November 2010

A Scary Dream I Had the Other Night

Animation, Disney, TV /

Via: Stuff We Like.com

Not the kind of blood-curdling, shivers down the spine stuff you understand, Hallowe’en is over for another year after all, but scary nonetheless. In it, I was in a film, a rather peculiar film in that it was a lice-action/CGI hybrid version of that classic Disney cartoon, DuckTales.

Yes, you read that correctly. How it came about, I do not know, although I sure hope it is not a premonition of some kind that is a window into the future. As an animation fellow, that would be unthinkable, a crime against humanity even!

Well, since then, I’ve been pondering the whole thing on and off and I’ve come to the conclusion that such a feature may well be within the realm of possibility for the foreseeable future for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Uncle Scrooge is one of Disney’s most successful characters (he’s had his own comic since the 50s after all). I could probably still recall the many, many comics I read as a kid at the kitchen table as I ate my breakfast and supper. The original stories by Carl Barks and the more recent stuff by Don Rosa continue to attract fans the world over. So it is safe to say that the character is far from being hung out to dry.

Secondly, such a film would not be the first time that Disney has capitalized on the character or universe. The TV series DuckTales was, for the most part, the adaptation for animation of some of Barks original stories. The series was massively popular and gave rise to a sequel in the form of Darkwing Duck.

What set DuckTales apart from other shows was the cinematic quality of the animation. So much so, that when a theatrical film was released (The Treasure of the Lost Lamp) the difference in quality was imperceptible to my untrained (at the time) eyes.

That film, apparently didn’t fare too well at the box office, which was a shame but not entirely unexpected. If I had to suspect a reason it’s that not too many adults watched the show, and thus were not as familiar with it as they could have been. By comparison, SpongeBob Squarepants had a pretty large adult following (including both parents and trendy college students) by the time a theatrical film was released. This ensured that it had a significantly larger potential audience than if it were just kids and their parents.

So, why would now (i.e. within the next few years) be a good time for a new film?

Weeeeeell, anybody who watched the original show is probably in their mid to late-20s with the cut-off being 30 years old, for the most part. With that in mid, they’re probably starting to get married and having a few kids. As humans, we’re suckers for nostalgia, why else would they play classic rock and 80s synth-pop on the radio?

There’s a good chance that since all the original viewers have grown up and now have kids of their own, they will be hungry for some link to their youth. A DuckTales film would be perfect and with the recent rash of live-action/CGI movies, it would fit the glove quite nicely for such a production.

I write all this in a somewhat sarcastic manner as I believe such a movie would be most likely horrendous. Why on earth I dreamt it in the first place is beyond me and while I would like to see some new animation from the Duck universe, a live-action/CGI film is certainly not on my list of possible ideas.

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Better Late Than Never: Steve Jobs and Cars 2

Animation, Pixar /

Yes, I am pretty late with today’s post and I offer my humblest apologies.

I read on Lineboil today that Steve Jobs, erstwhile boss at Apple Computer, has instructed John Lasseter to get his hands dirty and stick his nose into the engine bay of Cars 2.

While none of this is confirmed as of yet, if it is true, it could delay the sequel to a film that has absolutely raked in the merchandising dough for Disney/Pixar over the years and clearly has done quite well thus far with various TV specials and psuedo spin-offs.

The important lesson to learn is that either the story guys aren’t firing on all cylinders, or the race marshall thinks they’re running on illegal tyres and won’t let them leave the pit lane. Either way the instruction from Jobs represents a significant event in the Pixar assembly line production of movies. Is it a bad thing? Maybe, maybe not. However, it is the type of top-down management style typical of Jobs but somewhat foreign in a creator-orientated company like Pixar.

Since we’re unlikely to find out the truth for a while yet, I’m not going to take it at full face value. However, I hope that it does not signal the start of a worrying trend at the most successful CGI studio to date.

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The Wall Street Journal on The War Between Disney and Nickelodeon Over Pre-Schoolers

2 Comments / Animation, Disney, Nickelodeon, TV /

Thanks to Cathal Gaffney for tweeting this interesting article from the Wall Street Journal. You might want to grab a cup of tea (or coffee) before you read it. I’ll wait.

Back? OK, good.

The point of the article is that Disney and Nickelodeon differ on how they think pre-school children should be programmed for. Nick believes firmly in educational programmes whereas Disney is soon to switch to more story-based shows. The article makes it out like the two are locked in an epic battle for eyeballs that have absolutely zero purchasing power. Although that is not telling the full story, is it?

Of course not. it’s made quite clear that parents are the real ones being courted. Yes, there are the Jesuit ideals at work (get them young and they’re customers for life) but the networks seem to be pandering to parent’s wants even more. As is pointed out, there has been a shift in what parents desire for their kids. A decade ago, they wanted them to be well educated, now they want them to be happy.

What I think is that as parents, they should be spending more time with their kids! Why? Well, the programming may have a lot of educational content, but as pointed out in the article, the top advertisers during said programmes are the fast food and toy companies. Now there is nothing wrong with that, per se, however knowing how much TV kids in the US seem to watch, it can’t be a good thing.

