The Animation Commendation

‘Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie’ Trailer Debuts!

We have finally gotten a trailer for Dreamworks Animation’s upcoming film, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.

The film honestly doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would be. Then again, 2017 is such a weak year for animation that it doesn’t take much to make me optimistic. I quite enjoy the animation style of this film, but I do feel the story will be quite predictable. I also feel that Kevin Hart is quite mismatched for his character as it just feels odd to hear his voice come out of that character.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie features the voices of Ed Helms, Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, and Nick Kroll. It will hit theaters on June 2, 2017. Do you plan to see it?

‘Early Man’ Teaser Trailer Debuts!

We have another teaser trailer this week: the teaser trailer for Aardman Animations’ upcoming stop-motion film, Early Man.

According to Wikipedia, the film “tells the story of Dug, along with sidekick Hognob, who unites his tribe against the mighty Bronze Age in a battle to beat them at their own game, resulting in becoming the very first game of European football”. An interesting premise, to say the least, but like all Aardman films, I’m sure it’ll be very creative and funny.

The film features the voice talents of Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Maisie Williams, Timothy Spall, Richard Ayoade, and Johnny Vegas, amongst others. The film is set to be released to UK cinemas on January 26, 2018. No US release date has been announced yet.

What do you think of the teaser trailer and the film?

‘Coco’ Teaser Trailer Debuts!

The teaser trailer for Pixar’s upcoming film based on Día de Muertos, Coco, has debuted!

I’m really looking forward to it! The film does seem reminiscent of other animated films like The Book of Life and Kubo and the Two Strings, but it’s different enough to be its own thing. I love the animation, the characters, and just the overall feel of the movie! Even the dog with the weird tongue is endearing, lol!

Coco hits theaters on November 22, 2017. Are you looking forward to it?

My Thoughts: MOANA (2016)

Of all the 2016 animated films that I’ve seen, this one is definitely my favorite!

“Well, no need to stay for the rest of the review!”

Let me give you some background. Disney was planning to release 2 animated films in 2016 as part of their official Canon: Zootopia and Moana. Ever since I first heard about it, I was way more excited for Zootopia than I was for Moana, although everyone else I knew had the opposite feeling! Zootopia was a sort of anthropomorphic animal mystery/crime/buddy cop movie that I was super excited for whilst we didn’t know much about Moana other than it would be another Disney Princess film, this time a Polynesian one.

But after watching both films, I ended up loving Moana more than I did Zootopia and again, this was opposite from what everyone else was telling me! Most people ended up falling in love with Zootopia and its morals while I ended up falling in love with Moana! It’s actually the only film in this Disney Revival era that I truly “love”!

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89th Academy Awards Wrap-Up!

Well, everyone’s talking about that ending! For those of you who don’t know, there was a mix-up at the end of the ceremony wherein La La Land was accidentally awarded the Best Picture title, but it was actually supposed to go to Moonlight. They later fixed the mistake, but it was still an amusing, yet embarrassing thing to witness.

Otherwise, the awards weren’t all that bad even with some surprise wins. I didn’t end up beating my score from last year however; I only got 15/24 right this year. But, it’s still my 2nd highest score in guessing the Oscars wins.

Congratulations to Disney and Pixar for winning Best Animated Feature (Zootopia), Best Animated Short (Piper), and Best Visual Effects (The Jungle Book). For a list of all the Oscars winners, click here.

My 89th Academy Awards Predictions!

It’s that time of year again: Oscars season! Like usual, I’ll be making my predictions for which 2016 films I think will win which award. The ones that I think SHOULD win will be colored RED and the ones that I think WILL win will be colored BLUE. If they happen to be the same, then I’ll color them BOTH COLORS! Like usual, I’ll leave the top 6 awards (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Animated Feature) for the end.

Last year, I had my best prediction score: 17 correct out of 24 categories! Can I beat that this year? Let’s see!

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‘The LEGO Ninjago Movie’ Trailer Debuts!

If you thought The LEGO Batman Movie was the only theatrical LEGO movie we’d be getting this year, you thought wrong! On September 22, 2017, The LEGO Ninjago Movie will be hitting theaters. The film features the voice talents of Dave Franco, Michael Peña, Fred Armisen, Jackie Chan, Justin Theroux, Olivia Munn, etc. Check out the recently-released trailer below:

I personally find the trailer and movie to be very…….okay-ish, leaning on boring. I mean, it feels more like a direct-to-DVD kinda film, rather than a theatrical release. And having to ride the coattails of The LEGO Batman Movie, I wonder how well this film will do in the box office. Let me know what you thought in the comments below!

Actor John Hurt Dies at 77!

English actor, Sir John Hurt, has sadly passed away at the age of 77. Sir John Hurt (1940-2017) was known for his roles in many films including The Elephant Man, A Man for All Seasons, I, Claudius, Alien, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, three Harry Potter films, and the recent Jackie, among others.

But, he was no stranger to the world of animation. Some of his voice roles include The Horned King in Disney’s The Black Cauldron,

Hazel in Watership Down,

Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings,

Snitter in The Plague Dogs,

and Mr. Mole in Don Bluth’s Thumbelina.

He shall be missed!

89th Academy Awards Nominations Announced!

Well, the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards have been announced today. And as usual, I’ll list the animated film categories below. If you want to see a list of all the categories and their nominations, then click here.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

-Kubo and the Two Strings

-Moana

-My Life as a Zucchini

-The Red Turtle

-Zootopia

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM:

-Blind Vaysha

-Borrowed Time

-Pear Cider and Cigarettes

-Pearl

-Piper

Other related nominations include:

-My Life, Animated (Best Documentary Feature)

-Can’t Stop the Feeling-Trolls (Best Original Song)

-How Far I’ll Go-Moana (Best Original Song)

-The Jungle Book (Best Visual Effects)

-Kubo and the Two Strings (Best Visual Effects)

I’ll post my Oscar winner predictions in the coming weeks, but for now which films do you think will win? Which do you want to win? What do you think of the nominations, in general? Let me know in the comments below!

My Thoughts: THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS (2016)

When the trailer for Illumination Entertainment’s The Secret Life of Pets was released, I was honestly surprised as to how positive/optimistic many people seemed to be towards it. Almost everyone I knew said that the film looked cute or funny or had an interesting premise or was a film that they were looking forward to seeing. I, on the other hand, seemed to be in the minority opinion!

I thought the trailer seemed kinda stupid. It seemed to be pushing the ubiquitous “funny jokes for kids” trope that we see in a lot of animation and I didn’t really find any of the jokes funny. The plot seemed very reminiscent of past films such as Toy Story and it seemed that the only reason Kevin Hart, Louis C.K. and Eric Stonestreet were cast as voices were just to have popular celebrities’ names attached to the film. Heck, I’m not even a “pets” person, so I couldn’t even identify with that aspect of the film that many pet owners seemed to readily identify with! I was much more looking forward to Illumination Entertainment’s Sing than this film.

Eventually, I ended up watching this film. Was I as disappointed as I thought I was going to be? Or was I surprisingly impressed? Read on to find out what I thought of The Secret Life of Pets.

By the way, there will be some SPOILERS!

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