Image courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

On a rainy October Monday we media types, invited by the Disney folks, gathered at a midtown NYC arts center. The lure: a peek at the studio’s two big holiday events: Tron Legacy and Tangled, their CGI-animated de/reconstruction of the Rapunzel story.

Garlands of wheat-blonde hair twined around the handrails leading down to the basement auditorium to create an appropriate ambience for the main event of the evening (no, not the free buffet): a surprise, full-length screening of Tangled in its not-yet-fully-animated, not-yet 3D-rendered form.

I’ll go out on a bit of a limb here and call Tangled Disney’s liveliest animated feature in a long time and their best fairy tale updating ever.

Road Runner and Coyote in 3-D.

Animating classic, nay legendary cartoon characters is a daunting challenge. Theatrical shorts are no longer part of a four-hour day at the movies, along with a double feature, newsreel, shorts and coming attractions – they’re now a prestige item occasionally accompanying a suitably themed fantasy/family film. And as befits our modern truncated attention spans, they’re more often than not faster-paced and briefer in running time than their illustrious predecessors.

When Warner Bros. asked Matt O’Callaghan to return their yin-and-yang, would-be predator and hoped-for prey pair Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, to the big screen – only in CGI-shape and 3D-depth, O’Callaghan took a deep breath and delivered the goods – and fortunately for all involved with the production, without once resorting to Acme technology…

Legend of the Guardians.  (C) 2010 GOG PRODUCTIONS PTY LTD. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Picture.

You’ve probably heard about the Uncanny Valley: not a geographical location, but the precipitous drop in peoples’ comfort level when they come across something that’s almost human… but not quite (like the replicants in Zemeckis’ mocap movies). Well, in Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians you’ve got owls – dozens and hundreds of owls who look almost like real life owls… but not quite. It’s that quest for the absolutely perfect replication of wind rippling the tiniest hairs in their feathers or the way light glints and reflects off their wide eyes: Guardians achieves it – at the expense of the audience they’ve just tossed into the Valley.

Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios / Studio Ghibli.

Fathers and sons – both onscreen and off – figure in Studio Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea.  Onscreen, a teenage prince kills his royal dad and makes off with the man’s sword; offscreen, Goro Miyazaki, the son of Japan’s best-known animation director takes over a project his dad initiated but never found the time to direct. Wish fulfillment or mere coincidence? Does a sword equal a man’s career? You be the judge…

I really wish I could’ve, I wanted to like The Sorcerer's Apprentice more, but the movie tries way too hard, hitting you over the head with its fantasy premise instead of slowly drawing you in. It’s obvious Cage is having fun as Blake (although it turns out his ‘just a little’ gesture that cracked me up in the trailer when Dave wonders if he’s crazy was already used by Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth) and Baruchel’s unique voice and just-below average guy looks make him an interesting and appealing contrast to the usual Michael Cera/Shia LaBoeuf earnest young protagonist.

When it comes to animated features, Universal’s taken a different path than Disney or DreamWorks. Rather than produce animation in-house, the studio’s made the wise decision (for them at least) of acquiring or financing animated features from independent studios – no overhead, low risk. While The Tale of Desperaux was a mixed bag (let’s be honest, it was a bit of a mess – who the hell was that vegetable man, for one?), Despicable Me is a neat and snazzy treat. This time Universal has a definite contender for a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination. (I think we all should just agree right now that Pixar will win again for Toy Story 3 and instead handicap which films will snag the other four slots.)

Toy Story 3. © Disney/Pixar.

To quote a line from Toy Story 2’s ad campaign, the toys are back in town, and to paraphrase one from What’s New Pussycat, together again for the last time. And it looks like the real deal too: Pixar is bidding farewell to Woody and his pals. Frankly, I wish all my goodbyes were this sweet.

3D Filmgoers at the Be Film Festival

It may not get a fraction of the publicity showered on the high-profile Tribeca Film Festival, but in its seventh year the Be Film Festival has made a name for itself nonetheless. As so often happens when creative folks get together, Be Film is one of those things that spontaneously gives birth to itself and then grows and grows…

Jerry Bruckheimer may be the most soft-spoken, least bombastic man in Hollywood.

Not to mention one of the most conservatively dressed. Wearing a trim grey suit and tie, he showed up at a midtown NY screening room earlier this month to share a pair of scenes from his upcoming summer popcorn movie The Sorcerer’s Apprentice for an audience of appreciative geeks.

Bugs Bunny & Daffy - The Looney Tunes Show

A free breakfast buffet (lox wrapped around a pretzel – whose idea was that?), a 2-gig flash drive and a flashy live/multi-media stage show: not bad for an April Wednesday morning in New York City: it’s your typical ‘up front’ presentation, wherein the networks showcase their new shows in full razzly-dazzly mode – and on this particular morning Cartoon Network has plenty to razzle-dazzle.