10/10/00

9/9/00

1st: I have been out the weekend when I should have updated the page (8, 9, 10), and actually I didn't come back to Barcelona till the 12 of september. Why didn't I update it then?

2nd: Because before I did the update, I wanted delete from the server(s) the unlinked archives, and re-organize the site, so now it is ordered. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. And now, at last the whole site works, so the past features sites I had done for Mulan, POE, Antz, A Bug's Life, Tarzan that didn't work because of lack of space in the server, are up again. In resume, everything works now. Also I have updated the Iron Giant page, with more pics and artwork. Btw, this is the page with the most positive reviews. I'm still recieving reviews! Also, I have sort of updated the last released features like Titan A.E., Chicken Run including the form for you to send reviews. I couldn't do that before because I have been working the whole summer. So, what happened next?

3rd: I started making the update, as allways, and I finished it. BUT, once everything was completed, my computer.. well, I don't have words to express that. You know, it's usual when you write a letter, or create any document (like an html one) that before you're finished the there's-no-adjective-to-qualify-it usual "system error" window appears, with the "close" button" and, everything you've done goes to waste. Well, this is Windows, and we're all used to it. That's why some (most) programs save what you're doing. It had happened to me before, but, luckilly, I only had to re-create what I had done since the last time the program saved the file (every 10 minutes for example). But this time, it didn't close the window only, it literally erased the "news.html" file of my hard drive! And I'm still wondering where it is now. So, after that, and knowing all what I had been doing the whole day was for nothing, you must understand how I felt. And well, then I started again (and I've had to do some things twice, because of the f***ing Windows) and here you have the result. Late, but at least you have it.
 

But there's more to tell, because the site will work different from now on. Pay attention, and don't be scared before I finish telling you everything.

Aren't you tired of having to wait a whole month for the animation news page to be updated? Ok then, this is a decision I've made after seeing how most of the news you find here, have been posted before in the forum (so for those of you who usually go to the forum, there aren't many news here). So, the decision I've made will alter the forum and this animation news section. The solution is transforming this news section into a forum. So we'll have two forums:

Feature Animation Forum (the one we know)

Feature Animation News (that will take the place of this section)

What do we win with this? We win that everytime there are news the new "forum" will be updated, so you won't have to wait a whole month for the update. This way, the update won't depend on me, but in all of us. Whenever someone finds some news, he will be able post them in the new forum (which is not actually a forum and I'll tell you why). And I will do the same, instead of keeping the news for the monthly update, I will directly post them in the new forum (which again, is not a forum as we know, now I'll tell you why).

Why isn't it a forum? To understand it, I must explain you the rules for the actual "forum", and the Feature Animation News looks-like-a-forum-but-it's-not.

This Feature Animation News section, has been created like a forum, just for the advantage of not having to depend on me to update it. But it won't work like a forum. In it, the only thing we will do is post the news we know/find (what includes pics, links to trailers, articles, etc), and reading the news that are allready posted. This means no replies. Not even talking about the news posted. The only case you will reply is to correct or because you have more info on that news. Whenever you want to talk about that news, telling your opinion about it, or discuss the news, you'll have to go to the other forum and just create a new post, using the same subject, or by putting a shortcut to the post of the other forum so everyone knows what you are refering to. The Feature Animation Forum will also be to discuss anything (related to feature animation). Actually it will work like it has been working till now, but you won't be able to put the news there like we've been doing, instead you'll have to go to the Feature Animation News.

What do we win by using two forums instead of one? We win that if you want to find Lilo and Stitch news, if there were just one forum, you would have to read all the posts and would probably find things like:

"I think this will be a great movie because Stitch looks so funny and bla bla".

So no messages like that in the Feature Animation News, instead this messages must be in the Feature Animation Forum.

Also, there must be no messages like one that has an "Atlantis" subject and reads:

"Any Atlantis news?"

Because that ain't news, it's someone asking for news. But this message could be in the Feature Animation Forum. And if somoene says "yeah, I got Atlantis news", he must post them in the Feature Animation News (and he/she can reply to that person and say:

"Yeah, there's Atlantis news in the news forum".

Maybe you think this is very complicated, but if we get used to it, I think it will be quite easy. But we need these basic rules. So the Feature Animation News forum is more serious, where we must post the news and nothing else, and the Feature Animation Forum, is a forum.

In resume:
 

• If you find news you should post them in the Feature Animation News, not the other.
• If you want to reply to that news, you must go to the other forum and create a new post (that maybe has been allready created by another person)
• If you want to correct some news, you can reply in the Feature Animation News
• The forum (Feature Animation Forum) works like before, but whenever you have news, you'll have to post them in the other forum, and then comment them in this forum.
• Whenever you post news in the Feature Animation News, the subject must include the name of the movie, person, company or festival the news are about.

So, this is the last time you'll find the news of the whole month in this page. You can start from now to read/post news in the Feature Animation News by clicking here.

Next month, you will be linked to the Feature Animation News directly from the link that linked to this page: "Animation News".

And to go to the Feature Animation Forum, like allways, use the "Forum" link.

Finally, how are you going to know when any sections of the site are updated? In that case, in the main page (this is the index.html, or just come.to/feature-animation) I will change that old drawing and also write "SITE UPDATE" or something like that. I will also tell it to you in both forums, since they are part of the site.

I will keep making a new poll every month. Just click on the Poll link (now the poll is in the same page as the animation news, but next month it won't, because this page won't exist.

As for the Box Office, I will try to update it weekly, but I can't swear it.

Well, if I have something else to tell you, I will by writting "SITE UPDATE" in the main page.

And finally (this is the last finally, I swear), what happens to the individual feature pages? What I will do is create pages for the features that are comming, but they will just include the basic general info. Then, when this movie is released, I will include a form for you to send reviews, and also links to other pages/sites that have more info on this movie. I do that because working on so many sites is too much for me, and even more when I'm not interested in some of the features. And since I want to enjoy mantaining this site, I will only do individual sites with more info than the others with the movies I'm really interested in.

Now, let's go with the news:
 

Square Pictures has signed a three picture deal with Columbia Pictures that will include more CG animated features once Final Fantasy is completed.
 

