happy feet Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When filling out the box office chart that's below the fold, I accidentally mistyped Madagascar as Badagascar. I didn't mean it. Of this decade's slew of random non-Pixar talking-animal cartoons, Madagascar and Happy Feet are far and away the best, so I'm glad that the former, at least, is now a bona fide franchise. (There were rumors of a second Happy Feet, but that project seems to have stalled.) Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa opened to a huge $63.5 million this weekend, a $16 million improvement on its 2005 predecessor. Animated films' staying power is unpredictable (though generally stronger than average), but $175 million seems assured and $250 million is not out of the question.

Role Models' $19 million opening is less ginormous, but no less notable. For an R-rated comedy with no real stars and no franchise behind it, that's a major coup. I suspect word-of-mouth will help the film in the weeks to come.

Soul Men, on the other hand, failed to capitalize on the cache of Samuel L. Jackson and the late Bernie Mac. Black audiences would have turned out in droves for the feel-good comedy. Lionsgate would have gone to town with it.

With last weekend's box office hit on account of Halloween falling on Friday, this weekend's drop figures -- save Saw V's -- looked pretty good across the board. Most notably, people seem to be responding well to Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which held on to fourth place without much of a screen count jump.

The full estimates after the jump.

When Weinberg made clear his sentiment regarding the prospect of sitting through a film titled Beverly Hills Chihuahua in this or any other lifetime -- his words: "[it] looks to be an endless migraine composed of forced cuteness and bad effects" -- he drew the ire of chihuahua owners who said that it looks to be every bit as adorable as their fuzzy-wuzzy-kins and that we all might as well cram our cynicism and good sense (not to mention ethnic heritage) come this fall.

Look, just because you like an animal doesn't mean that you have to enjoy a film centered around them. My family may own six dogs, but you wouldn't see me eagerly lining up for and giving a pass to Kiss My Basset, simply because they constitute exactly one-half of above-mentioned population. The upcoming Hotel for Dogs may look silly, but it's nowhere near as downright stupid as BHC still appears to be as of this latest trailer. (The fact that actress Piper Perabo seems to be recycling what I suspect was her Coyote Ugly audition towards the end certainly doesn't help matters.)

Man, does anyone in Hollywood still think that Babe earned a Best Picture nod on adorable alone? Alas, Disney seems to be banking on that indeed -- that, and a parade of cringe-inducing Mexican and Hispanic stereotypes -- and I have little reason to think that the American moviegoing public won't go and prove them right. The Mayans may have believed that the world would end on December 21, 2012. My vote goes to October 3, 2008.

With its concentration on the music industry, it's easy to forget that the Grammys have a few movie-related categories. They include best compilation soundtrack album, best score soundtrack album and best song written for motion picture, television or other visual media. One thing that's always odd with the Grammys, though, is how many nominees are so old. Take a look at the score/composer nominees, for example: Babel (Gustavo Santaolalla); Blood Diamond (James Newton Howard); The Departed (Howard Shore); Happy Feet (John Powell); Pan's Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete); Ratatouille (Michael Giacchino). Only the last of those films came out in 2007. But the eligibility period for the Grammys is always October of the previous year until the end of September of the current year. All but Ratatouille's soundtrack were released in October, November and December of 2006. Since the Grammy ceremony is only a couple weeks prior to the Oscars, the ancient films honored are easily seen as that much more old news (Babel won the 2007 Academy Award for score).

Happy Feet was also recognized in the best song category, for "The Song of My Heart" by Prince (who already has the best soundtrack of all time), despite its not having received an Oscar nomination. Same goes for one of its competitors, Casino Royale theme song "You Know My Name", co-written (with David Arnold) and performed by Chris Cornell. Dreamgirls' "Love You I Do", written by Siedah Garrett and Henry Krieger (performed by Jennifer Hudson) is the only overlap from last February's Oscar nominees (it lost to Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth). The other recognized tracks, both from 2007 releases, are Eddie Vedder's "Guaranteed" from Into the Wild and Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's duet "Falling Slowly" from Once.

Once is also a contender for best compilation soundtrack, though it faces a huge challenger in The Beatles, who are recognized for the album for the Cirque du Soleil show Love (how does that fall into this category and not the one for musical show album?) and indirectly for the soundtrack to the movie Across the Universe, which features covers of the band's tunes performed by the movie's cast. Other soundtrack nominees are retro musicals Dreamgirls and Hairspray. Sorry, fans of High School Musical 2.

