Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

Posted on May 10, 2011 at 3:42 pm

Things for the young fans of Justin Beiber to think about as they watch this film: He is cuuuuute! Hair! Smile! Voice! Dancing!I am so lucky to have a talented, unassuming, nonthreatening, hard-working, scandal-free performer to test my still-developing sense of what love is all about.

Things for parents to think about as they watch this film: It is wonderful to see my Beiber fan so happy and it brings back memories of my love for (fill in the blank). He’s actually pretty talented! And very cute. His mother seems to have a head on her shoulders and has made sure he has surrounded himself with people who genuinely want what is best for him. It was good to hear his tour manager say that he saw his goal not as making him the biggest star he can be but teaching him to be the best man he can be. Nice to see that he still has good friends — and that he still has to clean up his room. I am so lucky that my child has a talented, unassuming, nonthreatening, hard-working, scandal-free performer to test her still-developing sense of what love is all about.

It really is an astonishing story. As awwwwww-inspiring home movie footage shows, Justin Beiber, the son of a single teenage mother in a small town in Canada, loved music and loved to perform even as a toddler. He came in second in a local talent competition and performed on a street corner. When his mother posted some videos of him singing on YouTube, a young promoter from Atlanta saw them — and saw the astronomical numbers of viewers who were watching them. He flew Justin (then age 14) and his mother to Atlanta, introduced them to Usher, and 17 months later Bieber sold out Madison Square Garden in 22 minutes. And all of that despite the predictions of those who said it could not happen without a machine like Disney or Nickelodeon behind him. This is a typical but still-entertaining concert tour film, with shots of Bieber backstage and in front of the audience, goofing around, getting sick, tweeting, and performing alone and with guest stars Usher, Miley Cyrus, Jaden Smith, and Boyz II Men. Bieber and his entourage come across as sincere, kind-hearted (watch him talk to a young violinist who now performs on his old street corner), and considerate. The 3D effects are excellent, especially when he reaches out, when the audience waves their glow sticks, and when he shakes that trademark hairdo. (more…)

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3D Documentary Musical

Glee 3D Concert Film Coming This Summer!

Posted on May 6, 2011 at 10:31 am

The cast of “Glee” is going on the road with a concert tour, and Fox has announced that a 3D film of the tour will be in movie theaters late this summer. Cast members Lea Michele (Rachel), Cory Monteith (Finn), Amber Riley (Mercedes), Chris Colfer (Kurt), Kevin McHale (Artie), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina), Mark Salling (Puck), Dianna Agron (Quinn), Naya Rivera (Santana), Heather Morris (Brittany), Harry Shum Jr. (Mike), Chord Overstreet (Sam), Darren Criss (Blaine), and Ashley Fink (Lauren) will perform, and cameras will record on- and off-stage moments for the theatrical release. Stay tuned for further details!

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3D Music Trailers, Previews, and Clips

The Green Hornet

Posted on May 3, 2011 at 8:00 am

Anyone here remember Van Williams?

He was the star of the 1966-67 television series, “The Green Hornet.” But the only thing anyone remembers about the show today was the actor who played the title character’s martial arts and automotive expert sidekick, Kato: Bruce Lee. The tradition continues with this new film. Jay Chou (“Curse of the Golden Flower”) has the screen charisma, timing, and fight skills to make Kato watchable. That guy who plays the Hornet? Not so much.

In fact, the three things wrong with this movie are: Seth Rogen co-produced, Seth Rogen co-wrote, and Seth Rogen stars. Seth Rogen the co-producer and writer badly over-estimates the appeal of Rogen the performer. When called upon to play a clueless schlub, he can convey a certain shambling lack of pretension or artifice with some appeal. He was perfect as the brainless jello character in “Monsters vs. Aliens” and held his own fairly well as a secondary character in “Funny People,” “Superbad,” and “Knocked Up.” He may have some meta aspirations in casting himself as a self-indulgent and irresponsible playboy who decides to become a force for justice. But he doesn’t even make a persuasive dissolute. When he tries to do more, he loses all of the affection from the audience he ever mustered in playing guys who were better than they knew. Here is is so much less than his character believes to be and is supposed to be, he comes across as full of himself and egotistical; it’s as though his success in Hollywood and his hyphenate status have finally gone to his head. And even though he apparently recognizes his limited range by reducing the character arc to about an inch and a half; even after Britt decides to become a sort-of grown-up and a sort-of crime-fighter, Rogen the writer and Rogen the actor keep him pretty much an immature dope all the way through. It wears thin long before the movie is half over.

