It’s been a while since I’ve done any significant animation coverage because, truthfully, I was tired of chasing rumors. After all, how could I figure out what Disney’s Feature Animation department was up to if they didn’t know themselves? [...]]]> So what’s up at Disney and Pixar, and what are Ron and John working on?

It’s been a while since I’ve done any significant animation coverage because, truthfully, I was tired of chasing rumors. After all, how could I figure out what Disney’s Feature Animation department was up to if they didn’t know themselves? And, judging from their behavior, there’s little indication that they have a plan at the moment. Many of the ambitious pronouncements from just a few years ago seem to have fallen by the wayside, and promises of an active and prolific shorts department and a full slate of traditional animation have turned into vaporware. Everything seems up in the air at this point; we’ve seen projects canceled and revived and postponed time and again, and there’s very little on the publicly-announced Disney animation slate after next year.

Animation is very different from live-action filmmaking; you can’t just up and crank out a major animated film in a year or two. If the Walt Disney Animation Studios plan on having any more traditional animation after Winnie the Pooh next year, it’s time to get moving. I have no idea what’s happening inside the studio, or why things have ossified. But it seems to me that John “Mr. ‘Creator-Driven Projects’” Lasseter needs to allow some creators to drive their own projects in Burbank. But I digress.

The biggest hit out of Disney’s animation studio in recent years was last year’s Prep and Landing. The Christmas-themed television special, the first made-for-TV animation from Disney’s feature division, was expected to be the first entry in a new holiday franchise. True to expectations, Disney has announced that elves Lanny (Derek Richardson) and Wayne (Dave Foley) will return in two new specials in 2010 and 2011.

First to arrive will be the 7-minute “stocking stuffer” short Operation: Secret Santa, airing this December on ABC. Directed by Stevie Wermers-Skelton & Kevin Deters and produced by Dorothy McKim, the short will feature the now-ubiquitous Betty White as the voice of Mrs. Claus. According to the Disney press release, the short will see Lanny and Wayne recruited by Mrs. Claus and Magee (Sarah Chalke) to embark on a secret mission to retrieve a mysterious item hidden deep within the office of Santa Claus. With Christmas imminent, the elves must acquire the target while avoiding detection by Santa and the threat of placement on the Naughty List.

In 2011, the elves will return in another full-length half hour special, Prep & Landing: Naughty Vs. Nice. This time, Lanny and Wayne must track down classified North Pole technology that has been stolen by a computer-hacking “Naughty Kid”. To capture the perpetrator, the elves must consult the North Pole’s foremost Naughty Kid expert, a “bombastic” member of the Coal Bucket Brigade – Wayne’s estranged brother Noel.

Tick Tock Tale

There has at last been a little activity in the Disney shorts department; Dean Wellins’s Tick Tock Tale has had several screenings recently, including at the Annecy film festival. There’s even a brief preview of the short at Disney’s animation website. It’s unknown whether the short will actually appear in front of Tangled next month, or if it will disappear into the aether like Glago’s Guest.

Meanwhile, in Pixar towne…

The big news a couple of weeks ago was that director Brenda Chapman had been removed from Brave (formerly The Bear and the Bow), a project that she initiated. Chapman was replaced on the project by Mark Andrews, who directed the 2005 short One Man Band.

This is noteworthy not only because it’s yet another directorial shuffle at Pixar, but also because of all the ballyhoo in recent years about Chapman’s role as the first female director at Pixar. Brave was to feature the first female protagonist in a Pixar film. It’s also worth nothing that it’s the only film currently on Pixar’s slate that is not a sequel.

Speaking of sequels, you might remember that John Lasseter has taken over the director’s seat of Cars 2 from Brad Lewis, who is currently billed as co-director. The 2011 release recently received a teaser trailer, which can be seen below:

Yeah, I know.

As was revealed last year, the film will center on an international race which takes the first film’s characters to Paris, London, Tokyo and the Italian countryside. While Lightning McQueen takes part in the World Grand Prix, his hillbilly friend Mater gets involved with a Bond-esque web of espionage and intrigue. Michael Giacchino will score the film.