As every year, the Annies nominees have been announced. Here you have the nominees concerning feature animation:

Outstanding Achievement in An Animated Theatrical Feature

Fantasia/2000 -- Walt Disney Pictures

Toy Story 2 -- Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios

The Road to El Dorado -- Dreamworks SKG

Chicken Run -- Pathe, Aardman & Dreamworks SKG

Titan A.E. -- 20th Century Fox Animation

Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation

Sean P. Mullen -- Stuart Little

Eric Goldberg  -- Fantasia/2000

Doug Sweetland -- Toy Story 2

Rodolphe Guenoden -- The Road to El Dorado

David Brewster -- The Road to El Dorado

Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing In an Animated Feature Production

John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Ash Brannon Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin & Chris Webb -- Toy Story 2

Karey Kirkpatrick -- Chicken Run

M. Night Shyamalan & Greg Booker -- Stuart Little

Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production

Ralph Zondag & Eric Leighton -- Dinosaur

John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich & Ash Brannon -- Toy Story 2

Nick Park & Peter Lord -- Chicken Run

Jun Falkenstein -- The Tigger Movie

Hayao Miyazaki -- Princess Mononoke (English Language Version)

Outstanding Individual Achievement for Effects Animation

Robert Bredon -- Stuart Little

Julian Hynes -- Titan A.E.

Simon O'Connor -- Dinosaur

Doug Ikeler -- The Road to El Dorado

Ted C. Kierscey -- Fantasia/2000

Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design In an Animated Feature Production

Susan McKinsey Goldberg -- Fantasia/2000

Paul Brizzi / Gaetan Brizzi & Carl Jones -- Fantasia/2000

William Cone & Jim Pearson -- Toy Story 2

Christian Schellewald -- The Road to El Dorado

Philip A. Cruden -- Titan A.E.
 

Two teaser posters, one for The Emperor's New Groove and the other for Atlantis. Btw, the song theme of the movie is called My Funny Friend and Me:
 

Btw, the rough animation for Atlantis is finished, and the story has been fixed.
 

And one last poster. This, from Osmosis Jones:

And here you have some pics for you to know what the characters and backgrounds look like:

Fantasia 2000 will be released to VHS and DVD on November 14, 2000.

The original Fantasia celebrates its 60th anniversary (of its original theatrical release) almost to the day, with a first-time-ever release on DVD in a special 60th anniversary edition on Nov. 14. Fantasia has been restored and remastered, and now includes the original intermission and narration, not seen since 1940. The animated segment Clair de Lune,created 60 years ago as part of the film, is finally being released on Fantasia (DVD), as originally conceived.

Also being released is a special Fantasia Anthology 3-disc collector's DVD set featuring Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 and "The Fantasia Legacy" supplemental features disc.

The DVD of Fantasia 2000 features a digital transfer created directly from the digital source, insuring an optimal presentation that Disney claims surpasses the theatrical experience. Both Fantasia 2000 and the 60th anniversary of Fantasia are presented in DTS and Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

Click below to know more / buy the titles:
 

Fantasia 2000 VHS	Fantasia 2000 DVD	Fantasia DVD	Fantasia Anthology DVD

Producer/composer Quincy Jones' production copmpany is developing a Warner Bros. movie known as the Untitled Looney Tunes Car Project, the studio's next feature foray into the famed character library after Space Jam. The film will combine Looney Tunes characters with live-action sequences. Ken Kaufman (co-writer of Space Cowboys) is penning the script. Quincy Jones Media Group is producing the film with Billy Gerber, a former production president at Warner Bros. The film will be directed by Tony Cervone (co-director of Space Jam) and Spike Brandt (director of the short Little Go Beep.
 

And this is what a fellow animation fan can tell us about Stitch:

Hello there!

Just thought I'd pass along some info that I got on a trip to New Orleans last month for a large computer animation conference. There I've seen a picture of Stitch from Disney's upcoming feature Lilo and Stitch. The best description I can give of him is that he's a psychotic blue Chihuahua with large, black eyes and large black ears (he bears a very, very slight resemblance to the hyenas in The Lion King, only much smaller, bluer, and weirder. The picture I saw had him with his tounge hanging out and looking freaky).

The Throdmeister

The followup to Disney's Orlando produced film Lilo and Stich will be Brother Bear. This film, in serious pre-production tells the story of an indian (eskimo) boy whose father is killed by a bear, and while trying to revange his father's death, the spirits of the forest transform him into a bear. Phil Collins will be supplying the music as he did with Tarzan. Aaron Blaise (Mulan) & Bob Walker are directing, and Chuck Williams is producing.
 

And from Ain't It Cool News, here you have some Shrek pics:
 

 

Finally, here you have a pic from Monsters, Inc, and bellow a better resolution one of the monster on the right.

9/9/2000              Site Poll

What do you think of the way the 'Animation News' will work now? Good idea (12) 46% It could work (6) 23% I don't care (0) 0% I don't like it (3) 12% First time visitor (2) 8% What? (0) 0% Who am I? (1) 4% The ace is higher than the king (2) 8% 26 votes

8/8/00

Sorry for the delay, I have a job this summer, and don't have much free time. I haven't been able to update the features section, but at least I have updated the Atlantis page. By clicking on this image, you'll access to a website, where you'll download the player (and receive the first episode), and once a week thereafter you will receive a new episode as a little attachment to an email (no new download necessary). So if you want to be part of these interactive e-mail series, just click on the image on the left.

Best known for his work on Sleeping Beauty and Lady and the Tramp, Eyvind Earle, creator of eclectic backgrounds for Disney cartoons, has passed away. He was 84 years old. Earle succumbed to esophageal cancer on Thursday, July 20, 2000. The 1953 Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival winning short film, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, is the film that made people truly notice Earle’s artwork. His other toon credits include Peter Pan, For Whom the Bulls Toil, Working for Peanuts, Pigs is Pigs and Paul Bunyan. While at Disney, he also painted the first design for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The magical backgrounds he painted for Sleeping Beauty have sold as high as $29,000. Much of Earle’s work was influenced by his travels around the world with his father when he was young. At age 21, he bicycled across the U.S. and made money by selling watercolors. In 1998 at the Annie Awards, ASIFA bestowed Earle with the Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement. Earle is survived by his wife, Joan; daughter, Kristin Thompson; his brother, Ferdinand; and a grandson. Any memorial gifts should be donated to the American Cancer Society.
 