It also drags down the parts of the film that do work, especially Chou, whose precise, understated delivery is a nice counterpoint to Rogen’s messy stumbles. Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Be Kind, Rewind”) has a gift for whimsy that adds visual interest. An impossibly souped-up supercar has an old-fashioned turntable for playing disarmingly retro LPs. He slices up the screen into segments resembling something between “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the opening credits of “The Brady Bunch,” and that Breck shampoo commercial about “and they they told two people and they told two people.” And he makes good use of the depth of 3D in the fight scenes. We get Kato-vision to see how he sizes up the opposition, with a clever variation later on. Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”) manages to make more of the villain than the script gives him and there’s a nice cameo from the ubiquitous James Franco (giving us time to think that he would make a great Hornet).

Rogen is falling into the Adam Sandler/Peter Pan trap, the endless boy-man, alternately wolfish toward and intimidated by girls (Cameron Diaz has the thankless role) and incapable of taking responsibility at home or at work. At one point, Kato literally puts him in a diaper. The only reason to give the audience such a mess is so we can have the fun of seeing him learn some lessons. But he never does. This is a hornet that’s all buzz, no sting.

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Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil

Posted on April 28, 2011 at 6:52 pm

The Weinstein Company may be nowhere near the gold standard set by Pixar in the imagination and technical ability of its animation, but it beats all ten of the champion’s justifiably lauded classics in one category. Pixar has yet to produce a single film with a female hero, while “Hoodwinked Too: Hood vs. Evil,” has two, both brave, strong, compassionate, loyal, smart, and independent.

As director Mike Disa wrote in The Huffington Post, female characters in animation – the human ones anyway – are nearly always focused on love and family. “How many animated films have you seen where the female lead is little more than a cliché object for the hero to impress in the last reel? Face it, if you want to be a strong female character in animation you are better off as a mouse.” He was determined to make a movie for girls and boys with female characters whose idea of happily ever after did not necessarily mean the perfect date.

The first “Hoodwinked” movie was a fresh and funny take on the tale of Red Riding Hood, with appealing characters and a clever script to make up for animation that tended to be static and pedestrian. We entered the story at the climax, with the woodsman breaking into Granny’s house just as Red realized it was a wolf wearing Granny’s nightie. As each of the characters explained what happened to a patient cop who happens to be a frog (elegantly voiced by David Ogden Stiers) we learned that everything we thought we knew about the story was wrong and any assumptions we had about the intentions and capabilities of the characters was entertainingly turned inside out and upside down. The wolf (with the impeccably wry voice of Patrick Warburton, “Seinfeld’s” Puddy) was merely a reporter trying to get a story. Granny (voice of Glenn Close) had a secret – she was an X-games champion. The burly, ax-wielding huntsman was a gentle soul who just wants to yodel. Red did not need to be rescued by anyone. And the real villain turned out to be the adorable little bunny named Boingo (voice of Andy Dick), who was trying to steal Granny’s recipes.

As the sequel begins, Red (voice of “Heroes’” Hayden Panettierre, replacing Anne Hathaway) has taken a leave of absence from working with the Wolf at a super high-tech law enforcement operation called HEA (for Happily Ever After). She is studying with the Sister Hood, a training camp high in the mountains with a combined program of martial arts and cooking.

Surveillance experts Bo Peep and her sheep, stationed at the control center’s bank of monitors, report that two children have been seen in the vicinity of a house made out of candy.

Wolf tries his best, but this time huffing and puffing won’t blow the door in. To rescue little Hansel (voice of Bill Hader) and Gretel (voice of Amy Poehler) and Red’s granny from a masked wicked witch named Verushka (voice of Joan Cusack), he needs some help.

Red has yet to learn the Sister Hood’s most carefully guarded secret, the missing ingredient in the magic truffle recipe. She still makes the mistake of getting distracted from her task by impetuous pride and impatient insistence on doing things herself. But those lessons will have to wait – or be learned on the job — as she races to the rescue.

Red and Wolf get the help of old friends: the frog cop (who mutters “Mammals!” when things get out of hand), Twitchy the over-caffeinated squirrel (voice of co-screenwriter Cory Edwards), a banjo-playing goat, the yodeling huntsman (voice of Martin Short), and even an old enemy – Boingo, now confined, Hannibal Lecter-style, in prison. Welcome new additions include Wayne Newton as a singing harp, Cheech and Chong as two of the three pigs, and David Alan Grier as Moss the Troll, who tries to keep Red from crossing his bridge.

The jokes come very fast, with a whirlwind of pop culture references from “Happy Days” to the Food Network, “Goodfellas,” blogging, and the Disney classic “Mickey and the Beanstalk.” There are some nice 3D swoops and drops, but the more vertiginous entertainment of the film is in the script as once again what we think we know about fairy tale heroines, villains, mean girls, old ladies, witches, and happy endings are deliciously turned upside down and inside out.