The real thing Disney animation fans have been wondering, though, is what’s next? Pixar has Cars 2, Brave, and Monsters, Inc. 2 in the pipeline. Disney has Tangled next month and then Winnie the Pooh in 2011; Reboot Ralph will allegedly appear in 2013 and there’s still a possibility that King of the Elves might re-emerge. We know that there are some projects, at least, waiting to be greenlit, but what are they? And when will we see more traditional animation?

Animation gossips have claimed for a while now that directors Ron Clements and John Musker were at work preparing a new traditionally animated project to pitch. I’ve started hearing rumors that are truly unexpected – that the project they’re boarding is an adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s 1987 novel Mort. The book is the fourth in Pratchett’s beloved Discworld series of comedic fantasies, and follows a young man looking for a job who gets an apprenticeship working for Death.

Is this really what Ron & John are working on? We shall see. Consider it rumor for now. But if so I know a lot of people who will be pleasantly surprised.

UPDATE

Good news, everyone! The truly excellent new Pixar short Day & Night has just been released on iTunes. If you haven’t seen Toy Story 3 yet, or even if you have, it’s well worth checking out. In fact, at the moment I think it might be my favorite Pixar short ever – I [...]]]>

Good news, everyone! The truly excellent new Pixar short Day & Night has just been released on iTunes. If you haven’t seen Toy Story 3 yet, or even if you have, it’s well worth checking out. In fact, at the moment I think it might be my favorite Pixar short ever – I enjoyed it far more than Toy Story 3 itself, as a matter of fact. It’s certainly different, and draws on some unique styles and techniques to do something refreshing and new. It also has some nice midcentury traditional animation influences, so that’s fun. Anyway, that’s my spiel – head over to iTunes to check it out yourself.

First, King of the Elves gets whacked. The computer-animated fantasy based on a short story by Philip K. Dick would have been released in 2012.

Then, in all the marketing-driven panic following Princess and the Frog‘s lukewarm box office, Disney shelves the long-anticipated and traditionally animated The [...]]]> Well, the bodies sure are stacking up.

First, King of the Elves gets whacked. The computer-animated fantasy based on a short story by Philip K. Dick would have been released in 2012.

Then, in all the marketing-driven panic following Princess and the Frog‘s lukewarm box office, Disney shelves the long-anticipated and traditionally animated The Snow Queen. Who’s up next on the hit list?

It looks like it’s newt.

Actually, I’ve been worried about this one for a long time. I’d heard a few things hinting at this, but nothing definitive enough that I’d be comfortable writing about it. Then, today in a comment thread on the Animation Guild Blog, Disney vet Floyd Norman stated that the film is dead.

newt was first announced in April of 2008 as part of Disney and Pixar’s ambitious new animation slate. It was to be directed by long-time sound engineer and guru Gary Rydstrom, from a script by Rydstrom and Leslie Caveny. Michael Giacchino was slated to write the score.

According to the press at the time, the film would have followed Newt and Brooke, the last remaining male and female blue-footed newts on the planet. Forced together by science to save their species, the only problem was that they can’t stand each other. According to the press release, “Newt and Brooke embark on a perilous, unpredictable adventure and discover that finding a mate never goes as planned, even when you only have one choice. Love, it turns out, is not a science.”

So, that’s out. But hey, at least we get Winnie-the-Pooh and Cars 2. Who wants to bet that newt‘s summer 2012 release spot goes to another Pixar rehash, Monsters, Inc. 2?

UPDATE: I’ve had a couple of people tell me that King of the Elves has not actually been completely abandoned, but that it’s still in turnaround for retooling. I know this had been the fact at one point, but other informed sources have said that it’s no longer actively being worked on. If anyone can clarify this, drop me a line. In stranger news, I’ve had two sources independently hint to me that Cars 2 is actually having production problems, and I’ve seen that rumor posted anonymously today on the Animation Guild’s blog. Whispering campaign or fact, I don’t know, but it’s something to keep an eye out for.

