Spielberg's full-length trailer to 'Tintin' hits

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has been Steven Spielberg's much-anticipated companion piece to his more dramatic War Horse, both coming out this this year.  Much as been said regarding Spielberg's penchant for a "one for the critics, one more the masses" years, being it 1993 with Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, or 2005's War of the Worlds and Munich.  The new international trailer, below.

However, this particular film, produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and long-time Spielberg backer Kathleen Kennedy, is a combination of motion capture and rendering animation.  Though there has been no official word as to whether this film will be ruled as eligible for Best Animated Feature or not, this film will surely be a contender should the animation branch deem it eligible.  The question is whether this film is strictly motion capture, or if it's motion capture with extensive animated rendering.  One makes it eligible, and the other doesn't. Should it be eligible, Spielberg could be looking at one impressive year.

[Thanks to Napier's News and @nathandonarum for the links]

Trailer for Pixar's Brave

The teaser and poster for Pixar's much-anticipated 2012 release, Brave, just came out recently, seen first by audiences treated to 3D viewings of Cars 2.  Needless to say, this new film should act as a credible rebound from their latest effort.  The film alone seems to be a major departure for the animation studio, which made its success in showing that animated films don't have to be about princesses.  According to IMDb, the synopsis goes a little something like this:

Scottish princess, Merida, defies her parents by persuing an interest in archery, but inadvertently jeopardizes her father's kingdom in the process.

Directed by Oscar-nominee and short film director Mark Andrews (One Man Band) and penned by the film's erstwhile director Brenda Chapman (scribe of Cars and Beauty and the Beast) and Irene Mecchi.  Featuring voice acting by very-Irish Kelly Macdonald as Princess Merida alongside Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Craig Ferguson, and Billy Connolly.  Trailer below.

REVIEW: Cars 2 (C)

(dir. John Lasseter and Brad Lewis, 2011)

Regardless of what you hear, there is a lot to enjoy about Disney and Pixar's newest film, Cars 2.  But, in line with what you've heard, there's also a lot to not enjoy.  Much ado has been whispered and shouted in regards to the reason this film was made.  It's well documented (including in an hour-long documentary) that the original Cars was a passion project for director and Pixar creative master John Lasseter, and the film just happened to become a hit with children (if not the critical masses) and a merchandise Goliath.  So is the sequel to Pixar's least-favorably-reviewed film a project of passion or dollar signs?

Answer: It doesn't matter.

As with all Pixar films, we start with the adorable protagonists, erstwhile upstart and now reformed race-car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and stupid is as stupid does best pal Mater (Larry the Cable Guy).  In the original, McQueen was the star, and in a curious and ultimately successful move, Mater has become the chief hero of the sequel.  Long story short, in the throes of a worldwide World Grand Prix race sponsored by alternative fuel icon Sir Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard), Mater is mistaken as a high-class spy and hilarity ensues; well, it almost ensues.

There are some funny parts.  A rather clever scene wherein Mater eats pistachio ice cream, only to find out he had really eaten a scoop of wasabi (you know, the things adults get and kids don't).  There are fun parts even; the races are visually stunning and the battle sequences are awe-inspiring.  A particularly strong opening sequence (seemingly borrowed right from the storyboards of a James Bond flick) gave me hope for the rest of the picture.  But it's the overarching aspects where the film falters.  There's no real emotional core, you struggle to really care about anyone aside from Mater, and there's no cohesively strong theme to the piece.  In the end, it's just a "see, your stupid friend can do stuff, if only by accident" story.  All new and old characters are bland and mostly forgettable, from the barely-there McQueen to the new Mater love interest Holley Shiftwell (voiced, presumably while napping, by Emily Mortimer).  New driving rival Francesco Bernoulli (a Formula-1 car voiced by John Turturro) is a recycling of Turturro's character from The Big Lebowski and Sasha Baron Cohen's foreign racing rival from Talladega Nights.  It was just...fluff.  Devoid of the heart and soul we've come to expect not only from Pixar, but from all good animated films.

Cars 2 feels so empty, even if it is full of color.  For all the disdain most give the original, I respect it for what it was.  It had heart, and that heart belonged in the characters of Radiator Springs, and the town itself.  Cars 2 takes half the lovable characters out of the equation and transplants McQueen and Mater to Italy, Japan, and London.  There's no love or connection with these cities; visually, they're amazing, but the characters have zero connection to them. And in a wanderlust sequel to a film that was originally all about the importance of a small town, this feels like a misguided ripoff.

I saw this movie with five children, four of which literally worship the ground all things Cars walk drive on.  They laughed a lot, and when we left they said it was the "best movie ever," and that they "loved Lightning."  And, in the end, I guess that's the point isn't it?  For animated films at least, to entertain children and take them to another world that's fun and where cars can fly.  So what if their parents, siblings, or film critics thinks the movie is stupid, they get a kick out of it.  For so long now, animated films have surprised us by not being just animated films, but something greater.  So when they're not, we're disappointed, and we miss the point of them to begin with.  GRADE: C

Clip/Trailer from "Happy Feet 2 in 3D"

Yes.  That's actually the title.  It's not a subtitle or an additional discription, but this sequel to George Miller's Academy Award-winning Happy Feet is called Happy Feet 2 in 3D.  It's even its official IMDb title.  This is what we've come to, I guess.



There was something I found fun about the original, though.  It had nice songs, strongly-imagined dance sequences, and impressive animation.  I can say that I enjoyed it.  (Though, my personality is one of comparison, and since 2006 was a year of relatively weak animation, I think perhaps my opinion on the film is bloated.  But that's neither here nor there.)

While I'll always appreciate true-to-life animation, personally it just turns me off.  I appreciate it from a craft standpoint and understand how difficult it is to capture realistic humans, environments, and animals...but I just don't like it very much.  Nevertheless, given that its predecessor won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, this one is surely to be in the conversation if not a nominee at the 2011 awards.

Eat all penguins...please.  EAT THEM.

Also.  There is just so...much...dancing in this.  It's almost as if they're trying to say, "Hey, remember when we sang Grandmaster Flash's 'The Message' in the first one?  This is sorta like that!"  Does 3D have to be the future of animation?  Thoughts on the trailer?


.