 

QuickTime Help

An Atlantis teaser trailer is allready out. Check it out at the official site!
 

Monsters, Inc voice talents have been revealed: Billy Crystal, John Goodman head the list, followed by James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Bonnie Hunt and newcomer Mary Gibbs.

Monsters, Incorporated is the largest scare factory in the monster world and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) is one of its top Scarers. Sullivan is a huge, intimidating monster with blue fur, large purple spots, and horns. His Scare Assistant, best friend and roommate is Mike Wzowski (Billy Crystal), a green, opinionated, feisty little one-eyed monster. The cast of characters also includes the factory's CEO, a crablike monster named Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn) and the snake-headed, beguiling receptionist Celia (Jennifer 7Tilly). One of the top Scarers is a sarcastic chameleon monster named Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi). Visiting from the human world is Boo (Mary Gibbs), a tiny girl who goes where no human has ever gone before.
 

Square Inc. has allready spent $100 million on the Final Fantasy film. The director, Hironobu Sakaguchi, said It's a big gamble. We're confident that we'll succeed, but if we fail, it could do major damage to us as a company and Japan as a whole. A teaser trailer for the movie is allready out. Check it out here.
 

Lilo and Stitch has moved into production. Targeted for a 2003 release, the film stars the voices of Jason Scott Lee (a muscular, tanned character who sells surfboards) and Tia Carrere (Lilo's sister). The studio is tight-lipped about the project, which is currently being worked on at Disney's Orlando animation studio. Lilo has been in the early stages of development for quite some time, and some of the production work is being done in Hawaii.

Word is the soundtrack of Lilo and Stitch will include some old Elvis songs (it looks like Disney already has the rights for songs like Houndog, Blue Hawaii, Jailhouse Rock, Burnin' love or Return to Sender. Could the score be composed by Danny Elfman? Let's hope so, by now it's up to you believe what an anonymous said in the forum.
 

Johnny Rzeznik (The Goo Goo Dolls) will make his solo debut with a pair of songs he is writing for Treasure Planet, scheduled for release in 2002. Rzeznik tells that taking on the
task for this project has forced him to think differently about the songwriting process. That was a real challenge, because I didn't want it to be completely, you know, I didn't want to write, like, one of those Disney songs, you know what I mean? So I wanted to try to have at least a little more edge and rock to it, he explains. And it's cool because I actually get to sing it. You know, like, I'm the voice of this 15-year-old kid who's a punk, basically.

Rzeznik says his own youth spent listening to artists like the Clash, Elvis Costello, Sex Pistols, Kiss, and Cheap Trick proved good inspiration. I kinda dialed in to his character, because the kid is a lot like that, he says. It's cool, it's another chance to get dressed up.
 

After considering Sinbad the Sailor for a while, writer Leslie Dixon (Mrs Doubtfire, The Thomas Crown Affair) signed a $1.5 milion deal to pen the newest Dreamworks animated project. With the working title being Chakulan, it's based on the fact that male bengal tigers have a biological animosity toward female tigers and their cubs. The premise came from Dreamworks execs. DreamWorks is being very secretive about any aspects of the story itself.

DreamWorks has also hired writer Ron Bass (Rain Man) to create a screenplay for a new animated movie set in the early 1900s in France, with a working title of The Circus.
 

Here you have a scene from Monkeybone, plus the the comic strip Stu Miley (Brendan Fraiser) draws:

For more Monkeybone stuff, chek the AICN article:

Pics come out of the woodwork for MONKEY BONE!!! Weird cool stuff!
 

Word is Sweating Bullets is being revamped from the ground up.
 

Interview with Gary Oldman:

The challenge of staying animated.

7/7/00

Let's start with this pic on the left. I've accepted to collaborate on promoting the distribution of interactive animated "cartoons". When you click on this image, you'll access to a website, where you'll download the player (and receive the first episode), and once a week thereafter you will receive a new episode as a little attachment to an email (no new download necessary). So if you want to be part of these interactive e-mail series, just click on the image on the left.

DreamWorks SKG and Imax Corporation announced a that DreamWorks will release the animated film Shrek in 3D to IMAX theatres in December 2001. The film will be initially released in conventional 2D in 35mm on May 18, 2001, and will feature an enhanced ending filled with 3D effects and created just for the IMAX 3D release.
 

In February, Fox laid off about two-thirds of the 320 employees at the Phoenix unit. And now the studio is shuttering the outpost entirely. In its six years in business, the Phoenix unit produced only two pictures, Anastasia and Titan A.E. The weakness of Titan and the millions of dollars the studio lost in its overall investment in Phoenix was probably a factor in the abrupt exit last week of studio chairman Bill Mechanic. The surviving animation operations include the studio's computer animation facility in Harrison, N.Y., Blue Sky Studios, which has been increasing staff recently as it prepares to start production on Ice Age, a comedy-adventure about a woolly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger and a sloth. Fox is also in post-production on Monkeybone, a comedy that mixes live-action and stop-motion animation.

For more information, you can read the article:
20th Century Fox Closes Its Phoenix Animation Studio.
 

Animation is a constantly evolving artform, and releasing Shrek in 3D form for IMAX theatres will hopefully mark the next step in how audiences experience these films. To tell a story in animation is always exciting ... but to know that this fractured fairy tale will be shown eight stories high and in IMAX 3D is thrilling for us at DreamWorks Animation. Luckily in Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow and Linda Hunt, we have a cast that is already big ... but it just got a whole lot bigger. --Jeffrey Katzenberg.
 

As it seems, Alan Menken could be writting the music for Sweating Bullets, which is going to be a musical.
 

The soundtrack for Chicken Run is allready out. The album features 20 tracks of score by John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams, who had previously scored Antz.
 

