When asked what my favorite city is, I often say “movie Paris.” I like real Paris, too, but Paris in the movies is bright and clean, full of lights and romance, always with brimming cafes and wonderful restaurants, potential around every corner, artists everywhere, and music always playing. Movie Paris is perfect. And Pixar captured that perfectly in Ratatouille, rendering the excitement of movie Paris through the eyes of Remy, who’s just as starry-eyed about the place as I am.
After releasing a teaser trailer a few months ago, Pixar has just dropped the full theatrical trailer for their upcoming Scottish warrior princess film Brave. There’s been a lot of hype about this being Pixar’s first film with a female lead, and good on them for finally doing that and seeming to largely stay away from the Disney-esque princess mold, but that being said, there’s something very Mulan-meets-How to Train Your Dragon about this trailer. Obviously part of that is DreamWorks’ fault for choosing to have their Vikings speak with Scottish brogues – at least Pixar is using the Scottish accents honestly, and have grabbed some fine actors to provide voices, starting with the very underused Kelly MacDonald in the lead role, and also including Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, and Julie Walters.
I frankly prefer the mysterious undertones and thematic weight of the earlier trailer to this one, but that’s pretty much par for the course for me and Pixar. I usually love the teaser trailers, dislike the longer trailers, then love the movie. So I’ve still got high hopes for this.
Check out the trailer under the seats.
Ymight have caught this in front of Cars 2, but Pixar finally put the trailer for their 2012 Animated film online in HD. That’d be the Scottish princess/archer adventure titled, simply, Brave. You can only hear Kevin McKidd on the voice over here, but it looks as though Pixar has grabbed a lot of the hard working Scot character actors for this one, even snapping up Craig Ferguson from Dream Works (he had a significant role in How To Train Your Dragon). Robbie Coltrane, Kelly MacDonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, and Julie Walters round out the voice work in the film. If those first three names don’t get you excited, then, well, there is little help for you. This one, judging by the trailer, is going to be very earnest, and with no sign of Larry the Cable Guy. Whew.
The teaser is tucked under the seat.
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Hey Pixar! Hire this guy, pronto.
A creature made of scrap parts wanders though the woods until he comes across a sign that will help him discover where he belongs.
2 minute Short Film is tucked under the seat.
Directors: John Lasseter, Brad Lewis (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Cars)
Story: John Lasseter, Brad Lewis, Dan Fogelman
Screenplay: Ben Queen
Producer: Denise Ream
Starring: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro
MPAA Rating: G
Running time: 112 min
Though filled with their typical beautiful animation and penchant for including a myriad of little touches and background jokes, Pixar’s 2011 summer entry Cars 2 is easily their least significant piece of work. It’s not as horrible as many people expected (and even seemed to want it to be), but it doesn’t feel like the same effort has gone into the story and characters as even their lesser films. There’s a great deal of creativity here (in the details – particularly when they take their car society to other parts of the world), but not as much artistry. For the most part it’s flash and brash and gets bogged down with chase after chase after chase. The story isn’t propelled by the characters this time around – and everything suffers as a result. There’s some fun to be had, but not really a great deal of humour and not a speck of warmth.
With Cars 2 coming out this weekend, Pixar has been dropping details on their first foray into the animated ‘Princess’ sub-genre. And here comes Brave who, judging by the darker look and design of this teaser-poster, will be a bit more along the lines of Princess Mononoke than Ariel (despite the red hair).
Welcome to another edition of the Cinecast, wherein the boys talk a little Joe Wright and Super-Spy-Assassins with the weekend release of Hanna. There is no Gamble on the show today, but in order to properly plumb the depth and nuance of Your Highness, we bring in a mystery guest. Then it is on to Kurt’s 3 days in Asheville, NC watching action films and stunt folks from around the world ply their trade at ActionFest. A recap of some of the highlight titles (from Bangkok stunt-reel filmmaking to white knuckle mountain climbing thrillers and Mixed Martial Arts Kumite) along with plans to revisit next year. DVD and netflix picks round out a show that is on-target and efficient, but a tad on the foul-tongued side. Fair warning.
