Disney's Slate (Part I)

Bolt - November 26th, 2008


Bolt has got a lot of people in The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) on the edge of their seats for several very good reasons. This is the first theatrical release from Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) in which John Lasseter will stretch his wings as Chief Creative Officer. After John and other WDAS and Pixar directors were shown rough cuts of the working film they made several suggestions to the director Chris Sanders (of Lilo and Stitch fame) and when he wouldn't comply with the suggestions he was replaced by Chris Williams and Byron Howard. John Lasseter notes "Chris Sanders is extremely talented, but he couldn’t take it to the place it had to be."

This film has created new advances in non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) that has enabled animators to give the 3-D backgrounds a hand painted look (specifically based off the work of Edward Hopper). There are between three and fifteen patents pending for the new advances in the NPR technology WDAS created for use on Bolt. Sounds kind of like Walt and the invention of the multi-plane camera.... Could it be that WDAS is becoming an innovator again? We'll wait until the box office dictates how successful these new forays are - then we'll see how much The Mouse will let its animators innovate.

Disney's been opening pretty well with its less inventive films, take Chicken Little for example. At $40.1 million, it was the second largest opening in Disney [not Disney-Pixar] produced movies only to The Lion King's opening at $40.9 million. However, as opening weekend passed and the poor reviews came in, it quickly became apparent that Chicken Little had very little to stand on. Chicken Little made $313.9 million worldwide whereas The Lion King would go on to make $783.8 million.

I think Bolt will do well enough in theaters, as Disney's main audience of children and families is always a fairly dependable chunk of income, but teenage/college/older Disney fans still haven't been given a driving reason to go see this film. They've been burned before by the bad sequels and unimpressive low-grade animation pieces (Home on the Range? Kronk's New Groove?), and I think it's going to take something more to reclaim the audience that expects more from Disney's animated legacy.

Ignorant, Misogynistic Morons

The Bush administration is attempting to re-draft a regulation defining abortion as:

“...any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents providers, said, “The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that it would cover many types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception.”

“We worry that under the proposal, contraceptive services would become less available to low-income and uninsured women,” Ms. Gallagher said.

Indeed, among other things the proposal expresses concern about state laws that require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims who request it.

Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said, “Why on earth is the Bush administration trying to discourage doctors and clinics from providing contraception to women who need it?” - The New York Times

Why don't they just outlaw condoms and call male masturbation attempted abortion? Does that not also result in the 'termination of the life of a human being before implantation' if we're really going to push the limits here?

Holy hell, I cannot wait until these people get out of their cruel joke of a position of power and can get back to sticking their heads in the ground.

I'll Bite...

The Dark Knight Updates

In three days The Dark Knight broke ten records:

1. Biggest Opening Weekend Profit - $155,000
2. Biggest Single Day Profit - $68 Million
3. Biggest Opening of 2008
4. Biggest July Movie Opening
5. Most Advanced Tickets Sold
6. Widest Release - 4,366 Theaters
7. Biggest Midnight Screening - $18.5 Million
8. Biggest IMAX Midnight Screening - $650,000
9. Biggest IMAX Opening Weekend Profit - $6 Million
10. Biggest Opening for PG13

And it's still going strong... I went to see it again [I saw it for the first time at 12:01 at the Dowtown Disney AMC] in the new IMAX at the GardenWalk last night and the theater was full.
[And then Christian Bale goes and pulls a stunt like this? At this moment, you are the biggest star in the world, everyone is watching you... What the hell are you doing?]

It's Simple... Kill the Bat-Man.

The Dark Knight is destroying the box office... The film made $18 million from the 12:01 showings last Thursday night alone. This is going to be one hell of a weekend for Warner Brothers and super hero/comic book movies.

Moving On

The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught. -The Marquis de Vauvenargues

Only the Good Die Young

I came home from a phenomenal tour today with Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Marketing (all branches therein) and had planned to write so much about it and where my career might go, and as I logged on to the internet and did the usual Chapman/Disney/Facebook check my heart dropped...

Marc Russell died today in a motorcycle accident.

Marc was one of the first boys I 'dated.' (If you could really call it that back in middle school where a boy asked you if you liked him, you said yes and then ignored him for a week...) He sat next to me in math and generously helped me lower my grade.

One of my dearest friends, Brett Mackenzie, was one of Marc's closest friends in middle school. The two of them together was just one ridiculous, offensive thing after the next. They planned for weeks to be Marc and Tom from Blink 182 for Halloween and discussed with me, at liberty, the merits of one fake lip ring over the next.

WALL-E Updates

From the LA Times Entertainment section,

"Pixar's new film, "Wall-E," is not only strikingly original, but dare I say it, artistically daring--and yet here it is, in the middle of a sequel-laden summer, earning rave reviews and making $62.5 million in its opening weekend, the third best Pixar opening ever. The critics have been rapturous. (See here and here and here.) In fact, for all the talk that critics are out of touch with mainstream moviegoers, critics and audiences are in agreement on one key thing: Nobody makes better movies than Pixar." - Full article here.

Ain't that the truth.

John Lasseter
Academy Award - Special Achievement
(1st Feature Length Computer Animation): Toy Story, 1996
Golden Globe - Best Picture, Musical/Comedy: Toy Story 2, 2000
Golden Globe - Best Animated Feature: Cars, 2007

Andrew Stanton
Academy Award - Best Animated Feature: Finding Nemo, 2004
Director of WALL-E, In Theaters Now!

Brad Bird
Academy Award - Best Animated Feature: The Incredibles, 2004
Academy Award - Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille, 2008

Sean, Graeme -- You're the toughest critics I know, I'd love to hear what you thought about WALL-E.