. Again, there so much they can tackle in a sequel and throw in some witty satire for good measure.

So if Wreck-It Ralph 2 is a go, I'll root for it, especially with Moore returning to the helm. Rarely do I encourage sequels, but this one has a lot of potential.

The Road to Disney {2012 Edition}

Since I already have a gazillion Disney themed things hanging about the house, for this year’s busy buckets I really just had to shop the playroom.  If you recall from last year, these will be waiting in the car when the littles pile in for our road trip down South.







Here's the deets:

• Beach bucket - $5 (bucket - Michael's - $1; vinyl name and mouse stickers - Grimes Graphics - $4) – these have been used many times in the last eighteen months…I’m surprised they are still in tact!
• Balloon - Walmart $2.75 – again, I don’t know how these balloons survived last years trip, the baby’s 3rd birthday party and our big announcement breakfast
• Kaleidoscope - $1 at Party City – they have been obsessed with these since Mother got them one last summer
• Pez – Dollar Tree $1
• Mickey and friends candy canes - $2 for box of 8 at Publix
• Personalized ears – from our trip last year 
• Signature book - made by me - for character signatures and pictures
• Chalk board - Dollar Tree $1 – from last year’s bucket
• Mickey's Road Trip Matching Game – from last year’s bucket
• bag of crayons, dry erase marker and chalk
• Coloring and Activity Books - Dollar Tree $1 each
• Water bottles – on clearance at Disney Store this summer - we'll carry these in the park each day

I’ll be the first to admit that they seem over the top at first blush.  However, seeing as I invested less than $10 this year I’m pretty okay with it all :-)

And just like that, WE'RE OFF!  Disney or bust!!
xoxo

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See The Road to Disney {2011 Edition} here!

Cleaning The Mess

Several Disney fans had high hopes for what new studio chairman Alan Horn would bring to the table, after nearly three years of misguided mismanagement under Rich Ross. To date, he has worked wonders and is quickly getting Walt Disney Pictures back up from the ground. Sure, under Ross, Disney did score some huge hits and broke a few records, but going against those triumphs (triumphs made possible by Dick Cook) were very bad blunders... Terrible mistakes.

Now that Horn, a seasoned pro, has been head of the studio for quite some time, we've been seeing quite a turnaround. For starters, the acquisition of Lucasfilm and the new Star Wars trilogy. With the massive success of The Avengers, Marvel is going ahead and taking huge risks with projects like Guardians of the Galaxy along with sequels to the previous films that don't sound routine. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is already huge, and it'll get bigger and bigger in the coming years. Phase 2 will live up to the hype alright. Marketing has been better too: Wreck-It Ralph's campaign was effective, the recent trailer for Oz: The Great and Powerful has impressed, and The Lone Ranger's trailer is better than any scrap of John Carter's abysmal marketing.

Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar are going to enjoy many years of success, and Wreck-It Ralph proved to audiences and skeptics that the studio isn't the pale shadow of Pixar that everyone turned their backs on during the disastrous final years of the Michael Eisner regime. Aside from the controversial news and rumors surrounding a Finding Nemo sequel, Pixar has several original and exciting projects in the pipeline. When Lee Unkrich told us not to worry back in 2010, he meant it!

In the first few months alone, quite a few projects have been surfacing: Peter and the Starchasers, Matched, Flight of the Navigator, The Stuff of Legend, Wish List, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, The Rocketeer, Terra Incognita...

However, I got higher hopes after a recent announcement. Alan Horn has given the go-head to the third film in the Tron series, which Disney did confirm back when Tron: Legacy debuted, but they were very hush hush about it for a while. Tron: Legacy was a hit, not a massive blockbuster, but a modest success nonetheless. A sequel to a science fiction cult classic making $400 million worldwide was nothing to sneeze at, and it did double its hefty production budget. It was deemed a disappointment by the studio, apparently Ross and the gang thought this film would perform like Avatar which is ridiculous. Those who don't know box office very well could even predict that the film wouldn't outdo James Cameron's film. It was a case of an over marketed film, which in the end hurt it.

Methinks Alan Horn knew that Tron: Legacy "failed" due to painfully unrealistic expectations. He probably knows that the fanbase is large and again... $400 million is nothing to scoff at, it was a sequel to Tron for crying out loud! The animated prequel television series Tron: Uprising is currently on, though Disney XD has been airing the recent episodes at midnight. Are they trying to kill the show? Well they can't, but Tron 3 is here to stay.

The whole Tron 3 deal tells me that Horn lives up to his hype. He was the perfect choice for the studio, and unlike Rich Ross, he sees potential in these sorts of projects. He sees things from the right perspective. He probably knows that Tron: Legacy was truly a success at heart, regardless of the budget. He probably knows that John Carter could've been a hit. He probably knows that the marketing under Rich Ross was a sham. This gives fans of Andrew Stanton's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' legendary sci-fi novels hope, that there will be a sequel to John Carter. Perhaps Horn will see the real reason why John Carter was a box office disaster and will give the franchise another shot.

Just think of what else will come during his tenure...

