Pac-Man vs. Super Mario Bros

You'll never guess who wins:

Shrek Forever After Trailer

Can be seen here at IMDb and here at Apple Trailers. And they are emphasizing that this is the "final chapter."

Roy Disney, Nephew of Walt Disney, Dies

Sad news at ABC.com.

UP lives on

One might think that we only cover The Princess and the Frog here but we also cover that other animated movie, UP. Here's some YouTube videos showing Jordan Nagai (he even had a part on The Simpsons a couple nights ago; I think he played Bart's briefly adopted younger brother), Ed Asner, and Pete Docter being interviewed about their involvement in the film:

Watch Prep & Landing

Available until the end of 2009:

The Princess and the Frog Lightning Review

I saw The Princess and the Frog over three weeks ago and have been mulling in my head what to say about it. The truth of the matter is I don't know what to say about it, or at least I haven't formed anything into some grand thesis. So what I am going to do is give myself twenty minutes to write about it and we'll see what happens.



The setting: This isn't the first Disney animated classic set in America but I believe it's the first "princess-based" one and New Orleans works well. What other American city has so much character? Of course, it was already a very Disney-ish city to begin with.



The characters: Okay, we know everyone is going to love Louis. I think they love him already and many people haven't seen the movie yet. And I thought Ray was going to be a one-note comic relief character but I was wrong. He has some pathos too and when he sings his "sad song" you wonder if maybe he is crazy then you realize you don't really care because he ain't harming nobody and then you start empathizing with him. I kept wondering when Mama Odie was going to show up but it's near the end. I think she lives in the same bayou shack as Tia Dalma from the last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies and Jenifer Lewis does a great job delivering her lines. I especially love her line about the "special candy." And then her Homer Simpson move right after that. Dr. Facilier is like a cross between Jafar and that voodoo guy with the deep laugh from The Spy Who Loved Me. I love what they do with Facilier's shadow. Kind of like Peter Pan but a little different.





The music: I think the music is decent but I think if Alan Menken had been kept on board he could've hit a home run out of the park with the music. I don't think Randy Newman is used to writing music for singing characters and I think that made the musical numbers lack a little punch. Now I wonder what would've happened if Newman and Menken had worked on the project together.





The visuals: If you like hand-drawn animation (and I sure hope you do) then you will want to see this. This film has superb production values and represents in 2009 the fact that hand-drawn animation is not a forgotten pastime. And the people at Disneyland were all revved up for the special Princess and the Frog musical show they put on on the Mark Twain Steamboat when I stopped by yesterday. I am hoping this will be a big hit. The rather blase audience I saw it with may have me made feel blase about it too so I am hoping to see it with a more excited crowd sometime. And I saw some possible cameos on first viewing so my second viewing may reveal if I was seeing things or not.

Friends on the Other Side

I don't know why the quality is so bad but here's a new clip from The Princess and the Frog.

And another new one posted today of Andreas Deja's character, Mama Odie:

Other clips can be found on the dedicated Yahoo! Movies page.

UP Score Free Download

A faithful reader has pointed out to me that the score for Disney•Pixar's UP can be downloaded for free for a limited time at this link. The code to enter is: latimesdisney.

The Princess and the Frog Snapshots

Here are some stills from Disney's upcoming The Princess and the Frog. Click on each one for a much better quality larger image:

















Oh, and here's the Geico commercial:

Retro UP Posters

Check out these cool new posters for the home video release of Pixar's UP at OCWeekly.com. Here's one of the eight:

Guard those pic-a-nic baskets, a Yogi movie is coming

Was about to shut the computer off and hit the hay when my Twitter feed informed me that Dan Aykroyd is likely to be voicing Yogi Bear in an upcoming live-action/animated feature (link at Yahoo! News). Okay, I can kind of see Dan voicing Yogi but why in the world would anyone think of having Justin Timberlake voice of Boo Boo? Sounds like a big boo boo to me but, hey, it could work. The other interesting thing about this article is that it mentions a third Ghostbusters film.

Zorro!

Over at o-meon Chuck Oberleitner reviews Wave 9 of the Walt Disney Treasures series which is an unusual wave for several reasons:

• There's no animation in it
• The tins this time are black (they are usually silver, although the Oswald one was gold)
• Both sets are of the same TV series (Zorro)
• Each set has six discs rather than the usual two

Here's to hoping that the packaging has returned to the same high quality as the first couple of waves rather than the later ones where everything falls apart as soon as you get it.