For some time, we here at Progress City have wanted to review new releases of note from Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar. What better way to start, then, than the home video release of this year’s Pixar success, UP? The simple tale of a boy and his dog… and an old man… and [...]]]>

For some time, we here at Progress City have wanted to review new releases of note from Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar. What better way to start, then, than the home video release of this year’s Pixar success, UP? The simple tale of a boy and his dog… and an old man… and a flying house… and a giant rare bird named Kevin… was released to stores last Tuesday. True to Disney’s recent pattern, it has been released in multiple formats: a bare-bones, single-disc DVD; a deluxe DVD with bonus features and a digital copy of the film on a second disc; and a four-disc package that includes the film and its extras on two Blu-Ray discs, a bonus DVD of the film for those yet to upgrade, and a disc containing a downloadable digital version of the film.

It’s nearly unthinkable that any reader of this blog will have yet to see this film, making any further review practically superfluous. Needless to say, it’s another in a long line of Pixar triumphs, and perhaps their most challenging yet. UP manages to thread a number of needles very successfully, making fools of the pundits who doubted Pixar’s ability to translate its esoteric premise into a successful family film.

There were many – mainly in the field of marketing – who questioned the premise of Pixar’s tenth feature, saying that there was no way people would turn out to watch a film about a senior citizen on what amounted to a suicide mission to reclaim lost love and dreams deferred. It wouldn’t sell toys, they said, and thus it would doubtless be a failure. But once again creativity trumped the deep insight of the business sector, and UP became Pixar’s second-highest grossing film to date. The film is emotionally wrenching yet still hilarious, containing that perfect level of pathos that made the animated films of Disney’s golden age so resonant. Pixar’s continuing unwillingness to pander to its audience made this family-friendly Fitzcarraldo a hit with audiences and critics.

The film, much like last year’s WALL-E, is most effective in its nearly-flawless first act. After an introduction to the young Carl Fredricksen and his future wife Ellie, we watch their life unfold through a masterfully-crafted yet wordless montage that conveys the successes and sorrows of their long life together. At its end, we’re left with the widower Fredricksen (Ed Asner) as a gruff and lonely 78-year-old who resembles the rumpled and crotchety Spencer Tracy of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? Left alone in the home he and Ellie made together, and faced with the threat of eviction so that a mall can be built on his property (a conceit reminiscent of Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You, with visuals that strongly evoke the classic Disney short The Little House), the former balloon salesman concocts an improbable scheme to finally realize his and Ellie’s dream of seeking adventure in distant South America.

Carl’s plans are complicated, naturally, by a stowaway – young Russell, who proves relentless in his quest to earn his Wilderness Explorer merit badge for assisting the elderly. The filmmakers and actor Jordan Nagai earn a great deal of praise for making Russell a thoroughly believable character and in no way treacly or annoying. If Russell doesn’t remind you of a kid you’ve known (or were), then you haven’t met many.

Things grow increasingly perilous for our heroes upon their arrival in the isolated and tropical Paradise Falls; there are rare and endangered birds, talking dogs, and UP’s own version of Colonel Kurtz – Carl’s childhood idol, Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer). Some of this material works better than the rest, especially the friendly speaking canine Dug (co-director Bob Peterson). Dug is perhaps my favorite character in any of the Pixar films, and he deserves special mention here. The ever-cheerful and good-natured dog is both hilarious and incredibly evocative for any viewer who has known a loyal, smart, yet scatterbrained pup. His animation is nuanced and amazingly insightful; any dog-lover will recognize his behaviors and moods at once. The character’s design, too, is pleasingly caricatured and just cartoony enough; this sets Dug above the other dog characters whose designs hew closer to realism and, I feel, are rather unsightly.

The film is not perfect, though; again, like WALL-E, most of its problems come in the third act when the story seems to get away from itself, ramp up the action, and get a little sloppy. When I saw UP in theaters, I came away convinced that the film didn’t need a villain. I still find this to be the case. Carl’s real enemy is his inability to reconcile with the past, and his imprisonment by the ephemera that has come to define him. These are problems with which I deeply sympathize and identify, but they’re things that Carl must himself overcome. It seems too easy to have him learn his lesson by comparing himself to Muntz, especially when Muntz descends so quickly into a rather clichéd and over-blown villain. Obviously Muntz’s path isn’t one to follow, but do we believe that Carl would have ever gone that far?

