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Monsters, Inc. Sequel Reportedly Confirmed!

BuzzSugar — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:30:52 -0700

It's been heavy on the Pixar around here these past few weeks, what with a review, a preview, a quiz, a poll, and news of box office successes. Now we can pile on more Pixar goodness with the apparent confirmation that Monsters, Inc. will be getting a sequel! No details are available yet - even the year of release (2013) is just speculation - but the sequel will reportedly be the next project for Up writer/director Peter Docter.

What do you think a Monsters, Inc. sequel should entail? Are there other Pixar movies that should continue on the big screen?

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Is Up Now the Best Pixar Movie?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:45:38 -0700

Before Wall-E hit theaters last year I asked you what your favorite Pixar movie was, and at that time there were eight to choose from (and Finding Nemo won!). Now with Wall-E having won all kinds of awards and Up being such a smash hit with audiences of all ages, I wonder if you'd change your vote.

What do you think? Is Up the best movie Pixar's done so far? Or do you still have a different favorite?

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Up Soars at the Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:15:14 -0700

Pixar's Up had a great weekend at the box office, coming in at No. 1 with a whopping $68.2 million. That makes Up the third biggest Pixar debut ever (out of ten) behind The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. It's also worth noting that Up's debut bested Wall-E, which opened last year to $63.1 million.

Interestingly, this particular box office win "validates Disney’s decision to let its Pixar unit put creativity before commerce. Some Wall Street analysts . . . had predicted the film would have a difficult time attracting children because of its geriatric action hero." Hurray for putting story first!

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian continued to do well and scored second place over the weekend. Drag Me to Hell debuted at No. 3 followed by Terminator Salvation and Star Trek.

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

12 Exciting Upcoming Animated Movies

BuzzSugar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:00:31 -0700

The release of Pixar's Up has really put me in an animated mood. Ha! Get it? So I gathered up some of the upcoming animated movies (a few as far out as 2012) from Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks - and Tim Burton. There are some exciting movies on their way to the silver screen so get ready to mark your calendars!

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Ridiculous Cuteness: Toy Story 3 Teaser

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:30:12 -0700

It's a Pixar kind of week around here what with a quiz and an Up review. Now, to add to the Pixar madness we've got a cute little teaser for the third Toy Story movie, opening June 18, 2010. Story-wise, nothing is revealed in the video, it's mostly just Buzz trying to one-up Woody on the Toy Story 3 sign - but oh, golly, it is so adorable. And it made me laugh. So, for a little dash of sweetness with which to end your week, read more.

Up: Another Major Pixar Success

BuzzSugar — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:30:46 -0700

From the press notes handed out at my screening of Up, I learned that Walt Disney believed that for every laugh there should be a tear, a sort of Newton's third law of entertainment. If he were around to see this movie, which upholds that "law" to a T, I have a feeling Mr. Disney's head would swell with pride - and perhaps take him up into the air like one of the many colorful balloons in the movie. See? Up is so fanciful and fun that it has set my own imagination in motion, which will, presumably, remain in motion . . . OK, OK, enough with Newton's laws - back to my thoughts on Pixar's latest accomplishment.

"Accomplishment" is the word to use when referring to Up, as you can pretty much go down a checklist of the many things this movie gets right. Colorful and imaginative enough to keep kids' attention? Check. Genuinely interesting enough for adults? Check. Humor, sadness, action and tenderness - all rolled up together? Check. Astounding, vibrant visuals? Check. What's not to love about Up? Honestly, not much. To find out what else I did love about it, read more.

The story follows a little old widower named Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) who is determined to keep the house in which he lived with his beloved late wife Ellie while his neighborhood is being reconstructed on all sides of him. He attaches hundreds of balloons to his house and flies away, hoping to find his way to Paradise Falls, a remote South American locale where he and Ellie always dreamed of going and finding adventure. But while he's in the sky, Carl discovers that a persistently "helpful" young boy, Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai), took off on the house along with him. Together they reach South America where they encounter some non-human friends: A dog named Dug with a collar that communicates his thoughts and a colorful, affectionate bird that Russell names Kevin. But there's a problem: Dug's owner is trying to hunt down Kevin and Russell immediately takes on the challenge of protecting the bird. So, despite Carl's desire to have a peaceful life by himself at Paradise Falls, he finds himself surrounded by - and suddenly responsible for - a trio of clumsy but well-meaning friends.

To us adults, at times the movie seems downright trippy - but that's the thing about imagination, isn't it? Strange, funny things like an elderly man dragging his house through the air above him strike us as the stuff of drug-induced dreams, but it's actually a scenario that a child might just paint in her head any day of the week. Movies like Up, when done as well as Up is done, take us right back to that childlike place of wandering thoughts and carefree creativity and it is so much fun to be there again.

And at the same time, there's an adult-like realism in this animated movie as well. There's death and great sadness and even a little blood. It's rated PG - not G - and some moments were clearly too scary for some of the more wee viewers at my screening. There are slow-moving, tender moments, too, that probably resonate more with those in the audience who have a bit more life experience. All told, I have tremendous respect for what the makers of this movie have done in creating something so whimsical, so exciting to watch, and so cute but something that also beats with a real heart, with all its vulnerability and love. As Mr. Disney prescribed, Up pulls you through practically every emotion available - but happily, it leaves you in sweet (if a little tearful) contentment.

