John Lasseter Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As a cinephile and animation fan long before I became a professional critic, I have a couple of very specific memories associated with Toy Story and Toy Story 2: With the first film, I remember being unimpressed with its ad campaign and even its technological novelty – that is, until I actually saw the thing, and totally loved it. And with the second, I recall sitting in a theatre the opening weekend of its release, sobbing my eyes out to "Jessie's Song" as hundreds of pre-teens and their parents impatiently awaited the next set piece.

Unfortunately, I think few people who are already fans of the franchise will find much new or different to remember now that they're in 3D. Meanwhile, newcomers to the most important computer-animated series in movie history will also probably not find anything more profound than the stories themselves, since they were already multi-dimensional long before anyone made their experience technical in addition to already being an emotional one.

If you have ever wandered into the children's section of a bookstore, you've undoubtedly seen the work of William Joyce. If you have small ones, you may have even read them. Joyce is a wonderful author, one of the rare picture book authors who write as well as they draw. Few of Joyce's books have made it to the big screen (a truly curious thing), but one of his more recent efforts will be coming to theaters near you, as Variety reports that The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs has been re-optioned by Fox.

At the moment, though, the story behind the option is causing more of a stir than Joyce's work. Pixar and Fox were both fighting over The Leaf Men, which was originally set up at Fox with Chris Wedge directing, and a script by Joyce and James V. Hart. Allegedly, Wedge was then given permission to shop the project to other studios, and Pixar immediately said "Bring it here! We'll make it!" (Wedge and Joyce both have good history with Pixar. Wedge is friends with John Lasseter, and Joyce helped design characters for Toy Story and A Bug's Life.) But when all involved moved to close the deal, Fox said "No way. We're keeping it." Now it's all back at Fox, but at least there's no hard feelings towards Wedge.

Now we just have to hope that Fox Animation makes a good movie, because The Leaf Men is a lush and enchanting book starring a group of doodle bugs who reside in an elderly woman's garden. She falls ill, and the garden falls into disrepair fermented by an evil spider queen. The doodle bugs call on the legendary Leaf Men (characters who Joyce's daughter described as "so handsome!") to help save them. A bit like A Bug's Life, but more along the lines of Robin Hood than The Seven Samurai. It'll be beautiful if handled right. Now, if Pixar would just make Dinosaur Bob ....

I'm trying to muster up some enthusiasm for Disney's latest animated film, Bolt. It's cute. It has funny pigeons. My eight-year-old niece is going to like it, especially since Miley Cyrus is involved. It's the first non-Pixar Disney feature produced by John Lasseter, who directed the Toy Story movies and Cars. It's got Hollywood jokes in it, including a director voiced by James Lipton, and a comically pushy agent. And yet I never thrilled to the story or the characters; I wasn't half as amused as I'd been by Kung Fu Panda, a film for kids I saw earlier this year.

The story should sound familiar to anyone who grew up with Lassie movies or other animal-road-trip films, but with a Hollywood twist. The title character, a cute dog called Bolt (John Travolta), is fiercely attached to "his person," teenage Penny (Miley Cyrus). Bolt saves Penny's life on a regular basis as she and her dad are pursued by the evil Dr. Calico and his nasty cats ... or so he thinks. The truth is that Bolt is the star of a TV series, but the cast and crew are very careful not to let him know that he's not in real-life situations. So he believes he's a genetically engineered dog with laser eyes and amazing strength and a supersonic bark. When Bolt is separated from Penny and ends up halfway across the country on his own, for the first time he's in a world that isn't a soundstage or his trailer. Now, how will he get back to Penny?

During a Disney showcase in Los Angeles this afternoon, a few fairly big announcements were made -- most notably the fact that Cars 2 is being bumped up from 2012 to the summer of 2011. John Lasseter also announced a series of animated shorts related to the Cars franchise called Cars Toons, and those will air on the Disney Channel, as well as (possibly) screen theatrically. With Toy Story 3 arriving in 2010, this means Pixar will shovel out back-to-back sequels for the first time ever. Those Pixar fans seeking an original product will get one next year with Up.

Also during the showcase, it was announced that Oprah Winfrey has joined the voice cast of The Princess and the Frog, where she'll play Eudora, the mother of the main character Princess Tiana (Anika Noni Rose). Due out on Christmas Day in 2009, The Princess and the Frog returns Disney to their classic 2D animation and it follows a young girl who lives in the New Orleans French Quarter during the Jazz Age. Princess and the Frog also marks the first time Disney has featured an African American princess.

We'll update this post should more info come out ...

Two weeks ago, we learned that Paul Newman has lung cancer (or may have lung cancer). And my first reaction was: will he still be able to do A Walk in the Woods with Robert Redford? Or whatever that long-ago confirmed final film is, if not that Bill Bryson adaptation? A couple years back the Oscar-winning actor said he's retiring after one "last hurrah," and it was speculated that he'd be re-teaming with Redford (his partner in both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting). Unfortunately, the last we heard about A Walk in the Woods, there was no mention of Newman being involved.