Despite the muddled third act – although who can quibble with an aged Spencer Tracy and Kirk Douglas wailing on each other while hanging from a zeppelin? – UP sticks the landing by satisfactorily wrapping up each character’s quest. It’s emotional, hopeful, and ever so completely Pixar.

The DVD

As mentioned, UP has been released in three different editions for DVD and Blu-Ray. We shall examine these in turn, but first I have a general note about the releases. Pixar was long noted for the extremely high quality of their DVD releases, both in sound and image quality and amount of supplemental material. Their first DVD release, 1998’s a bug’s life, was seminal, as was its follow-up, the Ultimate Toy Box. At the time, DVDs were mostly the realm of film buffs and early-adopters. As prices dropped, a family market was created and the contents of new releases began to shift from targeting animation fans to targeting toddlers. Disney releases were hit the hardest; for a while, even box-office disappointments like Atlantis and The Emperor’s New Groove had received the deluxe treatment on their two-disc special editions (and thank heavens for it!). By 2002, though, the comparatively successful Lilo & Stitch was released with a rather barren single-disc offering and the age of collector-grade Disney releases was over.

Pixar releases, mercifully, stuck to a higher standard. In recent years, though, even they have dropped off with single-disc releases for Cars and Ratatouille. Extensive bonus features have been reserved for Blu-Ray only, but even those “deluxe” editions have slipped somewhat since the days of Pixar’s self-styled “sooper genius” editions. UP continues this trend with Pixar’s sparsest slate of extras yet, although what is on the Blu-Ray release is definitely worth a look.

Video & Audio

One area in which Pixar has never fallen short is that of picture quality. Their early releases were the first home video titles to benefit from direct digital transfers of the original elements. UP is no different, with spectacular transfers on both the DVD and Blu-Ray. Both are presented in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio; the DVD transfer is in anamorphic widescreen. Without the need for the tinted 3-D glasses used in theaters, the vibrant color palette of the film can be truly appreciated. It really pops on the screen, and even the lower-resolution DVD release features an exceptional level of color and detail.

The film sounds great, too; the Blu-Ray features a DTS-HD 5.1 track, as well as a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack in English, French and Spanish. The DVD offers Dolby 5.1 English and Dolby Surround 2.0 options, as well as something fairly unique and special – a descriptive audio track for the visually impaired.

Bonus Features & Various Editions

The three-tiered release strategy is thankfully easy to decipher, as each more expensive edition builds upon the contents of the lesser versions. So, let’s start at the bottom.

Standard, Single-Disc DVD

The bare-bones DVD release only contains two bonus features – the theatrical short Partly Cloudy and the DVD-exclusive short Dug’s Special Mission.

Partly Cloudy – This short, which played in theaters in front of UP, is the charming tale of a besieged stork who is assigned to deliver some of nature’s less cuddly creatures. Delivered without dialogue, the short is a tribute to Pixar’s ability to create intense emotions and sympathetic characters through pantomime and the pure art of animation. (5:46)

Dug’s Special Mission – The new short serves as something of a prequel to Dug’s initial appearance in UP. As such, it’s less of a contained narrative and more of a series of scenes from the dog’s perspective. There are some quality gags, of course, and a surprisingly bittersweet tone and ending, but since I find anything featuring this character to be absolutely golden this was a can’t-miss for me. More Dug, please. (4:42)

Deluxe DVD + Digital Copy

Taking the two shorts from the previous version and combining them with a few extras, this edition features a separate disc with a digital copy of the film for your home PC or mobile device. The added bonuses include:

