Resurrecting Nemo - In 3D Of Course

If I'm not mistaken, Finding Nemo is Pixar's second most profitable movie release behind Toy Story 3 (and allowing for inflation, the two are pretty much equal). When I did my ranking of Pixar films (link here) from least favorite to favorite, I had Finding Nemo near the bottom with only Cars 2 being more insufferable along with A Bug's Life simply because I can't remember that movie even though I know that I have seen it. The reasons for my disliking Nemo are simple. Pixar, through many of the films, uses the some premise - a lovable misfit in peril. None of their movies embodies that formula more than Finding Nemo. It seems more formula and less creative originality than many of their other films. That and Ellen Degeneres's incessant chattering voice just plain annoys me.

But I am in the minority and plenty of people will be out in droves to see Finding Nemo in 3D for the next couple of weeks out ahead of its 3D home video release. Good for them. Considering most of the garbage movies that are out right now, a revisit with Nemo may be an improvement, maybe even for a curmudgeon like me.

I follow Albert Brooks, who voiced Nemo's dad in the movie, on Twitter. He is a bright and funny guy along with being a fine actor (like Steve Martin, Brooks was an inventive comedian long before he to took acting). Albert Brooks tweeted last week that the Nemo 3D looked so good at its premiere that he thought that he needed a wet suit. High praise indeed. Enjoy Finding Nemo 3D but I think I'll pass.

Betting On Pixar - A 'Brave' Prediction

Merida from Pixar's Brave - A Disney Parks Blog Photo

I can't say that I have been particularly impressed with the still publicity photos and YouTube trailers for Pixar's new Brave movie which will open June 22nd. That changed yesterday when I saw the 3D preview in front of Marvel's The Avengers. The trailer was stunning and convinced me that Brave will be a winner. Brave marks the return of Pixar in bringing an original story to the screen. We last had the dreadful Cars 2 and previous to that was the astonishingly well made Toy Story 3 but Brave marks Pixar's first original film since Up. And if were I betting man, Up would be a good benchmark for Brave as would Ratatouille. A lot is made of animated movies that feature female leads and their relative success. I believe Merida from Brave will transcend that bias or at least put up a good spirited fight.

Up brought Pixar its customary Oscar for best animated film (Cars 2 was not even nominated). It was a solid box office performer with global appeal. So that is where I kind of seeing Brave ending up and that certainly isn't a bad place to be. When all is said and done, I think Pixar and Disney will pat themselves on the back for this film. A great story, beautifully filmed, with memorable characters is always the best place to start. I couldn't say it before yesterday but now I am looking forward to seeing Brave come to life on the screen.

Oh! By the way, Disney announced it was putting in a Brave Meet and Greet with Merida and friends over by it's a small world in Disneyland and adding a Brave promotional segment to World of Color in Disney California Adventure. This should come as a surprise to.... nobody.

Home of the 'Brave'

Disney Parks Blog posted last week that a new Meet & Greet will be constructed in Fantasyland for Merida, the title character of Pixar's upcoming film Brave which will hit the screens June 22.  Knowing the popularity of these promotional meet & greet's there's probably 8000 kids with their parents planning to be first in line. 

There have been a few TV trailers for Brave but I haven't seen enough of it to form any preconceived opinions one way or another.  The only thing I am sure of is that after the absolutely abominable Cars2, there is only one way for Pixar to go.  Cars 2 was so bad that I heard the Academy Awards asked John Lasseter to give one of his Oscars back as penance.  Anyway, with Brave being sandwiched in between Cars 2 and Monsters Inc 2 its appreciated that Pixar is once again producing an original story for which they have set a very high bar for themselves.

But here's the question.  It's not a sexist thing, but can a female lead carry a Pixar film to box office glory?  The Princess label has been batted around Disney offices for a few years now.  Many at Disney blamed the word Princess for causing the film Princess and the Frog to under perform at the box office.  That later forced the re-titling of Rapunzel to Tangled to make it seem like less of a 'girls' movie.  Here is the thinking, whether its true or not is subject to debate - its not hard to get girls to see movies about cars, toys, houses floating in the air with balloons, or cute little robots - it is hard to get little boys to go see movies about girls.  Just saying, not trying to pick a fight.

