Disregarding the Clickbait: Real Talk on a ‘Monsters, Inc.’ Sequel

Monsters, Inc. turned fifteen today... Monsters, Inc. was actually the very film that got me into Pixar. I was ten, already a huge Disney fan, but for some reason didn't quite connect with the works of the hopping lamp just yet. I didn't pop in my Toy Story and Toy Story 2 VHS tapes as …

‘Borrowed Time’ and Frustration…

Borrowed Time has been shown at various film festivals since October of last year. It was directed by Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj, two Pixarians who made the short through one of the company's special programs that allowed them to use their pipeline. Five years in the making, Coats, Lhadj and a team that included …

First 10 Songs on Shuffle – Week #1

#1. 'Surrender' - Cheap Trick, Heaven Tonight (1978) - Of course shuffle starts me off with a recognizable hit that fits into the "classic rock" pool, a term I really don't care for, but yes... 'Surrender', you want to rock out to it when it blares out your speaker. Cheap Trick knew how to mix …

A Meandering Discussion on ‘The Good Dinosaur’, Continued…

In the previous ramble, I talked a lot about how The Good Dinosaur defies a lot of modern animation conventions, whilst going over the expectations that Pixar's films normally get. Now I want to dive more into the film itself... One of the things that makes The Good Dinosaur work so well amongst modern animated …

A Meandering Discussion on ‘The Good Dinosaur’

I always felt that Pixar was sort of a victim of their own success. Think about it. You dash out of the gate with your debut feature, which was innovative in the world of both animation and cinema. You follow that up with fifteen years of critically acclaimed box office smashes, each and every one …

2016’s Animated Oscars… Hard to Predict?

The Oscars... The Best Animated Feature category... Who is in the running? I think this year, we don't have too many definite answers. This is a bit premature, because four more major animated features are left, one of which comes from the on-a-roll Walt Disney Animation Studios. The features are Warner Animation Group's high-flying comedy …

Why I’m Looking Forward To ‘Cars 3’, More So Than ‘Toy Story 4’…

Update: In late October, Pixar played musical chairs with Toy Story 4 and The Incredibles 2. Toy Story 4 is now slated to come out in summer 2019, with The Incredibles 2 opening in summer 2018... Pixar's future slate, a line-up peppered with sequels, is a complicated discussion. Another story for another day, but so …

The Animation Box Office Crown

This summer's Finding Dory, interestingly enough, broke the record for highest grossing animated film in the domestic market. For 12 years, the crown was held by DreamWorks' Shrek 2, which was actually one of those rare sequels that outgrossed its predecessor by a wide margin. Finding Dory of course got to that point due to …

Cake Icing: Custom Logos

Logos... Custom variants of well-known logos... The Walt Disney studio has a long history of doing this. Disney had signed with RKO Radio Pictures in 1937, who would distribute all of their features and shorts for roughly fifteen years. Before each film (with the exception of the first, Snow White), the RKO logo would precede …

Flop Talk: The Inconsistent Reporting on Box Office Failures

Box office flops... One thing they are good at: Making the press race to do autopsies. "What went wrong?" they bellow, "here are the reasons!" they declare. Let's look at two box office flops: The Good Dinosaur and The Legend of Tarzan. Let's look at a film that performed similarly to them, but broke even …