Archives for category: Animation

Thoughts on Toy Story 3

June 24, 10 //
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LET ME SET THE SCENE: It is June 24th, the release date of Toy Story 3 here in Australia. At the IMAX theatre in Sydney, the largest screen in the world, with 3D glasses and a box of popcorn. I WAS THERE… and these are my thoughts…

Firstly, the popcorn was average. The box broke and popcorn fell out all over my girlfriend, but we sorted that situation out and got right back into watching the movie and eating more popcorn. I also had some water, and drank about half of the bottle before placing it in my bag and taking it out of the cinema with me afterwards. That’s about it, pretty great night.

WAIT, NO! Holy chickens! I SAW TOY STORY 3!

This isn’t really a review because I feel that I can’t properly review any Pixar film – my words would be too full of love and jizz that it could never be considered impartial. But I will say this: Lee Unkrich has excelled himself here and this film has brought to end what many would consider (including myself) to be the greatest trilogy of all time. I’m going to break this down into little dots.

  • Day & Night is the most beautiful short Pixar has created. I’ve written more about that below.
  • About ten minutes into the film I was getting a bit worried. The film starts off feeling a bit like a rehash of Toy Story 2, dripping in the same themes of abandonment and forgotten love as the toys come to face an uncertain future. THEN the film slaps you in the face (with a bunch of adorable, crazy daycare kids) and calls you a stupid, stupid human for even considering that they would even attempt to tell the same story again. Michael Arndt, who previously wrote Little Miss Sunshine, has done a great job with the story. His writing track record is two from two right now.
  • I am glad that I have not purchased a Lots ‘o’ Huggin bear as of yet as I don’t think I could sleep with one of them in my bedroom. The only thing I can compare him to is a drug den hidden inside a candy store. You’ll see.
  • Along with Lotso (voiced by Ned Beatty), the new characters bring a lot to the table. It’s sad to see some old favourites go (poor wheezy), but the new toys are definitely not half-assed creations. Ken and Mr Pricklepants steal every scene they are in, in a large part thanks to the great voice acting by Michael Keaton and Timothy Dalton.
  • Make sure you bring some tissues. There are moments in every Pixar film that will squeeze out those tears, but in Toy Story 3 they aren’t just at the beginning or the end… there are numerous moments of utter sadness, and others that are genuinely frightening. Sit right up the back if you don’t want to drown in the downpour.
  • One scene near the end of the film is so deeply moving that it has been the only thing playing over and over in my head ever since leaving the theatre. I can’t even say anything about it without spoiling it, but the direction and the music and the subtle animation all come together to create something that… I could never have thought that I could feel such a strong emotional connection to this set of characters.
  • The ending was perfect. It’s very difficult to finish off a trilogy of work in a way that feels right. Here, the audience doesn’t feel cheated, they don’t feel like there is anything left unresolved, but you still leave thinking about these characters and their future. If by this point there is a dry eye left in the theatre, they should be barred from being a person.
  • Watching the three Toy Story films in succession is one of the best ways to show Pixar’s development as a studio, technologically and also in their storytelling and animation. The characters and stories have always been there, but time has allowed the artists to take stories to a place that was never possible back in 1995 when Toy Story was released. In saying that, this film definitely feels extremely attached to the first two films and although it is more advanced in many ways, it never feels out of place amongst them.
  • Toy Story 3 is funny. Very funny. The animators have had a hilarious field day with some of their work. The animation of Ken and Barbie is spot on and the scenes featuring a tortilla and spanish dancing are inventive, funny and so perfectly drawn.
  • While it is sad that Jim Varney is no longer with us to voice Slinky Dog, the character was voiced in Toy Story 3 by Blake Clark, who played a character in the first season of Community as a gym teacher. I love Community.

I think that is all I can say right now. I obviously loved it, but I don’t feel safe in saying where it sits in the ladder of Pixar films just yet. Also, this is the last thing I’ll write about Pixar for… a month. I PROMISE! Maybe a week.

The video above is called ‘Groovin’ with Ken’ and is part of the advertising campaign for the film. It is an interview with Ken, played by the great Michael Keaton.

Please let Teddy Newton direct a feature.

June 24, 10 //
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We all know that Pixar make some great short films and  I even dedicated an entire post to them a few weeks back. It is time to update that post. Day & Night is far and above the best short that Pixar has produced, and Teddy Newton needs to be sent around to every single Toy Story 3 ticket-holders house so they can all give him a hug and a hi-five. It’s that good, a truly beautiful film.