1.   Opening Escape 2.   Main Titles 3.   Evil Mrs. Tweedy, The 4.   Rats! 5.   Chickens Are Not Organized 6.   We Need A Miracle 7.   Rocky And The Circus 8.   Flight Training 9.   Really Big Truck Arrives, A 10. Cocktails And Flighty Thoughts

11. Babs' Big Break 12. Flip Flop And Fly - Ellis Hall 13. Up On The Roof 14. Into The Pie Machine 15. Rocky, A Fake All Along 16. Building The Crate 17. Wanderer, The - Dion 18. Chickens Are Revolting, The 19. Lift Off 20. Escape To Paradise

click here to buy the soundtrack with a 22% of discount.
 

We're delighted that DreamWorks has decided to extend the Shrek franchise by selecting IMAX 3D as a release window. We believe that the combination of The IMAX 3D Experience and the creative talents of DreamWorks SKG will revolutionize the way people experience animation. This film will continue our evolution as a unique family entertainment option, and firmly establish the IMAX theatre network as a release window for family-oriented Hollywood films. --Imax co-CEOs Bradley J. Wechsler and Richard L. Gelfond.
 

According to Variety, Sony Family Entertainment has acquired rights to Roman Dirge's cult comic Lenore for an animated film which is being conceived as a decidedly black comedy with heart. The movie will be scripted by Caroline Thompson (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands) and Larry Wilson (Beetlejuice), whose last collaboration was The Addams Family.

The story follows Lenore, a 10-year old girl who returns from the dead, primarily because she feels her family needs her. The tone, said Thompson, is much in line with that of South Park.

We are looking to appeal to adults as much as the sophisticated 10 year old, she said. Lenore means well, when, for instance, she tries to help out by taking the neighbor baby to the park. While she feeds the bird, the baby whines and she says, 'Oh, you want to feed them.' She puts the feed on the baby, and the birds begin pecking away. Though in the comic the child expired, he'll merely have a few holes put in him during the film, she said.
 
 

QuickTime Help

The official site for The Emperor's New Groove is allready out. So is the trailer, that you can see now by clicking here.
 

Here you have 2 pics from the licensing show. Both from DreamWorks, the first one is from Spirit, and the second one from Shrek:

This month three Atlantis reviews from a test screening have been posted to Ain't It Cool News. The reviews are mixed and focus on the movie's story weakness, which seems to be Disney's trademark lately. But on the other hand, as expected, the action sequences seem to be great. But let's remember that a movie's bone structure is the screenplay, and that's were Disney artist should centrate their attention. Anyway it's too soon to worry about the movie, since it's a year ahead of its release, and there's time to solve the problems and let the story take its shape. Maybe these plot holes are part of the movie's evolution to become a great film. We'll have the answer in a year. By now, you can read the articles in the following links:

Senor Shack Up files his report on Disney's Atlantis due out in theaters next summer!

John Robie steals a look at next year's Atlantis from Disney

Gregor Samsa flies in from Prague to check out Disney's Atlantis
 

Another article from Ain't It Cool News. This is a report on Wild Life, which is said to have similarities with My Fair Lady:

Sir Etch A Sketch reports in on Disney's next CGI animated project... Wild Life!!!
 

Finally, here you have another interesting article:

Virtual Actors Replacing Striking Hollywood Actors
 

Btw, Toy Story 2 makes its video and DVD debut Oct. 17.

Chicken Run opened 2nd at the Box Office grossing 17.5 million. This week,the movie stays in the #4, and has grossed $49,767,108 until its second weekend. Chicken Run also opened big in the UK over the weekend, making £4m in the Box Office, and so, becoming the 14th biggest opening ever in the UK.

Dinosaur is in the #11 over Titan A.E., and it has grossed $130,825,066 until its seventh weekend.

Titan A.E. opened 5th at the Box Office grossing 9.4 million, and is going worse than Anastasia. The movie is in the #13, and has grossed a total of $20,754,754 until its third weekend.

Next, Fantasia 2000 in the #16, which has grossed $57,696,297 until its third weekend, including what it had allready grossed in the IMAX theaters. Btw, Fantasia 2000 will return to IMAX in August.

6/6/00

The sad news for this month are: "where are the news?". There haven't been many feature animation news this last month, even less news than last update. I hope this changes soon, and I'm sure it will. So I leave you with the 4 or 5 tidbit news.

And starting with Atlantis. It's embarassing to call this news, but anyway there's still something to talk about. Ok, this is a list of the voices-characters of the movie. Some of them were known, sometimes we didn't know exactly the name of the character an actor was playing, and sometimes we weren't sure all the info was right. Now this is the list, which includes Jim Varney's character, because although he recently died, he had allready recorded his lines:

Milo THatcher: Michael J. Fox
Helga: Claudia Christian
Capt. Rourke: James Garner
Dr. Joshua Sweets: Mark Hamill
Cookie: Jim Varney
Fenton Harcourt: David Ogden Stiers
Mrs. Wilhelmina Packard: Florence Stanley
Princess Kida: Cree Summer
 

From Ain't It Cool News, Captain Courageous reports about Shrek:

I had a recent opportunity to see some of Dreamwork's new CGI animated production called Shrek. It falls in the category of "fractured fary tale" and it has some good stuff worth mentioning. It was far sillier than Princess Bride but still had a decent gaffaw at times. I'll be blunt and say right out that I LOVE animated movies...in the last few years...I liked but didn't drool over Bugs Life, Antz or any CGI animated movie other than Toy Story 1 and 2. Shrek has the potential of being way better than Antz and I'll tell ya why. It's out to make fun of Disney's strangle hold on the fairy tale world. What I saw was a mostly unfinished animation with a great deal of quick story board art used to fill in areas of the script with a VERY rough sound track, more about that in a bit. Sadly it's PG, as all animated films made in North America are doomed to follow to compete with Disney.

