Yes, the nominations for the 40th Annie Awards have been announced! The Annie Awards, for those of you who don’t know, are like the Academy Awards for animation. It’s probably the highest level of recognition that one in the animation industry can get! I may post the full list of categories and nominations later, but for now I’ll just list the nominations for Best Animated Feature: Continue reading “40th Annie Awards Nominations Announced!”
Next up is Disney’s 8th feature and 3rd package film, “Make Mine Music”. Released in 1946, the film is somewhat like “Fantasia” in that it’s a collection of unrelated shorts set to music. This time, most of the music is actually lyrical and popular (for the time, at least). And like I’ve said before, I actually prefer this film over “Fantasia”.
ANYWAY, this film is composed of 10 segments in its entirety. Continue reading “Disney Canon-Forgotten/Minor Characters #8: Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet”
Wow, first Pinocchio’s talking donkeys and now a flying one! What’s with donkeys being portrayed with impossible characteristics in Disney movies? And why are they somewhat forgotten? Oh, well! Continue reading “Disney Canon-Forgotten/Minor Characters #7: Burrito, the Flying Donkey”
Dreamworks Animation’s “Rise of the Guardians” opens with a somewhat disappointing 4th place at the weekend box office. The film drew in $32 million over the Thanksgiving break. That’s understandable since it had to do battle with the latest Twilight flick, James Bond flick, and the Oscar buzz-generating, “Lincoln.” With a $145 million budget, I feel that the film can still become a hit, especially due to overseas markets. But, we’ll just have to wait and see. For all of you who have seen it, how did you like the film?
We now arrive at Disney’s 6th animated feature-length film, “Saludos Amigos.” And when I say feature-length, I mean it BARELY makes it with a runtime of 42 minutes! (A feature-length film by definition is 40 minutes.) Heck, even when I say animated, I don’t mean fully animated, because this film has a good amount of live-action in it!
Released in 1942, this is the first of 6 consecutive animated Disney films that will be known as his “package films”. Package films, or anthology films, are movies that are just a bunch of shorts, unrelated mostly, put together to make a movie. Arguably, “Fantasia” and its sequel can be considered package films as well as the “Winnie the Pooh” films, but generally the term is used to refer to these 6 films during the ’40s. There were a number of reasons why Walt had to make these package films instead of a usual story-driven coherent film. Some include that these were inexpensive to make and hopefully would cause the studio to regain their money from previous flops; these films were made during WWII and many of his animation studio were drafted; and that the American government wanted Walt and other animation companies to focus on making nationalistic cartoons rather than waste time and money on films. Whatever the main reason, let’s talk about our first package film, “Saludos Amigos.” Continue reading “Disney Canon-Forgotten/Minor Characters #6: Mt. Aconcagua”
So, I’ve always wanted to review a film (animated, especially), i.e. give my thoughts on it, and now with this blog, I’m able to do just that. And I’ve recently watched a 2007 animated film entitled, “Battle for Terra”, so this will be my first review. Warning: There may be spoilers!
Ok, first off, “Battle for Terra” is a 2007 feature-length animated film that is based on an animated short film called “Terra.” Other animated films have come about this way as well such as Tim Burton’s “Frankenweenie” and Shane Acker’s “9.” The film is directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas and didn’t fare well at the box office only bringing in about $6 million worldwide. Is it really a bad film in my opinion? Well, let’s look at the film’s components one at a time. Continue reading “My Thoughts: BATTLE FOR TERRA (2007)”
The Oscars time is soon to come upon us! The 85th Academy Awards are scheduled to be held on February 24, 2013. So, naturally it’s only likely that films are soon to be submitted for consideration and voting by the Academy to be included in the hallowed nominations list.
And one category to have its contenders decided is the “Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.” 21 animated feature films from around the world have been submitted and with that amount, we may have up to 5 of them battling for the trophy. We’ll have to wait until January 10, 2013 to discover which 5 they’ll be, but let’s take a look at the 21 films submitted. Just to let you know, I have not yet seen many of these films, so my descriptions will be based on available plot summaries:
1) Adventures in Zambezia
Also known as Zambezia, we see that this computer-animated film was made in South Africa; actually we’ll see that a few of these films are from outside the USA. In this film, a young falcon leaves his home in the desert to discover action and adventure in the city of Zambezia.
2) Brave
Of course we have Disney-Pixar’s entry in the competition in which a young Scottish princess defies a custom and brings upon her kingdom a curse; one that she’ll have to muster up her bravery to undo. 
3) Delhi Safari
We get to one of India’s 2 entries in this category, this one being the first Indian stereoscopic 3D animated film. In this film, a monkey, bear, leopards, and other forest animals decide to go to the Indian Parliament and protest against the people’s destruction of their habitats and homes.
Continue reading “21 Animated Films Submitted for Oscars Consideration”
Well, Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph” is the obvious victor of this weekend’s box office with an incredible $49.1 million! The critics are also agog with glee and pure commendation of the film (hence its mention on this blog, lol); a rare feat for current Disney! Does this predicted success of “Wreck-It Ralph” indicate a 2nd rise of Disney Animation i.e. a 2nd Renaissance per se? If so, where did it start from? Would “Tangled” be considered the starting point of this era of critic and common folk support and praise? Or would one consider the post-Pixar acquisition films as the starting point, i.e. “Bolt”? Whatever the case, “Wreck-It Ralph” is certainly on my list of films to see!
The Animation Commendation 