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Getting Buzzed - Post Super Bowl Buzz

So if you missed the Super Bowl last weekend then you missed a bunch of trailers for the big summer movies. In addition to some of the big Super Bowl spots there were a host of other interesting films to pop up in the trailer sphere in the past couple weeks. Seven of the 10 films on the buzz list this week are first looks. So sit back and enjoy a look at some highly anticipated summer flicks, as well as some off-the-radar art house films that have surely piqued my interest. Please tell me what you think.

10) Franklyn (TBA 2009)
This unique looking sci-fi flick hits theaters in the U.K. in February, and is set for the States sometime in 2009. Stars Ryan Phillippe and Eva Green. Set in a future London where church and state are not separate, this actioner's visuals in the trailer have me wanting to know more.

Blogs

CORALINE (2009) (***1/2)

As the legend goes, writer Neil Gaiman sent a copy of the CORALINE book to director Henry Selick before it was even published. Gaiman felt THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS director's style fit the material perfectly. And he was right. Animation production company LAIKA ventures into its first feature film with a film that at least equals Selick's work on the holiday perennial NIGHTMARE.

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning, THE SECRET LIVES OF BEES) is upset with her family's move to a new apartment in the woods. Her mother (Teri Hatcher, TV's DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) and father (John Hodgman, TV's THE DAILY SHOW) have little time to entertain her. The apartment, which is actually a large mansion divided up into separate units, features a collection of odd tenants. Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders, TV's ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS) and Miss Forcible (Dawn French, TV's THE VICAR OF DIBLEY) are two aging burlesque performers, who have a habit of sowing angel wings to put on their stuffed Scotties. Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane, TV's DEADWOOD) is a Russian retired circus performer who trains mice to march in a band… at least that's what he claims. Out adventuring, Coraline meets Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr., THE HAPPENING), the grandson of the apartment's reclusive owner, who won't let him even enter the building. When Coraline discovers a small door in the wall, she unlocks a portal to an Other World, where her Other Mother and Other Father are too good to be true. Right from the start we know something is off — all the people in his world have buttons for eyes.

Blogs

PUSH (2009) (***)

Fans of the X-MEN and HEROES will find nothing strikingly original about Paul McGuigan's sci-fi flick PUSH, however they'll probably enjoy it just the same. Written by David Bourla, the actioner creates a world were telekinetics, psychics and telepathics are referred to as Movers, Watchers and Pushers. Many are on the run from a U.S. government agency simply called the Division that wants to use them as weapons. Seems like standard stuff, but McGuigan and Bourla provide enough twists and turns with the familiar material to keep the viewer engaged.

Nick Gant (Chris Evans, FANTASTIC FOUR) is a second generation Mover. His father was murdered by the head of the Division, Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou, IN AMERICA). Before his death, Nick's father (Joel Gretsch, TV's THE 4400) warned him that a young girl would give him a flower and he should follow her, because it would help save the world. That girl turns out to be Watcher Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning, WAR OF THE WORLDS), who tells Nick that they need to hunt down a mysterious case and woman, whose name is Kira Hudson (Camilla Belle, 10,000 B.C.), a young female Pusher who has just escaped Division custody. She is also the first person to survive a power boaster injection, making her very important to Carver. But Nick and Cassie, and the Division aren't the only ones that want the case. Chinese gangsters with their own Watcher are willing to kill for it, and they have sonic screamers that can shatter glass and eardrums on their side.

Blogs

DEATH OF THE ORPHANAGE



Seems like I have been writing too many obituaries in the last few month and even though losing dear human friends is very painful, sometimes the loss of a treasured company is just as sad.Any of us who lived in the Bay Area during the heyday of the Orphanage has fond memories of the great work they created and the exciting young animators who were given the chance to cut their teeth and expand their wings.

Today I had the heart-wrenching task of joining my co-founders Scott Stewart and Jonathan Rothbart in announcing that The Orphanage will be suspending operations indefinitely. We started the company ten years ago, tripled in size each year for our first three years, and worked on some of the biggest and best effects movies made. We produced shorts and even features, we spawned a commercial division and an animation company, and we hung out in the halls with Frank Miller, Ethan Hawke, and M.C. Hammer. We did DI before it was called DI, we gave birth to Magic Bullet, and we did really, really good work.
Blogs

This Weekend’s Film Festival Contemplates African-Americans & Oscar

February beholds two events — Black History Month and the Oscars. This Weekend's Film Festival looks at the intersection of the two topics. Up until recently African-Americans had not faired well at the Academy Awards. In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to even be invited as a guest to the Academy Awards, as a very nice door prize she took home a Best Supporting Actress statuette. Another African-American wouldn't win an Academy Award until 1963 when Sidney Poitier won for LILIES OF THE FIELD. Halle Berry became the first black woman to win Best Actress in 2002, the same year Denzel Washington won his Best Actor Oscar for TRAINING DAY. Since then 16 black men and women have been nominated for acting Oscars. Three of those nominees — Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, and Jennifer Hudson — appear in THE SECRET LIVES OF BEES, which arrived on DVD this week.

