Monday, December 15, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
John Lewis Christmas Advert 2013 - The Bear & The Hare
Was just sent this by a friend. It's too good to not share some more. More information about it can be found at Ad Age.
Plus something of a music video/making-of version. Very much worth watching:
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Press Release: Mel Brooks To Voice Dracula’s Father In Hotel Transylvania 2
Comic Legend Mel Brooks To Voice
Dracula’s Father In HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2
Sony Pictures Releasing International Also
Casting
Beloved Local Celebrities For The Voice Of
Vlad
Culver City, CA,
November 26, 2014 – Sony Pictures Animation today
announced the casting of Oscar®-, Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy-winning writer,
director, performer, composer and producer Mel Brooks in the sequel to the 2012
worldwide hit, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2. Brooks has been cast in the role of Vlad, the
ancient, undead and incredibly grumpy father to Dracula (Adam Sandler).
Dracula, Mavis, Jonathan and all of their monster friends are back in the brand
new comedy adventure: when the
old-old-old-fashioned vampire Vlad arrives at the hotel for an impromptu family
get-together, Hotel Transylvania is in for a comic collision of supernatural
old-school and modern day cool.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2 is slated for a
September 25, 2015 release, and is being directed by Genndy Tartakovsky,
produced by Michelle Murdocca, executive-produced by Sandler, Allen Covert,and
Ben Waisbren, and written by Robert Smigel.
Brooks – who takes
on the role 40 years after helming the horror-comedy classic Young Frankenstein – said, “I’m having a
wonderful time with the character Vlad.
He’s been around for eons and he’s a pretty crabby guy. Basically, he reminds me of me.”
Brooks isn’t the
only icon who will be voicing Vlad, as Sony Pictures Releasing International is
securing the talents of additional high-profile stars around the world to voice
the ancient one for the non-English versions of the film. So far, these regional Vlads include:
France’s Michel Galabru, the esteemed 92-year-old actor who has appeared in
more than 200 films; Japan’s Junji Inagawa, whose voice is instantly
recognizable as the “go to” narrator of horror films, radio programs and DVDs;
Holland’s Bram Van Der Vlugt, who, for decades, was the most requested Dutch
TV/film “Sinterklaas” (Saint Nicholas); and Belgium’s Jacques Vermeire, the
well-known Flemish performer with decades of memorable comic television and
feature film performances.
ABOUT SONY PICTURES ANIMATION
Sony Pictures Animation produces a variety of
animated and family entertainment for audiences around the
world. The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the 2012
monster hit comedy Hotel Transylvania, the hybrid live
action/animated blockbusters The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, and the mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
movies—with the family comedies Hotel Transylvania 2
scheduled in September 2015 and Untitled Smurfs Movie in August 2016. Sony Pictures Animation also released a critically acclaimed,
brand new mini-movie on DVD and television last Fall, The Smurfs: The Legend
of Smurfy Hollow. The studio, in conjunction with Aardman Animations,
has produced two critically acclaimed feature films: the CG-animated
family comedy Arthur Christmas; and the Academy Award® nominated
stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The Pirates! Band of Misfits.
In 2007, Surf's Up also received an Academy Award®
nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. The division, whose first
feature film Open Season led to a very successful movie
franchise, turned 10 in 2012. Sony Pictures Animation is an
operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions
- Website: http://www.sonypicturesanimation.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SONYPicturesAnimation
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/sonyanimation
- Tumblr: http://sonyanimation.tumblr.com/
- YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SonyAnimation
Monday, November 3, 2014
101 Dalmatians Diamond Edition Press Release
This
Valentine’s Day, Share the
Humor, Suspense and Adventures With Your Family!
Disney’s
101 DALMATIANS DIAMOND EDITION
Available
for the First Time on Digital HD, Blu-ray™
Combo Pack,
Disney
Movies Anywhere and On-Demand – February 10th
Featuring All-New,
Never-Before-Seen Animated Short!
