Category: Films (Page 77 of 85)
It has been made public that award-winning cinematic artist and painter John Alvin has passed away. He passed away Wednesday, February 6th, at his home in Rhinebeck, N.Y from a heart attack. He was 59.
Alvin was an artistic genius, creating movie posters for some of the most popular movies of all time including Blazing Saddles, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, The Color Purple and Gremlins. He also created the anniversary posters for Star Wars.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented the 2008 Orange British Academy Film Awards last night where the best in film, including animation and special effects, were honored.
Taking home the Best Animated Feature Film award was Pixar’s Ratatouille, beating out The Simpsons Movie and Shrek the Third. In the Best Short Animation category, Aartman Animations’ The Pearce Sisters took the award, beating The Crumblegiant and Head Over Heels.
The Best Special Effects BAFTA went to The Golden Compass, beating out The Bourne Ultimatum, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Spider-Man 3.
The 6th Annual VES Awards took place last night in Los Angeles, CA at the Kodak Theater and ILM and Pixar both won big.
Here is the list of all the winners:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
RATATOUILLE
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie or Special
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series
FIGHT FOR LIFE – Episode 4
Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
ROME 2 – Episode 6
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
SMIRNOFF – SEA
Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
TRANSFORMERS – Desert Highway Sequence
Outstanding Real Time Visuals in a Video Game
HALO 3 – Halo 3 Footage
Outstanding Pre-Rendered Visuals in a Video Game
WORLD OF WARCRAFT: THE BURNING CRUSADE – Cinematic Intro
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
SEA MONSTERS
Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END – Davy Jones
Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture
RATATOUILLE – Colette
Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial
CHEMICAL BROTHERS – SALMON DANCE
Outstanding Effects in an Animated Motion Picture
RATATOUILLE – Food
Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END – The Maelstrom
Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Broadcast Program or Commercial
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE
Outstanding Models or Miniatures in a Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program or Commercial
NIKE – LEAVE NOTHING
Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
Outstanding Special Effects in a Broadcast Program or Commercial
ACTIVELY SAFE – Lexus Hydrant
The 35th Annual Annie Awards have come and gone but not without Ratatouille sweeping up just about every awards — so it seems. The Annie Awards recognizing the year’s best animation across film, television, commercials, videogames and short subjects. Here are the winners:
PRODUCTION CATEGORIES
Best Animated Feature
RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Best Home Entertainment Production
FUTURAMA “BENDER’S BIG SCORE” — The Curiosity Co. in association with 20th Century Fox Television
Best Animated Short Subject
YOUR FRIEND THE RAT (From Ratatouille DVD) — Pixar Animation Studios
Best Animated Television Commercial
Power Shares “Escape Average” — Acme Filmworks
Best Animated Television Production
CREATURE COMFORTS AMERICA — Aardman Animations
Best Animated Television Production for Children
EL TIGRE — Nickelodeon
Best Animated Video Game
RATATOUILLE — THQ, Inc.
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT CATEGORIES
Animated Effects
Deborah Carlson — SURF’S UP — Sony Pictures Animation
Animation Production Artist
John Clark — SURF’S UP — Sony Pictures Animation
Character Animation in a Feature Production
Michal Makarewicz — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Character Animation in a Television Production
Eric Towner — ROBOT CHICKEN — ShadowMachine
Character Design in an Animated Feature Production
Carter Goodrich — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Character Design in an Animated Television Production
Jorge R. Gutierrez — EL TIGRE “Fistful of Collars” — Nickelodeon
Directing in an Animated Feature Production
Brad Bird — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Directing in an Animated Television Production
Seth Green — ROBOT CHICKEN STAR WARS — ShadowMachine
Music in an Animated Feature Production
Michael Giacchino — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Music in an Animated Television Production
Alf Clausen & Michael Price — THE SIMPSONS “Yokel Chords” — Gracie Films in association with 20th Century Fox
Production Design in an Animated Feature Production
Harley Jessup — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production
Ted Mathot — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production
Steve Fonti — FAMILY GUY “No Chris Left Behind” — Fox TV Animation/Fuzzy Door Prods.
Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production
Ian Holm — Voice of Skinner — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production
Eartha Kitt — Voice of Yzma — THE EMPEROR’S NEW SCHOOL “Emperor’s New Musical” — Walt Disney Television Animation
Writing in an Animated Feature Production
Brad Bird — RATATOUILLE — Pixar Animation Studios
Writing in an Animated Television Production
Ian Maxtone-Graham & Billy Kimball — THE SIMPSONS “24 Minutes” — Gracie Films
Check out this brand new WALL-E trailer which introduces a new character. If the first video goes down, check out the video below it:
The 21st annual (holy crap, I had no idea!) Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards nominees have been announced. There are two animation categories: Best Animated Movie and Best Voice From an Animated Movie. The nominees are:
Animated Movie: Shrek The Third, Bee Movie, Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie.