No ground breaking formula as far as voice talent and story goes...Skreg is about a chunky green Ogre named ...what else...Skreg. The voice talent is by Mike Myers. Now I am a HUGE fan of Mike's shtick for many years. So it pains me to see nothing different or new from him. To be fair, this is where that rough sound track comes into play....Myers is using his Fat Bastard/ Scot Dad from So I Married An Axe Murderer. It comes in and out as they are testing to see how thick an accent to make it. It's just not funny this time out as the script isn't geared to make his character that great on the laugh-o-meter. That was a big disappointment to see. The next wasted talent...er...character is a Little Ass (A donkey...what were ya thinking??) voiced by Eddie Murphy. For obvious reasons Murphy has more to work with as the side kick ass who follows Skreg so he won't get his ass kicked in this fairy tale land. Murphy is far funnier than his stint on Mulan...basically he's an ass kisser (last ass pun...so relax) but with some good one liners. Cameron Diaz plays a beautiful princess who can handle herself (not much screen time in the 30 + minutes I saw so I can't say if she sucks or not) and John Lithgow plays the evil Prince who has banished all fairy tale creatures to the farthest corners of the woods. Lithgow has some of the best stuff I've seen from a bad guy in a animated movie in a while. He's an evil prince with a Napoleon complex. A great big angry head with feet.

Where the film f-i-n-a-l-l-y took off for me was how classically Warner Bros.-ish was Lithgow's interaction with the fairy tale creatures. In one scene Lithgow's prince walks into his torture chamber with dark hooded henchmen dunking a little gingerbread man heads first in a glass of milk...while said gingerbread screams ..."EAT ME!!!" Under interrogation with the helpless cookie Lithgow asks..."Have you seen...the MUFFIN MAN?!?!"...gingerbread man retorts..."The Muffin Man?"...."YES !! The Muffin Man!!" This seems to be the the where the laughs are found with the Evil Prince forcing his will against the Mirror Mirror On The Wall, The Three Blind Mice and of course....The Seven Dwarves.

If you liked the classic Warner Brothers cartoons I think this might be more to your liking than say that gawd awful Space Jam, as it tries to push the PG as far as it goes for some adult humor. Skreg's a mix bag of boring same old with a sharp stick poked into Ol' Uncle Walt's eye. I got a few laughs on the back end of my short preview....a much needed good sign. Far from perfect but it didn't suck.

Oh...it's time to feed the crew...hmmm...Red Lobster's having an all you can eat shrimp platter fest. This is Captian Couragous settin' sail...burp.
 

The Princess Mononoke VHS is comming on August 8 priced to rent. As for the priced to sell version of the VHS, and the DVD, the release date looks like it could be on January 1 2001 (for the DVD at least), but it's not sure. However, there will be no bonus features (just that it appears in its original widescreen format)
 

Leo Chu, who has helped develop projects for Walt Disney Pictures and has worked in various development roles on Mulan and Dinosaur has been promoted by Walt Disney to the position of vice president, creative affairs for Walt Disney Feature Animation. Chu will now oversee the development of new features at the California, Florida and Paris-based Disney studios. Currently, Chu is focusing his attention on Atlantis. Leo has been an invaluable asset to our development team and has worked on some of our most successful features over the last seven years, said Thomas Schumacher. I'm most impressed with his work on Dinosaur, and know he will continue to develop sensational projects like these going forward. Pam Coats, senior VP, creative affairs for Walt Disney Feature Animation, added, Leo has a keen eye, a great understanding of the business and has done meticulous work for us on so many titles. I am glad we are able to expand his purview.
 

There's an article called Animated films take on new life for Grown-ups that examines how feature-length animation titles have become richer, deeper and more mature. The article analizes how "big-screen cartoons" have now all the diversity of style, narrative and audience-targeting of live-action movies.

Yet another article, which centers on how G-rated animated films contain a surprising level of violence, and that the violence is increasing. A study, which examined 74 G-rated theatrical films available on video, was published in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and defined violence in broad terms, including scenes where the body is used as a weapon or where there is sword-fighting, gunplay and other aggressive action.

Violence in animated features: Swords, guns and knives ... it must be an animated film.
 

Many many people has asked me about that Titan A.E. song featured in the trailer. I haven't been able to answer, and I still can't. But now that the soundtrack is out, there's a chance we'll get to know which song is that. This is the track list for the soundtrack. If you buy it, and listen to the song, please, post the title in the forum for everyone to know. The soundtrack doesn't feature the score for the movie, but rock songs from different artists inspired by the movie (and some featured in the movie, I suppose).

Track List:

1. Over My Head - Lit
2. End Is Over, The - Powerman 5000
3. Cosmic Castaway - Electrasy
4. Everything Under The Stars - Fun Lovin' Criminals
5. It's My Turn To Fly - The Urge
6. Like Lovers (Holding On) - Texas
7. Not Quite Paradise - Bliss
8. Everybody's Going To The Moon - Jamiroquai
9. Karma Slave - Splashdown
10. Renegade Survivor - Wailing Souls
11. Down To Earth - Luscious Jackson

Click here to order the soundtrack with a 22% of discount through Amazon.
 

The soundtrack for Chicken Run is also comming this month, on June 20th. Click here to order it with a 22% of discount.
 

Btw, Toy Story 2 won the "Best Family Film" honor at The Sixth Annual Blockbuster Awards, which were conducted at The Shrine Auditorium. These awards are determined by millions of Americans (last year, 15 million Americans voted for the Blockbuster Awards).
 

As for the Box Office, well, Dinosaur opened with $38.85 million (behind The Lion King's and Toy Story 2's openings), 1st at the Box Office. It dropped 52% at the Box Office when compared to its previous weekend (you know, Mission: Impossible - 2). The movie has grossed a total of $96,846,000 by now (3rd at the Box Office this by Sunday).

The Road to El Dorado has reached the $50 million. As of Sunday, it was in the #19 with a total gross of $50,215,000.

We'll see how these movies are affected (not that El Dorado could be more affected) when Titan A.E. and Chicken Run are released this month.

5/5/00

Amazing Kids! is an educational children's charity. With the mission to help
kids discover their own amazing potential. The lucky winners will get to work with professional animators from Dreamworks as their mentors. The contest pages, which were designed using the original character art from the DreamWorks' animated
feature film The Road to El Dorado, include the contest rules, assignment, and a cool animation tutorial of a bouncing ball by one of the DreamWorks animators. There is also an Animation Resources page with links to other animation tutorials and information on the Web.

Contest deadline is October 1, 2000. All contest entries will be displayed in the soon-to-be-launched Amazing Kids! Animation Station (later this summer).

Check it out and tell a friend: www.amazing-kids.org/splash.html.

For more information, feel free to contact Alyse Rome.
 