Synopsis: Pick your favorite spot to watch—anytime and anywhere—and get
ready for a fun-filled adventure with the Diamond Edition of 101 Dalmatians! Pongo, Perdita and their
super-adorable puppies are in for thrills, hilarious spills and an epic
action-packed adventure when they face off with Cruella De Vil, Disney’s most
fabulously outrageous villainess. When Cruella dognaps all of the Dalmatian
puppies in London, brave animal heroes launch a daring plan to save all puppies
from Cruella’s clutches! Unleash all the excitement and suspense of Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, a beloved classic you’ll
want to share with your family again and again!
Cast: Rod Taylor (Inglorious Bastards, The Birds)
as Pongo, J. Pat O’Malley (The Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland) as
Jasper and Betty Lou Gerson (The Fly, Cats Don’t Dance) as Cruella de
Vil
Producer: Walt Disney
Directors: Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton S.
Luske and Clyde Geronimi
Writers: Story by Bill Peet. Based on the book “101 Dalmatians” by Dodie Smith
Release Date: February 10, 2015 (Direct Prebook: 12/16; Distributor Prebook:
12/30)
Product
SKUs: Digital HD & SD, Blu-ray
Combo Pack, Disney Movies Anywhere & On-Demand
New Bonus Features: All New Short – The Further Adventures of Thunderbolt
Walt Disney Presents “The Best
Doggoned Dog in the World” (1961 Version)
Lucky Dogs
DisneyView
Dalmatians 101: Hosted by Cameron
Boyce (Disney Channel’s “The Descendants”)
Plus a Selection of Classic Bonus
Features
Ratings: G
in US & Canada (bonus materials are not rated)
Feature Run Time: Approximately 79
Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1:33:1
Audio: Blu-ray: 7.1 DTS-HDMA / 1.0 Dolby Digital (English); 5.1 DTS-HDHR (French) & 5.1 Dolby Digital (Spanish)
Languages: English, French and Spanish
Subtitles: English (ESL/SDH),
French and Spanish
Social Media:
Stay connected with the latest
news and information about ”101 Dalmatians”:
ABOUT DISNEY MOVIES
ANYWHERE (DMA):
Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) is a cloud-based digital movie service that
offers a hassle-free way for consumers to buy, watch, and manage Disney digital
content across platforms and devices via the easy-to-use DMA app or at DisneyMoviesAnywhere.com.
A DMA-eligible digital title purchased from an iTunes-connected account or
redeemed in DMA will be accessible in a user’s DMA and iTunes lockers. There
are currently over 400 films from Disney’s rich history available through DMA
for streaming and download, including Disney Branded Animation, Disney
Live-Action, Pixar, and Marvel titles, along with exclusive, original content.
For more information or to redeem Digital Copy codes to build your library and
earn Disney Movie Rewards Points for digital purchases, visit http://www.disneymoviesanywhere.com.
ABOUT THE WALT DISNEY
STUDIOS:
For 90
years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney
Company was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage
plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under the
following banners: Disney, including Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar
Animation Studios; Disneynature; Marvel Studios; Lucasfilm; and Touchstone
Pictures, the banner under which live-action films from DreamWorks Studios are
distributed. The Disney Music Group encompasses the Walt Disney Records and
Hollywood Records labels, as well as Disney Music Publishing. The Disney
Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Disney on
Broadway, Disney On Ice and Disney Live!
# # #
© 2014
Disney
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series (Press Release)
DHX
MEDIA AND SONY PICTURES ANIMATION TAKING CLOUDY
WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS TO TELEVISION
Halifax, Los Angeles, London, Toronto, Vancouver. October 9, 2014. DHX Media, a key player
internationally in the creation of content for families and children, has
signed a deal with Sony Pictures Animation to expand the blockbuster film
franchise Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs into television with a brand-new
adaptation.
