From ComingSoon.net:
"20 features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards®.
The 20 submitted features are:
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Astro Boy
Battle for Terra
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Coraline
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Mary and Max
The Missing Lynx
Monsters vs. Aliens
9
Planet 51
Ponyo
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
A Town Called Panic
Up
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Planet 51, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells and A Town Called Panic have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and meet all of the category's other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process.
Under the rules for this category, a maximum of 5 features can be nominated in a year in which the field of eligible entries numbers at least 16.
Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide."
My predictions:
Up
The Princess and the Frog
Ponyo
Disney's A Christmas Carol
Fantastic Mr. Fox
I don't see why Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakuel is up there - it's half live-action. If Up is as insanely popular with Oscar judges as people are saying it is, and it does get a Best Picture (never say never - remember, Beauty and the Beast) then my runner-up would be Coraline.
Showing posts with label Monsters vs. Aliens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monsters vs. Aliens. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
MONSTERS VS. ALIENS attack on the small screen
From ComingSoon.net:
"Nickelodeon has ordered a pilot from DreamWorks Animation for a series based on the company's recent Monsters vs. Aliens.
DWA and Nick last week announced a deal on the co-production of 'Kung Fu Panda: The Series' based on last year's DWA hit. The two also collaborate on the successful 'The Penguins of Madagascar' for which the partners will launch an aggressive licensing campaign early next year.
In 2010, DWA is also teaming up with NBC for a 'Scared Shrekless' Halloween special and a Kung Fu Panda holiday special."
Sounds great! Love to see more DreamWorks characters come back to the small screen!
Then again, let's get some Pixar characters on TV, too - in full length series!
"Nickelodeon has ordered a pilot from DreamWorks Animation for a series based on the company's recent Monsters vs. Aliens.
DWA and Nick last week announced a deal on the co-production of 'Kung Fu Panda: The Series' based on last year's DWA hit. The two also collaborate on the successful 'The Penguins of Madagascar' for which the partners will launch an aggressive licensing campaign early next year.
In 2010, DWA is also teaming up with NBC for a 'Scared Shrekless' Halloween special and a Kung Fu Panda holiday special."
Sounds great! Love to see more DreamWorks characters come back to the small screen!
Then again, let's get some Pixar characters on TV, too - in full length series!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Great Early Review of MONSTERS VS. ALIENS 3D
From AintItCool.com, written by Capone:
"One of the biggest corners of my heart is held in reserve for old (usually black-and-white) sci-fi films. I'm talking ginormous man-in-suit monsters, slow-moving aliens with tentacles and either one or 50 eyes, or regular-sized animals that are made to look humongous as they ize poor citizens like us. Watch any of them repeatedly and you notice one thing almost without fail: they are about 85 percent chatter and 15 percent actual creature feature…if you were lucky. The philosophies and theories bandied about were pretty hilarious, and were usually just an excuse to keep the cameras rolling to get that running time to at least 75 minutes. Now imagine taking the best parts of these alien invasion flicks, these giant spider films, these creeping menace pictures, and these home-grown mutated abominations of nature movies and tossing them all into one big 3-D animated work, and you have some idea of just how much fun Monsters vs. Aliens was for me.
In a way, you could look at Monsters vs. Aliens as the ultimate superhero team movie. A colossal alien robot lands on earth carrying a message from one Gallaxhar (voiced with pure maniacal splendor by Rainn Wilson), who tells the President of the United States (the inspired casting of Stephen Colbert in this role is enough to recommend it) that he's essentially going to destroy the world. Fair enough. In his very Dr. Strangelove-like War Room, the President listens to his advisors list the options on how to handle this situation. But only Gen. W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland, complete with gravelly Southern accent) has a solution that seems like it might work--to unleash a group of captured 'monsters' that the government has hidden in a secret facility on the alien invader in exchange for their freedom.
The film actually opens with a wedding. Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is about to wed weatherman Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd). But just before the wedding, a meteorite falls from the sky and lands on Susan. She miraculously survives, but during the ceremony she grows to 49-feet 11.5-inches tall (I guess rounding up would have been a copyright violation). Her cowardly husband-to-be leaves her at the alter--actually she destroys the church, so the alter is pretty much kindling at this point--and Susan is quickly ed up by Monger's team and she's placed in a giant holding cell.