Blogs

MALCOLM X (1992) (****)

Before Spike Lee came onto this project as director, Norman Jewison and Oliver Stone flirted with the idea of making a biopic on Malcolm X. While I could see those great filmmakers making a good film on the controversial black Muslim leader, I believe they would have lacked the passion that Lee brought to what is one of his best films. A white director may have watered down Malcolm X's segregation rhetoric, or his dismissal of white people's help. But this is not what Lee did. Some looking at DO THE RIGHT THING believed he would make an angry film. But this is not what Lee did. Lee crafted a captivating story of how one man moved through life and learned and grew from his experiences and his mistakes. Many good films create sympathy for characters, but few come close to empathy. Lee achieves that here.

Blogs

OLIVER & COMPANY (1988) (***)

In many ways OLIVER & COMPANY laid the groundwork for the resurgence of Walt Disney in the 1990s. Top animators like Glen Keane and Andreas Deja worked on the film. Howard Ashman would provide his first song for a Disney feature, later teaming with Alan Menken on classics like THE LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN. Disney animation heads Jeffrey Katzenberg and Peter Schnieder wanted a hipper style. Computer animation was first introduced into a Disney feature. While these changes didn't make a classic out the gate, they moved the studio into the direction they needed to go. What audiences received was a fun, well-plotted piece of entertainment, something Disney hadn't provided in some time.

Blogs

THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) (****)

THE COLOR PURPLE was a turning point in the career of Stephen Spielberg. It was his first adult drama. Menno Meyjes' screenplay tones down Alice Walker's novel, especially in the area of sexual experimentation. But what it retains is its sense of survival. Some criticize its contrivances and it's one-dimensional male characters, but when looked at as a parable, it is a life-affirming and joyous experience.

Celie (Whoopi Goldberg, GHOST) was raped by the man who she knew as her father, baring two of his children, which were adopted away from her. Unable to have any more children, she was virtually sold off as a wife/house keeper to a cruel farmer named Albert (Danny Glover, LETHAL WEAPON), who has several children from his first marriage that need taking care of. Celie simply calls him Mister. The only beckon in her dim world is her sister Nettie (Akosua Busia), but when she rubs Mister the wrong way, she is kicked out of the house. Mister pines away over an alcoholic juke joint singer named Shug Avery (Margaret Avery, WHICH WAY IS UP?), who comes to stay with them when she's miserably sick. She looks at Celie and says, "You sho is ugly." But when the beautiful singer sobers up, she sees the goodness in Celie and their friendship becomes the turning point in Celie's life.

Blogs

Pete's Odyssey

So....

As I mentioned in my last post 2009 has started with lots of activity. My grandson, AJ has arrived....and I am working on an animated music video.

The name of the video is PETE'S ODYSSEY. It is a video about a robin- her name is Pete. Pete is finding herself and her place in her world. For her, today is different, new, scary, challenging!

It is a wonderful story set against a song by Michelle Armstrong entitled UNAFRAID TO FIND.  Michelle not only wrote the song but performed it,too. You can find it on her APPLES cd available on Amazon.com.

The video is a co-production between Studio Kenate and Island Animation, LLC.

At the moment, I am working on the storyboards and ideas for layouts- concept work, etc.

Blogs

This Weekend’s Film Festival Remembers Those We Lost in 2008

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:05am

With each new year, we often take time to reflect on the events that shaped the previous year. As movie fans, the artists, who will no longer grace us with their talent, are often on our minds. This Weekend's Film Festival celebrates five such performers. Four of the films feature the actors whom passed, while one celebrates the life of a notorious screen icon. We have two male screen icons. A man who became famous for needing a bigger boat. A young man who we lost too soon. These performers will be missed.

We begin with an epic. Charlton Heston was nominated only once for the Academy Award, and won. While he wasn't the first choice to star in BEN-HUR, it is hard to imagine any other actor in the role of the Jewish nobleman turned slave. As the best Biblical epic, William Wyler's tale combines endless spectacle with compelling characters and melodrama. The relationship between Heston's Ben-Hur and Jack Hawkins' Quintus not only drives a personal struggle between the former friends, but also the struggle of the Jewish people under the rule of the Romans. Heston brings a raw masculinity to his character, who suffers and turns bitter. However, through the parallel story of Christ, he finds redemption in forgiveness. From gallows to naval battles to plagues and chariot races, Ben-Hur endures. As I said in my original review, "In other Biblical epics, lessons are tacked on between actions scenes. BEN-HUR puts its lesson in its soul." Heston carries that lesson on his shoulders, in one of cinema's finest iconic performances.