I’m not going to spoil anything for those of you who are yet to see Toy Story 3, but please (please please please!) make sure you get there in time to watch Day & Night, and please see it in 3D. I can’t remember watching a film that uses 3D to such great effect. It plays an essential part of the story and makes for an imaginative and playful short that is unlike anything I have seen before. Add to that a fun Michael Giacchino score and it is very YES.

Teddy Newton has never been on my radar before, but he has had a very interesting career. After working as a storyboard artist on The Iron Giant, Brad Bird packed him into his suitcase and took him over to Pixar where he has worked as a character designer on The Incredibles and Ratatouille. He has also worked as a voice actor in every Pixar film since The Incredibles and has credits as a writer, producer, songwriter and visual effects artist on various other projects. My sort of Pixarian!

Now, onto that idea of a feature. Two things have happened recently:

  • Pixar have just cancelled Newt, the first film in their history that has had this fate.
  • John Lasseter has jumped into the co-director seat on Cars 2, as it continues to stumble along with story problems.

I know that every pixar project had issues during development, and every time the… wizards, I guess we should call them, have done their magic. But I think that it is slowly becoming apparent that Pixar need some fresh blood. It worked very well for them when brad Bird came in, and I think Teddy Newton might be able to bring something original and great to the table.

A time to discuss Pixar shorts

June 6, 10 //
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Before the magic had even begun… Andre and Wally B was one of the first pieces of animation that John Lasseter created at Pixar… well at the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project, as it was then known! It is hard to believe that this was created in 1984. What. That is before I was born!

When you look at Pixar’s collection of short films, you really start to see how they set themselves apart from every other studio in America. It is a real testament to everyone who works within those great doors in Emeryville that these shorts are loved just as much as their features are. Let alone that nine of the shorts have been nominated for academy awards, three of them winning.

After the first few shorts, John Lasseter stepped out of the director chair and made way for long-time Pixar artists like Doug Sweetland and Peter Sohn to step up and create something of their own. Bud Luckey, who has been at Pixar since 1992, directed my favourite Pixar short, Boundin’. He is probably most beloved for his work creating animated shorts for Sesame Street. Here is one of those films, #7 The Alligator King, and if you watch this work next to Boundin’ you can really see the personality in his work, even down to the narration and singing, all done by Luckey himself!

And the director role isn’t just handed to the animators – Lifted was directed by multi-academy award winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom. This paved the way for Rydstrom to move onto his first feature, Newt, which has unfortunately just been cancelled.

If you haven’t yet watched the full collection together as a whole, I definitely recommend picking up the dvd or bluray and watching them from start to finish. It is here, and not in the features, that you really see the incredible technological development of 3D animation that Pixar have achieved. And it looks like these boundaries are about to be pushed once again when we all go along on opening night to watch Toy Story 3, getting there nice and early to watch Day & Night, Teddy Newton’s first shot as director, and one of Pixar’s only films to use 2D animation. As you will see in this video, it looks like this is going to be like nothing we have ever seen.

Just to bring everything together

May 13, 10 //
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There hasn’t been much that I have wanted to talk about on here this week. I’ve been moving house and it has kept my viewing time to a minimum. But today I came across this amazing little video on Pajiba. And just because I wanted to make sure you all know that this blog is really only about Iron Man and The Iron Giant, I have posted it above.

The Iron Giant is… THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER

April 25, 10 //
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General assumption time: Most adults loved animated films as kids. EVERYONE does. If you are 7 and you don’t like watching Disney movies then you are actually not a 7 year old kid and are in fact a monkey who is only interested in eating stuff off your brother’s back. Unfortunately, most people grow out of this stage… and I have to admit, I did as well.

But there was one little film that I happened to watch sometime in the mid-2000s that slapped me across the face and made me instantly pay more attention to animation. This film was The Iron Giant, and it is still my favourite animated film. It is a masterpiece in every sense, from the writing to the inspired and spot-on casting, right down to the poster for the film. It is still Brad Bird’s greatest achievement, and showcases some of the most beautiful hand-drawn animation this side of Miyazaki.

And for that, it is The Greatest Movie Ever. It is really quite unfortunate the way that Warner Bros have treated The Iron Giant. We all know the stories about the misguided marketing, and there was talk last year of a 10th anniversary theatre run which never came to fruition, but I am glad that it has become a ‘cult’ film and has finally reached an audience that adores it. Now, how about a bluray release, WB?!

(This is the first in a series of posts title THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER! where every week I post what is actually the greatest movie of all time. You will soon discover that I also love hyperbole.)