Though we've known for some time now that Happy Feet director George Miller was circling the live-action Justice League of America movie, Variety is just now reporting that Miller will indeed helm the film. With the threat of a strike looming in the distance like a nasty storm cloud or a drunk ex-girlfriend who has no business being in the same place you are, Warner Bros. is feverishly forging ahead in order to have a big superhero movie for 2009. This summer, Christopher Nolan will debut The Dark Knight, his follow-up to Batman Begins, and since Bryan Singer is busy filming Nazis with Tom Cruise, his follow-up to Superman Returns won't be ready until at least 2010 (if it ever does get off the ground). So, with all that in mind, it's do or die time for Justice League. But will the rushed script, casting and production schedule ultimately hurt the finished product. Um, I'll let you answer that one.

So now that Miller is onboard, our attention immediately turns toward casting. Variety says that Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash and Aquaman will most likely be the primarily characters in the film. For those wondering, both Christian Bale and Brandon Routh will most likely not be involved (and Nolan has already requested that the studio hold off on JLA until his Batman films are done, but apparently that ain't gonna happen). Casting rumors pop up every single day; I believe the latest one has Ryan Gosling playing Batman and Tom Welling playing Superman. However, nothing is official. I've already made it clear how I feel about this film -- that, as cool as it sounds to have a live-action flick featuring all my favorite superheroes, now is just not the time. Especially seeing as it's going to be rushed into production, why not just go the CGI route, or the motion-capture route? Why force this? Nurture this project, protect it; it could be the geeked-up movie event of the decade. I dig Miller, but I'm super scared. What about you?

I guess you have two questions to ask yourself: 1) Do you want the same guy who brought us Happy Feet and Babe directing a Justice League of America film? or 2) Do you want the same guy who brought us the Mad Max trilogy directing a Justice League of America film? I guess it doesn't really matter since we're talking about the same guy here, and if folks like Latino Review are correct, you won't have any say in the decision either. Yup, their sources are saying that George Miller is the frontrunner to helm the Justice League film. It's an odd choice, I know, especially considering the fact that Miller has never worked on a comic-related film (to my knowledge), and that his last two films were animated kiddie flicks. Plus, the final installment in the Mad Max trilogy came out in 1985 (22 years ago for those keeping counting at home), so is this really the guy we want in charge of what could potentially be one of the coolest superhero flicks of all time?

For the uneducated among us, The Justice League of America (or JLA) is a team comprised of all of our favorite DC superheroes, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, etc... By all accounts, Warner Bros. is intent on making this a live action film, with talk that Christian Bale and Brandon Routh would possibly reprise their pre-existing roles as Batman and Superman for the flick. Last we heard, Kieran and Michele Mulroney were hired to write a script, and Warners was looking for a director. Is that director George Miller? We don't know for sure, but folks claim he's real close to signing on. When I first read the story, I immediately expected an announcement that the JLA movie would be animated, and not live action -- especially considering that Miller has been working in that realm for the past few years. Personally, and I've said this a number of times, the only way this film could truly work is if they did it in badass CGI -- kind of like the recent TMNT film. Get Bale and Routh to voice characters, and you're set. If the Batman and Superman franchises weren't already re-established, I'd say go for the live action. But the way it is now -- with audiences and fans already invested in the storylines playing out in those other films -- why mess with it? Just my two cents. What do you think?

Everyone knows that kids rule Hollywood. Without them a lot of movies wouldn't be made, wouldn't make millions and wouldn't sell a ton of merchandise. When studios aren't thinking of how to do well in foreign markets, they're thinking of how to succeed with the little ones. For the past twenty years, the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards have been showing us what the kids apparently prefer, and on Saturday they honored some more predictable favorites.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was the choice for favorite movie of the year, though surprisingly Johnny Depp was not the favorite actor. Instead the kids picked now-7-time-winner Adam Sandler, who also beat out Will Smith and Jack Black. The favorite actress was Dakota Fanning, despite the fact that kids didn't go crazy for her Charlotte's Web last year. Her competition was Halle Berry, Keira Knightley and Sarah Jessica Parker. Happy Feet won for favorite animated film, though it wasn't even nominated for favorite voice from an animated film, a category won by Queen Latifah for Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Rounding out the movie-related awards this weekend was a special honor given to Ben Stiller, who received the "Wannabe" Award for being the person who kids most want to be like. Of course, they probably just want to be in the Museum of Natural History after dark.