Adventure Is Out There – If you’ve never appreciated the efforts that Pixar visual and story artists go to in the creation of their films, you will after this documentary featurette. To understand the world of their story, the Pixar artists trekked to the tepui plateaus of Venezuela. There, they scaled 2000-foot sandstone cliffs to explore these mile-high islands in the sky. Their adventures revealed an amazing world; the tepui contain bizarre and otherworldly terrain as well as an isolated and self-contained ecosystem. The climate is unpredictable, as well; having reached the top of Kukenán tepui via helicopter – their guides estimated that less than 100 people had ever visited the site – a storm descended that stranded several artists in a downpour. I’ll leave the terrible secret of their shelter for you to discover – an animator’s life ain’t easy. A great featurette. (22:16)

Alternate Scene: The Many Endings of Muntz – The closest this set gets to deleted scenes, this featurette discusses the various ways that the directors considered to get rid of their antagonist at the end of the film. It’s interesting to hear the filmmakers discuss the purpose of the villain in their films, but I think that some of the other concepts they explored for Muntz’s demise were more interesting thematically than the version they eventually chose. (4:55)

Audio Commentary – Director Pete Docter and Co-Director Bob Peterson provide the feature-length commentary track. I’ve only listened to excerpts so far, but the filmmakers pepper the track with lots of details about the film’s creative process and the various concepts that were created and discarded along the way. It illustrates how difficult the creative process can be, and how many iterations these films go through on their way to the screen.

Blu-Ray Edition + DVD + Digital Copy

The most complete version of Up is this release, which combines two Blu-Ray discs (the film, and a disc of extras) with the deluxe edition DVD and a fourth disc with a digital copy of the film. The MSRP on this set is a very unfriendly $45.99 – especially shocking since all of its features should have been included on the lesser editions – but since the set can be found at an enormous discount at most online retailers it’s still the one to get. The features added in this edition include:

Blu-Ray Disc One

Cine-Explore – The audio commentary is the same as that on the DVD release, but on the Blu-Ray it’s accompanied by picture-in-picture visual elements that help illustrate the points that the filmmakers are discussing. It’s a good way to combine development art, story sketches, and behind-the-scenes footage with the film itself.

Blu-Ray Disc Two

Geriatric Hero – This featurette discusses the development of Carl Fredrickson, and the considerations involved in animating a senior citizen. (6:23)

Canine Companions – More Dug! This time, we see the work that animators did in studying both the appearance and behavior of dogs in order to create the canine inhabitants of Paradise Falls. (8:27)

Russell: Wilderness Explorer – In which is depicted the creation of Russell and how the animators worked with voice actor Jordan Nagai to develop the character. (9:02)

Our Giant, Flightless Friend Kevin – Since everyone else gets a featurette, why not Kevin? This discusses the inspiration behind and creation of the giant feathered fellow. (5:06)

Homemakers of Pixar – Much thought was given to the creation of Carl and Ellie’s home, and that’s discussed in this featurette. Designers and filmmakers incorporated many elements of their own grandparents’ houses, some of which are pointed out here. (4:35)

Balloons and Flight – From Carl’s balloons to Muntz’s dirigible The Spirit of Adventure, the element of flight is critical to the film. Filmmakers talk about the inspiration behind and execution of these elements. (6:26)

Composing for Characters – The various leitmotifs of the film’s score are discussed, as is their use throughout the film. (7:40)

Alternate Scene: Married Life – Discussion of and deleted elements from the montage of Carl and Ellie’s life. All great stuff to see. (9:12)

Up Promo Montage – Various interstitials created for different outlets to help promote the film. (5:51)

Worldwide Trailers – Includes two trailers for the film: Theatrical Trailer #2 (1:51) and Theatrical Trailer #3 (2:32). What about #1? The world may never know.

There’s also, as always, an interactive game for the kiddies – Russell’s Global Guardian Badge Game. But Progress City has a strict embargo against the interactive games. We shall say no more.

In Summary…

It’s a great movie. Although the extras are sub-par for a Pixar release, it’s still a great movie. Get the Blu-Ray combo pack, even if you don’t have a Blu-Ray player, and even though the typical Blu-Ray packaging irritates me as always. Just make sure you look around and find it somewhere that you can buy it at a price close to the plain vanilla DVD edition.

Ten films in, and Pixar is still knocking them out of the park. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Click To Buy: Single DVD, Deluxe DVD, Blu-Ray