Brad is about the best director in animation. Everything he has touched has been entertaining, inventive and full of heart. He's taken audiences to places they've never been before. We are dancing on our desks to have him join us at Pixar. --John Lasseter.
 
 

The Dinosaur soundtrack is out since May 2nd. The soundtrack features 16 background score tracks by James Newton Howard. No songs. Btw, speaking of James Newton Howard, it looks like he will probably repeat work with Disney and will be the composer on Atlantis, which is due to 2001. Click here to buy it now at a 22% of discount.

 

You can find the first Dinosaur official review at Variety, by clicking here. Also, Dinosaur made the cover of Newsweek last week. Click here for the article. Finally, I remind you there will be daily updates at the official website, which allready has pics and some infos on the film, which is comming on May 19th. Don't forget to predict how much do you estimate the movie will gross in this month's poll.

I'm tremendously excited about joining Pixar whose work I've admired for years. Though they have received much attention for being on the cutting edge technically, they are at heart, like John Lasseter himself, great story-tellers. Their focus is on creating original stories and new characters. That's rare. I can't wait to be a part of it. --Brad Bird.
 

For a Chicken Run behind the scenes story from Dark Horyzons, just click here. Btw, the filming of the movie just finished two weeks ago.
 

And to know what's going on with Frankenstein, just click here for some tidbits from Ain't It Cool News.
 

The official site has released two more Final Fantasy short silent videos:
 

Video 1 (198 KB) Video 2 (84 KB)

QuickTime Help

Btw, the latest subtitle for The Recess Movie, due to February 16th, is School's Out.
 

The Road to El Dorado hasn't stayed in the top 10 of the Box Office for many weeks. Now at the #14th, it has grossed $47.7 million, and it will end up way behind of Antz and Prince of Egypt.

Toy Story 2 in the #27th, has grossed $244.5 million and it's still running!

The final total of Fantasia 2000's run in IMAX theaters is of 49.5 million. The movie will open in regular theaters on June 16th.
 

Finally, since there aren't many news about The Emperor's New Groove, here you have a b&w pic of some books, which is not much but is better than anything:

4/4/00

Max Howard has signed a first-look production deal with DreamWorks, where launching his new production company, Melwood Pictures, he will be developing both live-action and animated features. In taking on this new role, he will be stepping down from his producing chores on DreamWorks Pictures' upcoming animated release Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron.

Through this move, Jeffrey Katzenberg has helped me to fulfill a long held dream to run my own production company. To do so while staying within the DreamWorks family is truly the best of both worlds. With Spirit well into production -- and looking amazing, I must say -- the timing could not be better, and I am excited to start exploring new pathways in my career.
 
 

The Oscar winners were announced on March 26 in one of most boring cerimonies of its 72 editions. The role of animation in the cerimony was not important at all. Besides the cameo of the Toy Story 2 characters, we had two winners that concerned animation: Phill Collins' Oscar for the song You'll Be in My Heart from Tarzan; and in the shorts category, the winner was The Old Man and the Sea. As for the Special Effects, the winner was The Matrix.

But, the importance of feature animation could be altered in some years. A movement is underway to add a "Best Animation" category to the Academy Awards.

The injustice of having great animated features that are ignored by the Academy has led some artists to call for a new Academy Award honoring feature-length animation, despite objections from others who say it would diminish cartoon's standing against live-action fare.

There is a lot of interest in animated films. They're very popular, and there's a large selection out there. Why not give them their own division or category? asked Tom Sito, president of the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild, Local 839...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences periodically considers forming an animated feature category, but has declined because of a shortage of nominees...

You have to have more than that to play the game, Academy spokesman John Pavlik said. Otherwise, we'd be giving nominations to almost every animated feature that comes out.

For more information, check this article, and say what your opinion is at the poll.
 

Max is a very talented individual, and I expect great things from his new venture. I am looking forward to collaborating with him on future film projects he will be bringing to DreamWorks.--Jeffrey Katzenberg speaking of Max Howard.
 

Jodie Foster and Morgan Freeman have signed on to provide their voices for DreamWorks' CG animated feature, Tusker, directed by Tim Johnson and Brad Lewis, about a herd of elephants making a trek across Southeast Asia encountering poachers and other dangers. Foster will provide the voice of a young female elephant. Freeman will voice one of the elders of the herd. The tentative release date is Christmas 2002.
 

More details on Spirit: This promising film is the story of the westward movement as told through the eyes of an untamed mustang named Spirit (with James Baxter as its supervising animator). The film features photo-realistic horses set against panoramic vistas. As it seems, last week, Steven Spielberg checked it out and was doing backflips through the halls of his Amblin compound.
 

It looks that it will be very hard to produce the awaited sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. The problems seem to be that Spielverg and Disney can't get to an agreement (since Amblin and Disney share both 50% and 50% of the movie rights), and also the high estimate budget of the project. Click here for the article (very long btw), with all the info on why you shouldn't expect a Roger Rabbit secuel anytime soon.
 

The soundtrack for Dinosaur will be released on May 2, 2000, with James Newton Howard's score for the movie. In addition to that soundtrack, there is supposed to be an album coming out with eight Dinosaur-inspired songs.
 

The official sites for Final Fantasy and Chicken Run are out. Check www.finalfantasy.com, for the Final Fantasy site and www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=chickenrun for Chicken Run.
 

The Road to El Dorado opened 2nd at the Box Office with $12.8 million. That's behind Antz and Prince of Egypt's opening figures, but that's actually no surprise, with all the negative reviews and buzz that has been going one since before it was released.
Fantasia 2000, keeps doing very well at the Box Ofice, considering it is an IMAX release. Last weekend it grossed $1.25 million in the #14, what makes a total of $38.1 million to date.

The Tigger Movie, grossed $388,145 million in the #19th, what makes a total of $43.8 million to date.

Toy Story 2, the 23th at the Box Office with $256,719, has grossed a total of $243.0 million to date, what makes it the #16 in the all time blockbusters, above films like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Twister. In the foreign market it has done 214.3 millions, what makes a worldwide total of 457.3 millions.

Tarzan's foreign figures are 264.2 millions, with a worldwide total of 435.3 millions.

