Yep, they are doing Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2, and it could be even sillier than the first one, based on the trailer. It should be out come September, and since they don’t seem to have the website on line yet, I just linked back to the first one.
I loved the first film, and I am definitely looking forward to the new one. Pixar is one of my favorite animation houses, and Monster University promises to be a fun continuation of the franchise.
Over the years, Disney has done some of the best educational work ever assembled, translating complex concepts about science and history into forms we can all easily understand. This is one of my all time favorites from that collection, a story about the history of space science, and how we came to understand how it works. Mind, Disney did nothing about resolving the scientific questions, but it sure explained them so we all understood, and gave us a fun little animation to watch while doing so. I like it a lot, and appreciate the education it has given so many, including me.
Most of us never get picked for astronaut training (in fact a few like me never get picked to play on a team of any kind), but for those who don’t, astronaut Jerry Carr got together with TED and produced this great little animation on the topic. This will introduce you to some of the details that NASA usually doesn’t mention, like the fact that being an Astronaut is something you only get to do after doing a whole lot of support stuff in the background, to help the current astronauts get their job done. I do love the excellent job that Sharon Colman did on the animation; it is classic 50s Disney line drawings, just like they did for the whole Mission to Mars program and all the other wonderful Disney space shows they did over the years.
There seems to be a distinct lack of live action genre releases this week, either Movies or TV. And the western animation is a re-release, Peter Pan, Diamond Edition, which brings this classic out in Blue Ray format for the first time.
We do a little better with Anime, but not by a lot. Toriko: Part 2 continues the combat gourmet epic as our hero attempts to assemble his Full Course Menu of Life. The rule for including a dish seems to be it has to be made from something that kills most of the people that hunt it. While I can’t vouch for Toriko’s sanity, you have to admire his style. Also this week, Casshern Sins: Complete Series is coming out in a S.A.V.E. edition, which means if you shop around you can pick it up for under $20. Robot redemption in the wasteland he created is a unique premise for a series, and this one is done quire well.
There are, of course, many other DVDs coming out this week, both live action and animated, but they do not seem to be genre or even genre related. Hopefully we will do better next week.
If you saw Wreck-It Ralph in a movie theater, this was the short feature that prefaced that film. If you haven’t seen it, this one is up for an Academy Award in the Short Film, Animated category. It is a wonderful bit of storytelling, made even more amazing by the fact they didn’t even need many words to make you fully understand it.