The far-reaching deal
will see DHX Media develop and produce twenty-six 22-minute, traditionally
animated small-screen episodes of the acclaimed computer-generated animated feature
films, and includes global television and non-US home entertainment
exploitation rights to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The
Series (Sony will distribute home entertainment in the US). The deal also has DHX Media representing merchandising
for the television series on a worldwide basis.
The 2009 mouth-watering
animated comedy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and its 2013 sequel, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, were produced
by Sony Pictures
Animation, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. Both films were critical and commercial successes which grossed a combined $510 million in theaters.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series takes place before giant food came raining down on Swallow Falls.
Flint Lockwood is a high school tween with big dreams. Swallow
Falls is a blue-collar town where sardines are driving a booming economy. But
Flint suffers from NFD: Non Fish-related Dreams. He wants to be a serious
scientist and maybe one day not have his inventions blow up in his face. Along
for the ride is Sam Sparks, who's the new girl in town and the school's newest
wannabe ace reporter. These two outsiders come together for laughs and
comedic adventures with all the great characters from the film: Flint's Dad
Tim, Steve the Monkey, Manny the head of the school's audiovisual, school gym
teacher Earl before he becomes a cop, Brent who still models baby wear, and
Mayor Shelbourne, who wins every election on the pro-sardine platform.
Steven DeNure,
President and COO of DHX Media, said: “Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs has a tremendous legacy as beloved children’s
books and a duo of highly popular feature films, showing how great ideas can succeed
across media. We believe audiences both old and new are going to love this fiercely
funny franchise reimagined for the small screen.”
Bob Osher, President of Sony Pictures Digital Productions, said: “I'm thrilled
to see the adventures of our beloved characters from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs further expanded to television for
audiences around the world to enjoy.”
Rick
Mischel, executive producer at Sony Pictures Animation, added: “DHX’s
track record in creating great kids’ television content makes them an ideal
partner to capture the unique humor and tone of Flint Lockwood and his friends
that made the theatrical franchise so successful.”
About
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs follows the adventures of Flint Lockwood, an eccentric
young scientist whose awkward demeanor and half-baked inventions – ratbirds,
spray-on shoes, and talking monkeys – have made him an outsider in his hometown
of Swallow Falls. All that is about to change with his latest
contraption: the Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Nano Dynamic Food Replicator (or
FLDSNDFR for short), a miraculous machine designed to make sure nobody ever
goes hungry again. But when his creation leaves the whole world in a pickle,
the forecast goes from sunny to Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs Based on
the best-selling book by Judi and Ron Barrett, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is directed by Phil Lord and
Chris Miller (writers and directors of “The LEGO Movie”); produced by Pam
Marsden (“Dinosaur”). The CG animation was created by Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 picks up
where Sony Pictures Animation’s mouth-watering comedy left off. Inventor Flint
Lockwood thought he saved the world when he destroyed his most infamous
invention -- a machine that turned water into food causing cheeseburger rain
and spaghetti tornadoes. But Flint soon learns that his invention survived and
is now creating food-animals – "foodimals!" Flint and his
friends embark on a dangerously delicious mission to battle hungry tacodiles,
shrimpanzees, hippotatomuses, cheespiders and other foodimals to save the world
– again!
Columbia Pictures presents a Sony Pictures Animation film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
2. With the voices of Bill Hader,
Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Andy Samberg, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick
Harris, Terry Crews, and Kristen Schaal.
Directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn.
Story by Phil Lord &
Christopher Miller and Erica Rivinoja.
Screenplay by Erica Rivinoja and John Francis Daley & Jonathan
Goldstein. Inspired by the book Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs written by Judi Barrett & illustrated by Ron
Barrett. Produced by Pam Marsden and
Kirk Bodyfelt. Executive producers are
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Music
by Mark Mothersbaugh. Imagery and
Animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc.
About DHX Media Ltd.
DHX Media Ltd. (www.dhxmedia.com), a
leading creator, producer, marketer and broadcaster of family entertainment, is
recognized globally for such brands as Yo
Gabba Gabba!, Caillou,Teletubbies, In the Night Garden, Inspector Gadget, Johnny Test, and the
multi-award winningDegrassi franchise.