So Brave is going to be an interesting case study for Pixar on many levels.  I have a feeling its going to have fine success.  But I also could be wrong.

Ranking Pixar Films - 2012

There are probably a couple of thousand of the lists like this one on the Internet in various blogs and web pages.  With Cars Land set to open and Pixar characters firmly entrenched in Disney California Adventure (along with Buzz and Nemo over in Disneyland), here are my rankings for the 12 Pixar films that have been made over the years.  It should be noted that all Pixar movies are successful and have made money (lots of money) but not all of them have exactly been works of art as the very best of them are.  So here is my list from worse to first.

12) A Bug's Life:  I saw the movie - on video - I don't remember a thing about it.  Not the movie's fault it came in last, more my fault (memo for the To-Do List - see A Bug's Life again).

11) Cars 2:  Visually stunning but one of the most lazy disappointing efforts I have ever witnessed from a group of people who should know better.  I am on a personal quest to rid Larry the Cable Guy and his buffoonery from show business.

10) Finding Nemo:  Along with Toy Story 3, Nemo is Pixar's most profitable movie. Never has the Pixar formula of cute little misfit in peril put more prominently displayed. I just didn't like it.  Ellen Degeneres voice annoys me (but not as much as Larry the Cable Guy).

9) Monsters Inc.:  My opinion of Monsters Inc. seems to waver.  I saw it in a theater and liked it a lot.  I remember being sick at the time so the movie was much better than I was.  When I saw it on video the first time, I didn't like it.  Then I watched it again last year and enjoyed it thoroughly.  I guess it depends how I feel.

8) Cars:  Mrs. DisneylandTraveler drug me to the theater to see Cars - she had already taken The Boy to see it and loved it - she thought I would too.  I was kicking and screaming all the way.  But guess what, I enjoyed the original Cars movie though I did think it was a little too long.  Cars had more Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, and Holly Hunter and less Larry the Cable Guy - a very wise choice.

7) Ratatouille:  This one may have been one of Pixar's best efforts with an Oscar to show for it and I did like Ratatouille.  Its just not a movie I can watch over and over again. Maybe its too good.

6) Toy Story 2:  Even the weakest effort of the Toy Story trilogy is a very, very good movie just not quite as good as the other two.

5) Up:  I kink of put Up in the same category as Ratatouille.  Excellent movies, great stories, and a visually stunning.  But like Ratatouille, I just can't watch Up over and over again.  It is a bit too emotionally fetching and yes, maybe too good.

4) The Incredibles:  Now you're talking.  A Pixar super-hero story.  A Pixar movie that doesn't intentionally try to make you cry.  Just good, fun, entertainment.

3) Toy Story:  I saw Toy Story in a movie theater and walked out in amazement at what I had just seen.  Pixar set the bar high right from the get go and created a truly American film experience with its Toy Story Franchise.  Having Tom Hanks in the lead doesn't hurt.

2) Toy Story 3:  Supposedly the TS trilogy ends here and if it did, it went out in grand style.  The ending of Toy Story 3 is about the most beautiful ending for a movie I have ever seen.

1) Wall-E:  If Toy Story 3 soared off into the sunset at the end, Wall-E blew me away from the beginning.  The love story of Wall-E and Eve is one of the greatest in movie history.  This movie did not need any of the humans that showed late in the movie.  The hearts of Wall-E and Eve, two robots, are greater than 99% of everyone on this planet. This movie did not need a spoken word to convey the richness of all emotions. Wall-E is one of the greatest movies of all time.