Henry Selick Interview

I was recently contacted by Focus Features asking if I'd like to do a phone interview with Henry Selick regarding his latest film, Coraline, and here it is:

CZ: Hopefully my questions are different enough from what others are asking.

HS: That's okay. I try to answer differently each time.

CZ: Just wanted to start off by saying that I was at the screening last year when you showed the first 30 minutes of Coraline.

HS: I'm interested in your thoughts on that compared with the final version.

CZ: Well, if I can remember correctly I don't think I saw the bit with the Ranft brothers until I saw the final version. Was that missing in that first cut then added in later?

HS: Yes, and there was a segment in that initial cut that we liked that we unfortunately had to cut where Coraline comes into the kitchen and inadvertently flicks a bug into her mom's drink and the mom doesn't notice and the bug crawls out drunkenly. We didn't have anything against the scene but had to begrudgingly remove it so that Coraline would encounter the Other World more quickly.

CZ: Oh, okay, so the part with Joe and Jerome Ranft as the Ranft Bros. Moving Company was added in later. How did you get the idea to add that in?

HS: They actually had their own moving company when they were in their late teens and early twenties. Being the big guys they are their friends and family would always call on them first for moving help so they put "Ranft Bros. Moving Company" on some t-shirts and would trade their services for food, pizza, beer, etc. And of course it was nice to have an homage to Joe. But, yes, they actually did have a moving company, so to speak, in real life.

CZ: How does creating a stop-motion film today differ from back when you directed The Nightmare Before Christmas? Anything easier or harder?

HS: Well, on every movie we make we try to top ourselves so there is always something difficult about the process.

CZ: What components of the graphic novel were the most important to include in the film?

HS: I actually never saw the graphic novel. Neil showed me a few pages of his work before he actually got it approved. Every prospective publisher kept turning it down for being too dark but we were able to develop a script based on what we got from him before his graphic novel was published.

CZ: Is it true Coraline was originally planned as a musical?

HS: No, but we did have They Might Be Giants demo a number of songs, all of which turned out great but no matter how hard we tried it didn't seem like we could work them into the film without shoehorning them in.

CZ: The character Wybie Lovat isn't in Neil Gaiman's original Coraline novel. What inspired you to create the character?

HS: He started out as a development note to add more kids to the movie. I didn't want to add more kids but as we developed the film I saw it was fine to work one kid in so that Coraline would have a human ally in the Other World, especially since the cat doesn't speak much. And then we were able to bring in the bit about Wybie's grandmother.

CZ: All of the stop-motion films you’ve directed could be considered darker family films. What draws you to that type of material?

HS: If you look at the early Disney films such as Snow White they were also dark with lots of disturbing moments. I mean the queen wants to kill Snow White and sends a hunter after her to bring her heart back. I like a good, dark fairy tale but I put them in a more modern setting. Anyway, I think kids deserve a good ghost story...

CZ: It seems a lot of people think Tim Burton directed Nightmare Before Christmas. When Coraline was advertised as being, "From the director of Nightmare," some people assumed Burton directed it as well. What are your thoughts on that?

HS: Well, that's just coming from people who are lazy and don't pay attention to the credits when they start rolling to see the name of the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Tim Burton is a genius and he created an amazing world but he was down in Los Angeles working on two live-action films while we were up in San Francisco creating Nightmare. But Coraline has received a lot of attention and has done good things for us.

CZ: What are your current plans?

HS: I've got a new stop-motion film I am working on. Oddly enough stop-motion is in more demand than ever. Laika's keeping busy. Aardman's keeping busy.

---

Thanks to Henry and the people at Focus, including Yannina and Tara, for facilitating this interview. Also check out the prior interview I did with Henry about Moongirl at Animated News and Views. Coraline is available from Focus Features/Laika Entertainment in several DVD packages including 3D Blu-Ray:

How to Train Your Dragon Trailer

Rapunzel Concept Art

Walt Disney Animation Studios just posted two concept art pieces from next year's Rapunzel in a special Facebook photo album. Here they are in smaller form:

Princess and the Frog Soundtrack

A faithful reader has informed me that the Princess and the Frog soundtrack is available to preview at this link.

