One of the box-office surprises of 2005 was a little film called Hoodwinked — the first independently produced CGI film, which went on to make a rather tidy little profit. Talk began almost immediately about sequel for the film — and now, that sequel is coming to theaters on April 29th. Hoodwinked introduced us to Little Red Riding Hood, her rather resourceful (and butt-kicking) Granny, and a big-but-not-so-bad Wolf. All three of them return in the new film, Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil. They’re joining up with an outfit known as the Happily Ever-after Agency (HEA) on a mission to save Hansel and Gretel from a wicked witch. Some things have changed — Hayden Panettiere (Alpha and Omega) replaces Anne Hathaway as the voice of Red, and the director this time is Mike Disa, previously known as a director of video short films. But once again we have Patrick Warburton as the Wolf, Glenn Close as Granny, and David Ogden Stiers as the frog Nicky Flippers, head of HEA. You can view the current trailer for the film on YouTube here.
Animation
If you like Talking Cars, try Talking Planes
Cartoon Brew recently put up an article letting us know about a new project from Disney’s Movietoon Studios (creators of A Goofy Movie and other works). It’s a new direct-to-DVD CGI called Planes, and it’s all about — you guessed it — anthropomorphic airplanes. Here’s the Press Release from DMS: “Planes will introduce an entirely original and hilarious crew of daredevils from every corner of the globe and draws inspiration from the immensely popular Disney/Pixar’s Cars world. ‘We had such a great time exploring the world of Cars over the course of two films, so it seemed only natural for us to see where our imaginations would take us in a film where planes were the main characters. By expanding the Cars world, Planes gave us a whole new set of fun-filled situations and a great opportunity to introduce some fantastic new characters,’ commented John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Planes takes off with an international cast of the fastest air racers around, in a comedy packed with action and adventure starring Dusty, a small town dreamer who longs to enter the most epic around-the-world air race … despite his fear of heights. With the help and support of a fleet of new and hilarious characters, Dusty wings his way into the biggest challenge of his life.” Look for Planes to take off in the spring of 2013.
Little Pedro c. Walt Disney Pictures
And Speaking of Awards…
Saturday the 5th of February it was time once again for the annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA) for the best in animation. This year, of course, was the year of controversy for the Annies, now that Disney/Pixar have pulled their sponsorship and official participation in the awards due to what they feel are flawed and lop-sided voting practices. Specifically, they’ve accused the Annies of being overly weighted toward Dreamworks Animation productions. Probably because there is a very large percentage of ASIFA that includes Dreamworks employees as members. Probably because at one point Dreamworks was offering to subsidize its employees’ membership in ASIFA, while Disney and Pixar were not. So, it probably didn’t sit well at all with Disney and Pixar that Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon swept the Annie Awards this year, much like Kung Fu Panda did a couple of years ago. In fact, this year, the Kung Fu Panda Holiday TV special also swept the Annie Awards in the television categories. Here’s a recap from Variety: “DreamWorks Animation ended up with 15 Annie Awards, 10 for How to Train Your Dragon and five for its television production Kung Fu Panda Holiday. In addition to best picture, Dragon picked up nods for helmers Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, animated effects, character animation, character design, music, production design, storyboarding, voice acting for Jay Baruchel [Hiccup], and writing. Kung Fu Panda Holiday was named the top TV production and racked up trophies for character animation, direction, production design, and voice acting for James Hong [Mr. Ping].” Other awards from the evening (ones that Furry Fans might notice) included T.U.F.F. Puppy winning two awards for storyboards and character design (in a TV production). Ryan Page won the first ever Annie Award for “Character Animation in a Live Action Production” for his work on Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. The evening also featured lifetime achievement awards (the Windsor McCay Award) for director Brad Bird (who joked in a video clip about his move from directing animation to live action), veteran animator Eric Goldberg, and creator Matt Groening (who joked live about the fact he’s spent 23 years in animation and only done two things: The Simpsons and Futurama). You can read more about the Annie Awards — and soon, see pictures from the show — on their web site.
Ursa Major Nominations Open!
Here we are in a new year, and once again it’s time for all the Furry Fans out there to nominate their favorite movies, books, comics, TV shows and more from the previous year for the annual Ursa Major Awards — Furry Fandom’s answer to the Hugo Awards ™ from Science Fiction Fandom, the Anthony Awards from Mystery Fandom, and so forth. In other words, these are the people’s choice awards, where the fans themselves get to pick out the best from all the material released in the previous year — in this case, January to December, 2010. Last year, more than 1,000 fans around the world voted on the best anthropomorphic media from 2009, and the Ursa Majors hope to top that record this year. Get involved! Visit the Ursa Major Awards web site to find out about how to nominate your favorites. Don’t remember all the great movies, books, video games, art, or whatever that came out in 2010? Fear not! The Ursa Major web site provides a handy Recommended Reading and Viewing List to help jog your memory. (Just keep in mind: Things don’t have to be on the Rec List to be nominated. It’s just there to help you think of things). Nominations are open now in each of 10 categories, and they close at the end of February. Then the actual voting will begin in March. The awards themselves will be handed out at a lucky Furry Fandom convention this summer.