3/3/00

DreamWorks has officially announced their majority acquisition of Pacific Data Images. The new company will be called PDI/DreamWorks. In 1996, DreamWorks had acquired 40% of the digital animation shop in an exclusive pact to produce a series of animated feature films. From that agreement they produced Antz, released in 1998, and had started developing films like Shrek (to be released later this year) and Tusker. PDI will continue to operate as a stand-alone business unit of DreamWorks, and a second production facility, named PDI/DreamWorks South, to be managed and run by PDI, will open soon in Southern California.
 

Fox Animation Studios has layed two-thirds of 320 animators in Phoenix. There was an apparent confusion over the original numbers, which press worldwide stated as 100 people being laid off when, in fact, less than 100 people will remain. The studio said the layoffs aren't a sign that production of animated films will be cut back. Fox Animation president Chris Meledandri said Fox is likely to announce two new animated pictures going into pre-production in the near future. The Phoenix operation, started five years ago at a cost of $100 million and produced Anastasia, released in 1997. Florence Grace, a spokeswoman for Fox Animation parent 20th Century Fox, said the studio is the only traditional animation studio the company owns. We've kept the core creative team, and we plan to continue to produce animated films, she said. We are not closing the studio. We are restructuring our Phoenix production unit to be more streamlined, flexible and efficient. The cutbacks are a result of competitive pressures, and much of the production work will be contracted out to studios throughout the world. Grace said there was no problem with the company's major project in progress, Titan A.E., expected to be released this summer.
 

Let's mention two important deaths this last month. One is Peanuts Creator Charles Schulz, who passed away from a heart attack at the age of 77, just one day before his final Peanuts strip ran in Sunday newspapers. Peanuts was the most popular syndicated cartoon series ever. Schulz reach was so strong and wide that he won many prestigious awards like "International Cartoonist of the Year". In 1990 he was given one of the highest art awards in France by being dubbed "Commander of Arts and Letters".

Another lamentable death is Jim Varney's, who passed away at the age of 50, apparently due to lung cancer. He died shortly before dawn. Varney had recently provided his voice to Slinky Dog in Toy Story 2 and was also cast in the role of a cook named Cookie in Disney's upcoming Atlantis.
 

The Iron Giant has been recognized at the final Nebula ballot for "Best Dramatic Presentation". Nebulla awards are given out annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Though it's not a well-known award, it has a lot of prestige associated with it. Other film nominees in the script category are The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, The Devil's Arithmetick and The Uranus Experiment.
 

The Oscar nominees have been announced. Only one category contains nominees for an animated movie. You guessed, "best original song". When in previous years two were the categories where animated films could easyly be nominee, this year there's just one, so forget about animated movies' scores (not to mention all other categories, where animated features should be treated as live-action films). So, the three animated features nominees for "best original song" are:

Tarzan with "You'll be in My Heart"
Toy Story 2 with "When She Loved Me"
South Park with "Blame Canada"

This is all feature animation has to do in the Oscars. Even Los Angeles Times attacked the Academy Awards for ignoring two of the best films of 1999: The Iron Giant and Toy Story 2, in an article titled At Awards, Animation Gets the Brush-Off on February 13.

Although this site is about feature animation, let's also mention the nominees for short film:

Animated Humdrum
My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts
The Old Man and the Sea
3 Misses
When the Day Breaks

The winners will be announced on March 26, 2000.
 

At least Mark Mancina's score for Tarzan will have the chance of another album with 26 tracks of background music (around 40 minutes). Although this CD will be hard to find, it's great news considering that only four tracks of his work were included in the soundtrack, and the bad luck he had this year when the Academy had the idea of playing with and reinventing their categories and admission rules again.

Btw, the Tarzan soundtrack won the Grammy for "Best Soundtrack Album", and A Bug's Life for "Best Instrumental Composition".
 
 

Two of this year's animated movies have been recently rated PG by the MPAA. One is Disney's Dinosaur, the reason being its "intense images". The other is Dreamwork's The Road to El Dorado for its "mild thematic material and language". Titan A.E. is going to recieve a PG rating too, but let's not forget this rating paranoia is not going to make the movies more mature or adult themed, so we'll have to wait until they are released to know what they are like. Btw, El Dorado is being released by the end of this month, just in case you had forgotten about it. Will the official site (www.roadtoeldorado.com) get active before the movie comes out? As for Dinosaur's site, it is allready open (www.dinosaur-themovie.com or www.disneydinosaur.com), and it features a new trailer by now (so go check it out if you haven't), but nothing else than that yet.

With The Road to El Dorado being released on March 31, let's talk about its soundtrack, due to March 14. The album is more than the traditional soundtrack, it is a collection of songs almost wholly written for the film but entitled to stand on their own. Instead of just having the usual five songs on a soundtrack album and the rest of it being score, John explains, I said, 'Let's make an album out of this and include songs we wrote that didn't make the movie. He says of the project's evolution aside the film's development, The plot changes, the jokes change, the songs change scenes, but that's par for the course.

The Road To El Dorado features the original, full-length versions of the five songs John performs in the film: "El Dorado", "Without Question", "Friends Never Say Goodbye", "The Trail We Blaze" and "Someday Out Of The Blue", which features music co-written with Patrick Leonard, who produced the 11 Elton John songs on the record. These songs, in particular, propel the story of this classic buddy-movie adventure. Rounding out the record are the Elton John and Randy Newman duet "It's Tough To Be A God" (sung onscreen by Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh); "16th Century Man", "Trust Me" and "Queen Of Cities" (all written for but not included in the film); and "The Panic In Me" and "My Heart Dances" (written specifically for the album).

Elton John's The Road To El Dorado also presents excerpts from the score to the movie: "Cheldorado" and "The Brig", both composed by Zimmer, and "Wonders Of The New World", composed by John Powell. Zimmer and Gavin Greenaway produced the film's score. It's a shame only these tracks of the score have been included. Although the songs are very important, it seems as if the scores were lately ignored. Anyway, besides these two tracks of the score, the album also features Zimmer's first songwriting collaboration with John; the two co-wrote the music for "The Panic In Me". John says of his creative partnership with Rice and Zimmer: Tim likes what I do with the melody, I like what Tim does with the lyric, and we love what Hans does. So it's not a really complicated thing, primarily because we have so much respect for each other. Rice, sole lyricist on the project, concurs: Hans is one of the great film composers. And Elton, of course, is a legend in every way. So I feel quite privileged. Remarked DreamWorks Records executive Michael Ostin of the album: It's so great to be part of a musical event like this. I still can't believe I'm working with Elton John, Tim Rice and Hans Zimmer. These guys are at their creative peaks, and we're really lucky to be able to bring their combined talents to so many people with this amazing record.