And you can hear Ne-Yo's "Never Knew I Needed" from the movie here:

Theater Standees

Here's a couple standees I saw when I went the other night to see Toy Story in 3D:

By the way, the 3D Toy Story was a great experience. It had been a long time since I'd seen it so it was fun getting reacquainted with it again and I liked the bit they showed before the first movie started and all the fun stuff during the intermission. They could probably make a new "Art of" book just from that new material. Here's a couple pictures:

When I was getting my ticket at the box office I asked if I could come back to see Toy Story 2 since I knew I wasn't going to have time to see both and they said that was okay so I'm hoping they make good on their word when I try to go back in a few days to catch the second act.

Toy Story 3 Trailer

Yahoo! Movies has just premiered the (first?) official trailer for Toy Story 3:

Other viewing options are available at the Apple - Trailers page. I'm pretty sure the music near the end is taken right from The Mask of Zorro, which I don't mind since I own that soundtrack and have listened to it a lot.

Pups of Liberty

My animation friends Bert and Jen Klein have completed a film recently called Pups of Liberty. It will be showing soon at the Austin Film Festival and here is the trailer:

Featuring a purebred "pedigree" of animation and voice talent names such as Hyun-min Lee, Paul Willson, Philip Proctor, Steve Morrell, James Lopez, Mark Henn, Eric Goldberg, Barry Atkinson, Tony DeRosa, and Frans Vischer (check the Crew page to see this roster's extensive credits, many of whom worked on Disney's upcoming The Princess and the Frog) tells a canine version of the events leading up to the American Revolution.

While we're at it here's another Picnic Productions film, The Chestnut Tree:

On Stranger Tides

When I wrote for Animated News we had a policy that even though it wasn't an animated film that news about the Pirates of the Caribbean film series was fair game to be covered. I'll continue that policy here at this little blog.

Word has just got out that the fourth Pirates film will be subtitled On Stranger Tides. This news was announced at the D23 Expo going on in Anaheim and they even showed a title treatment. Ironically I found this out just a couple hours after riding the attraction at Disneyland with a friend and talking with her about what the fourth film might be like. Some people are wondering if it might be the start of a new trilogy. Honestly, I am looking forward to seeing it but I am kind of hoping for it to exist as its own (mostly) separate, independent movie and to be the last film in the series, period. They should treat it as though it was the only Pirates movie ever made and as though everything rode on it, almost ignoring the prior three films but leaving some story threads that tie into the other movies for those keeping up on continuity.

I didn't despise parts 2 and 3 like some people did. I felt they were immensely imaginative but they still don't grip like the first one does, which felt like it captured lightning in a bottle. Part 4 could redeem all that and wrap things up great without people feeling the weight of another trilogy coming. Here's hoping...

Song of the South Animation

Disney's animated classic Song of the South may not be coming to DVD or Blu-Ray anytime soon (although I hope I'm wrong) but at least the animated segments are available on YouTube and I've collected them all here. Contrary to popular opinion there is nothing racist about this movie. It does not portray Uncle Remus as a black man happy to be a slave simply because he's not even a slave due to the fact that the movie is set just after the Civil War ended and the slaves had been emancipated. In 2006 I interviewed an animator (Art Stevens) who had worked on the film in the early 1940's and asked him about the accusations of racism that have been levied against the movie and from the sincerity of his answers I am thoroughly satisfied that there was no racist motivation behind the production of this film.

People have often said that the live action part of the movie is on the boring side and that the only good part is the animation. That may be right but I'll withhold final judgment since the animation is so good that I've never given the live action bits much attention. But I think we need a reminder of these great bits because we have a generation growing up now who doesn't know that the Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland is based on an actual movie.

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah/Dollar a Minute

Here's the famous Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah song. I remember watching this in the theater as a small child and my parents telling me that Uncle Remus was about to enter a cartoon world:

How Do You Do?/The Tar Baby

On this next sequence look at how well it reads when Uncle Remus lights Br'er Frog's pipe:

The Briar Patch

"Born and raised in the briar patch!:"

Everybody Has a Laughing Place

Everybody has a laughing place, except Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear still haven't found theirs:



Not only is the animation great but so are the songs and the voice work. This last little bit is not known as being one of the animation segments in the movie but it still shows some fun live-action/animation interaction:



A good site for info on Song of the South is SongoftheSouth.net, run by Christian Willis.