Something that I admit kind of floored me was that 40% of Nick Jr’s viewers watch between 8-11p.m. What the #$%^(*&? When I was that age, I was lucky to stay up past 8, let alone up to 11!

I am not trying to disparage the idea of educational, pre-school TV shows, I did after all, watch Sesame Street religiously for years until I went to school.However, I also watched plenty of Postman Pat and Thomas the Tank Engine too. The point is that I enjoyed a good mix of programming, it wasn’t skewed heavily in either direction.

On the other side of the fence are the networks, who will come up with the relevant facts to prove that their content is beneficial, such as this from the article.

“Jake and the Never Land Pirates,” a new series launching in February, follows a group of kids who get into adventures with Captain Hook. Even though Hook is a bad guy, Jake still invites him to play at the end of the episodes, an important social lesson, Disney says.

Yeah right. From my own recollection, kids on the playground will heed their peers when it comes to including and excluding other kids from play. I did it and I was on the receiving end of it too and all the time I don’t recall using what I saw on the TV as a guide as to my behaviour.

Well, I take that back. once I told another kid to “get lost” as in an Oscar the Grouch way and man, did I get hauled up to the teachers desk, from where I had to make a very, very public apology to the entire class. I learned my lesson after that experience!

What worries me most is that the whole point and benefits of pre-school programming will be lost in the scramble to win parent’s affections and dollars. Responsibility for a child’s upbringing should rest with the parents. Networks are in the unenviable position of having to balance the need for high-quality programming with the need for earnings from advertisers. So far they’ve done relatively well. Should a war break out, we all know who will suffer the most.

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Animation Renaissance

Animation /

I’m a wee bit behind on various updates from my stable of animation blogs and websites so here is a belated link to a post by Michael Sporn featuring a magazine article written by the one and only Mr. John Canemaker discussing the state of the animation industry in 1980 (a.k.a. 30 years ago). The article serves as a good reminder that although the industry is always in a state of change, it is never permanently resigned to an unfortunate fate. It’s well worth a read.

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An Early Goal for 2011

Animation, Announcements, Book /

I had a nice post written all about the healthy state of TV animtion worldwide and then the computer went and lost it. Seeing as I am now late for work, it will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, here is the beginnings of my latest project. I have to juggle girlfriend, work, school and the dog in between everything else going on in my life so it may take a while (read: the better part of a year) to see some resutls. Nonetheless, I’m excited.

 

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Thoughts on the Tintin Movie

1 Comment / Animation, Film /

Via: Cartoon Brew

By now we’ve all seen the stills on Empire and read the comments on Cartoon Brew. I myself would have posted a lot earlier but the old PC is acting up (my motherboard is suffering from capacitor fatigue) and it got to the point this morning that I was halfway done writing this post before it shut off by itself.

But enough of my computer woes and onto some animation ones. The upcoming Tintin feature will be made in motion-capture, that much is certain. Now I am no fan of the technology. If something is considered animated, that means there are no humans involved in the actual movement process. When I say this, I do not mean to include rotoscoping. That process still relies on a degree of talent to draw the character. Motion-capture removes the vast majority of that skill and relies instead on a designer and set-builder.

Much of the hubbub around the film concerns the look of the characters and how much they differ from the comics. It’s nearly impossible to pass judgement on a film based off two still pictures, so a more complete opinion will have to wait until we see some actual footage.

It’s sadly becoming harder and harder to convince people that traditional animation is often much more appropriate for certain projects. Tintin is a prime example. The Nelvana TV series was very much true to the comics and was all the better for it. This film is likely to see a much greater departure from the books fans the world over know and love (myself included).

The final aspect to consider is what the overall plan is for the film. There were 21 Tintin books in total and unless the producers expect to make a James Bond-esque series, there are going to be some tough choices to be made.

The release date is still some time away so I will not be worrying about it too much until then and neither should you.

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All I Learned About American Politics I Learned From The Simpsons

1 Comment / Animation, The Simpsons /

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday, you can collectively blame that deadline at work.

Today is Election Day here in the States and as a result, just about everything you see, hear and touch today will be tinged with politics and as you can imagine, trying not to post something political is really hard without showing off your colours.

Being Irish, my colours are green, so that doesn’t really matter and besides, they’re not having an election over there today.

Instead, I am going to encourage you to watch the one episode of the Simpsons that pretty much taught me everything I knew about US elections until I actually arrived here: Sideshow Bob Roberts

Via: Wikipedia

Being of the “classic” era, there are tons of jokes, references, one-liners and a plot that manages to tie them all together. In it, we see Sideshow Bob at perhaps his most menacing. He doesn’t murder anyone, but he does actually succeed in his plan until thwarted by Bart & Lisa.

The episode is as much a satire on the political system itself as it is on the politicians themselves and in a move that garners some praise, it manages to keep the leanings pretty much within the boundaries that the show has traditionally stayed in.

If you must watch anything today, watch this. I’m, not going to link to it because of the [ahem] temporary nature of the links but you should know where to look.

And before you go, here is the defining, hilarious quote from the episode:

Hmm…I don’t agree with his Bart-killing policy, but I do approve of his Selma-killing policy.

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