So who makes up the world's only defense against alien destruction? Seth Rogen voices B.O.B., a gelatinous creature who has no brain and is virtually indestructible; Hugh Laurie is the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., a play off of The Fly; Will Arnett is the cocky Missing Link, a big of a cross between The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Bigfoot; and an oversized slug/caterpillar thing called Insectasaurus. Susan is given the code name Ginormica, and the team sets off to deal with the powerful alien robot.
There's no doubt in my mind that B.O.B. is going to be the fan favorite of the bunch. Aside from being just plain funny, B.O.B. is basically the stoner creature--he's easily distracted, giggles at everything, and, you know, he's a blob of a guy. It's great to hear Laurie's British accent return to add a bit of gravitas to Cockroach's ravings. And although Witherspoon basically sounds like herself, she has the toughest job. She's our entry point into this story and these characters. She's scared, has no idea exactly what the limits of her powers are, and she called upon to perform this weighty task at a time in her life when the bride-to-be Susan didn't now what direction her life was going to take after getting married. I've heard the complaint often that there are no strong female lead characters in animated films anymore (Coraline aside). Complain no more--Susan is your , ur, woman. And she fills out a nearly 50-ft. black jumpsuit rather nicely.
One of the fun things about the film is also that there are guest voices tucked away in some very small roles. Listen carefully for the likes of Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Poehler, Ed Helms, Renee Zellweger, and John Krasinski. No joking, some of these people have one or two lines tops. But the best thing about Monsters vs. Aliens is that it takes its cues from science fiction films of old. Gallaxhar isn't some play one particular alien from another film; he's every alien enemy rolled into one. These are details in the camera work, the music, and the story that you will absolutely love if you have an affection for these types of classic genre works.
And I haven't even talked about the unbelievable 3-D. I've seen a lot of 3-D in recent months, but this has got to be the best 3-D I've seen in an animated film. There's something about having the giant creatures interacting with smaller people that makes the 3-D pop off the screen, and without tossing stuff at the camera every five minutes. There's a scale and depth to this 3-D work that is unrivaled. One of the sequences the crowd at BNAT X saw was a fight scene on the Golden Gate Bridge. Holy crap, that is the absolute best scene in the movie. And seeing it a second time in the context of the completed film, I was even more impressed with it. Your jaw will collect bugs from being open for so long.
Now please understand, this movie is rated PG, which means it's aimed directly at the younger sect. But honestly, I had as much fun watching this as the kids in my audience. And being able to understand the clandestine humor and the sight gags and more overt stuff, I may have even enjoyed it a little more than the youngsters. Co-director (along with Rob Letterman) Conrad Vernon was also a director on Shrek 2, probably the best melding of evergreen jokes, modern references, and innuendo in a animated work allegedly more for children. He knows where all the lines are drawn and exactly how far over them he can put his big toe. Sure the film is sweet and charming most of the time, but it's when things get a little ornery and mischievous that things really start to cook. There's a devilish undercurrent that props Monsters vs. Aliens up and makes it something special. In case you couldn't tell, I had a blast watching this movie."
"One of the biggest corners of my heart is held in reserve for old (usually black-and-white) sci-fi films. I'm talking ginormous man-in-suit monsters, slow-moving aliens with tentacles and either one or 50 eyes, or regular-sized animals that are made to look humongous as they ize poor citizens like us. Watch any of them repeatedly and you notice one thing almost without fail: they are about 85 percent chatter and 15 percent actual creature feature…if you were lucky. The philosophies and theories bandied about were pretty hilarious, and were usually just an excuse to keep the cameras rolling to get that running time to at least 75 minutes. Now imagine taking the best parts of these alien invasion flicks, these giant spider films, these creeping menace pictures, and these home-grown mutated abominations of nature movies and tossing them all into one big 3-D animated work, and you have some idea of just how much fun Monsters vs. Aliens was for me.
