Robinsons Weekend Box Office

Disney's latest 3D flick, "Meet the Robinsons," pulled in another $5 million at the box office this weekend.



According to Box Office Mojo, this brings the total US Box Office take for "Robinsons" up to $88.4 million, pushing it closer and closer to the magic $100 million mark.

I think at this point, while not a Blockbuster, it is safe to call this film a hit, and I hope that we get to see a sequel as a result. I think the Bowler Hat Guy has a lot of potential, and I'd like to see more of his backstory for sure.

I didn't say "backside," I said "backstory."

More Weekend Box Office Numbers from Box Office Mojo

Hang 10...

Of these new "Surf's Up" posters on your wall that is!



Am I the only person here who can't figure out why I can't land a job as a joke writer since my days writing for Bob Saget on "America's Funniest Home Videos"?

Swing on over to Latino Review for more info on the movie and poster.

Latino Review's Surf's Up Info Page

Preview for the Ratatouille Preview is now up for Previewing

Want to see a 9 minute clip from Pixar's upcoming "Ratatouille" film? Of course you do. Want to see a 30 second preview for that upcoming 9 minute clip? Probably not.



Leave it to Disney to preview their own upcoming preview. Now that's how you create hype...

There are a few seconds of new footage in this preview, so if you can't get enough of these little rats like me, you should at least give it a quick glance.

The 9 minute clip hits tomorrow.

Ratatouille Preview Preview on Total Clips

Fresh Ratatouille Trailer Screen Grabs

As it's a slow news day, I decided to take some screen grabs from Pixar's latest trailer for "Ratatouille."












Anyone else as excited to see this film as I am?

Translation: Anyone else as big of a dork as I am?

Ratatouille HD Trailer on Quicktime

RE-Animation Blog

New Shrek the Third Production Blog

Not to be out blogged and/or podcasted by Pixar, Dreamworks has placed their latest production blog for "Shrek the Third" up over at the film's official website.



In this "Behind the Scenes" blog, we get to see how a storyboard is taken through layout, animation, and then to final render. It's quick and not overly informative, much like my form of love making.

Just one question though: Isn't the scene with the toenails exactly like the one in "Dumb and Dumber"?

Official Shrek Website

Theme Planet

This looks to have been around for a while, but it's the first I've seen of it.







"Theme Planet" is a short film that is being created by Michael Sormann, and here is what the site has to say about the short:

This is the story of a little Pig and his big fat fellow Elephant working
in a giant theme park.

This park is covering the whole planet, in fact the Theme Park IS the planet.
There is no surface , just one attraction on top of each other forming a giant Theme Planet floating through space.

At the beginning pig is not at all interested in the background of the world he exists in, he just dont care and lives a boring life as an engineer (class3) repairing broken wagons and trails together with his assistant elephant.

But after a while and some extraordinary events he gets interested in what is really going on inside the huge structure they are living in, and after numerous adventures on their travel to the planet's core ,meeting a lot of freaky creatures and strange places ,pig and elephant finally reach the center of their world, meeting the "Mad Constructor" and his humble assistant Igor revealing his ambitioned (and quite bizarre) universe domination plans.

The last update was made back in December, so I hope this is still a project in the works, as it looks like it has a ton of promise.

For more information, screenshots, animation tests and lots of other stuff, swing over to the official site.

Michael Sormann's Website and Home to Theme Planet

Minuscule DVDs Out Now!

Or at least they're "out now" in PAL format.



I really hope these things see a release here in the States as well. Such a wonderful little series, and proof that you can do so much with just some clever ideas and a solid understanding of animation.

If you haven't seen "Minuscule" yet, swing over to the DVD site, where they have a bunch of video clips up under (of all things) the "Videos" section.

Minuscule DVD Website

Official Minuscule Website

Latest Pixar Ratatouille Podcast

The latest "Ratatouille" podcast (ratcast? pixarcast?) titled, "The Technical Ingredients" is now up on YouTube.



It won't be long before Disney will come up with something called a "Disneycast" which will go along with their "DisneyDVD" and "Disney3D" and really be exactly the same thing as a podcast but just have their name in it.

