Friday, June 1, 2018 at 10:00PM by Nathaniel R
grrrr. oink. hsss. squeak. 'oh bother'. oohoohahah. and other animal noises.
The multiplex has a serious animal infestations coming up with Christopher Robin and yet another adaptation of The Jungle Book called Mowgli coming up in the next handful of months. Have you caught their trailers?
Let's break them down with our Yes No Maybe So™ practice after the jump...
Thursday, May 31, 2018 at 10:00AM • Lit Hub interesting essay on the popularity of world-building in genre fiction
• Coming Soon Wreck It Ralph 2 has a scene with all the Disney princesses
• Cartoon Brew trailer for something called Another Day of Life which combines documentary footage with CG animation for a different kind of movie
• The Guaridan a five star review of the great silent film Pandora's Box, which y'all know I love. It's maybe my favorite silent
• The New Yorker the emptiness of the new Star Wars universe. I liked Solo more than most and disagree with a few key points here (Emilia Clarke had plenty of screen time to develop that character for example. She's just not an inspired actor is all) but it's still an interesting good read about the problem of prequels and self-consciously mythic work.
• Tom Cruise... speaking of self-conciously mythic. Top Gun 2 began filming
• Boy Culture Madonna gives her blessing to a book/movie deal that uses her music as backdrop for a boy's coming out story. It was a project mainstream publishers rejected. Bet they're sorry now that it has a six figure movie deal.
• Variety Angelina Jolie in David Oyelowo may be starring in a new fantasy drama called Come Away about the parents of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Say what? It's from Brave director Brenda Chapman
• Variety a report on the trouble of ultra cheap or ultra expensive movies in Japan. It's not just Hollywood that has a no mid-budget films problem
• Awards Daily the summer of Donald Glover
• Towleroad deleted scene from Love Simon featuring Colton Haynes
Theater People
• Stage is a new streaming service for theater fans launching this August. Taye Diggs is going to host the first three episodes of their debut talk show called "Crossovers" with Leslie Uggams, Billy Magnussen, and Tamara Tunie as initial guests
• Playbill Tony-bound musical adaptation The Band's Visit will launch a national tour in one year's time.
• TFE ← I just wanted to point you back to this interview we did with two cast members from the musical comedy Desperate Measures last year. The show was so successful it's reopening today at New World Stages for an open run with most of the original cast (including these two) rejoining. It is SO worth seeing so I hope some of you in NYC or visiting will make it!
Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at 12:25PM Our year of the month is 1970. Here's Tim Brayton...
From the standpoint of 1970, we find ourselves at the dawn of what is almost certainly the least-interesting decade in the history of American animation. Television screens were then dominated by the flat, cheap nonsense of Hanna-Barbera while Warner Bros. and MGM had abandoned their short film programs. Just about the only person trying to do anything with the medium was Ralph Bakshi, whose vulgar cartoons for adults were very often "fascinating," but almost never "good." The problem, in all likelihood, is that for 40 years, American animation had been primarily a matter of people reacting to the things Walt Disney had done; and in 1970, Walt Disney had been dead for four years.
This left his namesake studio in a state of full panic and confusion, looking to find any sort of project that felt like it might be "what Walt would have done." The first of these, released for Christmas, was The Aristocats, based on the last story (by Tom McGowan & Tom Rowe) that Walt had briefly glanced at and given his vague blessing to before his death...
Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 8:03AM Last year's Best Animated Feature field was remarkably empty and 2018, at first glance, also doesn't look that promising. You can probably take it to the bank that Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs will be squaring off against the sequels to Wreck it Ralph and The Incredibles. And it shouldn't be THAT easy to know what's going to happen a full year in advance, should it?
Of course we don't know everything yet. It's tough to foresee which foreign entries will qualify, for example. 2018 seems bereft of an obvious non-American competitor (last year it was easy to see The Breadwinner coming, which is why we predicted it a year in advance). [Four questions and ways to improve the category after the jump...]
Friday, April 13, 2018 at 4:37PM 
Chris here. Before Avengers fever takes over in the coming weeks with Infinity War (which we're still hoping is more Black Panther 1.5), it's worth remembering that the Marvel crew isn't the only superhero assemblage happening at the multiplex this summer. Namely, Pixar is finally delivering their long promised sequel to The Incredibles.
And we just got a big reminder with a full trailer that finally gives us some details about what the Incredible family is going to be facing this go around. So why not take a look and do your own Yes No Maybe So'ing in the comments.
YES. This time, Holly Hunter's Elastigirl takes the heroic center stage while hubbie Mr. Incredible struggles with fading into the background. You're married to the voice of Holly Hunter, kindly know your place, sir.
NO Pixar's previous non-Toy Story sequels give us pause about getting too excited for this one...
but none of those had Edna Mode. (And we're back up to the "Yes" column)
MAYBE SO. While this family-friendly look at issues of gender parity gives some reservations (is this all going to be Mr. Incredible's "but ME!" perspective?), we'll keep goodwill hope that the final product has some lessons in store for dad.
Are you excited for more Incredibles?
