william joyce Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Fox Beats Pixar to William Joyce's 'Leaf Men'
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Deals », Disney », Celebrities and Controversy », Scripts », 20th Century Fox », Family Films », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand »
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 ....
Review: Meet the Robinsons
Filed under: Animation », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Disney », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films »
If you want your animated movie to thrill the kiddies, be sure it contains the following things: time machines, dinosaurs, robots and baseball. If you want your animated movie to appeal to the grown-ups that are required to get the kiddies into the theater, be sure it contains the following things: a clever sense of humor, some really impressive animation, a bunch of solid voice performances and a few life lessons that are sweet but not over-sappy. Then throw in a great score by Danny Elfman, an admirably speedy pace and more colorful characters that you'll know what to do with ... and voila: Disney's Meet the Robinsons, which is just about as good a CG feature as you can get without the words "Pixar Animation Studios" emblazoned across the opening credits. (Matter of fact, I had a lot more fun with the non-Pixar Meet the Robinsons than I did with last summer's Pixar flick Cars!)
Based on the book by William Joyce, Meet the Robinsons is about a sweet-natured prodigy who is also an orphan. Young Lewis is a true-blue genius to be sure, but his technological obsessions always manage to scare potential parents away. Lewis has precisely one caring guardian and one loyal pal, yet of course he dreams of fitting in with a traditional family all his own. But when a devious mishap at a local science fair introduces Lewis to Wilbur Robinson (a crazy kid who claims to own a time machine), our little hero is in for a whole lot of craziness. Suffice to say he finally meets up with a loving family ... but "traditional" doesn't even come close to describing this futuristic clan.
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