Hats Off To Them
Among the many strange, strange live-action TV series brought into the world by the brother team of Sid and Marty Kroft, certainly one of the stranger was a 1973 show called Lidsville. For those not from that era, or who might have forgotten it (or thought it was a funky dream brought on by bad pizza): A young boy named Mark (played by Butch Patrick, better known as Eddie Munster on The Munsters) visits an amusement park and winds up falling into an enchanted magician’s hat (don’t ask) where he plummets into a land of living, walking, talking hats! He also meets a male genie (played by a woman) and an evil magician played by a very loud Charles Nelson Reilly. Told you it was strange. Well, now comes the word that Conrad Vernon (director of Monsters vs. Aliens) will be directing a new animated Lidsville feature for Dreamworks animation. Cartoon Brew has excerpts of an interview that the New York Times did with Conrad about the project. No word yet on a release date. They’re keeping it under their hats. [Sorry…]
A Lidsville lunch-box from the 70's
Friendship is Magic
The was a lot of talk late last year among animation fans about The Hub, a new cable channel created as a joint venture between Discovery Channel and the Hasbro toy company. The Hub was started as direct competition for the likes of The Family Channel. As such, they show original animated TV series during the day — almost entirely based on various Hasbro toy lines — an sit-com re-runs at night. One of the current flagships of the former is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a flash animation series. It was developed for television by Lauren Faust, who is well-known in animation circles for her work on Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends with her husband, Craig McCracken. Here’s the series description from Wikipedia: “The series stars a unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle, who has been known to be a pupil of the world’s ruler Princess Celestia. Seeing the young pony buried in books, the princess gives her the task of making friends, sending her, and a young dragon named Spike, to Ponyville. There, they meet some interesting ponies, including tomboyish Rainbow Dash, glamorous Rarity, hard-working Applejack, timid Fluttershy, and hyperactive Pinkie Pie. Together, they explore the ins and outs of the town, solve various problems, and make even more friends. Every day is a lesson for Twilight, but none as important as the magic of friendship. At the end of each episode, Twilight relays a report to her mentor Celestia, telling her what friendship has taught her.” The series is animated by Studio B Productions in Vancouver, Canada.
Not the Oscar Surprises We Expected…
This morning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced the nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards (the “Oscars”), to be presented on Sunday, February 27th. As everyone expected, Disney Pixar’s Golden Globe-winning Toy Story 3 (the biggest world-wide money maker released in 2010) was nominated for Best Picture of the Year (which a lot of people are saying it will not win) and Best Animated Feature (which a lot of people are saying it will win). TS3 was also nominated for awards in the categories of Best Song (by Randy Newman, of course), Best Sound Editing, and… Best Adapted Screenplay?? It seems that the Academy considers a sequel film to be “adapted from a previous existing medium” because it uses previously created characters and settings. Or so we’ve been told. Fine. Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon was also nominated for Best Animated Feature, as well as Best Original Score (by John Powell). Interestingly, the third slot for Best Animated Feature went to The Illusionist from France, whereas the Golden Globe Awards had chosen Sony’s Despicable Me. Other furry-themed pictures to watch include Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland from Disney, which was nominated in the categories of Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects. Check out CinemaBlend.com for a complete listing of nominees. Of course, before the Oscars come the Annie Awards for animation on February 5th. It’s always interesting to see how the two groups of awards compare.
The Gruffalo
Another in the “how’d we miss this?” category… The Gruffalo is an award-winning children’s book from the U.K., written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. It was first published in 1999 by Macmillan Children’s Books. It tells the tale (via a mother squirrel giving her children a bedtime story) of a mouse walking through the woods. When he is threatened in turn by a predatory fox, snake, and owl, he scares each of them off by telling them he is on his way to meet his friend the “Gruffalo” — a monstrous creature who is much more dangerous than any of them. He’s making it all up, of course, and he thinks he’s so clever… until he runs into the real Gruffalo. After the book became enormously popular in the U.K. and elsewhere, Magic Light Pictures and Studio Soi made The Gruffalo into a 30-minute CGI film, which was broadcast on U.K. television for Christmas 2009. It featured (among others) the voices of Helena Bonham Carter (as the mother squirrel), John Hurt, and Robbie Coltrane (as the Gruffalo). The BBC has a trailer for the show on-line, and there’s also a making-of video from Magic Light.
image c. 2011 Axel Scheffler
Hello Everyone. Peabody Here.
Cartoon Brew is reporting that Robert Downey Jr. has been tapped to play the voice of none other than Mr. Peabody in a new live action/CGI film from Dreamworks, Mr. Peabody and Sherman. For you young folks who don’t know: Mr. Peabody is a genius-level talking dog, and Sherman is his loyal human boy assistant. The original animated cartoon was part of the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon series, animated by Jay Ward Productions. This new version is being written by Jeffrey Ventimilia and Joshua Sternin (from the recent Yogi Bear movie) and directed by Rob Minkoff (from The Lion King). There’s a wait to see how this turns out: The film isn’t due until 2014.
image c. 2011 Jay Ward Productions
