Cartoon Central

First looks have been given to films such as “Beowulf,” due out in November. Steve Carell’s next film, the “Get Smart” remake, Disney/Walden’s “Prince Caspian,” the next film in the Narnia franchise, as well as the Pixar entry titled “Wall-E.”

Ratatouille is a pretty good movie. While it is not in the same league as The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, it is still a pretty darn good movie.

There is something in the kitchen for everyone in Ratatouille. Although the film might not reach the international box office heights of The Incredibles–then again, maybe it will–the film does represent another huge leap in CGI technique and imagination by the Pixar folks. My compliments to the chef…

Director Brad Bird has emerged as Pixar’s top filmmaker, starting with his pre-Pixar traditional cel animation feature, The Iron Giant (1999), and again with his first Pixar film, one of their best, The Incredibles (2004). Ratatouille only ups his batting average to 100% (okay shaky statistics there, but you get the point). Pixar has had the market cornered on the best animation design quality and effects, notable in even some of their weaker films, like Finding Nemo (2003) or their fairly wretched Cars (2006). But actually, after Cars, I had to wonder if they still had the market cornered on quality versions of traditional Hollywood narrative films.

The biggest shocker is Disney’s Ratatouille (June 22nd), which is placed near the very bottom of the list at #19. Pixar’s next film is set to be released mid-summer. The marketing and hype have already begun, yet low buzz movies like Underdog and Nancy Drew are receiving more search love. Could this be the first Pixar bomb?

A new episode of the Ratatouille Video Podcast is now online. We found the video on the Pixar Planet forums [via: JV Pixar News]. The new episode titled The Technical Ingredients takes a look at some of the technical innovation involved in creating Pixar’s new film. They explore wet cloth dynamics, water movement dynamics, and hair dynamics. Trust me, this is much more interesting than it probably sounds.

Disney has released a bunch of new character stills from Pixar’s presentation of Ratatouille. Check them out below:

Disney's recent animated features have been misses, with the likes of Chicken Little and The Wild performing below expectations despite the updated computer generated toons and marketing gimmicks, bringing to mind the age old adage that the story comes first. As far as animated movies go, Pixar's the one to beat, having crisp drawings perform to the tune of a superb story. Meet the Robinsons is not a Pixar movie (given that the two companies have now merged), and I'm pleased to say that Robinsons has indeed remembered to go back to basics, in whipping out a strong, engaging tale for its computer generated animation.

A favorite short movie of mine is “Boundin’”. It is a Pixar/Disney animated short that is included with “The Incredibles”. The first time I saw it, I thought it rather annoying. The music was not my favorite and it was not very funny. But the second time I watched it, I was addicted. It is available for purchase on iTunes here if interested.

Best place for corporate schwag? I think Pixar. I knew someone who worked there and he had great stuff, hats, fleece jackets, chambray shirts, everything. The on-staff masseuse is probably their best perk though. I’m sure Google has better stuff these days, but I don’t see it first-hand anymore.

Cars - Not as good as the two Toy Storys, The Incredibles, or Finding Nemo, but still a solid film. When I watch these Pixar films, I always keep thinking that they’re for kids, but afterwards, I start anthropomorphizing everything. Do leaves feel bad when they fall from the tree? Do worm families get torn apart by rainstorms? Do snails and slugs ever mention the word salt to each other? It never ends.

The first problem is Fox seems too conscious of the competition. Pixar started a tradition of showing a short before its feature films. This hearkens back to the olden days when Disney would show Loony Toons before its feature films. Pixar’s shorts have won awards. I can just imagine the conversation in a Fox board room somewhere: “They’re doing it, so we have to do it too.” Their short focuses on that little animal that was chasing his acorn throughout the first movie. He’s still chasing it. Problem #1 with the short (does that make this Problem 1(a)? Too much law school!) is that the animation isn’t impressive. Pixar always makes a point of making its shorts look cool. Fox’s short looks like they just used the storyboard sketches.

The new Pixar movie is about a RAT!! Check out the trailer - he's adorable! HOORAY FOR NOT DEMONIZING RATTIES!!

Angie left some stuff out about the weekend that I thought I would go over. We went over to her parent's house for Thanksgiving and had some real good food. We also took Cars over and watched it together. Any fan of Pixar and/or cars in general needs to pick this movie up. While we were at the house, her dad put on the new rims we got and painted her calipers black.