Blogs

Disney Sneak Peeks Princess and The Frog at Red Stick Preview

By Dan Sarto | Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 4:31pm

The Ink and Paint Club held its premiere luncheon with Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Emily Hoppe on hand as the guest of honor. Hoppe, the studio’s senior manager of creative marketing outlined the role Disney and The Princess and the Frog, the studio’s first 2D animated film in five years, will play at Red Stick’s April festival.

Blogs

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED (2008) (***1/2)

Whatever you think of Roman Polanski, he is certainly a survivor. Marina Zenovich's documentary about the famed director ROSEMARY'S BABY and CHINATOWN makes one wonder how he does it. His parents were murdered during the Holocaust. As a boy he was forced to survive on the streets of Nazi-occupied Poland. His beautiful wife Sharon Tate and his unborn child were slaughtered by Charlie Manson's devotees. Then he went into a self-imposed exile in Europe after pleading guilty to having unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old, after providing her with booze and drugs.

Many people remember that final chapter vividly, tainting his image forever. Zenovich's film doesn't attempt to venerate Polanski's actions, only paint the full picture. Polanski didn't flee to avoid punishment. He pled guilty, submitted himself to a psychological review, and then even agreed to a 90-day psych evaluation at Chino State Prison. What he ran from was a judge more interested in his own public image than service justice. This isn't only filmmaker Zenovich's opinion, but that of defense attorney, Douglas Dalton; assistant DA, Roger Gunson; and Samantha Gailey Geimer, the young girl involved in the case.

Blogs

MARY POPPINS (1964) (***1/2)

Celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, this live-action Disney production created an iconic screen character, created in an Oscar-winning performance by Julie Andrews. Set aside all the backstage rumors that the win has a slap at Audrey Hepburn getting the MY FAIR LADY lead that Andrews originated on stage, because Andrews shines as the proper, but magical, nanny. I don't remember having seen the film as a child, but so many sequences feel familiar. Using the fantastic elements of musicals and animation, MARY POPPINS is overflowing with tunes that for better or worse won't leave your head.

Jane and Michael Banks (Karen Dotrice and Mathew Garber) are two children who go though nannies like other children go through the knees in their slacks. Their father (David Tomlinson, THE LOVE BUG) is a banker, who runs his house by conservative rules and regiments. He has no time for unruly children. His wife (Glynis Johns, THE REF) has no time for anything other than the suffrage movement. So when the latest nanny quits, they need help with their little hellions quickly. That's when Mary Poppins blows into town, literally.

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TOWELHEAD (2008) (**1/2)

This satirical coming-of-age drama is awkward. Depending on your point of view that's why I believe it has received a "love it or hate it" reception. Looking at it through my memories of puberty, the constant awkward feeling like everyone my age knew something I didn't and my parents had never been teenagers feels just right. But looking at this film as an adult, I felt awkward toward its frankness toward its 13-year-old sex. Did it cross a line?

Jasira (Summer Bishil, upcoming CROSSING OVER) is just getting that hang of being a teenager. Her divorced parents are still fighting out their own teenage hang-ups and unfortunately Jasira is often the punching bag. She lives with her mother Gail (Maria Bello, THE COOLER). But when Gail's boyfriend helps Jasira shave down there, her mom blames her and ships her off to live with her father Rifat (Peter Macdissi, TV's SIX FEET UNDER), who tells her that only whores and married ladies wear tampons and then leaves her home alone night after night to sleep over at his girlfriend's house. So often alone, Jasira takes up babysitting the bratty, foul-mouthed, racist next-door-neighbor kid named Zack Vuoso (Chase Ellison, MYSTERIOUS SKIN) who introduces her to his father's porn collection. She likes it, and when Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart, IN THE COMPANY OF MEN) discovers this, he likes it too.

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An Animated New Year!

The New Year has started off in high gear!

First, I am a grandfather!

Alexander James Lauria-Judkins arrived in our family last week. He was 8 lbs. 2 oz. and over 19 inches long.

Mom, Dad and baby are doing great! Of course, Alexander, Alex or AJ is the most beautiful baby ever!!!

Good thing I am not biased!

Currently, in my long trek up and down the East Coast - I am working on an animated music video. This is one I am helping to produce, direct and animate. The best thing about waiting for a baby to arrive is that you get to hang out for hours at a time in cafes and do pre-production on the boards, the character design and layouts.
The music video is called Pete's Odyssey!

Blogs

Getting Buzzed - So Who Wants to Be an Oscar Winner?