In a way, you could look at Monsters vs. Aliens as the ultimate superhero team movie. A colossal alien robot lands on earth carrying a message from one Gallaxhar (voiced with pure maniacal splendor by Rainn Wilson), who tells the President of the United States (the inspired casting of Stephen Colbert in this role is enough to recommend it) that he's essentially going to destroy the world. Fair enough. In his very Dr. Strangelove-like War Room, the President listens to his advisors list the options on how to handle this situation. But only Gen. W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland, complete with gravelly Southern accent) has a solution that seems like it might work--to unleash a group of captured 'monsters' that the government has hidden in a secret facility on the alien invader in exchange for their freedom.
The film actually opens with a wedding. Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is about to wed weatherman Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd). But just before the wedding, a meteorite falls from the sky and lands on Susan. She miraculously survives, but during the ceremony she grows to 49-feet 11.5-inches tall (I guess rounding up would have been a copyright violation). Her cowardly husband-to-be leaves her at the alter--actually she destroys the church, so the alter is pretty much kindling at this point--and Susan is quickly ed up by Monger's team and she's placed in a giant holding cell.
So who makes up the world's only defense against alien destruction? Seth Rogen voices B.O.B., a gelatinous creature who has no brain and is virtually indestructible; Hugh Laurie is the mad scientist Dr. Cockroach Ph.D., a play off of The Fly; Will Arnett is the cocky Missing Link, a big of a cross between The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Bigfoot; and an oversized slug/caterpillar thing called Insectasaurus. Susan is given the code name Ginormica, and the team sets off to deal with the powerful alien robot.
There's no doubt in my mind that B.O.B. is going to be the fan favorite of the bunch. Aside from being just plain funny, B.O.B. is basically the stoner creature--he's easily distracted, giggles at everything, and, you know, he's a blob of a guy. It's great to hear Laurie's British accent return to add a bit of gravitas to Cockroach's ravings. And although Witherspoon basically sounds like herself, she has the toughest job. She's our entry point into this story and these characters. She's scared, has no idea exactly what the limits of her powers are, and she called upon to perform this weighty task at a time in her life when the bride-to-be Susan didn't now what direction her life was going to take after getting married. I've heard the complaint often that there are no strong female lead characters in animated films anymore (Coraline aside). Complain no more--Susan is your , ur, woman. And she fills out a nearly 50-ft. black jumpsuit rather nicely.
One of the fun things about the film is also that there are guest voices tucked away in some very small roles. Listen carefully for the likes of Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Poehler, Ed Helms, Renee Zellweger, and John Krasinski. No joking, some of these people have one or two lines tops. But the best thing about Monsters vs. Aliens is that it takes its cues from science fiction films of old. Gallaxhar isn't some play one particular alien from another film; he's every alien enemy rolled into one. These are details in the camera work, the music, and the story that you will absolutely love if you have an affection for these types of classic genre works.
And I haven't even talked about the unbelievable 3-D. I've seen a lot of 3-D in recent months, but this has got to be the best 3-D I've seen in an animated film. There's something about having the giant creatures interacting with smaller people that makes the 3-D pop off the screen, and without tossing stuff at the camera every five minutes. There's a scale and depth to this 3-D work that is unrivaled. One of the sequences the crowd at BNAT X saw was a fight scene on the Golden Gate Bridge. Holy crap, that is the absolute best scene in the movie. And seeing it a second time in the context of the completed film, I was even more impressed with it. Your jaw will collect bugs from being open for so long.
Now please understand, this movie is rated PG, which means it's aimed directly at the younger sect. But honestly, I had as much fun watching this as the kids in my audience. And being able to understand the clandestine humor and the sight gags and more overt stuff, I may have even enjoyed it a little more than the youngsters. Co-director (along with Rob Letterman) Conrad Vernon was also a director on Shrek 2, probably the best melding of evergreen jokes, modern references, and innuendo in a animated work allegedly more for children. He knows where all the lines are drawn and exactly how far over them he can put his big toe. Sure the film is sweet and charming most of the time, but it's when things get a little ornery and mischievous that things really start to cook. There's a devilish undercurrent that props Monsters vs. Aliens up and makes it something special. In case you couldn't tell, I had a blast watching this movie."