Director George Miller has told the AAP two interesting things: Mad Max 4 is going to happen and Mel Gibson won't be the lead. Miller says frankly that Gibson is now too old and too 'focused on his own films' to reprise the role of Rockatansky, so instead he's going to try to recruit a new, young star for the lead. The AAP also notes that Miller began developing Mad Max 4 before production began on Happy Feet, and now that he's finished with that, he's turning his full attention to the project. "I have a few projects in the pipeline including an animation...but I want to do another Mad Max movie and get stuck back into that," Miller said. "It won't be Mel. He was 21 when he made the first one, now he's a lot older and his passion is for filmmaking and directing. I don't think he is into acting and I don't think he would be interested in being involved at all."

The amusing AAP story also has Miller claiming that he received good career advice from his fellow Aussies Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman -- to not get a big head after his Oscar success with Happy Feet. "I was warned not to inhale too much because you can take it a little too seriously," Miller said. "We didn't expect to win, but it was a good excuse to drink, party and to act like teenagers again." No further details were offered as to the timetables and plans for the Mad Max sequel, but my two cents is that Gibson should return if only for a small role. Is it really Mad Max without Mad Mel?

This past weekend was full of award ceremonies (including the BAFTAs), many of which fall on the path toward the Oscars.

• The Writers Guild of America presented its awards Sunday. Top prizes went to Michael Arndt for his original screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine and to William Monahan for his adapted screenplay for The Departed. Both scripts are the best bets for the Oscars. Amy Berg also won an award for documentary writing for Deliver Us From Evil.
• It remains a tight race for the animated feature Oscar, but Cars beat Happy Feet for the top honor at the Annie Awards Sunday. So far the former has taken some big awards like the Golden Globe while the latter has won most of the critics' prizes. Other than Best Animated Feature, Cars only won for its music. Flushed Away took home the most Annies (5), and Over the Hedge won 3. Bambi II won the award for direct-to-video titles.
• Sunday's Grammy Awards had some love for movies, honoring the soundtrack to Walk the Line, John Williams' score for Memoirs of a Geisha, Williams' composition "A Prayer for Peace" from his score for Munich and Randy Newman's song "Our Town" from Cars. Also semi-related are the Dixie Chicks' five wins, which make up for the Oscar snub of their documentary Shut Up & Sing.
• The Visual Effects Society Awards were also presented Sunday. The biggest winner was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with six awards, including the two top prizes. Other winners were Flags of Our Fathers, Casino Royale and Cars.
• Maggie Gyllenhaal presented the tech Oscars Saturday. You can look forward to the quick montage of winners shown during the Academy Awards telecast in two weeks.

Tooling around online this morning, I came across a cutesy little story on Variety in which Robert Vernini tells us (with a wink and a nudge) which recent films will eventually be remade, who will star and how the whole thing will go down. He begins in the year 2012 where, according to Vernini, we will see a new version of Volver set in New Orleans, and starring Halle Berry. Ooohh, and Dakota Fanning takes over the Anne Hathaway role in a remake of The Devil Wears Prada (with John Travolta in drag as Miranda Priestley), while the Olsen twins attempt an updated version of The Holiday ... but the project gets canned when the girls keep forgetting who is playing who.

Having fun yet? Next up is the year 2017, where Steven Soderbergh remakes his own The Good German -- but this time, he finds a way to digitally add in performances by Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Berman and John Hodiak. After Happy Feet: The Musical hits Broadway, folks think it's time to bring that box office beast back to the big screen. Al Gore teams up with Aardman for An Inconvenient Truth: The Animated Musical, with Billy Crystal as the voice of Carbon Dioxide. And, whaddya know, Ms. Fanning is back -- this time as director -- for a remake of Dreamgirls, rewritten to follow the story of the Dixie Chicks.

It keeps going from there -- 2032 and 2057 make appearances -- and the remakes turn even more bizarre (Flags of Our Grandfathers?), but it poses an interesting question (one I shall ask you): Which of todays films have the potential to be remade in five, ten or twenty years from now?

Cartoons are a pixel's-length away from taking the Academy by storm. Animated films this year have a serious increase in competitors, giving award voters a lot to choose from. As the Oscar watch warmsup, studios are wooing Academy members for their animated films as much as they are for Dreamgirls or Babel. This year there are sixteen animated features that are contenders for Best Animated Feature nominations. A category once dominated by Pixar and DreamWorks, the pool has now grown to include Fox, Sony and Warner Brothers.