Animated Films

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

(Writer's Note: Once again, I'm using this space for a news story that's too short for a full article)

Animation website MyToons announced that they've received a second round of funding from Syncom Venture Partners and Barshop Ventures LLC.

The website, which bills itself as "the world’s premier online animation community," says it will use the cash to "support MyToons’ continued technology infrastructure development and revenue growth, as well as expanded global partnerships."

Syncom and Barshop Give MyToons Lots o' Cash

"MyToons presents a tremendous opportunity to address an underserved niche in the on-line content marketplace,” said Herb Wilkins, Syncom's General Partner, in the press release. “The MyToons team has a clear view of what both animators and consumers are craving, and is moving quickly to deliver key services to address those needs. We look forward to helping take MyToons from early-adoption to mainstream consumption.”

"We are thrilled to have Syncom Venture Partners join the MyToons team,” responded Dan Kraus, CEO & co-founder of MyToons. “We now have two of the premier media venture capital firms as partners, as well as a world-class group of advisors as we look to improve and accelerate the ways animators distribute and profit from their content."

What Is MyToons?

Launched in the Spring of 2007, MyToons is a website dedicated to giving aspiring and established animators a place to showcase their art, games and animated shorts online, network with fans and fellow animators, and enter the occasional contest. It currently boasts over 10,000 members showcasing over 12,000 properties online.

The site recently took the plunge into high-resolution HD streaming, and is using its current “Get with the Times” Contest in order to convince more animators to get on the HD bandwagon.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

I've always been a fan of the Spiridellis brothers, AKA JibJab, for their equal-opportunity opprobriums. Unlike South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who don't hide their Libertarian/Republican beliefs under their potty humour, the Spiridellis's take shots and everyone and everything, left, right, smart, cuckoo . . . I like to see my satirists rip on all comers, not giving one side or another a break.

This time the JibJab gang are turning Bob Dylan's classic "The Times They Are a-Changing" and turning it into "Time For Some Campaigning." They not only hammer the outgoing George W. Bush, but the Clintons (gotta love Hilary's reaction when Bill sings the word "cigar'!), along with presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama. Whether it's McCain driving a tank, or Obama riding a unicorn, the Spiridellis' spoofs are always on the money. You can check it out by clicking here.

Yes, we're all happy to see the last of the Reign of Dubya, but I can see countless comedians, satirists and commentators going into mourning right about now . . .

Ah, who am I kidding, "Ding-dong, the dumbass is . . ."

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

Interviews are a tough process. The interviewer has to get inside the subject's head within the allotted time, while the interviewee has to stay friendly while answering the same old questions.

So it's not surprising to see WALL-E director Andrew Stanton snap at the anonymous putz at Garnett News Service (via Cincinnati.com) who unloaded idiocies like "Are you the Martin Scorsese of animation or is Martin Scorsese the Andrew Stanton of live-action?" and "WALL-E is a romance between an iPod and a trash can. Was WALL-E more challenging than Toy Story or Finding Nemo in terms of identifying with the characters?"

After gamely dealing with the first two, Stanton finally loses it over the last question: "You take a risk by not having dialogue for the first 35 minutes."

"There's dialogue from frame one," he says. "It's just not in English. It's amazing to me that people think that way, and I think that it's completely incorrect . . . Kids are going to get it way better than you are."

Having interviewed Andrew Stanton, I can tell you that he's a great subject: patient, friendly and willing to expose the messy inner workings of Pixar Animation. So where did this interview go wrong?

Can we say, "The interviewer had no clue"?

Neither WALL-E nor Finding Nemo have any connection to films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or Goodfellas so the Scorsese comparison is beyond ludicrous. Calling Stanton's movie as "a romance between a trash can and an iPod" is a great way to irritate your subject, and everyone's been talking about WALL-E's supposed "lack of dialogue" since the day it was greenlit.

Whoever wrote this up needs to go back to journalism school. Because no one likes getting questions from someone who doesn't have a clue.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

Yep, that poison bicuspid is still in place; if ever Jennifer Shiman releases a Thirty Seconds Bunnies Theatre spoof and I don't report on it, it's curtains for your fearless animation writer. The stress is getting to me!

