Posterized: Warner Animation and "Smallfoot"

by Nathaniel R

The animated comedy Smallfoot opens today. It has a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, so a mixed response from critics but we expect audiences will like it since they're not always so picky about animated films. Plus the concept is cute and there are lots of big stars to promote it.

Let's take a quick visual perusal of Warner Brothers theatrical animated films. Warner Brothers is such a massive corporation that their subsidiaries are legion and "Warner Animation" as it is now is not exactly like "Warner Bros Animation" of the 1990s or what not but you catch the drift. The various animated subsidiaries of Warner Bros tend to have specialized in TV animation and direct-to-dvd titles which is one of three key reasons that the company has yet to land an Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature Film category. The second reason is quality. And the final reason is just bad luck. Surely their best film The Iron Giant would have been nominated had the category existed in 1999. And the snub of exceedingly clever blockbuster The Lego Movie ...well everything was NOT awesome when that happened, don't you agree?

How many of their 12 theatrically released animated features have you seen? The posters are after the jump...

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Happy 50th to Naomi Watts!

by Nathaniel R

the actress at Venice a month ago

Happy 50th birthday to Naomi Watts, born on this day in England. Many of us think of her as an Australian actress since that's where she first emerged but she didn't move there until she was 14. The first two movies I personally saw her in were Flirting (1991) and Tank Girl (1995). Flirting really ought to be enshrined and preserved for eternity since it gave us early looks at four enduring careers. Naomi has a small role but the three principal players are Nicole Kidman, Noah Taylor, and Thandie Newton. 

Naomi is so young in this clip of the girls "arriving" to a cross-school dance, that she's almost unrecognizable. She's the one in the pink with her hair up. But it's Nicole and Thandie that the cameras follow...

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Two Visual Triumphs Seeking Distribution: "The River" and "Shadow"

Since we're already deep into NYFF - thanks to Murtada and Jason for this excellent reviews (I'll join them shortly) --  I must accept that all the full reviews I had planned for things without release dates I saw at TIFF just aren't going to happen. But several films we caught are hitting theaters soon so they will get reviews: A Star is Born (10/5), Beautiful Boy (10/12), Border (10/26), and Boy Erased (11/2). In the meantime here are the final two TIFF films I must pinpoint because they don't have distribution yet but they totally deserve it.

Shadow
I'm calling this one 'camp without color,' because we always think of "camp" as something innately colorful, don't we? Director Zhang Yimou (House of the Flying Daggers) gifts for visual spectacle remain undimmed and this time he organizes his mise en scene around the duality of the yin yang symbols as well as inkwash paintings...

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NYFF: Ash is Purest White

Murtada Elfadl reporting on the New York Film Festival which begins Friday

Have you seen Jia Zhangke’s previous film Mountains May Depart (2015)? Did you whoop with joy when his wife and collaborator Zhao Tao danced to the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West in the memorable opening sequence? Well you are in for another treat from this duo. Tao dances again, and to another delightful well known song that we won’t spoil here. More than that, Ash is Purest White is the showcase for her immense talent that we were hoping for...

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The Link Persuasive

• Coming Soon Juliette Lewis is joining the Roseanne spinoff sitcom The Conners
• MNPP ACK! Somehow I missed the news that there's a new documentary coming about Montgomery Clift and it's playing at NewFest next month
• Awards Daily Willem Dafoe and Paul Greengrass are getting tributes at the Gotham Awards
• AV Club Eric Idle confirms a longstanding rumor about Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in a scene from Empire Strikes Back...

Lots more after the jump including Judi Dench's frustration, Wicked's anniversary, Chris Pine's penis, Glenn Close's movies, JK Rowling's foot-in-mouth problem, and English language remakes of foreign hits which are fine as they are (sigh)...

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