DHX Media Ltd. is the owner of Family Channel, the most-viewed children's
television channel in Canada, as well as Disney Junior (English & French)
and Disney XD. The Company markets and distributes its library of more than
10,000 half-hours of entertainment programming worldwide, and licenses its
owned properties through its dedicated consumer products business. DHX Media
Ltd.'s full-service international licensing agency, Copyright Promotions
Licensing Group Ltd. (CPLG), represents numerous entertainment, sport and
design brands. DHX Media Ltd. has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Halifax, Los
Angeles, London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Munich and Amsterdam, and is listed
on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols DHX.A and DHX.B.
About
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony
Pictures Animation (www.SonyPicturesAnimation.com) produces a variety of animated and family entertainment for
audiences around the world. The studio followed its worldwide comedy
hits—the 2012 monster hit comedy Hotel Transylvania, the hybrid
live action/animated blockbusters The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, and the 2009 mouth-watering Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs—with the family
comedy Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2, now available on Blu-ray combo pack and digital. Sony
Pictures Animation also released a brand new mini-movie on DVD and television
last Fall, The Smurfs: The Legend of
Smurfy Hollow. The studio, in
conjunction with Aardman Animations, has produced two critically acclaimed
feature films: the CG-animated family comedy Arthur Christmas;
and the Academy Award® nominated stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The
Pirates! Band of Misfits. In 2007, Surf's Up also
received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature
Film. The division, whose first feature film Open Season led
to a very successful movie franchise, turned 10 in 2012. Sony
Pictures Animation is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Popeye Animation Test
Check out Genndy Tartakovsky's animation test for Sony Picture Animation's upcoming Popeye movie. This may be the best blending so far of hand-drawn whimsy with solid, CGI modeling:
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Inside Sony Pictures Animation - Director Lauren Faust
Medusa could've been a Disney picture but Sony has snatched it up and now wants you to learn more about its director, Lauren Faust (creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), and her history in the animation world and I like that they don't mind her giving positive mentions to things from other studios.
Monday, August 25, 2014
VIEW Conference 2014
August 25, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE
2014 VIEW CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Dr.
Alvy Ray Smith, Glen Keane, and Tom McGrath highlight the 15th
annual conference, Italy’s largest computer graphics conference, October 14-17.
[TURIN, Italy] “It is with extreme pride and
great pleasure that I announce our 2014 VIEW Conference keynote speakers,” says
conference director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “Alvy Ray Smith, Glen Keane,
and Tom McGrath are highly respected
gurus in the computer graphics and digital entertainment industry and we are
immensely honored to host them in our beautiful city.”
“Alvy
Ray Smith invented core computer graphics technology and co-founded Pixar,
the first studio to make a CG feature film, the famous Toy Story,” Gutierrez continues. “Glen
Keane created and animated some of our most renowned and most-loved Disney
characters: Tarzan, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and Aladdin. Now, he’s
working with Google to create a state of the art interactive, animated story
for mobile devices. Tom McGrath
wrote and directed one of the most successful CG animated feature film
franchises, the three-film Madagascar series, which were the first to give CG animated characters a
wacky cartoon style. In November, DreamWorks will release
the fourth film in the series, The Penguins of Madagascar, for which Tom McGrath was a writer and
executive producer and also the lead as the voice of Skipper the Penguin. You
can see why I’m so excited.”
The 2014 VIEW conference will take place
October 14 to 17 in Turin (Torino), Italy, a baroque city in the foothills of
the Alps known for cars, chocolate, and cinema. The largest computer graphics
conference in Italy, VIEW is celebrating its 15th year of bringing
top talent and remarkable visionaries to Turin. The VIEW conference follows the
annual VIEWFest digital film festival. Most talks are in English, with
translation available to and from Italian and English.