Track list:
 

1. El Dorado 2. Someday Out Of The Blue (Theme From El Dorado) 3. Without Question 4. Friends Never Say Goodbye 5. Trail We Blaze 6. 16th Century Man 7. The Panic In Me

8. It's Tough To Be A God (with Randy Newman) 9. Trust Me 10. My Heart Dances 11. Queen Of Cities 12. Cheldorado 13. The Brig 14. Wonders Of The New World

Click here to order the album.
 

Now, these are the posters for Dinosaur and Osmosis Jones:

The Tigger Movie opened 4th at the Box Office with $9.4 million its first weekend. This last weekend was at 6th, and had grossed a total of $30.6 million to date.
Fantasia 2000 is at the #14, with a total of $26.7 million.
Toy Story 2, 21st at the Box Office, has reached the $240 million mark with $240.6, what makes it the #18 in the all time blockbusters, and will probably end up being the #16, grossing over Twister and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Pokemon final grossing is of $85.8 million.

2/2/00

Maybe the most important stuff of the update are the character designs for Atlantis:

The one on the left is Milo Thatcher. I don't know who the rest are, but the next could be Captain Rourke, then Helga (or is Helga an Atlantis princess?), no suggestion for the old man (maybe the cook?), and the last one probably is Dr. Joshua Sweets. But I'm only sure about Milo. Click on the picture to see the larger version.
 

Just before somebody else wonders if these posters are fake, I must tell you there has been a lot of discussion for that. These won't be theatrically released posters. As it seems, they were done by the Disney crew at free time, but that's all. These were not intended to be shown at public. Click on the images for the larger versions.

Here, on the left you have the poster for The Road to El Dorado, which is comming next month. The official site for the movie should be active soon. And below, you have a promotion for this summer's Titan A.E.

Now, this was found at The Disney Annual Report at the Disney official Site, with Kingdom in the Sun and Dinosaur, the two Disney animated movies for this year:

I'm sad for those who frequent the forum because you saw these images allready when they appeared, but anyway, that's better than having to wait a month..
 

Now, let's talk about awards. Toy Story 2 got the Golden Globe for Best Movie - Comedy, and Tarzan won for Best Song (You'll Be in My Heart).

Eric Lurio sent me the ten semifinalists for the best animated short film at the Oscars. They are: Aardman Animations' Peter Peaks' Humdrum; Steve "Oscar" Moore's The Indescribable NTH and The Phox, the Box and the Lox; MONSIEUR PETT (don't know the name of the author); Torril Cove's My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts; Alexander Petrov's The Old Man and the Sea; Orly Yadin and Sylvie Bringas' Holocaust drama, Silence; Paul Driessen's 3 Misses; Eugene Federinko and Rose Newlove's Village of Idiots; and Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' When the Day Breaks.
 

The sad news for this month have been the death of Marc Frasier Davis, one of the "Nine Old Men" of Disney, who passed away on Wednesday January 12 evening at Glendale Memorial Hospital after a brief illness, at the age of 86. Davis animated such important characters as Snow White, Tinker Bell, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent and Cruella de Vil, among others. Besides working on such classic animated features, Davis also helped to create and design the Pirates of Caribbean and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland.
 

It began life as a pretentious non-spoofy kind of movie about the Inca civilisation, the Andes and all of the folklore about Sun Gods. It was really, really boring. --Roy Disney refering to Kingdom in the Sun.
 

Actually, Kingdom in the Sun is not the current title for the movie once called Children of the Sun, then known as Kingdom of the Sun, and lately Kingdom in the Sun. The movie has been renamed again, and the new title is... The Emperor's New Groove. Surprising, but true. Read all about here.
 

From Moviefan Online, here you have some pics from the opening of Dinosaur seen in front of Toy Story 2. Click on the thumbnails to see the larger version.
 

Fantasia 2000's opening weekend was of $2.2 million, a very high figure for an IMAX. With that figure and being showed on 54 screens gave Fantasia 2000 a #12th finish in its opening weekend. So, the movie holds the record for the biggest opening of any IMAX film.

Toy Story 2 keeps grossing, now with 234,736,050, making it the 20th biggest blockbuster of all time (by now).

1/1/00

12/12/99

The composers are obiously frustrated that their work has no avenue for Oscar recognition.

I truly am extremely hurt, said Mark Mancina, composer of the Tarzan score, I was hoping to get a nomination. It would have been good for me. To know that people can't even consider it is frustrating.

The number of music categories, which have fluctuated over the years, was upped to three in 1995 with the creation of the ''song score'' classification, following three Oscars wins in the early '90s by composer Alan Menken for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Many felt Menken was being judged on the basis of the catchy songs from the movies rather than on the scores, giving him an unfair advantage over the straight dramatic scores his work was competing against.

The real problem is we're living in a world that doesn't have enough place for a musical, said Marc Shaiman, who composed the score for South Park with five original songs he co-wrote with cartoon co-creator Trey Parker. It's a shame that now that musicals have come back by way of animated movies, they haven't figured out a way for them to be honored and not be in competition with standard scores.

Tarzan and South Park were submitted for consideration under this "best original song score" category, but that category was eliminated this year because Tarzan and South Park were the only entries.

The two scores then were resubmitted under the broader category for "best original score" but were deemed ineligible under that classification.

Each body of music belongs in a particular place, academy awards coordinator Patrick Stockstill said. That particular place does not have enough entries for its own category. That does not mean [the scores] should automatically be redistributed to another category.'

Mancina said the ineligibility of the Tarzan score was particularly unfair because all the music, including the Collins-penned songs, served as background to what essentially was an animated drama.

What's funny is that Randy Newman's music for Toy Story 2, which featured two original songs (one of them sung by the character Jesse the cowgirl) were accepted under the original