After a hiatus of nearly 50 years, Walt Disney Studios is getting back into the business of producing short cartoons, starting with a Goofy vehicle next year. The studio has released a few shorts in recent years — “Destino,” “Lorenzo” and “The Little Match Girl” — but those were more artistic exercise than commercial endeavor. The new cartoons, by contrast, are an effort by a new leadership team from Pixar Animation Studios, now a Disney unit, to put the Burbank company back at the forefront of animation with a form it once pioneered.

Leave it to my friend Jason to come up with the coolest pumpkin design I've seen in a while. He dubbed it a Pixkin because the character depicted is from a Pixar film.

The Character Design Blog has conducted an interview with Pixar Artist Nate Wragg.

This video is a giant pile of 1980s video effects, from the rotoscoped glowing colors to the Take On Me-like scribblings. But it’s the computer animation that made it so cutting-edge: blocky characters, a blocky dog, and blocky appliances cavorting about a blocky world. To be fair, Pixar’s stuff was just then getting started. This was the first video played on MTV in Britain, making it the overseas equivalent to Video Killed the Radio Star.

We open with our hero, Lightning McQueen (what was his mother smoking?), racing for the Piston Cup. Conveniently, the race is a three way tie so, a tie-breaker is held in California. On his way there, however, McQueen gets arrested in the small town of Radiator Springs. What happens from here is typical Pixar fare: Hero learns to be a better person and make friends. What is more interesting here, is the story, within the story. It’s what’s implied throughout the movie; the surprisingly deep story about how society has become too fast paced. It’s about taking things slow and stopping to smell the roses. That is the great triumph of Cars’ screenplay; the surface story serves only as a Trojan horse.

Also, I like Pixar’s work. Toy Story, Nemo, Incredibles were all terrific. I saw no reason why this should be any different. You can bank on lots of good little jokes, some visual treats you didn’t expect, and some real quality animation. Speaking of the animation, I read something interesting online about the movie. Even though the processors they used while animating this movie had 4 times the power of the ones they used while making the Incredibles, it still took an average of 17 hours to render a single frame of film. Do the math… 24 frames/second * 1 hour 56 minute runtime = 167,040 frames of animation * 17 hours = 118,320 DAYS of cpu time. Wow.

Once again, the national treasure known as Pixar has released an animated feature to rave reviews from jaded film critics. I'll admit to having been underwhelmed by the trailers for Cars and the attendant commercial saturation - and knowing Owen Wilson was the star didn't help. But like the rest of moviegoing America, I'll go see it and probably enjoy it. I must keep in mind that wasn't thrilled going into The Incredibles either, but came away pleasantly surprised.

Actually, you ought to plan to see a movie starring Larry the Cable Guy as an animated tow truck named Mater, because Cars is solid family entertainment from the people who brought you Toy Story and The Incredibles. No, geeks and people looking for subtle political messages about socialism aren't going to love it as much as they loved The Incredibles, but your kids will, and you won't be bored for two hours.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I attended the world premiere of the Disney and Pixar movie, Cars. This was held at the Lowes Motor Speedway. First off, I had never been to a NASCAR track, so that was pretty cool.

When I saw the teaser trailer for Pixar’s Cars I was surprised. I didn’t think it looked all that great, which wasn’t expected - come on, it’s Pixar! I just saw[1] the new trailer, however, and Cars is now definitely on my to-see list. I love the eyes of the race-track audience, and the tow-truck’s animation in the final scene is fantastic! There’s something else I wanted to point out, but come back here after you’ve watched the trailer…

Hows this for darn cool, In 1988 a group of artist created a short film for Apple using the powerful new Macintosh II. The film was called Pencil Test. Two of those artist who worked on that film have gone on to have…moderate success. You may have heard of them, their names are John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton.

Check out the Cadillac Ranch inspired rock formation in the background. It’s details like this that make Pixar films really “rise above the crowd”.

　Pixar Animation Studiosは3月7日、12月31日締め2005年第4四半期（10～12月）業績を発表した。売上高は5560万ドル（前年同期は1億890万ドル）、利益は3090万ドル（前年同期は5520万ドル）となった。2005年度通期では、売上高2億8910万ドル、利益1億4170万ドルとなり、利益では過去最高を記録した。

Seward Street has a post on the return of hand-drawn animation, including the impending return of "traditional" animation under the new Pixar-Disney merger.