Lego Animation

8 Bit Trip @ Yahoo! Video

The food and animation worlds meet

I have a number of interests in life but the two I tend to end up writing about more than others are food and animation. Every once in a while those two worlds overlap for me. I just saw Julie and Julia earlier today and I actually noticed a couple parallels to Ratatouille. Obviously there was all the French cooking and there was also the theme of a relative outcast trying to work their way into the establishment but there was also the theme of the up-and-coming chef receiving spiritual guidance from the famous chef.


When I got back I googled "ratatouille julie and julia" and the first search result was about "ratatouille" the dish, not "Ratatouille" the movie, but the next result was about the movie and was a Yahoo! Finance article giving the results of a Julie and Julia-inspired poll sponsored by Blockbuster where they asked respondents to name their "Favorite On-Screen Chef" and it turns out that Remy from Ratatouille was the clear winner. So, let's hear it for food and animation!

Click here (then scroll down a ways) for pictures of when I went to a Ratatouille event that had some real good artisan foods.

I'm No Fool

Just found these old educational videos hosted by Jiminy Cricket that they used to play at my elementary school. Good stuff and I always wanted my own chalkboard drawings to be able to come to life.



I love when Jiminy says, "I wanna live to be . . . 33!"

Donald In Mathmagic Land

Purely by accident I just found out that the awesome Donald In Mathmagic Land will be out on DVD on August 18.

"A curious Donald Duck ventures into a mystical world of fantasy. Mathmagic Land is his destination -- a wondrous land of discovery where trees have square roots and rivers are brimming with numbers! During his lively journey, Donald discovers that you can have mirth with math, fun with fractions, and laughs with logic in this fascinating and timeless milestone in Disney's animation legacy."

Here's a clip from it:

The Secret Millionaire's Club

This is a long video but the animated part is at the beginning. Warren Buffett, "the most famous investor of all time," is now starring in his own animated series called The Secret Millionaire's Club. I don't have a financially-oriented brain and I don't bid every year on the chance to have lunch with Mr. Buffett but I do read some of his financial and investing advice from time to time and it all seems quite sound. If he can help the kids of 2009 learn sound money management principles then that is a good thing.

Rats!

It's a heavy news day when we have three stories here. Variety and Yahoo! Movies are reporting that a new version of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH will be made by Paramount, almost three decades after Don Bluth and MGM made a film version called The Secret of NIMH. "The new NIMH likely will combine live action and animation in the manner of Alvin and the Chipmunks and other kiddie hybrids."

Lorax film coming

Just found out that a CGI adaptation of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax will be made Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment (see story at Variety). After the fiascos of the live action versions of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat and the general improvement that was the CGI feature length adaptation of Horton Hears a Who what I'd really like to see is How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat done in CGI but as TV specials with the same storylines as the original specials. Of course, they should also do The Sneetches like that too and Green Eggs and Ham. Yes, The Sneetches has already been done in live action, sort of . . . :

Green Lantern: First DVD

Just picked up the Green Lantern: First Flight DVD and am starting to watch it.



It looks like it'll be pretty good but for some reason they really messed up the character design of Abin Sur. In all his incarnations Abin Sur always looked basically the same, a Yul Brynner-esque humanoid with pink-lavender skin, but on this one he has a highly stylized alien head. My only consolation is that Abin Sur will look correct in the upcoming live action feature film.



Some other minor quibbles as I watch this:

• Everyone's character design seems slightly off; they seem to be using the slightly-too-angular look of the last decade rather than the more rounded look from the Silver Age that they should've used
• Is it just me or does Sinestro's skin color keep changing?
• Ch'p is portrayed as a nervous wimp; I'm sorry but Ch'p from the comic books would never cower before Sinestro
• I'm not too familiar with the Boodikka character but I don't think she ever went bad in the comic books

The Beatles: Rock Band

Here's two commercials for the Beatles: Rock Band video game coming out soon:

Somebody's Pixar Tribute

Watch this:



Then this:



And then this:



And finally this one:



The last one might be the best one because it has Panchito in it and Panchito pretty much trumps everything.

Bart Interviews Edna

Animation World Network has an interview up with Nancy Cartwright interviewing her longtime animation friend Brad Bird. That's pretty much like Bart Simpson interviewing Edna Mode.

Remy at Epcot

Rapunzel ramping up

This just in from Disney animator Clay Kaytis' (lead on Rhino from Bolt) Twitter feed:

Disney is hiring cg animators for Rapunzel. We want to see your reels! http://bit.ly/eRzc3

Good to hear this project is still alive and it'll be fun following it. And if you're an up and coming animator then send your reel in.