Cars Land Gets Its Opening Day

Cars Land Enhanced Publicity Artwork - Disney Parks Blog

According to MiceAge's Al Lutz, Disney has its target opening day for Cars Land and the relaunch of the much improved Disney California Adventure as June 15 (with a media day scheduled for June 14). This should also include most of Buena Vista Street though it seems completion of that area of the park by June 15th is a little more problematical.  Helped by a dry California winter and unseasonably warm temperatures, DCA construction projects have been motoring on at a very high rate of speed.

This summer is going to be absolutely huge for the Disneyland Resort - perhaps record breaking. The economy seems to be picking up, the publicity machine for DCA and Cars Land is most impressive, and it seems that most Disney fans can't wait.  Well, this one can for a bit.  So beginning June 15 I can begin to work on my dream of having a nickel for every time a variation of the following line is uttered within the confines the Disneyland Resort - "Man, it's crowded in here".

So the cynical side of me is also beginning to think about a basic law of economics - supply and demand.  For the DCA relaunch the demand to get into the place will probably exceed the physical space available for quite awhile.  Ka-Ching!  Around April or May seems to be about a perfect time to up the admission and annual passholder prices.  Not fair you say? Sure it is, it's the corporate America way.

Back to that Radiator Springs Racers poster at the top of this post - I still prefer my cars not to have faces on them.  I'm still trying the get the stench of wasting two hours of my life watching Cars 2.  The movie was so bad (except the visual aspects of it) that Pixar should probably be ashamed of itself for releasing a piece of garbage like that.  This is the same company that has given up Wall-E, Up, and Toy Story 3 (all academy award winners) the last 3 years.  Cars 2 couldn't sniff an academy award if it tried.  So now Disney has a land dedicated to the Cars franchise.  Oh, it will be successful, but can it be sustainable 5, 10, 15 years into the future?  Fortunately (strange choice of words here), one of the downfalls of the movie Cars 2 was its lack of time actually spent in the charming desert town of Radiator Springs.  Now, Disney has built a remarkable replica of Radiator Springs the town right inside of DCA.  The rest of the Cars 2 mess - too much of a silly hick named Larry the Cable Guy, not enough Owen Wilson and the rest of characters, and Paul Newman died.

Paul Newman was the heart and soul of the first Cars movie.  My hope for the new Cars Land midst its slick commercialism and mass merchandising is Disney somehow honors the memory of Doc Hudson (the Paul Newman character).  DCA, Cars Land, is going to be a zoo this summer, hopefully there is a little bit of heart.

Lots-O-Huggin' the Bear, Let's Buy a Creep

This has been bothering me for awhile now. I guess I'm easily bothered. When we last saw Lots-O-Huggin' the Bear in the great movie Toy Story 3, he was plastered to the front of a garbage truck and deservedly so. You see Lotso, for short, was a creep, evil to the core, completely incapable of any sort of redemption. Voiced by the great character actor Ned Beatty (who I still hear in my nightmares from maybe the creepiest movie ever Deliverance) Lotso is really a fully developed character but beyond any doubt, the character is all bad. He was creepy even at the beginning of the movie when you thought he was the kindly old grandfather type.

So what should Disney do now that they have such a reprobate character like Lotso? Well back when the Pixar Play Parade ran in Disney California Adventure, you give him a a spot on a float and make him smell like strawberries. Let's take a walk through some of the larger Disney retail stores around the resort. What's that lined up on the multitude of shelves of stuffed animals? Why its kindly ol' Lotso.

So what's the moral of the Lotso story? Kind of like Duffy the Bear, no matter how so short-sighted, if he's huggable for a kid, slap a price a price tag on him and make a few bucks. Some day the kid will realize they are hugging a creep of epic proportions.

The Amazing Toy Story Zoetrope

I can't help myself. I have probably seen it a dozen times before but on every trip to the Disneyland Resort I have to stop by the Disney Animation Building in DCA to check out the amazing Toy Story Zoetrope. I can't explain my fascination with seeing this thing but it's there. Maybe it's seeing what the human brain is capable of doing when models spinning on a platter hit the magical speed, but it never ceases to amaze me. The Toy Story Zoetrope, built by Pixar, is just one of the things that make visiting a Disney park so special - how a small little attraction adds so much to the detail and intricacies of the parks. Check out the Toy Story Zoetrope below in a video I found on YouTube and you can be amazed too.