As always, please join the conversation by leaving your own thoughts in the comment section below and again, thanks for listening!
Full show notes are under the seats…
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You can now take a look at RowThree’s bookmarks at any time of your choosing simply by clicking the “delicious” button in the upper right of the page. It looks remarkably similar to this:
Having not yet seen Cars 2, it’s impossible to say unequivocally that the Pixar juggernaut is about to have its first failure; at least critically speaking. But if any of the marketing thus far is to be trusted, one might surmise that not only does Cars Part Deux look not very good, it looks downright embarrassingly terrible.
It’s a pretty sure thing that the movie is going to make money. Cars is probably Pixar’s biggest money maker if you take into consideration merchandising. Kids seem to not be able to get enough and I’m sure they’re frothing at the mouth for more Lightning McQueen and his buddy Mater. The rest of us? Even the lovers of the original Cars, such as myself, are absolutely dreading the day and have thought the notion of a sequel a bad idea. It may end up working out; time will tell. But nonetheless, with the originality and creativity Pixar studios has shown us in the past, I can’t help but think a sequel to an already less-than-well-received feature seems at the very least to be lazy and unimaginative. A cash grab if you will. Still, knowing the kinds of things Pixar is capable of, we’ve yet to see them misstep and I still remain cautiously optimistic.
I’ll see Cars 2 with interest and hopefulness but as the Pixar sequel train keeps chugging along (after Toys and Cars), word has been floating around for a while now that there would be a Monsters, Inc. sequel in store for us as well – albeit with a couple of new properties thrown in between. Today I learn (and it has been confirmed by Disney/Pixar) that this new Monsters will in fact be what has become known as a prequel: Monsters University. In which Mike and Sully meet up in college, initially hate each other and then learn to be friends. Being that Monsters, Inc. is still my personal favorite of the Pixar filmography, I feel it’s stands its own perfectly and shouldn’t be touched. To make the idea potentially even worse, nothing has been confirmed about John Goodman and Bill Crystal reprising the use of their voices for our two main protagonists. Remember Dumb and Dumberer?
With other animation studios hot on the heels of the Pixar machine with films such as ILM’s Rango and Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon, showing huge profit margins as well dazzling visual and critical and audience adoration, it’s going to be the studio that has the highest levels of ingenuity, foresight and artfulness that comes out as the leader in today’s animation. With Pixar seemingly taking the easy way out with their next couple of ventures, I can’t help but wonder if the steam has finally been exhausted from this boiling kettle known as Pixar.
As much of a fan I am of Pixar’s original Cars film (yes, yes, I am in the minority. Everybody hates Cars, blah blah blah), I’ll be the first to admit I have no desire for a sequel or “the further adventures of…” Pixar animation seems to excel at putting together new and original content at every outing. Outside of the Toy Story trilogy they haven’t done a sequel up to this point and frankly I’m not impressed with what I’ve seen so far. And little chirpy birds are also talking about a sequel to my favorite of the Pixar filmery: Monsters, Inc. Ouch.
So off on some super secret spy mission, Mater and Lightning McQueen head to Europe for some shenanigans of cloak and daggery proportions. This sincerely looks like a half effort of straight-to-DVD quality. God, even the opening narration (“from the creators of Wall-e, Up!….” Ugh!). At the same time, people have been saying that for a long time about many a Pixar film just based on the trailers and then are wow’d by what they see on screen.
So while I remain optimistic, I can’t help but not be excited in the least for this next outing. Cars 2 is released in fucking 3D on June 24, 2011. Watch the trailer after the jump: Could this be the first Pixar animation to not be universally hailed? Is this a symptom of the Disney “churn out as many projects as possible” virus? Or am I completely off my rocker and just by the Michael Caine and Helen Mirren factor we’ll all be amused? I doubt it…
And yeah, I’m excited for it.