President Obama added to Hall of Presidents

It's Independence Day today (in America anyway) and I actually had somebody e-mail me some news that's perfect for the occasion. Now, this might not be animation whose imagery has been hand-drawn or created on a computer but it is animation nonetheless. These videos show that our current President, Barack Obama, is being added, in audio-animatronic form, to the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL.





Interesting that one of these videos comes from the White House YouTube channel and one comes from the Orlando Attractions YouTube channel.

In related news, the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction is slated to re-open at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on December 17th this year after having been closed down for about four to five years.

The Princess and the Frog AWNtv Featurette

Animation World Network has a featurette up now about Disney's The Princess and the Frog. The thing I like about it (or one thing I like about it) is that it shows that even though John Lasseter created CGI films at Pixar that in no way meant that he didn't like hand-drawn animation.

UPDATE: Here's some other featurettes from the Disney Channel:

Little Mermaid Ride

Stopped by Disneyland today briefly (basically just for lunch) and saw this announcement for the Little Mermaid ride that is coming to California Adventure in 2011:



This entry of mine at Animated News shows screen shots from the virtual ride-through that appeared on the Little Mermaid DVD that came out in 2006. At the time the DVD came out there were no plans anymore to actually build the ride but sometime later they decided to go through with it. I'm sure it's all because I said in my Animated News article, "I'm casting my vote for the ride to still be made sometime," . . . yeah, right; but it's nice to know that the once scrapped plans for it have been given new life.

UPDATE: Actually, I just found this YouTube video that shows the virtual ride-through:



And for extra kicks here's a video somebody made that I guess is their own take on what a Little Mermaid ride should look like:

Kites Clip

Here's a clip of a short film made by the students of BYU's animation department:



Read full story here. Also, click here to see another award-winning BYU short, Pajama Gladiator. Apparently several prior BYU student animators joined Pixar and helped on UP.

Round "UP" UPdated

I hope everyone got to see Disney•Pixar's UP today or that you'll get to soon. Here's links to a couple new articles/reviews about it:

1. Disney Insider: Main Attraction ("Up, Up, and Away with Director
   Pete Docter")
2. Chuck Oberleitner's Review at o-meon
3. The Orange County Register
4. How Pixar's Up House Could Really Fly (from Wired)
5. Lou Romano: Art of Up
6. 'Up' flies high at weekend box office
7. Well-Rounded Boy, Meet Old Square
8. Pixar has found its lucky charm in John Ratzenberger
9. The Korean Face of Pixar's Latest Star
10. Easter Eggs in Pixar's Up
11. 'UP' with Dogs - The Reporter
12. Pixar grants girl's dying wish (OC Register)
13. Readers worldwide respond to Pixar's granting dying girl's wish
14. Mastering the Art of Vocals
15. Man takes cue from 'UP,' floats across English Channel

Here's some links to stories about talking dog collars (real ones) that probably inspired the ones used in UP:

16. Bowlingual Info
17. BowLingual on Wikipedia
18. What's Fido saying? 'Bowlingual' will translate
19. Japan goes barking mad for dog toy
20. Tech lite: At home with Bowlingual, the dog bark analyzer

John Carter of Utah?

From the Animation Flash newsletter:

STANTON'S JOHN CARTER OF MARS STARTS FILMING IN NOVEMBER.
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE is reporting that Disney/Pixar's first live-action
feature will begin filming in Utah in November. Andrew Stanton's
adaptation of JOHN CARTER OF MARS is a project that has been developed
and shelved in Hollywood for decades. Previous filmmakers who have tried
to bring the story to the screen include Bob Clampett, Ray Harryhausen,
John McTiernan, Jon Favreau, Robert Rodriguez and SKY CAPTAIN helmer
Kerry Conran.

Like STAR TREK, JOHN CARTER will utilize Utah's unique terrains for its Mars locations. Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs' sci-fi series, the story finds an American Civil War vet transported to Mars where he encounters strange adventures.

Monsters, Inc. 2: Electric Boo-Galoo

Slashfilm has broken the news that Pixar is planning a sequel to Monsters, Inc. Click the link for more info; not a lot more, but a little more. I wonder what the storyline could be? On a side note, I like that when Pete Docter pronounces the name of his film he actually says "Incorporated" rather than "Ink." I told him one time that I liked that he said the whole thing rather than the shortened version like everyone else does and he said, "I'm just glad when people call it anything rather than forgetting about it."

