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Exclamation Pete looks at Disney's line-up, including DePalma's MISSION TO MARS teaser...
Hey folks, Harry here with Exclamation Pete and his look at the same Disney exhibition that Hootie saw yesterday... but he's focusing on some of the other stuff Disney showed. So... here ya go...
Harry
Pete! here with a report from the Disney preview that "Hootie" reported in
from Sydney. This time from Melbourne. Just wanted to add a couple things
from the session, one was that Disney is bringing out an animated Buzz
Lightyear show for TV Don't know if this is old news, but they mentioned
that it starts June over there in the States and they showed the trailer for
the show - it looked like fun, the animation is nice and it was interesting
to the 2D Buzz going through the motions. It's worth noting that while the
rest of the characters where voiced, not a word was heard from Buzz himself
- maybe he hasn't been cast yet? Don't know.
On the feature animation side they showed 2 sequences from Fantasia 2000.
I've been looking forward to this release for sooooo long, I thought I was
going to jump out of my seat when the segments played. My enthusiasm was
short lived. The sequences where well enough animated but they lacked
something, they were meant to be funny but came across flat. What really
put me off was what is going happen in between the segments. Apparently
Disney has enlisted Steve Martin, Whoopie Goldberg, etc - to intro each
sequence. They showed one of the intros, a conductor that I'm not familiar
with. It started with the original animated sequence that comes right after
Sorcers Apprentice, Mickey goes up to Leopold and shakes his hand. It's all
in silhouette, tasteful with a beautiful use of that rich red colour. Well
it's downhill from there, Mickey leaves the frame and enters the 90's, the
backgrounds are this loud blue colour, Mickey himself is loudly animated, he
moves more like Roger Rabbit, the lighting is bright, it's all just over the
top. Some of the stills from the other sequences looked interesting, so
maybe they just picked the dud ones for the preview - I hope so.
They also previewed the trailer for Mission to Mars - the De Palmer version.
Egads! Talk about Kubrik envy! It even has a big white room with a
monolith (laying on it's side) in it - I don't hold too much hope.
Toy Story 2 was fun, not as well directed as the first one, it fell a little
flat at the beginning but it picks up and gets better as it goes along,
audience loved it - heard a couple of people say it's better than the first
one - no way, but it's good, I think that there is a bit of hold over from
when it was a video release happening in the first 1/3 of the film. I'm
probably just getting old.
That's it, they had a lot more stuff, some of which Hootie covered, but it
all looked so bad that you try to push it out of your mind as quick as you
can, i.e.: 102 Dalmatians, Little Mermaid 2, Hunchback 2, Mission to Mars,
etc.
Pete!
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It should be noted that Toy Story 2 was originally slated to be a direct to video release. Lately, Disney has been releasing sequels direct to the lucrative video market, a la Lion King 2. That's what Mermaid 2 and Hunchback 2 are set to do as well. Granted, Toy Story 2 was done through Pixar, but if you haven't seen Lion King 2, you might check it out. It's not as good as the original but it's not full on shite, either. Your kids will like it, anyway. The bottom line is this, they call it "show business" not "show art." Disney, like every, yes every, studio out there (indie or otherwise) is trying to make money and will do it by exploiting their product every which way. You can't fault them for trying, but you can fault them for making it badly.
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I saw the trailer and the new animation looks very cheap. The best looking stuff was the CG Whales! Prince of Egypt & Iron Giant looked miles better.
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I guess you could call these *SPOILERS* if you haven't seen the trailer yet....
I thought the Flamingo scenes looked especially cheap......it reminded me of some goofy saturday morning cartoon....BUT, I think the metamorphosis of Stravinsky's FIREBIRD looked very impressive. The toy soldier segment looks lke really underdone CGI.....I wish they would just stick to animation. -
Cripes...I think I hafta agree with you guys 'bout the cheap animation...well...it's a helluva lot better than the Fox and WB efforts (with exceptions of course! ala I.G.), but it just wasn't truly disney-esc.
This was especially noticable in the Tin Soldier sequence...it just NOT well-done - it's not quite brilliantly 3d and it's just not quite brilliantly 2d...it's a lost cause!
As for the firebird scene, the ideas were good, but somehow I thought that the animation wasn't as smooth as what Disney is famous for in their animation - SMOOTH! Why isn't it SMOOTH? Did my brain fail to register all the drawings? Maybe my eyes blinked at all the wrong times?
But I must say, I have very high hopes for the Rhapsody in Blue sequence. I'll admit that I'm a big fan of Gershwin...AND a big fan of Hirschfeld...but I thought that it really hit the spot...my spot anyway...don't know 'bout you.
Anywayz...that's my lil' gripe for the day.
Long-dong. -
I'm not defending Disney here; if the animation in Fantasia 2000 sucks then it sucks. But to try to put some thought as to why, first: Since F2K is going to be shown on IMAX screens, is it in any way possible that the trailers suck because they're taking IMAX formatted visuals and adapting them to standard screen trailers. I've seen that kind of problem before with live-action IMAX films and lord know *what* effect this would have on animation. Does anyone who knows the technicals on this have an opinion? I'm **REALLY** hoping F2K doesn't suck because the spouse will have a hissy fit. As to Little Mermaid and Hunchback sequels? Well, LM certainly left some room for a next chapter, so I don't feel too bad about that idea. But how in the world will they do more with HoND? Not only is the story pretty much over per the classic book, but that film has to be among the lowest-grossing of the Disney masterpieces. Do we really think there's an audience out there for more Hunchback? I've got a 2-year-old son, and I know I would give it a pass. I doubt I'd even rent it. AM I WRONG HERE FOLKS?
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People, listen up:
I have NO idea if you guys actually know what you're talking about whenever you mention Disney, and especially "Hunchback"! What the hell was wrong with "Hunchback"??
"Disney should make more serious animated movies", you whine. Well Disney GIVES you more adult movies ("HoND"), and your response: "it was lame/crap/etc, too dark...". Nothing pleases you guys, for Christ's sake!
"Disney advertise too much (McDonald's tie-ins)", you complain. OPEN YOUR EYES!!! Do you see any movie company NOT paying millions to promote their movies??? The only lack of promotion was for poor "Iron Giant", and BECAUSE of lack of advertising, it fell flat on its face at the movies!
It's a tough world in show-business, and everyone (yes, *everyone*) has to..."spend cash to survive and earn more cash, to spend....." and so on.
So there. -
DePalma is mirroring Kubrick out of respect, not envy. He references other sci-fi films as a tool to achieve the desired outcome...usually for a little comic relief. Try to open your eyes and see what's really going on...
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