Tag: John Lasseter

  • D23Expo 2015: Walt Disney Animation

    On Friday afternoon (Aug 14), Walt Disney Animation and Pixar presented their upcoming slate of animated features.

    The presentation was kicked off by Alan Horn, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios.   He showed a history reel of Disney/Pixar animation highlights, and explained how proud he was to be connected to the heritage and legacy of Disney animation — to have a connection to the people who invented the art form of feature animation.

    He further explained that when Ed Catmull and John Lasseter took over (as part of the acquisition of Pixar), the development model changed from an executive-driven process to a filmmaker-driven process.

    He then introduced John Lasseter (head of Pixar and Disney Animation) to take us through the films.

    I’ll cover Walt Disney Animation in this post, and Pixar in the post that follows.

    ZOOTOPIA

    John explained that he’d always been a fan of animation featuring anthropomorphic animals — animals that wear clothes, use machinery, drive cars (he cited Mr. Toad as an example here).   Zootopia is a film in that mode.

    Director Byron Howard (Tangled, Bolt), Director Rich Moore (Wreck-it Ralph) and Producer Clark Spencer came out to present a film clip.   In the clip, Nick Wilde, a fox (voiced by Jason Bateman) is trying to con an ice cream shop owner out of a free ice cream for his son ( left the wallet at home … it’s the kid’s birthday … the poor kid is sick .. etc. ).   Watching this is bunny Judy Hops (voice by Ginnifer Goodwin), who will later pair up with Wilde to solve a missing persons case.

    The area they inhabit is very richly designed, with different environs for the various types of animals — tunda, burrows, dunes, rainforest.

    Ginnifer Goodwin came out to give some background on her character — she plays a cop, and in this world cops are always the bigger, tougher animals.  So as a bunny, she’s assigned to be a meter maid rather than getting the good assignments.   So the missing persons case she is working (it wasn’t explained how that will come about) is going to be her big break.     In  another hilarious scene — where Nick and Judy are trying to get information from a DMV employee played, appropriately enough, by a sloth — it’s unclear whether Nick is really trying to help or hinder the investigation.

    We had a very brief video from Shakira, who played just a few seconds of her song Try Everything from the movie.  She is also playing the character of a gazelle.

    Zootopia will be released March 4th 2016.

    GIGANTIC

    Lasseter to returned to the stage to explain how, whenever Disney does a fairy tale story, it tends to become the definitive version of that tale.   Many of the Disney stories had been told and re-told in many different forms before Disney’s version.

    So, Lasseter announced that Disney is now setting out to tell the definitive version of the Jack and the Beanstalk story.   The movie will be titled Gigantic, with a release date of 2018.   Nathan Greno (Tangled) will direct, and Dorothy McKim will produce.

    The film is set in Spain during the Age of Exploration.   We heard that when Jack goes up the beanstalk, he encounters not just a single giant, but a whole community of giants.  In particular it appears he becomes the plaything of one young girl (Inma – not sure about the spelling).

    Bobby Lopez and Kristina Anderson-Lopez (Frozen) will create the songs for the movie.   They came out on stage and Kristina sang “Little Man” from the film while storyboards for that sequence were shown.

    No casting was announced.   The movie is scheduled for a 2018 release.

    MOANA

    John Musker and Ron Clements (The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, Treasure Planet, The Princess and the Frog) directing, Osnat Shurer producing.

    Moana directors John Musker and Ron Clements. Image (c) D23.com.
    Moana directors John Musker and Ron Clements. Image (c) D23.com.

    This tale is set in the South Pacific.   The islanders in this region, historically, have been some of the greatest navigators in the world.   Yet, for some unknown reason, about 2000 years ago they stopped exploring and basically stayed at home for a thousand years.   Then, about 1000 years ago, they resumed their seafaring ways.   This story sets out to tell us why.

    Teenager Moana longs to explore the ocean, but her father doesn’t want her (or anyone) to venture past the reef-protected immediate vicinity of their island.    She is encouraged and motivated by her grandmother.   She is also inspired along the way by a demi-god, Maui, played by Dwayne Johnson.

    At this point Dwayne came out and told us more about his character.   A clip was played where he tries to impress Moana.  The character Maui is covered with tattoos, which will animate to tell about his deeds.   He carries a giant fishhook with which he can pull islands up from the ocean floor.

    Dwayne Johnson. Image (c) D23.com.
    Dwayne Johnson. Image (c) D23.com.

    We saw a clip where Moana, as a young girl (about 2), meets the ocean for the first time.  This is a beautifully animated sequence in which the ocean has real personality — it teases Moana by withdrawing to reveal shells, and as she moves forward to collect the shells, the ocean forms a wall around her, creating a virtual aquarium where she can see the sea life around her.   A wave then gently carries her back to the beach.