Friday, January 9, 2009
2009 Movies' TV Spots at the Super Bowl!
From ComingSoon.net:
"Confirmed for this year's roster are high-profile titles like Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek and G.I. Joe; Sony’s Angels & Demons; DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens; and Universal's Land of the Lost and its fourth installment in The Fast and the Furious franchise. Disney is also planning to use the game to raise the profile for Pixar's next toon, Up, while a X-Men Origins: Wolverine spot is likely from Fox.
As of Thursday, Fox had yet to buy any time during the game. Should it do so at the last minute, Wolverine, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are the pics it's most likely to promote.
Disney is remaining tight-lipped about its Super Bowl strategy, but it wouldn't be surprising if it buys time for Dwayne Johnson starrer Race to Witch Mountain and Jerry Bruckheimer’s G-Force.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. hasn't bought a spot and may not at all, even with Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Watchmen — pics that would all appeal to the Super Bowl crowd — on its upcoming release sked."
TV spots I'm looking forward to: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Monsters vs. Aliens, Up, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Race to Witch Mountain, Terminator Salvation, and Watchmen.
"Confirmed for this year's roster are high-profile titles like Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek and G.I. Joe; Sony’s Angels & Demons; DreamWorks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens; and Universal's Land of the Lost and its fourth installment in The Fast and the Furious franchise. Disney is also planning to use the game to raise the profile for Pixar's next toon, Up, while a X-Men Origins: Wolverine spot is likely from Fox.
As of Thursday, Fox had yet to buy any time during the game. Should it do so at the last minute, Wolverine, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are the pics it's most likely to promote.
Disney is remaining tight-lipped about its Super Bowl strategy, but it wouldn't be surprising if it buys time for Dwayne Johnson starrer Race to Witch Mountain and Jerry Bruckheimer’s G-Force.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. hasn't bought a spot and may not at all, even with Terminator Salvation, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Watchmen — pics that would all appeal to the Super Bowl crowd — on its upcoming release sked."
TV spots I'm looking forward to: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Monsters vs. Aliens, Up, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Race to Witch Mountain, Terminator Salvation, and Watchmen.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
New MONSTERS VS. ALIENS Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQyewrJYuzw
This is, probably, going to be the best DreamWorks Animations film since Madagascar and before that Shrek (which recently opened a Broadway musical. Go figure.).
The story, according to Wikipedia:
"When California resident Susan Murphy mysteriously grows to 49 ft 11 in, on her wedding day, she is labelled a monster and taken in by the military to a institution housing other monsters, such as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D., an insect-headed mad scientist, the Missing Link, a thousands-of-years-old fish-man, B.O.B., an indestructible gelatinous mass and Insectosaurus, a fuzzy bug that makes even Susan look tiny by comparison. When a UFO lands and aliens demand that Earth be given to them, General W.R. Monger suggests to the President that the monsters can provide the firepower to defeat the aliens."
The all-star cast includes -
Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy / Ginormica
Paul Rudd as Derek
Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.
Will Arnett as The Missing Link
Seth Rogen as B.O.B.
Kiefer Sutherland as Gen. W.R. Monger
Stephen Colbert as The President of the United States
Rainn Wilson as Gallaxhar
This is, probably, going to be the best DreamWorks Animations film since Madagascar and before that Shrek (which recently opened a Broadway musical. Go figure.).
The story, according to Wikipedia:
"When California resident Susan Murphy mysteriously grows to 49 ft 11 in, on her wedding day, she is labelled a monster and taken in by the military to a institution housing other monsters, such as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D., an insect-headed mad scientist, the Missing Link, a thousands-of-years-old fish-man, B.O.B., an indestructible gelatinous mass and Insectosaurus, a fuzzy bug that makes even Susan look tiny by comparison. When a UFO lands and aliens demand that Earth be given to them, General W.R. Monger suggests to the President that the monsters can provide the firepower to defeat the aliens."
The all-star cast includes -
Reese Witherspoon as Susan Murphy / Ginormica
Paul Rudd as Derek
Hugh Laurie as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.
Will Arnett as The Missing Link
Seth Rogen as B.O.B.
Kiefer Sutherland as Gen. W.R. Monger
Stephen Colbert as The President of the United States
Rainn Wilson as Gallaxhar
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