cartoon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's entirely possible I am the only one disappointed by the following news, but bear with me. The latest word on Rob Zombie's dirty lucha libre cartoon, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is that it's headed directly to DVD and Blu-ray. That's the bad news. The good news is that after three years, it will finally see the light of day (or the darkness of night). Zombie's first foray into animated filmmaking has plenty of clever characters doing the voice acting, like Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, Danny Trejo (!), Clint Howard, and Zombie regulars Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, and Sheri Moon Zombie.

Zombie told IGN in an interview this past spring, "It came out awesome... That started off as this little tiny half-a-million dollar direct-to-video movie that expanded into this $10 million animated extravaganza." Except, well, it's a $10 million animated extravaganza that is going direct to DVD.

I have high hopes that it will make an appearance as a midnight movie in my local theater (and yours!) and perhaps get some attention at one of the many horror festivals like Fantastic Fest. Even though I'd like to see in on the big screen, it does look like the type of movie that would make more money on DVD than in theaters, especially with its target audience, which I can only guess is made up of fans of over-the-top cartoons, horror, heavy metal, and Mexican wrestling... or stoners. Not that they're mutually exclusive, of course.

(Courtesy of FEARNet)

Now that Robert Rodriguez won't be making Barbarella anytime in the near future it looks like he has put his live-action Jetson's flick at the front of the pack instead. The director recently told MTV that he hopes to get the film in front of cameras by next year. A script was completed by Adam F. Goldberg (Fanboys) back in 2007, but Rodriguez has been hard at work on a rewrite and keeping quiet about casting prospects.

The Jetsons was the story of a futuristic family living in a world run by sprockets ... and that was about it, really. Each week, George Jetson would get fired, promoted, you name it -- and then head home to his family which consisted of the perfect housewife, a genius son and boy-crazy daughter. Their dog would mispronounce words; the robot maid would get a few wisecracks in and voila! A cartoon classic was born.

I'm not a big Jetsons fan, but I do love to play fantasy casting director, so here are my picks for a live-action Jetsons:

George Jetson: Steve Carell
Despite having a spotty record on the big-screen, Carell proved once before that he can walk away from a TV adaptation with his dignity intact. He not only has the look down, but he can play a lovable loser with the best of them and has a knack for physical comedy. What more could you ask for in a George Jetson?

Jane Jetson: Reese Witherspoon
Jane wasn't exactly a ditz, but let's just say she wasn't the sharpest sprocket in the pile either. Witherspoon has made bank on playing these kinds of characters in the past, and I think she has just the right amount of uptight to be the doting wife (and straight man) to her wackier better half.

After the jump: my final picks...

Disney has Pixar. Fox has Blue Sky. Paramount has, for now, Dreamworks. As seemingly the last studio to get into animated features, Universal has offered up the trailer for their maiden effort, The Tale of Despereaux, over at Yahoo! Movies.

Based upon the 2003 Newbury Award-winning novel by Kate DiCamillo, the film follows the adventurous antics of Despereaux (voiced by Matthew Broderick), a mouse with large ears and - I'm just guessing here - an even bigger heart, as he bucks the status quo of cowardice that seems to have imprisoned his kind to a fearsome existence.

Besides being an animated tale of a brave rodent with a tongue-tricky title and thus fated to merit comparison to those which have recently set lofty standards for similar fare, this project genuinely looks and sounds pleasant enough for all its yay-for-being-yourself familiarity. Besides, there's only more hope to be had when we're looking at a voice cast that includes the likes of Broderick, Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Sigourney Weaver, Stanley Tucci, William H. Macy, and Tony Hale, not to mention a Harry Potter veteran or two.

With its eye on the year-end holiday season, The Tale of Despereaux is scheduled to hit theaters on December 19th.

I might not be the biggest G.I. Joe fan out there, but even I am starting to question some of the casting decisions for Paramount's big-screen adaptation. Variety reports that Marlon Wayans of White Chicks fame has signed to play Ripcord in their feature film based on the classic cartoon (nothing against the guy, he was great in Requiem for a Dream, but then again he did star in Little Man). For those of you out there who aren't all that familiar with "the *Greatest American Hero", Ripcord was one of the good guys and was the leader of a paramilitary group. He made his first appearance back in 1985 and was thought of as the "new wave" of recruits after the first round of 'Joes' retired. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also said to be in negotiations to co-star, though his character is not named.

