Acme Archives has released a beautiful set of faux posters based on the Pixar film Up illustrated by Eric Tan which are available through entertainmentearth.com. Be warned though: These are limited edition giclée prints which are hand signed so they’ll cost you a bit more than your average poster, however they’re signed by the artist and the quality is there. Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on May 17, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this column animation expert Joe Strike allows you to test your Pixar smarts:
Think you know your Pixar? Take my little quiz… You could probably get all the answers via 10 minutes on Wikipedia, but that would be cheating. (Not that I have a problem with cheating – it shows initiative.) And away we go…
1. Pixar’s very first computer-animated short was
a) The Adventures of André and Wally B
b) Fish Story
c) Ghost in the Machine
d) Tin ToyRead more…
These two commercials for the Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek! attraction at Tokyo Disneyland are enjoyable on two levels: First it’s great to see these familiar Pixar characters speaking Japanese, it almost gives them an anime like quality. Next on the first ad above I love the intercuts of the typical Japanese family mirroring the actions of the animated characters. In fact the high quality of the Japanese voice actors almost makes me want to re-watch the film in Japanese with English subtitles just to see what they did. Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Mar 16, 2009 in Animation
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us his take on the upcoming Pixar film ‘Up’ vs. Dreamworks’ ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’.
And this one goes easily to our Pixar Pals of Emeryville CA, as their upcoming Up easily clobbers Katzenberg and Ko.’s Monsters vs. Aliens – and that’s just based on seeing the first half of Up vs. all of MvA. Read more…
Year-after-year I’ve watched the usual suspects make their tech predictions, so this year I’ve decided as a fanboy that it was my right to make a fool of myself as much as the next guy. Most people are in a doom and gloom mindset right now, but I’ve always felt that there are opportunities when the going gets tough. In fact my one ambivalent prediction is that somewhere in 2009/2010 someone will start a new company which will become the next big thing. But here’s what I think will be happening with the current cast of characters in the tech scene: Read more…
Sometimes I wish the kids toys were for grownups — in this case the Wall.E Learning Laptop has a really cute eye catching industrial design (in fact his right eye does wink at you). The learning laptop features a full QWERTY keyboard, moving arm controllers, a an animated LCD screen.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 22, 2008 in Animation
Shown above is the latest sneak peak of Bolt which is due out in theaters on November 21st and I have to say that I’m not getting excited by this clip. Now my understanding is that the film will be released in Disney Digital 3D and while that sounds cool it doesn’t mean that there can’t be a story up there on the screen. And from this small sample the whole flick looks like a bad action film which is already based on existing cartoons like Road Runner.
The other thing that’s missing here is that none of the characters seem lovable — the dog character Bolt seems to lack any charm, and even the bad guys in the scene above seem so generic. For crying out loud this is suppose to be a Disney film, having interesting evil characters is half the point! To me it looks like Disney was so obsessed with making a Pixar film that they forgot what makes Disney so special (hint: it’s charm, storytelling and imagination!).
With the Toy Story 3 grabbing all of the headlines this Disney themed digital frame caught my eye. With a 3.5″ inch display (320 by 240 pixels) these frames are more novelty items than serious display things at this point in time, however I can see a day in the not to far future when that changes. Above is the alien from Toy Story and below is Stitch and a Pooh bear: Read more…