Disney’s Enchanted Call + Custom Park Maps

After their initial disbelief, the littles were absolutely ecstatic to receive a call from Mickey himself wishing them well on their trip!  There are a number of free call services, but the only one I could find that would work in Georgia was Disney’s Enchanted Call.  This one costs $2.49 per call and was well worth it, in my opinion.  You can choose your character, your message, the date/time of the call, and your kids names.  It only takes a minute to set it up all and it’s already been worth hours of conversation :-)

Like last year, a few months ago I created the most fantastically elaborate, personalized and customized maps detailing our list of must see/ride/do attractions during our stay.   I slipped them in the mailbox this morning for the littles to find and they have adored pouring over them and discussing all of the fun we’re about to have. Simply go to this site, choose your parks and your favorite attractions and in a couple of weeks your very own set of keepsake maps will arrive at your doorstep in all the splendor and wonder that only Disney can create.

 
ONE MORE DAY, y’all!
xoxo

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The Hiatus & Silent Pioneers

Well, I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this, but it seems that I would have to go on hiatus with my reviews. As you know I write my reviews in advance and try to maintain a queue of reviews set to go up every Wednesday. Unfortunately, I have been doing a lot of traveling to interviews and exams and the like, and I just haven't found the time to write any of my reviews. And now my queue is down to zero, and I am just getting started in my travels. So yes, I will be taking a break from posting reviews. Hopefully I can complete all of the traveling I have to do for interviews and still have time to build up a new queue of reviews during this time, and start back up around when the new set of nominees are announced on January 10.

But would this mean that this blog will lie dormant for a month? Absolutely not! As I mentioned in the 1976 review, I have been taking an online course on the History of Animation, mostly in hopes of getting a chance to see Dedalo. That turned out to be a bust, but I did get a good lesson on animation history that goes beyond the Oscar nominated films that I liked to watch, covering the earliest examples of animation to historical pieces of animation in foreign countries. It was an interesting course, made even more so since the professor is somebody who actually worked in the industry. His name appears in the credits for the Oscar winning Geri's Game, selected as my favorite Oscar nominated short film from 1992-2001. Anyways, the course is split up into modules, and most of the course is done with online discussions about the module, of which one of the questions is always "What is the most successful film in this module?" Being unnecessarily verbose when it comes to writing, I wrote research paper-length responses for these discussion questions. I thought it would be a shame to have these discussion topics fall into oblivion in the internet servers at the Academy of Art University, so I figured why not let them fall into oblivion in the internet servers of Blogger. Since the discussion topics have already been written, I figure I can update them every Wednesday and Saturday. That way it would take us through the Oscar nomination announcement.

We might as well start off right now with Module 1: Silent Pioneers. This module explored the beginnings of hand drawn animation, from the early 20th century through the mid-1920s. (Stop motion animation has its own module.)

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Kinda Crood

I was one of the few that was actually very fond of the teaser for DreamWorks' The Croods. That said teaser was met with mixed reactions, some of which were very negative while others couldn't find much to praise either. I guess I'm going to be in the minority again, because I actually preferred that teaser to the trailer, which just debuted today on iTunes.

Now it's not a bad trailer by any means, but I couldn't help but feel let down. The Croods looks a little more screwball than something like How To Train Your Dragon, as I have been admiring DreamWorks' recent turn towards more serious films that aren't crammed with tomfoolery, antics and yes... Those dreaded pop culture references! This looks like it'll be more in line with Madagascar, which is not necessarily a terrible thing. Madagascar, the third film in particular, used its silly tone to its advantage and made for a hilarious, entertaining romp. The Croods may or may not achieve this, and I have feeling it might not.

The more Ice Age-like feel clashes with the lush, colorful visuals and the big action-packed story. The world that DreamWorks' animators created for this film is flat out breathtaking and creative. No doubt it will be total eye candy, and not to mention the various beasts that the family of the Croods encounter on their journey. I also like that the trailer showed us more of Guy, which the early synopsis described as a man Eeb meets, a man who thinks ahead and about the future. Now he's known as the man with the brains, not the strength.

So basically, it's beautiful imagery vs. silly writing and humor. I have no doubt that Chris Sanders probably crafted a good story here, but the other director (Kirk DeMicco) was the man who helmed Space Chimps, an animated film from 2008 which many will agree was pretty bad. Though he may not be to blame for what we see in the trailer, it's a bit strange since Sanders normally avoids the silly stuff and goes for something serious, hence Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon. This one may be a clash of two different visions, but hopefully I'm proven wrong on March 22nd.

From where I stand currently, The Croods reminds me of Blue Sky's upcoming Epic: A great-looking film, but one that is probably going to be more focused on comic relief and less on heart and character development. Again, I could be dead wrong and both will end up really impressing me. I am still looking forward to this and Epic, so who knows...

What did you think of the trailer? Did you like it? Or do you think this will be a clunker? Sound off!

Disney Breakfast Bags

This year we aren’t on the Disney Dining Plan so we only have a few reservations for a few special things.  The majority of the time we’ll be eating on our own, which is just fine by me.  Like last year, I’m packing cereal bars, poptarts, juice boxes and milk boxes so that the littles can eat breakfast on the go from the resort to the parks each morning.  This worked well for us last year (when we didn’t have a reservation) and saved a good deal of money.  Not to mention, entering the park already fueled up allows us to hit the rides before the lines get long!



Unlike last year, I have not packaged them up all pretty like.  I mean, had no red bags left and a bunch of episodes of Gossip Girl have been angling for my attention.  I figure we’ll throw them in their stockings each morning and call it a meal :-) 
xoxo

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See Disney Eats {2011 Edition} here!