“We will roll out announcements to introduce
more speakers and our workshop series over the next few weeks, so please stay
tuned,” Gutierrez says. “I am so enthusiastic about our 2014 program. It
matches the amazing conferences we’ve had before and takes us beyond.”
For more information, please visit the
website: www.viewconference.it.
For Immediate Release
VIEW
2014 FULL PROGRAM ONLINE
REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN FOR WORKSHOPS AND MASTER CLASSES
WORLD
PREMIERE TALK ON DISNEY’S Big Hero 6
TURIN, ITALY –
Attendees at Italy’s largest computer graphics conference to be held October
14-18 in beautiful Turin, Italy, can now register online at http://viewconference.it/ for the full conference, for inspiring and
creative workshops led by award-winning professionals, and for practical master
classes taught by expert users.
“I know from
experience that the workshops and classes will fill up fast, so people should
register as early as they can,” says Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez, conference
director. “We are fortunate to welcome back, by popular demand, the incredibly
creative and two-time Annie nominee, Kris Pearn, co-director of the animated
feature Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
2. Also, the brilliant Lucia Modesto,
supervising character technical director at PDI/DreamWorks for Mr. Peabody and Sherman; the amazing David Schaub, animation supervisor at
Sony Pictures Imageworks for The Amazing
Spider-Man who has received Oscar and BAFTA nominations, seven VES
nominations, and a VES award; and the
remarkable Brenda Bakker Harger, theater
director, improviser, and professor at the entertainment technology center at
Carnegie Mellon University.”
“Also this year, for
the first time,” she adds, “we are welcoming Rob Coleman, animation supervisor at Animal Logic for The Lego Movie, former animation
director at Industrial Light & Magic for the Star WarsEpisodes I, II, and III,
two-time Oscar and BAFTA nominee, and three-time VES award nominee. And, we
have instructors who will give practical workshops on
products from Autodesk, Wacom, Maxon, and Pixologic. So, you can see why I
suggest that people register as soon as possible.”
In addition to the
workshops, Coleman, Schaub, Modesto, and Bakker Harger join other award-winning
speakers throughout the week who will share information about their studios’
work on the major visual effects and animated feature films of 2014,
videogames, virtual reality, and other exciting areas of computer graphics.
Keynoting the VIEW
conference are award-winning director, writer, producer and actor Tom McGrath from DreamWorks Animation,
artist, inventor, author, entrepreneur and Pixar-co-founder Alvy Ray Smith, and award-winning
legendary animator Glen Keane.
From the world of
animated films:
- Lighting
supervisor and VES award winner Alessandro
Jacomini from Disney Animation Studios will give a world premiere talk on Big Hero 6, which releases November 7 in
the US and December 25 in Italy.
- Director
and VES award nominee Patrick Osborne
will speak about and present the Italian premiere of Disney Animation’s short film “Feast.”
- Providing
an early look at the 2016 Smurfs film
are production designer Noëlle Triaureau
and two-time Annie award nominee art director Marcelo Vignali from Sony Pictures Animation.
- Co-head
of story at DreamWorks Animation and two-time Annie award nominee Alessandro Carloni will present How to Train Your Dragon 2.
- Supervising
production designer, Emmy award winner and two-time Annie award nominee Nelson Lowry from Laika will introduce
the stop frame world of The Boxtrolls.
- Jerome Solomon, academic dean at
Cogswell College and a SIGGRAPH national committee member, will show this
year’s selections of the best in computer graphics from SIGGRAPH’s Electronic
Theater.
From the world of
visual effects:
- Industrial
Light & Magic’s Scott Farrar,
who has received an Oscar, six Oscar nominations, four BAFTA nominations, four
VES nominations, and two VES awards, will speak on Transformers 4, for which he was visual effects supervisor and
second unit director.