Voice From an Animated Movie: Cameron Diaz, Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld.
I’m assuming the kids vote via Nick.com or something which leads me to wonder if they’ll do the right thing and award Ratatouille though something tells me Shrek the Third might win… (Please, kids, don’t do that!)
Disney President and Chief Executive Bob Iger believes that CARS has the greatest long-term viability of any of its current franchises. Although the movie did well at the box office, it is Pixar’s worst reviewed film, scoring 76% on RottenTomatoes.
But that won’t stop Disney. “We’re selling more merchandise now than in the year that the film was released,” Iger said. “[It’s] a relatively good bet that ultimately [there will] be a sequel.”
Along with all the licensed products, ranging from toys to tooth brushes, Disney is working on “Cars Land”, a theme park attraction scheduled to open at Disney’s California Adventure in 2012.
Thankfully, Disney won’t attempt to milk the recent Ratatouille because “that wouldn’t be one we would consider a true franchise in terms of its leverageability across multiple businesses or its ability to drive huge value over a long period of time.”
Via Forbes
To help spread the word of the upcoming Horton Hears A Who, 20th Century Fox has teamed up with THX to create a special Horton edition of the THX opening that plays before the majority of films. Scroll down to check it out.
THX stands for Tomlinson Holman’s eXperiment. THX was developed by Tomlinson Holman at Lucasfilm in 1982 to ensure that the soundtrack for the third Star Wars film would be accurately reproduced in theaters.
The THX system is not a recording technology, and it does not specify a sound recording format. THX is mainly a quality assurance system. THX-certified theaters provide a high-quality, predictable playback environment to ensure that any film soundtrack mixed in THX will sound as near as possible to the intentions of the mixing engineer.
During the Superbowl a commercial for Pixar’s upcoming film WALL-E aired. The commercial features Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story talking about WALL-E the robot. Their conversation cuts away to WALL-E playing with a vacuum cleaner. Below is the actual commercial and the full unedited clip of WALL-E playing with the vacuum. Enjoy!
CommercialFull Vacuum Clip
According to ComingSoon, Pixar’s 2008 film, UP, will now be released in theaters 14 days earlier than it was originally announced. The new release date is now set for May 29, 2009. The film is directed by Pete Docter and written by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson and it tells a coming-of-old-age story about a seventy-something guy who lives in a house that “looks like your grandparents’ house smelled.” He befriends a clueless young Wilderness Ranger and gets into lots of altercations. “Our hero travels the globe, fights beasts and villains and eats dinner at 3:30 in the afternoon.”
Back in 2001, Michael Eisner reportedly told Disney’s board of directors that he’d be postponing any further contract talks with Pixar Animation Studios. Eisner had just come back from a work-in-progress screening of Finding Nemo and he supposedly told the board that it was the weakest thing that Pixar had produced to date.
Eisner believed that it would be far easier for Disney’s attorneys to get Steve Jobs to agree to much more favorable terms if Pixar were coming off of its first “failure.” Boy did that backfire on him. Pixar went back to the drawing board and fixed the problems, which included recasting the voice of Nemo’s father.
Head on over to Jim Hill Media and read the entire article of How Pixar fixed Finding Nemo. Another quality article by Jim Hill.
Upcoming Pixar has a brand new image of concept art from Pixar’s upcoming film Up, which is due in theaters June 12, 2009 from the director of Monsters Inc., Peter Docter.
The image is a picture of concept art taken at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.
The fine folks over at RottenTomatoes have interviewed Mr. Bird again. This time they talk about his recent Golden Tomato award and Ratatouille’s 5 Oscar nomations.
RT: You spent several years on this film, when did it feel like it started to come together for you?
Brad: I think somewhat towards the end. But when you’re going through it, particularly with sort of a sped-up schedule that we had, you turn your attention from one fire to another. As soon as one fire is solved, you don’t go, “Wow, I really put out that fire.” You swivel your head around and go after the next one. You keep going until there are no more fires. Suddenly, you look back and there’s a movie behind you and you go, “Wow, when did that happen?”
Check out the interview at RottenTomatoes.
Imagi Studios announced today that Flushed Away director, David Bowers, will direct the CG-animated ASTROBOY, replacing previously announced director Colin Brady.
Bowers said, “I’ve had a lifelong affection for the original ASTROBOY, so I am looking forward to giving him the full action-adventure Hollywood treatment. His story is both emotional and spectacular, so it absolutely lends itself to the big screen. With the amazing crew that Imagi has assembled, I feel there’s an opportunity to create something very special — a film to surprise audiences, have them on the edge of their seats, and hopefully make them laugh, too.”
Based on the Japanese manga, ASTROBOY follows a young robot created by a scientist in the image of the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the man’s expectations, AstroBoy embarks on a journey in search of acceptance before he returns to save Metro City and reconcile with the father who had rejected him.
ASTROBOY is scheduled for a worldwide release in 2009.
Via AWN