In any case, even though this is a technical podcast, it's only 3 minutes long, so the guys on the technical team don't get to get too deep into the really boring stuff. It's actually really interesting to watch (especially the sink water part) and there are some new clips from the film.

Veerapatra Jinanavin's Animation Reel

Recent Academy of Art graduate, Veerapatra Jinanavin has posted this awesome animation reel.



There is some really good stuff in here, though I do think the reel tends to fall into the category of a bit "too much." Don't get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful demo reel, but the juice boxes could have probably been dropped from the mix, and maybe one or two other animations. I think the rest of the stuff is so strong that those animations mentioned just aren't needed.

Totally my opinion though, and since I picked the kid with the braided mohawk to go all the way on that karaoke show, who am I to say?

Veerapatra's Website

Limited Edition Cars Giclees

The Wonderful World of Animation Art Gallery (Who votes for a shorter name? Let me see a show of hands.) has posted 3 limited edition giclees from Pixar's "Cars" universe.



They're expensive ($145 unframed or $395 framed), but I think they're awesome! I'm seriously considering ordering the one above. I think it will make a nice addition over my 24K gold toilet where I crap out diamonds.

Cars Neon Nightlife Giclee

Cars Tippin' Gone Bad Giclee

Cars Two for the Road Giclee

Still Shots from Latest Ratatouille Podcast

Character Design has posted some stills from the most recent Pixar "Ratatouille" podcast.



These frankly aren't all that exciting, and they're kind of blury.

ENJOY!

More Ratatouille Stills at Character Design

New Pixar Ratatouille Podcast

Disney.com has a brand new podcast up titled "Ratatouille: Cooking 101."



In this short piece, Brad Bird and some of the other animators discuss the process they went through to achieve the authentic look and feel of a French kitchen, including spitting in all dishes to be consumed by American patrons.

Lots of unseen footage and some great insight into how the animators get first hand knowledge of everything that they animate.

Cooking 101 Podcast at Disney.com

Quick Update

So I was out yesterday and there were no updates. This was due to me making a nice little emergency visit to the hospital.



My medical worries are now over, but the bonus (aside from the ice-cream) was that I got to bring home one of the most horrendous colds I've ever had. I haven't had a cold in over 2 years, and so it's awesome that it took a trip to a hospital to break that streak.

I'm back now and updates should resume shortly.

Thank you for your understanding.

Pixarcasts Now Available On iTunes

According to Upcoming Pixar, you can now download the first 3 Pixar video podcasts from iTunes.



The first 3 video podcasts are the "Ratatouille" trailer, "Emile's Magic Trick," and "Brad Bird: The Big Cheese."

Swing on over to Upcoming Pixar to find out details on how you can subscribe. I'm not the right person to ask, as I still can't figure out how to get them to play on my Walkman.

Pixar Video Podcasts Details

The 2006 Crop of Computer Animated Films

Just thought I'd post how the CG Animated films of 2006 did, in terms of their box office take, and how they rank on the all time list of CG films.



Rank -- Title -- Lifetime Gross
7 -- "Cars" -- $244 million
8 -- "Happy Feet" -- $197 million
9 -- "Ice Age 2" -- $195 million
16 -- "Over the Hedge" -- $155 million
21 -- "Open Season" -- $84 million
23 -- "Monster House" -- $74 million
24 -- "Barnyard" -- $73 million
25 -- "Flushed Away" -- $65 million
29 -- "The Wild" -- $38 million
31 -- "The Ant Bully" -- $28 million
36 -- "Everyone's Hero" -- $15 million

That's a total of 11 films that were released last year, and a combined total of 1.7 billion dollars brought in at the box office. Of course "Cars," "Happy Feet," and "Ice Age 2" were responsible for almost 3/4 of that alone.

While we won't see 11 films released in 2007, it will be interesting to see how revenues do with big titles like "Ratatouille" and "Shrek the Third" getting set for release.

Box Office Totals Via Box Office Mojo

Surf's Up Poster

There is a new poster for Sony's upcoming "Surf's Up" over at IMP Awards.