- VFX
supervisor Keith Miller from Weta
Digital, a BAFTA nominee and three-time VES nominee, will present work from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
- VFX
supervisor Kyle McCulloch, a
two-time VES award nominee and VES award winner, will talk about Framestore’s
work on Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Animation
supervisor Tim Harrington will talk
about Industrial Light & Magic’s work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Visual
effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier, who
has three Oscar nominations, four BAFTA nominations, three BAFTA awards, and a
VES nomination, and Merzin Tavaria, chief creative director at Prime Focus World, will
present the visual effects in Sin City: A
Dame to Kill For.
In addition, speakers
from the worlds of game development,
virtual reality, motion capture, and medicine include: Parag Havaldar, R & D Lead at
Blizzard Entertainment. David Putrino
from Not Impossible Labs at Weill-Cornell Medical College. Flávio Andaló and Milton
Luiz Horn Vieira from the DesignLab at UFSC. Elisa Di Lorenzo from Untold Games. Pierre-Alain Gagne from DOWiNO. Philip Stevju Løken from Placebo Effects. Kim
Baumann Larsen from Digital Storytelling.
“This is such a
special conference,” Gutierrez says. “People come to communicate,
tocollaborate, and to learn. It is unlike any other conference I know.We are so
honored that these incredible artists will join us in Turin for the conference
and share their knowledge in workshops for groups of our attendees. I am thrilled with this year’s program, and I
can’t wait to share it with everyone.”
VIEW Conference,
October 14 – 18, 2014, Turin Italy
For more information
and online registration, visit www.viewconference.it
Monday, August 18, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
RIP Robin Williams
We may all still be processing the tragic death of Robin Williams, a stellar talent who simply could not be boxed in. If ever there was somebody who played by their own rule book it was him (Andy Kaufman and Bill Murray would count as well). My first exposure to him was through Mork and Mindy, where even then he was practically an animated character. But amongst all his TV and film credits I think maybe his standout role, and not just because I'm an animation enthusiast, was as Genie in Disney's Aladdin, where he could be many different characters in one without ever confusing or losing the audience, literally freeing him to be just about anything he could imagine, which quite possibly makes it the most quintessentially Robin Williams-ish role of all. Thankfully the animators were able to match Robin's tour de force vocal performance with equally stunning visuals.
Sadly, though, some of the filmographies I have seen of him since news of his death broke have completely left out mention of that role. Cartoon Brew has posted statements from Eric Goldberg and Ron and John, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn just now that Entertainment Weekly specifically interviewed Eric about the time he spent with Robin while working on Aladdin as supervising animator for Genie.
I've always wondered what it would be like to meet Robin Williams in person. Now that that's an impossibility, at least in these mortal realms, what I do have to fall back on is a small memento from Eric Goldberg who sketched me in the place of Aladdin encountering that larger-than-life persona of Genie, and thereby, by extension, Robin Williams. (The sketch riffs on the scene from the film where Genie says to Aladdin as they meet, "Should I call you 'Al' or maybe just 'Din'?") So, in my indirect encounter, I found him to be as many others have described him, warm and humorous:
Robin, we'll miss you.
(UPDATE: Just found out that Slate concurs with my assessment of the Genie in Aladdin being Williams' greatest performance. And Bustle does as well.)
The hard-to-read text from the first image above is:
We're deeply saddened by the loss of Robin Williams, a wonderfully gifted man who touched our hearts and never failed to make us laugh. An incredible actor and a comedic genius, Robin will always be remembered for bringing some of the world's favorite characters to life, from his zany alien on ABC's Mork & Mindy to the irasicble Genie in Disney's Aladdin. He was a true Disney Legend, a beloved member of our family, and he will be sorely missed. We join Robin's friends and fans everywhere in mourning, and offer our thoughts and condolences to his family during this difficult time.
Robert A. Iger, The Walt Disney Company
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
NEW Dinner & a Movie Program at EL CAPITAN THEATRE Starts this Friday
Here we go with a story again that features both animation and food. From a press release I just received:
In conjunction with the El Capitan Theatre's engagement of Disney's "Planes: Fire and Rescue" opening this Friday, The El Capitan is rolling out a new program called “Dinner and a Movie” by partnering with another Hollywood classic, Miceli’s Italian Restaurant.