No, not really. But I do enjoy Shiman's work and considering the amount of cheese she and her Flash animations get around "Teh InterWeb" I'm sure I'm not the only one who digs these 30-second spoofs of popular movies, featuring bunnies.

Their current target is last year's Judd Apatow comedy Superbad, and it's a pretty cool spoof, although Shiman wasn't able to drop in as many bunny jokes as in previous segments (aliens with bunny ears still rock!). Shades of Brokeback Mountain at the end there, or maybe that was in the original flick (I can't remember).

If you can hang with Starz' problematic video feed, you can check out the Bunnies' version of Superbad here, or you can wait for it to show up on Shiman's Angry Alien website.

Next up, Shiman's rabbits will spoof the vampire invasion film 30 Days of Night, and then the Coen Brothers' Oscar-winning flick No Country for Old Men.



Fun Fact: Here is the Bunnies' five-word acceptance speech for winning the Webby Awards' Online Film and Video/Animation and the People's Voice categories.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

During a round-table discussion with WALL-E writer/director Andrew Stanton (the same one The Pixar Blog was at), he confirmed that he is finally bringing the long-awaited John Carter of Mars movie to the silver screen.

After the interview was officially concluded, I couldn't resist asking Stanton whether the rumour that he was working on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars for the silver screen was true (Burroughs also created the iconic pulp fiction series Tarzan).

"Yes, I am currently working on John Carter of Mars," replied.

At which point, MB1000 from The Pixar Blog asked him to confirm that statement, and Stanton replied, into our tape recorders, "I am writing John Carter of Mars right now."

Given that Stanton had such a good time directing Fred Willard and various extras for the live-action component of WALL-E, it's likely that he will also take on directing chores for the flick. Not only that, if the first film does well, Stanton may try for a trilogy.

And no, Jon Favreau is not involved in this movie at this time. He was part of the recent attempt by Paramount to adapt the film, and has no current role with Pixar.

This will not only mark the first time that Pixar will use live actors in starring roles, but will break the nearly 80 year old curse on any John Carter of Mars adaptations.

I'll keep on gathering news on this story as it develops. Exciting times ahead to be sure.

P.S. - The Walt Disney Company has requested an embargo on any reviews until WALL-E hits theatres on June 27th, so I cannot talk about the film until then. Therefore, I cannot confirm nor deny that the linked article is an accurate assessment of the flick.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

After two years working the Animated Films beat here at Suite 101, big changes are afoot (mainly because they're lousy drivers).

No, I haven't decided to shave my head and run off to Nepal to achieve enlightenment, but there will be some interesting changes to what you'll be reading on this page.

For one thing, I'm going to be working on delivering more exclusive content to this site, not just letting you know about what's going on elsewhere on the InterWeb. That means more reviews of first-run films, more DVD reviews, and interviews with some of the movers and shakers (along with the moved and shaken) in animated film.

In tandem with my compadre, Suite 101 Contributing Writer Dominic Messier, we've been able to make contact with some of the big studios, and we'll be ruthlessly using those contacts for your entertainment and erudition.

Right now, I'm working on landing an interview with Disney/Pixar's Andrew Stanton, the award-winning writer/director of 2003's Finding Nemo, and the upcoming WALL-E. Anyone who has read my site for any length of time knows that I'm a big fan of what's coming out of Pixar, and this will be a great opportunity to peek into the mind of one of animation's premiere writer/directors. And yes, there will be a film review of WALL-E coming on June 27th.

So stick around and keep coming back to this page. As they say in China, intersting times indeed.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

After writing about Gary Wolf's 20-year battle to get what he claims is his piece of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'s profits, I thought I would look at some of the more stunning Hollywood lawsuits and legal stunts, especially the ones that have anything to do with animation.

Whether it's creatives getting screwed by the studios (Deborah Gregory getting only $125,000 for creating the massive Cheetah Girls franchise), the Slesinger family suing, and getting sued by, Disney over Winnie the Pooh, or Jeffrey Katzenberg's five-year war to get his severance bonus, there's a lot of legal ugliness on display.

Disney's not the only studio with vicious legal wolves: Paramount tried to rip off Art Buchwald for Coming to America in a maneuver, the trial judge found "unconscionable" and Stan Lee had to sue Marvel to get his cut of Spider-Man.