Images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

How Much Do You Know About Pixar - On and Off the Screen?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:30:25 -0700

In celebration of Pixar's 10th feature film, Up, I've put together a quiz about the company and the excellent movies it's been making for years. Pixar has won all kinds of awards and has gotten huge Hollywood names to voice characters. Hopefully you'll enjoy this walk down memory lane as much as I enjoyed putting it together. And who knows? You might also learn something new.

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Take the quiz

Movie Preview: Up Gets a Full-Length Trailer

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:30:50 -0700

I was just talking about the adorableness of Pixar's newest movie Up when I was lucky enough to catch a 45-minute preview screening of it at WonderCon. Now everyone can watch a full-length trailer that sheds a little more light on the premise than the earlier teaser did - or does it? We already knew the story's about a curmudgeonly little old man named Carl (voiced by Edward Asner) who rigs up his house with balloons and flies away. Now in this trailer we can catch glimpses of the jungle, talking animals, large exotic birds, and a bad guy. It all looks like a lot of fun, but still doesn't make a ton of sense. I'm OK with that, though. I want to be a little surprised when Up opens May 29!

This new preview also reveals more about Carl's accidental travel partner, Russell. I was hoping Pixar would release more footage highlighting Russell because based on what I've seen so far I think he is the funniest part of the movie. You'll see in this clip how cute his dynamic is with cranky old Carl, and I'm sure he'll earn a spot on my list of favorite Pixar characters (he's already right up there with Dory for me and I haven't even seen the whole thing!). Also, get a load of the dog's talking collar. Totally cracks me up for some reason.

To watch the trailer for yourself, just read more.

Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Buzz at WonderCon: Talking With the Creators of Pixar's Up

BuzzSugar — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:30:07 -0800

I enjoy learning pretty much anything related to the wizardry that goes on at Pixar which is why I jumped at the chance to chat with director Pete Docter and producer Jonas Rivera at WonderCon all about Pixar's forthcoming film, Up.

We spoke directly after the two men previewed clips from the movie to a large and enthusiastic crowd and later that evening I watched a special screening of the first 45 minutes of the film. I don't want to give anything away because I know how much I enjoyed my first peek, but I'll say there is much more to this movie than the trailer implies.

The footage I viewed contains everything we've come to expect from Pixar: outstanding animation, charming characters, and big laughs. And like Wall-E, the movie touches on some adult concepts. In fact, the entire audience (including myself!) was crying within the first 15 minutes.

We talked about this sophisticated nature of Pixar's storytelling compared to other animated films and lots more during our roundtable with the guys. To check out the interview, read more.

Warning: The following interview may be a bit spoilery so if you don't want to know a thing about this movie before watching it then look away friend, look away!

On animating humans vs. robots (or cars, or fish, etc.):
Docter: It's a good question because especially on this film we made a concerted effort from the onset to make it more caricatured and stylized and so you'll see [the movie's main character] Carl moving in a much more stylized way than say Mom in Toy Story. We just felt like this is a world where you have a house floating into the sky - it's gotta have a sense of caricature and simplicity to it that supports that reality.

On making nearly all Pixar characters so freaking adorable:
Rivera: It's just really about draw and draw and draw and draw and get those designs where we think they're just really super appealing. In our medium . . . humans are really, really hard to make look real and if they look too real they start looking dead and creepy and weird and so we found that mooshing the shapes and caricaturing them - Carl's only three heads high and so forth - and really playing with proportions to make them appealing almost made them look more real.

On whether or not they feel an inordinate amount of pressure after the success of Wall-E:
Rivera: I do!
Docter: Where I feel the most pressure is the other guys that I work with. Before we show it to you guys or the rest of the world I have to make [Wall-E director] Andrew Stanton and [writer/director Ratatouille] Brad Bird laugh or cry or whatever. You know, that's a tough order. But that's I think a part of the success of the films.
Rivera: I mean, this is the tenth film we've done and, you know, everyone's really liked the films so far that we've done so you do definitely hope they like it as much because you're so close to it. I mean honestly we've been in there for four years and have been looking at this every day and somehow you go home and you're like, "Man, dogs talk and . . . I don't know. Is this good? I don't know?"
Docter: Yeah, is this just weird or is it funny. . . .?

On telling surprisingly sophisticated stories through animation:
Docter: I think that for me when I sit down in a movie theater and the lights go down, I want to see something that speaks to me that I can recognize about myself and about the world. So we don't really think of these as, "Oh, we're making little kid movies" or " oh, we're making animated movies." We're just making movies and they happen to use this amazing technology that Pixar's developed and we get to work with these incredible artists, but first and foremost we're just telling stories that speak to us.

On what goes into research at Pixar:
Docter: Actually this film has a lot born out of Peter Pan in terms of the styling. One of the great things about working at Pixar - a bunch of us go down to South America and do some research and as we were walking around we were like, "Hey that looks like Peter Pan!" We actually got to hike up one of these tabletop mountains.
Rivera: That's how big of dorks we are. We're in the jungle saying "That looks like Peter Pan!"

Images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Link Time! 2/26

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:30:50 -0800

Is there gender inequality in Pixar films? - Cinematical
The story behind United States of Tara's cool opening credits. - Pop Candy
Stevie Wonder is the secret to the Obamas' marriage. - CitizenSugar
I could just kiss this post about a kissing reality show. - Popwatch
Whoa, that wrestling video game from The Wrestler is real! - Vulture
Can't wait till Tuesday? Go download one of the new Neko Case tracks. - Stereogum
Dear Life on Mars: You're getting boring. - Clique Clack TV
Could One Tree Hill go on without Lucas and Peyton? - Korbi TV

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