The boundless energy and enthusiasm I brought to Singapore Monday morning has dissipated somewhat now this fine Wednesday evening, done in by the heat, humidity and non-stop pace of our media tour.  It’s late and still quite hot, a sticky hot that’s like summer in Texas, without the pickup trucks or shotguns.  Our hosts and organizers have done a terrific job, herding us from one site visit to the next as we journey back and forth across Singapore visiting many of the main animation, vfx, gaming and educational organizations on the island.  Much has been learned, gleaned from what’s been said and what’s not been said. The pleasant formalities of company presentations disrupted now and then by a barrage of pointed questions by the attending journalists. Mostly, we sound pretty intelligent, though as I listen to some of my tapes sometimes I think I sound like a 5 year old.

It will take a bit of time to properly synthesize, plus there are still 2 more full days of meetings to go.  So my coverage here actually begins with a pictorial spread of the first couple days, which includes visits to Lucasfilm Animation, Sunwoo, Southern Star, EON Reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Digipen and LASALLE College, as well Contact Singapore and the Singapore Economic Development Board.  Picture-smithing is much easier than word-smithing at 2 in the morning after an evening of spicy Indian food and a number of adult beverages.

 

 

If you’re looking to spend a couple hours sitting back and having a good time, then get yourself to the theatre this weekend and go see Megamind, DreamWorks’ latest animated feature.  When I got to the press screening last Saturday, I was actually in a good mood for a change. It was my birthday, I’d eaten an In-N-Out double-double for lunch and for a few brief hours, I was mostly pleasant to be with.  I put on my 3-D glasses in search of some good old fashioned entertainment and I’m happy to say I wasn’t disappointed.  The film looked great, the story resonated with me and kept my attention, the running gags were used wisely, not beaten to death, the 3-D done seamlessly and expertly without obvious gimmicks or flaws. 

 

 

It’s been close to 2 decades since I last saw the original Beauty and the Beast, sitting mesmerized right alongside my then 3 year old daughter Becky as we watched the enchanted love story unfold before us.  The fact Belle’s face soon adorned sheets, towels, plastic dinnerware and a closet full of other toddler accoutrements throughout my house didn’t obscure the fact that the film was cinematic and animation excellence and worthy of all the acclaim, honors and cash it garnered.

20 years later, sitting mesmerized right alongside my now 23 year old daughter as we watched this beautiful new version of the film, I can safely say the ends justify the means and the tremendous amount of work to bring this film to 3D has produced a visually stunning experience.

 

 

I tried, I really did.  I watched every single commercial on this year’s Super Bowl telecast.  Unfortunately, I’m terribly spoiled by my DVR.  I think I’d give up Diet Coke before I’d give up my DVR.  Consequently, my tolerance of the sorry state of commercials is quite low.  So my assessment of this year’s crop of spots is not particularly kind. Nor coherent.  Nor relevant. I was not impressed.  There were, however, a few bright spots.

Routinely, while watching trailers at the local AMC 53-plex, or highly pixilated commercials on my supposed high-end HDTV, I’m alternately moved to yawn, cry, occasionally laugh, but mostly shake my head in disgust and mutter “We’re all going die…then go to hell.”  Today, Super Bowl Sunday, it appears yet again some evil cabal, clad in tattered rags, cackling in delight while dancing around a cauldron filled with bat wings and the limbs of corporate media buyers, has brewed up an especially foul potion, casting an evil spell over the creative community.  Agency Directors were surreptitiously replaced by humorless doppelgangers devoid of creative powers, sense of design or comedic skills.  The only way to survive this year’s game-day commercial-palooza was to gouge your eyes out with a Dorito.  Or crush your head under the wheel of a new enviro-friendly Chevy Cruze Eco. Or Snickers your way into a diabetic coma.

In no particular order, here are some random thoughts and lots of video clips.

 

Without good direction, you end up with drek.  Problems with sequence timing or the render pipeline can be solved with relative ease – problems of mismanagement are difficult to overcome and usually spell doom.  Animation directors aren’t directing animation, they’re directing a group of people who are working in arguably the most time consuming and exacting of creative mediums.  Copiously illustrated with relevant images, the book is well thought out and concise, never preachy or off target. David writes in an engaging style that captures your attention without smacking you over the head. Directing Animation at its heart strives to teach the reader how to keep an animation production crew happy, productive and on task. 

Belinda Luscombe just published an article on the Time Magazine website in which she ponders why adults cry so easily when they watch animated kids movies.  My guess is that they’re still upset over the cost of tickets and armfuls of popcorn, candy and sky blue slushies, but the economics of the cinematic experience are not to be confused with the more cerebral and emotional aspects of the animated film viewing experience discussed in the article... Alan Becker’s fantastic flash-animated stick figure is back with another installment of the ongoing personal computer battles popularized in 2 previous films...Filmmaker Ray Grigg’s conservative political documentary I Want Your Money opens this Friday in selected theatres throughout the US, complete with a very animated Barack Obama. 

 

 

One of the highlights of this past Saturday's ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Awards was Brad Bird's acceptance speech, done via video from the Vancouver set of Mission Impossible IV.  Brad was honored with the Winsor McCay Award for Lifetime Achievement.  How could you possibly out-do the compilation of clips they screened highlighting his incredible body of work?  Well, you follow it with a recorded acceptance speech that brought down the house. 

If you weren't at Royce Hall, you're in for a treat.  If you were lucky to be there, this is certainly worth at least two more viewings...enjoy!

 

“Think of this book as a Disney History companion filling in some of those nooks and crannies that may only be mentioned in a brief sentence or two, if at all, in other Disney history books. These chapters truly are the forgotten but fascinating Disney stories.” With this line, Jim Korkis lays down the foundation for what his newest work, The Vault of Walt, is truly about. Through the compilation of the wide array of articles that he has written through the years, Korkis presents a work that provides his readers with little known histories and stories about Walt Disney and the empire that he created.

 

 

As reported on the Republica website, Nepal’s first annual Animation Short Film Festival will be held tomorrow, Friday, October 29 by the Independent Film Society (IFS), in association with Artistic Alliance Nepal (AAN).  18 films from 9 countries will be screened.  The event will be held at the Nepal Tourism Board, Exhibition Road. Oxygen tanks must be checked at the door.  And in a related story...

 

 

Frank Gladstone shot me a note about a short animated cg film called Mila being made by former Disney, DreamWorks and Imageworks animator Cinzia Angelini. Hoping to push the boundaries of non-photorealistic rendering to create a painterly aesthetic and character design, Cinzia is also striving to tell a socially relevant story about war’s most tragic collateral damage – the youngest civilians. The film is inspired by true stories that Cinzia’s mother and grandmother told her of their own lives in Italy during World War II.