monsters inc. Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Cinematical Seven: Greatest Monsters in Kid Films
Filed under: Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Lists »
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In honor of this week's release of DreamWork's Monsters vs Aliens on both DVD and Blu-ray, we measly humans here at Cinematical have decided to wade through the hordes of monsters and or aliens in kid friendly films to find the cream of the closet-dwelling, slime-dripping, child-eating, smile-inducing crop of inhuman lovables. In doing so it has occurred to me just how hard it is for a film to make an iconic character for children.
Sure, it's easy to make something marketable for kids, but to make monstrous and unique characters for children to cherish into adulthood, not unlike the mutated heroes of MvA, takes a lot of talent.
E.T.
I have no reason to lie to you. I'm a 24-year-old man and E.T. still scares me. He has ever since I was a wee little lad. I can't pinpoint the moment that instilled such a ridiculous fear of everyone's favorite horticulturist from outer space, but I think it's a combination of two scenes. The first being when ET tries to phone home and inadvertently causes hurricane winds, flying saw blades, and me in the fetal position. Then we have the seemingly innocent visitor gray, shriveled and dying in the creek bed, looking like the specter of death to a frightened child like me.
My kindertrauma aside, I can't help but respect the terrifying little dude. He holds a special little place in my heart, even if it's in a deep, dark recess that makes me long for my blanky,
Disney Planning 'Monsters Inc 2' and Delays 'Pirates'
Filed under: Action », Animation », Disney », RumorMonger », Family Films », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels », Western »
I was just watching Monsters, Inc this past week, and wondering why it belonged to Pixar's no sequel club ... and guess what's in the works now? Dedicated Disney blogger Jim Hill visited this year's Licensing International Expo, and talked to the fine people who were representing Disney and Pixar, and buying up licensing rights.Reportedly, Pete Docter (fresh off his success with Up) is planning to return to Monstropolis and helm a sequel to his previous Pixar effort, Monsters, Inc. Obviously, story details are shrouded in secrecy, but they've got Cars 2 and Toy Story 3 in the works, it's not much of a stretch to believe they'd revisit Mike and Sully. While it's a delightfully complete film, it's also a wonderful world, and I'd like to go there again.
Hill also reports that Disney is really focusing its efforts on The Lone Ranger, and are hoping to have it in theaters by Summer 2011. As you may remember, Mike Newell was hired to direct, and Johnny Depp is set to play Tonto.
Intent on launching a Ranger franchise, they've pushed back Jack Sparrow's, and are now planning to release the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment to a tenative date of Summer 2012. Both franchises offer a dose of Depp, so the Pirates fanbase should be pretty happy with that. Frankly, I'm willing to trade tricorns just to know just who they cast as that masked man ....
Discuss: Where Are The Lovely Ladies of Pixar?
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Casting », Disney », Fandom », Family Films »
I'm not entirely sure where or how /Film dug up this blog post from last summer about the lack of proper female characters taking the lead in Pixar's productions to date, but it's certainly made those of us on Twitter all... a-buzz.Think about it: Toy Story had Bo Peep and Mrs. Potato Head serve as love interests; A Bug's Life had a princess love interest and spunky tot; Toy Story 2 can claim Jessie as a proper heroine; Monsters, Inc. is back to love interest and spunky kid; Finding Nemo does give Dory a fairly prominent and helpful presence; and The Incredibles has both Helen and Violet as prime role models. Cars and Ratatouille once again reduce the gals to objects of affection, while Wall-E falls for one admittedly assertive robot.
(In fairness, Dreamworks seems to be batting a similar average: for every Princess Fiona or Rita, there's either a Renee Zellweger or a Renee Zellweger around to muck it up.)
Pixar's next project, Up, appears for now to focus solely on one old man and one young boy. While I don't see the box office dipping in the name of all that testosterone, I still wonder if any of you are struck by this gender disparity in the studio's work, and if any sort of affirmative action is going to result in stories compromised just so they can include a Token Stand-Up Female. What say you guys and girls?
Disney Movies Streaming Free Online
Filed under: Animation », Disney », Family Films », Home Entertainment »
It seems most TV series can be watched online for free now, so why not also stream episodes of a program like ABC's Wonderful World of Disney? Sure each episode is actually a feature-length Disney-made film, but a TV show is a TV show. Fortunately, Disney seems to agree, as they're putting this summer's crop of WWoD films online for free. Typical of Disney, though, and unlike ABC.com's library of episodes, each film will only be available for a limited time. Basically, each title will screen on ABC on Saturday night, then it will be up on Disney.com (specifically the WWoD page) the following week, from Monday through Friday only. Currently, Finding Nemo, which appeared on WWoD June 7, is being offered. Other movies on the schedule this summer include Monsters Inc., Freaky Friday, The Haunted Mansion, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Peter Pan will be the last to air and then stream, during the first week of August. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the one movie making its world premiere on the program, Camp Rock, will also (or is it only?) stream for 24 hours on June 23, on a separate page, after airing a few times on ABC and ABC Family the weekend prior.
Pixar Announces Short to Premiere Before 'Wall-E'
Filed under: Comedy », Disney », Newsstand », Images »
The short films Pixar produces to precede its theatrical features are among life's singular joys, and word of a new one is almost as exciting as this recent mega-announcement. The Pixar Blog tells us what to expect when we finally sit down to watch Wall-E this summer. Presto is a five-minute short about Alec, a magician's rabbit who becomes increasingly disgruntled as a hat trick involving him makes his master famous. When the magician goes out to dinner one night, he leaves Alec locked in a cage, gazing longingly at a carrot just out of reach. Doug Sweetland, an animator on most of Pixar's big productions, directs and does all the voices. Above is a somewhat low-res still from the film.
You can take a peek at most of the Pixar shorts here, and the full versions are available on iTunes for two bucks a pop. You can't really go wrong with any of them but the best, for my money, is For the Birds, which is so outrageously fantastic that I'm convinced it contains the meaning of life. (The fact that it is forever associated with Monsters, Inc., my favorite Pixar feature, doesn't hurt.)
Wall-E -- and Presto -- hit theaters on June 27th.
[via Slashfilm]
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