Après avoir annoncé officiellement la séparation, voilà que Disney rachète Pixar et du coup Steve Jobs devient plus gros actionnaire individuel avec 6,5 % du capital de Mickey.

When I first heard the story about Disney absorbing Pixar, I was apprehensive, to say the least. Sure, the rumors said that Steve Jobs would wind up the #1 Disney megastockholder, but that didn't seem like enough insurance to me. Disney, after all, corrupts everything that is good and pure and, you know, original and creative...so I was freaking the hell out.

Esto si que es una mala noticia. Desde hace un tiempo, Disney es más una fabrica de hacer dinero, que de sueños. Y yo tan encantado de que Pixar se separara de Disney, pero parece que al final, el pez grande se come al pez chico. Una autentica pena…

The shear entertainment value of the movie is through the roof. It was probably one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen recently. Moreover, its two hour run time flies by as you get engrossed in the events taking place, themes being presented and emotional chords being rung. Finally, Disney, on their own, did something worthwhile. It was probably the best since Pirates of the Caribbean. (Did Disney even release others (Pixar not included) in between?)

Best Animation: Spirited Away. Disney may have Pixar’s technology but when it comes to animations, the Japanese does them best!

This is a list of every feature film produced by Pixar. Six movies in ten years - a film every two years. By comparison, DreamWorks Animation has produced twelve feature films in just seven years - a film every seven months.

The ITunes store offers about 2,000 music videos, popular TV shows and shorts from Pixar.

It sounds like an urban myth but it could be a day in the life of Steve Jobs, who is chief executive of two technology companies that are admired both inside and outside their respective industries: Apple (which makes the iPod and a range of computers) and Pixar (which made the films Toy Story and The Incredibles). Apple made him a multi- millionaire, Pixar made him a billionaire, and the two mean that at the age of 50 he has cemented a unique position as a force in computing, consumer electronics (through the iPod), the music business (the iPod again) and Hollywood.

In comparison, though, Pixar's office space is at least 150,000 square feet, plus the 50,000 square foot screening theater...and they've been trying hard to expand well beyond that amount. Apparently, they're hoping to amass an army of nearly 2,000 members. I wonder if the current movie market will be able to support so many under one roof?

Anthony Tardiff (just a total stranger whose blog I stumbled across today) asks the question, "Why is Pixar so good and nobody else?"

Lastly, I must remark on what has got to be the most innovative and technologically impressive computer animated movie I have ever seen. FINAL FANTASY VII: ADVENT CHILDREN. You don’t need to be a fan of the game, or even know what Final Fantasy is, to enjoy this film (though it does add to the experience if you are a fan). It’s fast, it’s exciting, and it has some incredibly well done combat sequences (which, if you’ve ever seen a computer-animated movie, is probably the most difficult thing to animate). Now, it’s not fair to compare this film to the inexorable achievements of PIXAR Animation Studios, because they’re in two totally different categories. Instead, I’m comparing FFVII:AC to films like Kaena: The Prophecy, The Bionical Series, Titan AE, Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, Appleseed, and other films of that nature. Advent Children is simply incredible and towers over Square’s first attempt at making a feature film. Look for it in English arriving this holiday season. Those of you unable to wait that long, you know what a BitTorrent is, right?

The new computer-animated film is from Vanguard, not really from Disney. The Mouse House has pretty much given up on top-quality feature animation in favor of lower-budget direct-to-video projects and distributing the higher-quality output of Pixar (so far, at least) and, now, Vanguard.

A number of Pixar artists are premiering their own comic books at the upcoming Comic-Con Intnl. with a wide variety of styles and genres. They all look amazing, of course, and I plan to be making the rounds picking up copies of each an every one of them during the weekend. Names to look for during your visit to the show are E-Ville Press (short for Emeryville) at tables E3 and E4. They’ll have their anthology, “Afterworks” available, as well as “Colossus”, “Rose And Isabel” and some t-shirts, original art, etc.

Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe are the main charactors from Japanese animation Tonari no Totoro or My neighbor Totoro in theater in Japan in 1988 (last 17 year) by Studio Ghibli directed by great Japanese animator, Hayao Miyasaki who is the inspiration of animator around the world, including Pixar studio studio creator of Toy story

Loooooooovely animation. It’s why we won’t bother with disney/pixar etc. in a few years time - everyone will just be making this stuff themselves. Duel.

That’s the story as I see it unfolding. Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates. And with the sale of Apple to Intel, Steve accepts the position of CEO of the Pixar/Disney/Sony Media Company.