These stories aren't pretty; in fact they can be downright ugly. Sometimes the good guys (and gals) win, but mostly they don't. But it's still a fascinating glimpse of what goes on behind the Hollywood glamour. I hope you'll check these articles out in the days to come.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

Jennifer Shiman's bunnies are back, and this time they're taking on the 1984 teen comedy Sixteen Candles, and doing it in 30 seconds. According to her, Amy Forstadt of Amy's Dairy helped out with the voices.

Sixteen Candles was unusual for its time, in that it showed a little more sensitivity to the adolescent zeitgeist than previous teen comedies like Porky's and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It made Molly Ringwald a teen star, and introduced future stars Anthony Michael Hall, Gedde Watanabe, plus Joan and John Cusack.

It is possibly the only flick where the star of a teen movie, Ringwald, actually played her age. Yup, most actors playing teenagers are in their mid-twenties; for instance, Ralph Macchio was 23 when he appeared in The Karate Kid, and was 31 when he played a freshman university student in 1992's My Cousin Vinny.

This one doesn't have as many gags as previous parodies, and for reasons of space, Shiman had to pass on the wedding ceremony, which is possibly one of the funniest matrimonial sequences of all time (hint: it involves an overdose on muscle relaxants).

You can check out Sixteen Candles Bunnies by clicking here. Jennifer Shiman's next parody will be Superbad, followed by Goodfellas.

Fun Fact: Shiman's parody of Brokeback Mountain won two Webby Awards for Online Film and Video/Animation, plus the People's Voice award in that category.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

(Writer's Note: I occasionally use this blog space to post news items that don't have enough material to warrant a full article)

Television actor Bruno Campos will join Anika Noni Rose and Keith David in the upcoming Disney film The Princess and the Frog, voicing the other leading role. This is Campos' first leading role in a major feature film.

Variety confirmed that the actor, best known for recurring roles in TV shows like Night Life, Nip/Tuck and the short-lived Christina Applegate vehicle Jesse, will voice the amphibian part in the flick, which will be Disney's first traditionally animated film since 2004.

The Princess and the Frog also marks the return of Ron Clements and John Musker, the directing team behind such Disney animated hits like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Hercules. Randy Newman (Toy Story) is composing the score, and writing the songs for the musical.

There's not a lot known about the plot of this film. Back when the movie was called The Frog Princess, many believed that Disney was taking the ancient Russian folk tale and moving it to 1920's New Orleans. After protests from the black community, Disney quickly changed the names of several characters and revamped the script.

Rose will play Princess Tiana and David will voice the villain, Dr. Facilier. John Goodman joins the cast as a Southern gentleman, and Jennifer Cody plays his spoiled daughter. Jenifer Lewis plays Mama Odie, a voodoo priestess, while Ritchie Montgomery voices Reggie, a musical alligator.

The Princess and the Frog has been scheduled for theatrical release on December 25, 2009.

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann

I was away on vacation when the news broke about the death of Ollie Johnston, the last remaining member of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, on April 14th of this year.

Given that I only found out about it 8 days later, I didn't want to do just another memorial, given that many other websites had done great obituaries for the legendary animator and teacher. However, I did notice that there was a lot of information about the Nine Old Men scattered about the InterWeb, and many sources that directly contradicted each other.

For instance, Wikipedia claimed that Wolfgang Reitherman joined Disney in 1935 along with Milt Kahl, but Disney's website claimed that Reitherman joined in 1933.

Even Disney screwed up by placing the character of Madame Medusa in 1963's The Sword in the Stone, when in fact she only appeared in 1977's The Rescuers. In fact, it was the character design of Madame Min that Wolfgang Reitherman praised when he viewed Milt Kahl's work (you can click the link to read more about that story).

Given that there was so much contradictory information out there, I decided the best way was to collect everything I could find about these great animators, and put it all in one place. Obviously I could only tell each animator's story in under 800 words (due to space considerations), but I wanted to cut through the garbage and tell each animator's story in an interesting and informative way.

So I hope you enjoy this nine-part series on some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. And if you have any comments, or stories you'd like to share, go ahead and say your piece.