    A Polynesian musical number was then performed by a large group of singers and dancers; I’m not sure if this was actual music from the movie or just to show the general tone, but it was beautiful and should be amazing when paired with animation like the preview we were shown.

    Release date:  11/23/16

    Those are the upcoming films from Walt Disney Studios feature animation … Pixar will be covered in the next post, and the live-action releases (Disney, Marvel, and Lucasfilm) in the posts that follow.

  • D23 Expo 2013: Art and Imagination (Part I: Pixar)

    The 2013 D23 Expo kicked off with a presentation of upcoming animated feature releases from the various Disney studios.

    We were welcomed by Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company.   (Bob was here live this year; two years ago his introduction was taped).   He mentioned that since the last Expo, Disney has acquired LucasFilm, but that we wouldn’t be getting details of Star Wars Episode VII during the Expo.   He also said this Expo was the biggest yet.

    Bob then turned the floor over to Bob Lasseter, who was the host for the remainder of the 3-hour presentation.   John is the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, Disneytoon, and Walt Disney Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering (in other words, he has ALL the best jobs at Disney).

    The presentation was divided by studios, so I’ll divide the blog posts accordingly.   First up:  Pixar.

    We first heard about the success of Monsters University, currently in theaters.   John mentioned that one of the break-out characters from the film that really surprised them was the slug.   And then John was joined on stage by SNL alum Bil Hader, the voice of the slug.   They had a brief bit of banter before John announced the first D23 Exclusive of the day:  we were shown a new Monsters University short film, Party Central.   This was a really cute short film  that will be released theatrically in front of The Good Dinosaur.

    And that lead us in to a discussion of The Good Dinosaur, Pixar’s next film.   The premise here is: what if the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs missed the Earth?   director Pete Sohn and producer Denise Ream came on stage to discuss the film.   The first clip shown was of the dinosaurs engaged in farming activities.   This was a very lovely, pastoral scene that was different in tone from the funnier scenes that followed.    The animation style (particularly the character design) is more cartoony, and less photo-realistic, than I had anticipated based on what I heard previously.

    The voice cast includes John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Green, and Lucas Neff.    Bill and Lucas came out to talk a bit about the film, they both play siblings in the featured dino family.   We then saw another clip of the film, where Arlo (Luca’s character) meets a human for the first time.

    The Good Dinosaur will be in theaters in 2014.

    The next film presented was Inside Out.   (Announced at the 2011 Expo as The Untitled Pixar Film That Takes You Inside the Mind, but for some reason they chose not to stick with that title).    I can’t help but think of this as Cranium Command: The Movie — fans of that shuttered Epcot attraction will recognize the story line similarity.

    The movie as about 11 year old Riley, a young girl whose family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco.   As she adjusts to her new surroundings, we see her emotions personified as characters in her head.   The voice cast features Lewis Black as Anger; Mindy Kaling as Disgust; Bill Hader as Fear, Amy Poehler as Joy, and Phyllis Smith as Sadness.

    Phyllis Smith (The Office) and Bill “I’m not Dwight” Hader then came out to talk about the film.   Phyllis certainly nailed the Sadness role as she was in character throughout.

    The film takes us various places inside the brain, from HeadQuarters (the command center) to Long Term Memory, Imagination Central, Abstract Thought, and Dream Production.   All these areas are connected by the Train of Thought.

    We saw a story reel (essentially storyboards plus temp voice tracks) showing how a family dinner goes with the family — we get to see the inner emotions of the Mom and Dad as well as Riley, and the hilarious scene went over very well with the audience.   This looks like a gem.

    Next:  Finding Dory.   Director Andrew Stanton and producer Lindsey Collins set up the film, which takes place about a year after Finding Nemo.   Dory’s homing instinct kicks in and she takes off to search for her original family; her new family then has to search for her.   Voice cast includes returning Albert Brooks (Marlin) and Ellen DeGeneres (Dory), plus Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy as Dory’s parents, Ty Burrell, and more voice cast to be announced later.    At this point Bill Hader came on stage dressed as a Sea Cucumber to beg to be cast in the movie … with 3 Pixar films in a row under his belt, if he could just get one more, he could become Pixar’s “Lucky Charm”.

    Well, that comment just could not be allowed to stand.   At this point Pixar’s reigning lucky charm, John Ratzenberger, came onto stage accompanied by a full brass band that punctuated his every joke with a rim shot or appropriate flourish.    We saw a slideshow of all 14 of the characters John has voiced in Pixar films.    I don’t think Bill will be unseating John anytime soon.

    John Lasseter then explained that Pixar has been thinking about TV specials even before they did the first Toy Story, but now have finally created their first.   Toy Story of Terror will debut this Halloween, and we were treated to the first 10 minutes of the special.

    That concludes the Pixar portion of the animation presentation … the next post will pick up with the Disneytoon Studios project calendar.

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