Mummy director Stephen Sommers will helm the script written by Stuart Beattie. The update of the story now has it set 10 years in the future and the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity (G.I.J.O.E.) are still saving humanity from an arms dealer. News of Wayans joining the cast came just a few weeks after it was announced that Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (LOST) and Said Taghmaoui (The Kite Runner) would be joining Sienna Miller and Ray Park in the cast as 'Heavy Duty' and 'Breaker'. So for fans who might be keeping track, so far making appearances in the film will be; Ripcord, Heavy Duty, Breaker, with the possibility of Scarlett and Storm Shadow also popping up. Shooting is set to begin in Los Angeles this February and G.I. Joe is scheduled for release on August 7th, 2008.

*Correction: Joes were known as the "Real American Heroes"

As odd as it may sound, I've never watched an episode of Jonny Quest. While I'm fully aware of the show, there was something about the adopted Indian kid, and a dog, and a weird scientist -- not to mention the little blonde kid who looked way too cute and innocent to be going on all these adventures. But that's not stopping Hollywood (who've been itching to resurrect old, vintage cartoons as of late) from turning the 1960s animated series into a new live-action extravaganza. Like they're doing with next summer's Speed Racer, Warner Bros. has decided it's time for Jonny to take off on another quest, and Variety reports Hitman producers Adrian Askarieh and Daniel Alter have signed on to produce the flick based on the cartoon created by the great Hanna-Barbera. Dan Mazeau (Land of Lost Things) will pen the script.

There's no word on a director or a cast yet (will Zac Efron dye his hair blonde and play Jonny?!); all we know is that the film will feature young Jonny, his scientist father, his adopted Indian brother, Bandit the bulldog and a government agent assigned to protect them while out investigating scientific mysteries. I know the cartoon has tons of fans (so much so that Cartoon Network revived the show and DC came out with a Quest-related comic), but live action? In what world would the government be keen on two kids, a dog and some scientist dude running around (on the government's dime?), trying to solve mysteries? I guess the same could be said for a lot of movies, but this one has definitely piqued my curiosity. Not surprisingly, Warners is also looking to turn this into a family-friendly franchise should the first film be successful. Are you a big Jonny Quest fan? What do you think about a live-action flick?

After seeing the new poster for Alvin and the Chipmunks, I just have to start off by asking, "What the hell has happened to the Chipmunks"? The Movie Blog now has the first look at the one-sheet for the CGI and live action update of Ross Bagdasarian's (a.k.a. David Seville) original creation, and while I'm up all for modernization (they were created in the 50's after all), I can't help but wonder why they decided to outfit the trio in thug wear. For God's sake, Simon is wearing what looks like a kangol.

Bagdasarian first debuted the Chipmunks all the way back in 1958 under the original name David Seville and the Chipmunks. At the time, he had already made a name for himself as the composer of a few novelty hits in the 50's including The Witch Doctor -- you can even hear an inkling of the Chipmunk voices to come in the "ooh ee ooh aah aah" portion of that song. Eventually, a cartoon was based on the "group" (The Alvin Show) and Alvin and the Chipmunks was born. There was also a cartoon series that was created in 83' and ran until 1991 -- although I think most of us could have done without the Chipettes.

Back in March, Monika broke the unfortunate news for Jason Lee fans that he had joined the cast as the put-upon manager/father David, who is for some inexplicable reason the guardian of three singing rodents. The movie was directed by Tim Hill, who you might remember was also responsible for Garfield -- and that really isn't making me feel better about the whole idea. Since this is a family film, it's no surprise that Fox has chosen December 14th as a release date -- tis' the season for family fare. Considering what they've done to the Chipmunks' appearance, I can only imagine what they have planned for Christmas Don't Be Late.

It looks like Warner Bros. has a few things to clear up about their big-screen version of Thundercats. An article in the LA Times confirms that the film will be done entirely with CGI. It was just a few days ago the Patrick had reported that the series had been given the go-ahead for a film treatment with relative newcomer Paul Sopocy on board to write the live-action script. Now, a spokesperson for WB confirmed that despite any talk of the contrary, the film would be animated. Which is probably for the best, since I can't see many big name actors willing to get into cat-suits, or wanting to play a Snarf. Misperceptions about the film aside, WB is still planning on using Sopocy's script.

The original story of Thundercats revolved around a band of "felinesque" characters who suffer the double whammy of having their home planet destroyed and then are forced to go on the run from an evil sorcerer named Mumm-Ra. The series spawned a run of comic books and was revived on The Cartoon Network in the late 90's (if you are feeling nostalgic, you can also get the first two seasons on DVD). The announcement of a big-screen version comes on the heels of news of film adaptations of fellow 80's classics G.I. Joe and He-Man. I just hope Sopocy can fill in some of the blanks of the relatively flimsy story of Lion-O and the gang. To be honest, Thundercats only made sense if you were eight years old -- or if you were high. Then again, it's not like G.I. Joe and He-Man would be mistaken for social commentary either, so who am I to judge?