Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 17, 2009 in Animation
Why bother to put Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs into theaters when it can go straight to cable? The first film was average but had some decent moments, but this latest one looks like it has freezer burn. There seems to be some sort of Land of the Lost plot going on in this “film” — and I bet that they scripted that before they knew the rebooted Land of the Lost would bomb. You know it’s been about fourteen years since Pixar released Toy Story and yet the other studios still seem to be playing catch up…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 26, 2009 in Animation
If Pixar did a toilet training video it would look like this! The clip above is from some NHK kids video show in Japan, the subject matter is strictly bathroom humor as you can see. I think the cutest thing about this video are the flying rolls of toilet paper who seem to be playing a bugle.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 25, 2009 in Animation
This is a trailer for an potential upcoming anime series called Cat Shit One by studio anima. First off what makes this look so different is that it’s interesting to see a Japanese studio do their take on what CGI should look like — we’ve seen Pixar set the pace for years, but this series clearly has its own sensibilities. Which brings me to the next point: The subject matter of this show is war with the twist of featuring cute woodland creatures. The last time anyone has tried anything like this was the animated film Watership Down which while being an amazing film was never a huge commercial success. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 6, 2008 in Animation
Before I start trashing this trailer for Monsters vs. Aliens there are two things that I’ll admit to upfront (but if you’re a fanboy how could you blame me?):
1. Dreamworks has always been second banana to Pixar, and I’m not talking Coke vs. Pepsi but more like Coke vs. C&C Cola. In other words: If you thought that Shrek was good you don’t know what you;re talking about (unless by good you mean box office of course).
2. At this point in time if you’re going to do a CGI film you better damn well be ready to blow me out of the water because I’ve seen it all before — or — at least have a unique look for the film that I haven’t seen before.
Now I’m glad I got that out of the way! On paper the concept for this film sounds good, but alas the devil is in the details and from what I see here Dreamworks is determined to ummmm — well that’s a good question?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 22, 2008 in Animation
Shown above is the latest sneak peak of Bolt which is due out in theaters on November 21st and I have to say that I’m not getting excited by this clip. Now my understanding is that the film will be released in Disney Digital 3D and while that sounds cool it doesn’t mean that there can’t be a story up there on the screen. And from this small sample the whole flick looks like a bad action film which is already based on existing cartoons like Road Runner.
The other thing that’s missing here is that none of the characters seem lovable — the dog character Bolt seems to lack any charm, and even the bad guys in the scene above seem so generic. For crying out loud this is suppose to be a Disney film, having interesting evil characters is half the point! To me it looks like Disney was so obsessed with making a Pixar film that they forgot what makes Disney so special (hint: it’s charm, storytelling and imagination!).