El Capitan guests may book a special package including reserved seating at Miceli's at 5:15pm that includes choice of pasta entrees, side salad, mini cannoli, and fountain beverage, with tax and gratuity included. Dinner is followed by reserved seating for the 6:45pm 3D screening of Disney's "Planes: Fire and Rescue" at The El Capitan Theatre, plus live on stage, an all-new show with Mickey and Friends for $30 per person. (Dinner and movie tickets must be purchased 24 hours in advance of date attending, and seating is limited and subject to availability.)
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Toy Story: Art Influencing Reality
This is one of those things you look at and wonder how you didn't think of doing it:
I assume the Pizza Planet truck is nearby.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Sony Announces Medusa
Sony
Pictures Animation Announces
New
Original Feature Project MEDUSA,
With Emmy® Winner Lauren Faust
To Direct
Culver City, CA, June 5, 2014 – Sony Pictures Animation today announced the acquisition of an
original animated comedy feature pitch by Todd Alcott and Holly Golden
entitled MEDUSA, which will tell an all-new story behind the
infamous snake-headed lady from Greek mythology. Emmy® winner Lauren Faust, who
rebooted the My Little Pony franchise in 2010 and turned it
into the current My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic phenomenon
with an ever-growing fanbase of all ages, is attached to direct the feature.
Sony Pictures Animation president of production Michelle Raimo Kouyate
will supervise production, along with Jenny Marchick and Daniel
Inkeles. Kouyate states, “After hearing the
ingeniously funny pitch from Todd and Holly, we could immediately see the
enormous potential in the idea. And when Lauren Faust, a uniquely gifted
animation filmmaker with a real talent for relating to
audiences, connected with the project, we knew the combination of her
vision and their story would create something extraordinary. MEDUSA will be a clever, heartfelt animated comedy about
a girl who’s having the ultimate bad hair day."
Director Faust comments, “Todd and Holly's
version of the tale of Medusa is filled with so many of my favorite ideas to
work with: magic, mythology, humor and strong, funny, extremely relatable
characters. I was excited by the idea of
showing the comedy behind an otherwise horrific monster, and I was really drawn
to the writer's unique re-imagining of Greek mythology. In our story, we meet Medusa as a young human,
who, like so many of us, is overwhelmed with trying to fit a certain mold to
please others. Her resulting popularity ticks off the wrong Goddess who
turns her into the snake-haired monster we all know and fear. Medusa sets out
on a quest to reverse this curse with the help of a goofy team of oddball and
misfit mythological creatures who help her learn that what makes you different
is, in fact, what makes you strong.”
Allcott was a co-writer on the animated feature hit Antz,
and most recently worked on the Weinstein Company’s live-action The
Giver, starring Jeff Bridges and directed by Philip Noyce; Golden has
enjoyed a successful career in reality television production.
ABOUT SONY PICTURES
ANIMATION
Sony Pictures Animation
produces a variety of animated and family entertainment for audiences around
the world. The studio is following its worldwide comedy hits—the
2012 monster hit comedy Hotel Transylvania, the hybrid live
action/animated blockbusters The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, and the
mouth-watering Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies—with the family comedies Hotel Transylvania 2 and all-animated Untitled Smurfs Movie scheduled in September 2015 and August 2016 respectively. Sony Pictures Animation also released a
critically acclaimed, brand new mini-movie on DVD and television last Fall, The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow.
The studio, in conjunction with Aardman
Animations, has produced two critically acclaimed feature films: the
CG-animated family comedy Arthur Christmas; and the Academy Award®
nominated stop-frame animated high-seas adventure, The Pirates! Band of
Misfits. In 2007, Surf's Up also received
an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. The
division, whose first feature film Open Season led to a very
successful movie franchise, turned 10 in 2012. Sony Pictures
Animation is an operating unit of Sony Pictures Digital Productions
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