Steve Jobs is one of my most admired businessman and visionary (I had actually written an article about him in a Chinese newspaper a few years ago). He started Apple computers, NeXT (which eventually became Apple OS X), and Pixar. My admiration is not so much for his business skills, but more for his ability to "Think Different".

A few weeks ago, some coworkers pulled me into a discussion concerning the last great Disney animated film. I had to say that Disney’s stranglehold on premier animation ended with The Lion King, where they interwove masterful animation and cinematography together with a great story and some of Elton John’s best work since the seventies to create a truly pleasurable cinematic experience. Since then, I feel they’ve never been able to recapture that magic. Fortunately, Disney acquired Pixar, which has been able to do it for them. But, I feel the true animation genius has shifted to a studio that Pixar turns to for inspiration (and whose movies Disney is now distributing in the US), a studio already well known overseas.

Here is the quick and dirty review of the movie. It was cute, but it didn’t bowl me over. One of the news magazines reported last week that Dreamworks strategy is to push quantity over quality, and it showed in a cute but not stellar story in this movie. It was no Pixar movie, for sure.

Ben Burtt, the four time Oscar winner and the man responsible for the cool sound effects which permeate the Star Wars universe has up stumps and migrated to Pixar.

Was anyone else skeptical of computer-generated movies when they first started coming out? When I read about "Toy Story," I was more than skeptical. The name was dumb. The company that made it, Pixar, was created by Steve Jobs, the too-clever-by-half co-founder of Apple. How could they cut humans out of the creative process? And so on.

Michael Heilemann posts some photos from his tour of Pixar. Very cool.

I'm also fascinated by PDI's work with the CG here. While not as technically proficient as Pixar, they're carving out a niche with interesting stylization. The danger with computer animation - and it's a trap that most all recent non-Pixar releases have fallen into - is creating lifeless, plasticky stick figures. As far as I'm concerned, that's worse than mediocre TV-quality traditional animation; at least that has some heart, some direct connection to the work of the animators. Bad CG is just soulless (q.v. Disney's 2000 release Dinosaur), and undistinguished CG with an uninteresting story (q.v. PDI's release of last October, Shark Tale) isn't much better. That's why it's refreshing to see a nice, sweet, self-contained little sitcom-like playlet (one sequence in particular of Madagascar - see it, and you'll know exactly which one - is particularly non-cinematically theatrical) with punchy, clean designs. For example:

I've been noticing that Dreamworks always uses many famous actors to voice in their animated movies, and Pixar uses less. But I find most Pixar movies have better plots than Dreamworks. The only good Dreamworks movie I can remember in the last 2 years is only The Shrek 2. Good actors don't always guarantee good movies...

I came across some more short films. This time from the amazing company Pixar Animation Studios. The only down side to these short films online is the fact that they are previews. You’ll have to find the whole short film released on Pixar Animation Studios movies. I’m not aware of any other place to see them in there entirety.

Free-range filming? Orange is something like that: A proposed 3D animated short film to be made collaboratively and with the use of open source software, chiefly Blender. What’s more, it will be released sans traditional copyright, free for anyone to download, watch and pass on.

So, should Hollywood (or, at least Pixar) start sweating hard?

Another MIT acquaintance of mine has started digital animation work on his first film. He is working at Pixar, and is a Technical Director on the forthcoming film Cars. Both my ILM friend and my Pixar friend majored in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS, or Course 6) at MIT, so if you're interested in working on the next special effects blockbuster, you may want to check out this department.

A Pixar movie based on the human body, with different cell types for different characters, could be both incredibly cool and educational. Antigen presentation and B-cell isotype switching would never be the same.

Pixar, if you’re reading, I’d be happy to consult on the film.

Luxo, the Pixar animation fan blog, has a indepth look at the Pixar presence in Disney themeparks. The story includes some great concept art for rides that are still on the drawing board and some that are rumored to have a greenlight.

Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs paid $10 million for the team that became Pixar Inc., and the movie company went on to make $3 billion at the box office.

Then he sold the computer division — later to become Pixar — to Jobs in 1986 in arguably one of the worst deals in movie history.

There are some beautiful moments, some fantastically funny shtick, some repetitive fighting (a must in most any Kung Fu film), and more gee-whiz pizzazz to the pleasures of its CGI than any filmmaker outside of Pixar’s stable.