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3D Animation Fantasy Series/Sequel

Interview: Mike Disa of ‘Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil’

Posted on April 27, 2011 at 12:43 pm

Director Mike Disa has a terrific piece in the Huffington Post about his new film, “Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil,” with not one but two heroines who are strong, smart, brave, and compassionate.

Look at any recent animated movie. Despite sometimes clever plot devices, each of the main female characters’ primary concerns are always love, marriage and family issues. Overused and limiting themes for a modern heroine. And that’s when the female characters are even focused upon at all. How many animated films have you seen where the female lead is little more than a cliché object for the hero to impress in the last reel? Face it, if you want to be a strong female character in animation you are better off as a mouse.

I had a wonderful talk with Disa about making the film.

Why, all these decades later, do animated girls seem stuck back in the days of Snow White singing “Someday my prince will come?”

Isn’t that amazing? It’s been basically the same story model now for 90 years. It’s flabbergasting to me. I used to get in conversations about this when I worked at the big studios. They’d say, “Well, it’s a fairy tale and that’s what fairy tales are about.” I’d say, “Go read the original fairy tales! There’s a lot of other stuff going on. And we’re choosing to change this and that — why aren’t we choosing to change this part of it?” The only honest answer I have for that question is that the people making the films are unwilling to look at women in a different light. You can go on about fairy tales and animation and the patriarchal system that creates princesses and all that but I think it comes down to the people in films want to portray women like that.

Powerful women in films tend to be the bad guys — Ursula, Cruella DeVil, Maleficent.

There are powerful female heroes in animated films; they just aren’t human. Did you ever see “The Rescuers?” If you’re a mouse, you’ve got the potential to be a great character? You’re likely to get pigeonholed into being about family or sexual identity or role — if you’re an attractive human female or anything female in a Pixar movie, with the possible exception of Jessie in the “Toy Story” movies. And even she is played off as Woody’s counterpart. It’s odd because a lot of these studios are so interested in pushing the boundary technically. Why aren’t they so interested in telling more than the same old story over and over?

What is even more revolutionary in your film is that not only is the girl a heroine, but so is the grandmother! And not only is she tough, but compassionate and forgiving as well.

I’m really glad you liked that because that was a part of the film I was pushing hard for as well. Comments I have had about the Huffington Post article are like, “You don’t want to make love stories anymore?” Of course I want to make love stories! This is a love story. It is about the love between dear old friends who have lost each other along the way because of the choices they have made, about the love of a grandmother and granddaughter. It’s very much a classic love story. Love is about more than dating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azVIjdXOsQc

I was so glad Patrick Warburton returned as Wolf. No one can nail dry, understated wit the way he does.

He is amazing. He was an absolute superstar. He would show up after a day of shooting his live-action series, exhausted after a 15-hour day on the set. (I can’t believe I just said “live-action.” It shows I live in he animation world. I’m like — “live action, it’s a little niche thing, don’t know if you’ve heard of it.”)

Not only would Patrick give an incredible performance but he would try alternatives, a different word choice or , he never quit. You don’t need to direct him. He’s got a fantastic ear. You play it back and he’ll hear the same thing I hear, and say, “Let’s do it again.” He’s a marvel to work with. It’s such a joy to have people come in and not treat it differently because it is animation. Every word he wants to be perfect, to work for the character, to fit the lip-synch, to reflect the subtext of the relationships and the rhythms of the other characters.

I’ve seen animation directors who are just: “Go faster. Go slower. Be angry.” That’s such a waste if you have an actor like Patrick who plays subtext and comedy and rhythm. If it’s appropriate, he’ll give you the funny line reading. But then he will give you such true heart and emotion, until you get these great little moments. There are some great moments where Wolf gets very introspective. A lesser actor would have gone for the laugh. You see that in animated films all the time. We got some real emotion — he’s an incredibly talented guy. I’m gushing, but he was just a revelation. And he and Wayne Newton are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met in show business.

I wanted to ask you about the Wayne Newton character! Is his singing harp inspired by “Mickey and the Beanstalk?”

He was influenced by it. I grew up with that movie. It’s spectacular. But that comes to a larger point. Everything in this movie is working on two different levels, and that is one of the things I like about it. The movie respects its audience enough that it knows you’ve seen other versions of these fairy tales. What we can do is subtly play with your expectations. What was a huge part of the film was knowing that everyone would immediately think of the most popular version of the story. So our beanstalk was made of cast iron and aluminum because I wanted something reminiscent of that wonderful organic Disney beanstalk but I wanted something completely different. The same with the singing harp. We need to nod to the classics but we need to twist it. The nightclub is based on the classic old Hollywood place where the great singers and performers played in the 1940’s before Las Vegas got big. If you’ve seen any of the movies or places we refer to, it adds another layer. But if you haven’t, it still works.

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3D Animation Directors Interview