Over at MTV Movies Blog, meanwhile, Shawn Adler's first thought was more like: "Is Cars really going to be his last acting role?" And thanks to MTV News, he somewhat received the answer. Apparently, the fine folks at Pixar (who are releasing their latest, Wall-E, this Friday) are including Newman's character, "Doc Hudson", in the script for Cars 2, which is set to hit theaters in 2012. Cars co-writer/director John Lasseter says they're "just waiting to see" if Newman will be able to reprise the role. If Newman can't do it, though, the sequel will be doubly sad, since it will also be missing Joe Ranft, who co-wrote, co-directed and voiced two characters in the first movie. The longtime Pixar collaborator died tragically in a car accident the year before Cars came out.

Would you still want Doc to appear in Cars 2 if not voiced by Newman?

This news the other day about Pixar making a sequel to the milquetoast Cars really bothers me. I mean, Cars? Seriously? Yawwwwwwwn. Of all the films they've made over there, that's the last one I want to see a sequel to. And now, we also have the official word that Toy Story 3 is coming. While Toy Story 2 was one of the best sequels ever, I'm not sure they can (or should) try to sustain that momentum for a third round. I understand the impulse to build on existing branding, and the desire to market the hell out of a bunch of new toys, but with all those creative minds over at Pixar, surely they can do more than that.

If they must do sequels, I'm infinitely more interested in seeing Incredibles 2 than Cars 2. The Incredibles was a nearly perfect animated film -- visually stunning, great characters with interesting arcs, fantastic voice acting, and a good storyline, to boot. I've heard rumors that Brad Bird doesn't want an Incredibles sequel, but surely he of all people could come up with a fab storyline that wouldn't dilute the franchise.

Pixar did announce some new original stuff coming up; besides Wall-E, which I'm hyped about, we have Up coming in May 2009, and Newt in Summer 2011. Beyond that, though, it's pretty much Sequels-'R-Us around PixarLand, with Cars 2, Toy Story 3, and 3-D releases of Toy Story 1 and 2. What do you think about Pixar and sequels -- especially of Cars? Does anyone really care about seeing more of the adventures of Doc Hollywood Lightning McQueen? Or would you rather see Pixar following up on the Incredibles, or just creating more original stories? Sound off and let 'em know what you think.

"Art challenges technology, and technology inspires the art. That's it in a nutshell the way we work at Pixar." John Lasseter

For anyone who's ever enjoyed a Pixar film, or even a cartoon for that matter, might I suggest adding the newly-released Pixar Short Films Collection Volume I to your DVD library. Aside from receiving 13 Pixar short films, there's an excellent behind-the-scenes feature that takes you through those early days at Pixar; how they went about making those first short films -- the long hours, the sleepless nights, the skimpy paychecks -- to how their entire lives changed when Disney called and requested they take a gamble on their first feature film. That film, of course, turned out to be Toy Story. And the rest is history.

And that's exactly what you get with this DVD: A Pixar history lesson. It's best if you, like I did, start out with the bonus documentary on Pixar, featuring folks like John Lasseter and his Pixar crew who take you through what it was like back in the mid-80s to be introducing a new kind of computer animation to the world. The kind of animation that talked, spoke and engaged the audience. Originally, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company that sold their Pixar Image Computer to government agencies and the medical community. Lasseter was the only animator on staff, and the entire crew would spend days, weeks, months creating these tiny short films they would preview at trade conventions to pimp their product. Problem was, the Pixar Image Computer didn't sell. These shorts made no money (even though they won Oscars), and some considered it a waste of time. Eventually, the Pixar animation department struck a deal to create some commercials for outside parties. Following the commercials, they wanted to make something small; a half hour made-for-TV movie. However, Disney called ... and they said screw the TV movie -- if you could make something 30 minutes long, you could do 90 minutes. Thus, a $26 million, three-picture deal was struck and Toy Story was born.

We knew this news was coming since way back when Pixar and Disney kissed and made up: Toy Story 3 is officially a Go. Variety fills us in with all the details: Production on the third adventure of Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy is about to get underway, but John Lasseter (director of TS and TS2) will not be at the helm this time. (He is the Chief Creative Officer for Disney Animation, don't forget.) This means that directorial duties fall squarely on Mr. Lee Unkrich, but this guy's more than earned the gig by now. (He was an editor/co-director on Pixar beauties like Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo.)

And here's another interesting tidbit: Seems that Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt has been tapped to pen Toy Story 3. (Hey, score one for the little guy!) Anyway, Disney says that TS3 should be ready by 2009, which is kind of a long time to wait -- but, like most of you, I'm just thrilled that things worked out this way. We came kind of close to getting a Pixar-free Toy Story 3, didn't we?