This is apparantly a take off on the "Ocean's 11" film, but I have no idea why, as I've never seen the film or a poster for the film. Not only that, but I'm far too important to spend the 30 seconds it would take me to find the poster on Google.

I'm pretty full of myself today.

More Surf's Up Posters at IMP Awards

Interview with TMNT's Kevin Munroe

The director for Warner Bros' "TMNT" recently sat down for an interview with Animated Views.



AV: Can you think of any of the other rules that Pete had?

KM: Turtles are not interested in girls - at all. Not that I probably would have wanted that anyway, but I mean it’s just a big pet peeve with Pete. It’s like you having a crush on a French poodle. He’s a turtle, and she’s a human. There’d be no crossover, right. So there was that.

That's one of the funniest things I've ever read in an interview, and yet at the same time I now feel dirty for having a crush on my French poodle.

Read the Entire Kevin Munroe Interview at Animated Views

Official Pocoyo Blog

If you aren't familiar with "Pocoyo," then you need to get familiar with "Pocoyo" like now... RIGHT NOW!



If you are familiar with "Pocoyo," then you'll be happy to know that it now has an official blog where you can see all kinds of great stuff.

Of course by "now has an official blog," I mean that I just found out about the official blog that has been around for some time.

In related news, did you know that they now have devices called microwaves that will heat up your food with no wood burning required?



Official Pocoyo Blog

Exclusive Ratatouille at Yahoo

Want to watch a behind-the-scenes featurette on Pixar's upcoming "Ratatouille" hosted by none other than Brad Bird?



Of course you do.

My favorite part is where Brad tells how he made the entire crew eat nothing but cheese varities during the making of the film and fired two people he caught eating some bread to cleanse their pallets.

Am I kidding?

Guess you'll have to watch to find out!

Exclusive Ratatouille Feature on Yahoo!

New Shrek the Third Images and Poster

A member of the Animated News forum has posted the new French poster as well as 5 new screenshots from Dreamworks' upcoming "Shrek the Third."



First the French get fries, and now a poster that some might say is better than the US version of the "Shrek the Third" poster.

They must be stopped.

More Shrek the Third Images and the French Poster at the Animated News Forum

I Met the Robinsons

I got the chance to take in "Meet the Robinsons" this weekend, and here's what I thought...



This was an exclusive screening for me and my wife apparently, as we were the only two in the entire theater at the 9:40pm viewing of the film. This is probably for the best, as the 3D glasses they provided made us look like complete dorks. Seriously, I'm guessing the glasses had to be that big to make sure that they took up our entire field of view, but they really just made us look like Solid Gold dancers from the 80s.

The film? Oh... the film... right.

The film was good. It had a very solid cast, some great models and animation, and some wonderful environments. The story is decent, and the interactions between the various characters does a good job of garnering the intended emotions from the audience (i.e. - my wife crying). I did feel at times that the creators were really just tossing ideas at a dartboard and whoever got closest to the center got to have their idea in the movie. Robots, dinosaurs, time travel, funny old people, singing frogs, inventions, and bubbles apparently hit the closest.

That being said, they do a great job of tying it all together in the end. Sort of like having a kid with ADHD and then having him hand you his report card with straight Bs. Sure he spent most of the year hanging upside down from the curtains and lighting his teacher on fire, but in the end, you can't argue with the results.

I will say that The Bowler Hat Guy is an amazing villain. Easily my favorite villain to hit screens in a decade, and probably one of my top 5 of all time. Each time he came on the screen I started to vibrate, because I just knew I would enjoy the scene. This vibration is another reason I'm glad we were the only two in the theater.

"Meet the Robinsons" is a very good film, and I'm sure (based on the box office take) that we were the only two in the theater simply due to the fact that most families don't go to the 9:40pm showings. If you've got the time and don't mind looking like a retired couple from Palm Springs as you watch a movie (those glasses are huge), I think you'll get quite a kick out of The Robinson family.

52 Seconds of Surf's Up

Armand Serrano has posted a 52 second clip from Sony's upcoming film, "Surf's Up!" over on his website.



While watching the clip did mean I had to listen to Green Day for 52 seconds, it was still worth it.

I can't wait for this film.

52 Seconds of Surf's Up!