An Evening With The Incredibles

I believe as far as the box numbers go, Pixar's The Incredibles ranks 4th out of the 12 films the studio has released to this point (Toy Story 3, Finding Nemo, and Up all had bigger grosses). I never saw it when it was released in theaters because let's face it, I'm far too busy of a guy. I did see it once on DVD and remember liking it. Saw parts of it while visiting other people and remember liking the parts I saw there as well.

It was out of my radar but Disney released a Blu-Ray version of the film a few months ago and I just happened to notice it was available from Netflix, so I plunked it in my queue and it showed up a few days ago in the mail. So on a quiet evening here on the home front, I spent some time with the Incredibles.

It's a bit different from many of the Pixar films because it is entertainingly accessible. It doesn't go overboard trying to pull at your heart strings like many of the other Pixar offerings which often try to manipulate you into the story. Is the Incredibles one of Pixar's better movies? Not really, Wall-E and Toy Story 3 top my list. But it is also far from the worst where I have the annoying Finding Nemo. What The Incredibles is turns out to be a family story, a fun story, and a superhero story all rolled into one entertaining package.

The Ups and Downs of Disney Films

It gets a little complicated, but no Disney corporate entity has had a more wild ride the last couple of years than the film side of the business. Just for definition sake here is what Disney has on their film division side:

Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Touchstone Pictures (now partnered with Dreamworks SKG)
Pixar Studios
Marvel Studios
Others for all I know....(small film studios are opened, closed, bought, sold, all the time)

The last few years have had some major successes, even a surprising success with Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland putting a huge amount of money into Disney bank accounts. On the very top is the great Toy Story 3, easily the best movie Disney (through Pixar) put out since, well, Up, the last movie Disney (through Pixar) put out. This year's blockbuster came with Pirates of the Caribbean 4:On Strange Tides which oddly enough made a lot more money overseas than it did in the good ol' USA (my theory: the US economy has stressed the ticket buying public - for a POTC sequel that had two previous sequels of poor quality - wait for the DVD/Blu-Ray or Netflix release).

On the flip side comes Mars Needs Moms which may go down as one of the biggest bombs in the history of movie making of any kind. Costing more than a $150 million to make at last report, the movie took in less that $40 million around the world. Also out of director Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital partnership with Disney came the very under-performing A Christmas Carol. Disney canceled Zemeckis contract to produce two more films (including a remake of the Beatles Yellow Submarine).

Continuing with Disney films that came out with a thud - Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and The Sorcerer's Apprentice - big budget pictures that came up very, very short.

Of course, there were the marginal successes with Tangled and Tron: Legacy. And a special mention for the Princess and the Frog which could well be in the running for best Disney film over the last couple of years but didn't attract an audience in the numbers it deserved. In a rush to point a finger, Disney determined and anything directed to an audience of 6 year old girls (princess movies) was doomed to box office failure - hence Rapunzel gets re-titled to Tangled. Oddly enough, anything with Cars in the title with a target audience of 6 year old boys is just fine.

Over on the superhero side of things, Disney seems to be doing well with their investment in Marvel. Even though other film studios make and distribute Marvel movies until their contracts run out (which is coming soon), Disney gets a cut off Marvel films. Iron Man 2 and Thor were successes but not in the stratisphere as Spiderman or original Iron Man. X-Men First Class probably broke about even and maybe hoping for a nice DVD/Blu-Ray release to get its profitability. On the horizon comes Captain America in a few weeks.

And a new release of Winnie the Pooh.  Huh?

Bob Iger fired the head of Walt Disney's film division almost 2 years ago. It takes a couple of years to get the films already in the pipeline worked out but that time is coming now. It's now time for the new head of Walt Disney Studos, Rich Ross, to show what he can do.