Disneyland Quick Stop

Made a quick stop by Disneyland earlier today (in and out of the parking lot in exactly an hour and forty-five minutes). In the big courtyard area between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure they had Carl's house from UP:

And in the animation building at DCA they had a three dimensional poster from The Princess and the Frog:

Click here to see the whole photo album on flickr including more of these same two pictures from different angles or here for the complete photo album from my quick trip.

UPDATE: Here's a video somebody made of the inflatable UP house:

Walt Stanchfield's "Drawn To Life" Event

ASIFA Hollywood and Woodbury Universitys School of Media, Culture and Design invite you to a special book signing of...



Walt Stanchfields Drawn to Life
20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 7:00 p.m.
Fletcher Jones Foundation Auditorium
Woodbury University
7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA

Join Don Hahn and a panel of distinguished guests for a discussion Walt Stanchfields Drawn to Life series

Drawn to Life is a two volume collection of the legendary lectures from long-time Disney animator Walt Stanchfield. Edited by Don Hahn, all of Walt Stanchfields handout notes and lectures have been assembled into a two volume collection titled, Drawn to Life - 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes. Walt was an animator, trainer, mentor and coach for decades at Disney and helped breathe life into the new golden age of animation with his teachings. He influenced such talented artists as Tim Burton, Brad Bird, John Musker, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja and John Lasseter.

Following the panel discussion, Don Hahn will sign copies of Drawn to Life. A limited number of copies of this two volume collection will be available for purchase at the event.

Reservations are not required for this program. Admission is free. Parking is free and available on the Woodbury University campus.

Astro Boy Theatrical Trailer

Toy Story 3 Teaser

Official Site

DreamWorks Animation revs it up

Is there room for the Kaboom of Doom?

This article from Variety is loaded with info about upcoming DreamWorks Animation projects such as the new Shrek movie (formerly titled Shrek Goes Fourth but now titled Shrek Forever After), the long-rumored Puss In Boots spinoff, a Kung Fu Panda sequel called Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom, a third Madagascar film, a new Chris Sanders film called The Croods (formerly titled Crood Awakening), and more. The plan is to have roughly one sequel and one new movie released each year, but some years may even see three films. Wow, they've got a lot of stuff planned. Oh, and every one of these films will be produced with 3D theatrical screenings in mind.

The Up Blimp

Just found this on The Orange County Register ScienceDude blog:



It doesn't mention anything about promoting the new movie UP but that's clearly what it's doing. The best view of this comes near the end.

UP at the El Cap

Got to see a screening of Disney•Pixar's UP tonight at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. I think people are going to love this movie. As of now it even has a 100% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. A couple parts at the beginning reminded me heavily of Raising Arizona and there was an outright reference to a famous painting and an outright reference to Star Wars.

The adjacent Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store was themed for UP so I took pictures of everything I could. The theatre itself is still themed for the DisneyNature Earth film.

UP was directed by Pete Docter who previously directed Monsters, Inc. Pete always reminded me of my cousin Adam and even has a Shag-designed shirt that is exactly the same as one I have. And Pete and I were the last couple people with any sort of Disney connection to visit Art Stevens who worked on many Disney films from 1940 until about 1981.

I'm wondering if they'll make an UP ride at a Disney park. Maybe guests can get in a house that floats (or seemingly floats) around by balloon power and travel to Paradise Falls in South America. Come to think of it, that's pretty similar to Soarin' Over California at Disney's California Adventure.

One cool thing about UP is that it was dedicated to Joe Grant (and three others). Joe Grant was a longtime Disney story artist who started in 1937 and worked on many of the classic animated features. I was honored to be able to attend Joe's funeral at Forest Lawn even though I never got a chance to meet him in person. I also went to his life celebration at the Alex Theatre in Glendale and here's a poster they handed out of some of the sketches he had made throughout his illustrious career:


Click on the image to see a nice big version. Notice characters he sketched for Snow White, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Lorenzo, and more. I think Joe is also the only person who worked on both Fantasia films, and that's pretty incredible seeing as how they came out six decades apart. He's also the one who came up with the title for Monsters, Inc.

See the complete photo album here at .