38 posts tagged animation

Digital Domain, a company known for it’s special effects in movies such as Titanic, Tron: Legacy or Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is now transforming itself into an animation studio: Tradition Studios.

“Tradition Studios at Digital Domain looks to be known for extremely clean, family films that are memorable, strong, powerful stories that we hope you’re thinking about years later”, said Digital Domain’s CEO John Textor.

Unlike certain studios of animation, Tradition Studios is putting the focus on storytelling first and foremost. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of movies they’ll produce since the company is already recruiting Disney veterans.

“We’ve got the right ideas. As Pixar is struggling with sequels and Disney’s struggling to find itself, I think it’s a good time for us to come in with a different point of view with great family films”, said animator Chuck Williams (Lion King, Little Mermaid).

Could they be producing 2D animation? Tradition Studios are trying to differentiate themselves, so it would make sense for them to explore traditional animation.

Unlike some of their competitors, Pixar always understood the value of storytelling. Their movies are not only highly entertaining, but they also send you on an emotional journey.

Toy Story 3 is quite spectacular that way and Lee Unkrich must be pulling the right strings, because most of the people I know cried like babies at the end. I remember leaving the theater in tears, which is exceptional for me. I cried because Toy Story 3 told me a lot of things about myself.

Just like Andy, I had to leave my hometown and my memories behind. Turning the page is a huge step in one person’s life. Sometimes you just have to move on, as difficult as it is.

Just like Andy, I’m a nostalgic person. In fact, most of the guys of my age still play retro games, myself included. It’s as if the Y generation refused to grow up. Some even call it the Peter Pan generation! Toy Story 3 is a nice reminder that we’re no longer kids. We each had our childhoods and nothing can change that, but now it’s time for a new generation to live their own. We have to try looking ahead.

Just like Andy, I shared.

Thank you Pixar for creating such a charming and thoughtful movie!

I can’t believe that some people think that animation is just for kids. How ignorant is that? Every year, thousands of animators are producing independant shorts or feature films which are, in my opinion, far more relevant to the times we live in than most of the live action movies. For instance, think of movies like Persepolis or Waltz with Bashir and then compare them to the news.

It shouldn’t matter if a director does animation or live action because they’re all storytellers. The only differences are the techniques used to make this story come to life. Animation is a tool.

Brad Bird is a director who fought a lot for the recognition of animation as an equal to live action. He, and his fellow Pixar directors, made the Academy reconsider the exclusion of animation in the Best Picture category. But now, Brad Bird is facing a bigger challenge: most people believe he can’t do live action. Recently, J.J. Abrams made a statement about how the next Mission Impossible is exactly like is other movies but in live action. He wanted to reassure the moviegoers that it would still be a Brad Bird movie. Why is that question even raised?

Why are we accepting that Tim Burton, Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg are making animation, but some people are still doubtful about Bird’s directing abilities? Isn’t that a bit elitist? Are we supposed to believe that they’ll do a better job because they made “real movies”? If live action and animation are so different, than we should probably questions these directors as well, no?

Short movies are often overlooked, because for some reason they’re considered less important than feature films. But if anything, Pixar keeps proving that a great story can be tolld in minutes. We have to admire Pixar for offering a different movie experience in theaters, much more closer to what it used to be.

Let’s honor good storytelling and look at the best shorts produced by Pixar (so far).

5- Luxo Jr.

Think of how hard it is to give life to an object like that. Lamps don’t have hands…or even eyes! I still can’t believe that it was made in 1986!

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Here is the best new dvd release of the week:

FAMILY GUY: IT’S A TRAP!

I’m not the biggest fan of Seth Macfarlane, but he does a brilliant job at doing parodies of Star Wars. The only downside is the length because it’s only 57 minutes long!

Animation may be fake but it doesn’t mean that you can’t find the same things in real life.

• Toy Story
• A Bug’s Life
• Monsters Inc
• Finding Nemo
• The Incredibles
• Cars
• Ratatouille
• Wall-e
• Up
• Toy Story 3