Oscar nominations are out. Going by my top 10 contender lists for Best Picture and Best Acting categories, there were no out of left field nominations this year. However that doesn't rule out big surprises. THE READER over THE DARK KNIGHT was a big shocker. The lack of love for the difficult REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (which I believe upsets viewers so much that they confuse not liking that feeling with not liking the film) wasn't too surprising, but Kate Winslet's supporting work in THE READER getting a Best Actress nod over her challenging lead work in ROAD was. DiCaprio getting left out is just a repeat of TITANIC; only this time it's one of his best performances.

Happy surprises came in the form of Richard Jenkins (THE VISITOR) and Melissa Leo (FROZEN RIVER) getting Best Actor and Best Actress nods. FROZEN RIVER also received deserved recognition in the Original Screenplay category as well. Leo's nod for her indie work left out other indie contenders. Most surprising was Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins for HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, another example of the Comedy/Musical GG category meaning nothing come Oscar time. Another indie performance left out was Kristin Scott Thomas in the little seen French-language film I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG, which as of mid-December still looked like a near lock. How things change so quickly.

Blogs

INKHEART (2009) (***)

It's nothing new for Hollywood to copy a hit to death. Following the success of HARRY POTTER every studio wanted its own fantasy franchise based on a best selling young adult book. Some trends are not always a bad thing, especially when it brings books like Cornelia Funke's INKHEART to the screen. While the story seems better suited to the written medium, director Iain Softley (HACKERS) retains the sense of discovery and adventure that the source material has.

Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser, THE MUMMY series) has a powerful gift (or curse depending on how you look at it). When he reads written words out loud items from the stories come into the real world. The problem is that he has little control over how it works. Folchart is a book collector and travels around the world with his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett, NANCY MCPHEE), looking for a copy of the rare book Inkheart, which seems to have something to do with the disappearance of his wife Resa (Sienna Guillory, ERAGON). But when he finally does find a copy, it sets off a strange series of events, which include a bitter and selfish fire-blower named Dustfinger (Paul Bettany, A BEAUTIFUL MIND), the lonely author of the book Fenoglio (Jim Broadbent, MOULIN ROUGE!), one of Ali Baba's 40 thieves named Farid (Rafi Gavron, BREAKING AND ENTERING) and the Inkheart villain Capricorn (Andy Serkis, LORD OF THE RINGS), who likes the real world's riches and firearms. Also whipped along on the adventure against her will is Mo's reclusive, but feisty, book-loving aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren, THE QUEEN).

Blogs

This Weekend’s Film Festival Celebrates The Eclectic Woody Allen

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 12:01am

Woody Allen has been nominated for the Oscar 21 times. And he's on the verge of adding another. He's won twice for writing for ANNIE HALL and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS. He took home the directing award for HALL, and even earned an acting nod for his performance in that Best Picture winner. His movies, whether slapstick or crime stories or somber dramas, all deal with our interactions as human beings and how we reflect that on ourselves. On face value THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO is from another planet than CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, but they both feel like they came from the same artist. Allen dialogue, wit and contemplations about life come through in all his work.

For this lineup celebrating this eclectic artist, we have his latest sex romp. We have a social climbing killer. We have a successful social mountaineer killer. We have a satire on the magic of cinema. And we have the love affairs of three sisters.

Blogs

FRIENDLY FIRE ACCEPTED AT TRICKFILM FESTIVAL

Nik and I just received word that German Director Andy Kaiser's animated film, FRIENDLY FIRE has been accepted for the TRICKFILM FESTIVAL, May 5 through 10 in Stuttgart, Germany. This is a major festival and we are very excited. Nik created the music and we send congratulations to Andy, Cadi Catlow, and all of the other people involved in this wonderful film about the horrors of war. If you are planning on attending the Festival be sure not to miss FRIENDLY FIRE.

Blogs

THE READER (2008) (***1/2)

At one point in Stephen Daldry's THE READER, a teacher tells his class that the key element of Western literature is secrets. People keep secrets for noble reasons or selfish reasons or to conceal shame. Sometimes the reasons aren't that clear. Michael Berg has secrets and so does his lover Hanna Schmitz. When they're revealed how does that change the way they look at each other and themselves?

Michael Berg, played as a young man by David Kross and as a grown man by Ralph Fiennes (THE ENGLISH PATIENT), was fifteen when he came down with scarlet fever. A kind trolley toll taker named Hanna (Kate Winslet, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD) helped the young man home. When he is well, he takes her flowers to thank her for her kindness, which begins his obsession with the thirtysomething woman, who loves to be read to. Their affair consumes Michael, but he can't reconcile his strong emotions with Hanna's casual feelings toward him. As these kinds of affairs often do, it lasted a mere summer, but had a profound effect on Michael throughout his life. During law school, he sees Hanna again, as an accused Nazi guard. This revealed secret shakes his worldview, and his view of himself.

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