I love the fact that even the folks putting together the Academy Awards realize that animation is a wonderful way to create and share stories that could never be told any other way. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee created Frozen last year, won a ton of awards, and this year they got to host the Oscar party for all their fellow animators as their reward. I think they approached this with the right style, sharing a small but important slice of each nominees production, and then interviewing them about it, so they could share their vision with the world. This is a wonderful presentation; enjoy!
The more I see of the new live action version of the classic Disney animation Cinderella, the more I like it. The story was a classic folk tale first published in 1634, with the first movie version by film pioneer Georges Méliès coming out in 1899, but somehow I still think Disney when I hear the name. This is the second official US trailer for the new film, which will be in theaters March 13th. Be sure to take your seat early enough so you don’t miss the new animated short Frozen Fever, which takes place just a few months after the original movie Frozen ended.
This short animation, Le Gouffre, was created by just 3 animators who took two years bringing it to life. It has won a number of awards including Best Animated Short at three film festivals and Official Selection at about 35 more. The quality of the finished work is amazing, from the oil painting textures to the story itself, all told without words.
Le Gouffre from Lightning Boy Studio on Vimeo.
In Movies we get Predestination, based upon a 1959 short story by Robert A.Heinlein, All You Zombies. This very convoluted time travel tale is the more-or-less sequel to the earlier Heinlein story, By His Bootstraps. The other film this week is In Your Eyes, an award winning supernatural romance by Joss Whedon, is pretty much the ultimate opposites attract saga. This one was never in theaters, having been made to go direct to streaming, and now it is on disc just in time for Valentines day. If you don’t know about it, have a trailer on me…
In western animation there is LEGO: DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League, for those looking for good silly fun. If you hadn’t heard, Lego is putting out a Doctor Who Lego Edition later this year. TV gets the long awaited Batman: The Second Season, Part 1, the first 30 episodes of season 2, with Adam West and Burt Ward.
In Anime Reideen: Collection 2 has Mechanical Beasts continuing to attack the Earth, who’s major defender is a high school boy piloting an alien-built giant robot. The problem is, no one knows who the robot is actually working for or what its purpose is. This is a remake of the 1975 Super Robot anime Brave Raideen. Engaged to the Unidentified may be a reference to UFOs, as a young woman meets her fiance from an arranged marriage for the first time. Something just isn’t right about her new family, who are very strange. Finally, Sailor Moon: Season 1 Part 2 continues the newest entry into this classic series.
Sadly the new animation, Frozen Fever, is a short rather than a feature length project. It will be the opening presentation before the live action version of Cinderella in theaters on March 13. Since I was going to be there anyways for the movie, this is pure bonus fun.
Another trailer has been released for Minions, the new animated adventure telling the story about what they got up to while waiting for Gru to come along. Quite frankly, these little guys are about 80% of what made me fall in love with the Despicable Me franchise in the first place, so I have been very much looking forward to this film.