UPDATED!  

 

If you are familiar with screenwriting software such as Final Draft and Screenwriter, you know that they make it easier to write scripts by automatically formatting script elements such as character names, dialog and description. But I’ve used Microsoft Word to write hundreds of scripts and actually find it easier to use than expensive screenwriting software—and in most cases just as good.

Follow my instructions, below, and you can turn Word into an effective screenwriting program.

This is the first of 6 lists I've proposed making that will rank my favorite domestic 2-D animation series starting with what I'm calling Boy's Action Shows.  Girl can watch too but I don't think most of these are their cup of tea - but times are a changing so maybe I'm wroing.

 

 

WHAT ARE THE FAVORITE CARTOON SERIES OF THE PAST 50 YEARS? 

I recently witnessed a conversation where a young fine artist told a Flame artist to his face that he did not consider him an “artist.” Obviously things heated up.  As films employ hundreds of creative contributors, who among them do we really consider an “Artist?”

Rango signals a long overdue transition for U.S-made animation: animated features specifically for adult audiences.  A new generation of filmmakers is knocking at the door.

Rise of the Guardians is a major box office disaster for DreamWorks Animation.  How on earth could something with so many “right” elements go so “wrong”?  Ed Hooks does a post-mortem.

Old animation is not necessarily important becasue it is old.  There is a lot of bad old stuff just like there is a lot of bad new stuff.  It's always hard to put your finger directly on what makes one show a hit and another a miss but with classics we have the benefit of some perspective.  Did a show create a new style or popularize a treand or make use of technology never tried before?  Is the show still known and revered years after its run on television?  Have the characters become cultural icons or hae they become lost to all but a small group of devotees?  I've tried to look at all the old series while balancing these kind of questiions - as always this list only represents my opinions so read on if you're interested.

 

 

“How to Train Your Dragons” is an epic tale packed with adventure, action, humor, stunning 3D visuals and beautiful music.  I give it 4.5 starfish, it is as good as Up!  It is a film that I think every child and parent will love to experience.  The movie is about friendship, connection, redemption, and the hidden power of “being different.”

The first imperative for a producing company is that a film be profitable, preferably obscenely profitable, but for a viewer and lover of films the most important criteria of a movie is to transport us to other worlds and into the lives of other people in an entertaining fashion. An American film director once said: “a film is an immensely likable group of people doing an impossible task”. The producers of TRON: Legacy failed to embrace any element of this quote.

A few posts ago, someone asked me if I thought Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist would have been a better film if it had more dialogue.  At the time, I had not yet seen it and couldn’t give an opinion.  It finally opened in Chicago, I saw it and am ready to discuss it. Unfortunately, the film is a frustrating near miss.  The lack of dialogue is not the biggest problem. More significantly the girl’s character is not fleshed out.