Burning Questions: When Will America Get Animation For Adults?

Day of the Dead comes with Lively ColorMichael C. here. Eyebrows were raised when Pixar recently announced their slate of upcoming films. After two projects we already knew about – a dinosaur focused film now titled “The Good Dinosaur” (May 30th, 2014) and the film that takes place inside the mind – there was a new project, intriguingly described as Untitled Pixar Movie About Dia De Los Muertos.

The idea of the full resources of Pixar set to work on an animated film about the Mexican Day of the Dead is enough to get any film lover’s expectations soaring. Obviously, there is no promise the film will be any more artistically daring than the spooky yet family-friendly likes of Henry Sellick’s Coraline. But for now it is reason enough to hope we will soon have an affirmative answer to the question animation lovers have asked for decades:

When will mainstream American cinema finally accept adult animation?

I will not subject you to another rendition of that familiar tune about the rest of the world not holding our country’s prejudices about cartoons being just for kids. Suffice it to say the end of American animation’s extended adolescence is long overdue. 

Disney appeared poised to take the plunge back in the Nineties. I am still stunned anything as mature as the tortured Catholicism of Hunchback’s “Hellfire” sequence found its way into a film with Happy Meal tie-ins. More after the jump

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The Fabulous Linker Boy

Forbes an awesomely nerdy calculation of Smaug's wealth from The Hobbit. It's from the "fictional fifteen" of the wealthiest characters from movies, books, and tv. 
Grantland looks at the end of the full frontal wang era, which peaked with Shame last year and will supposedly die with Magic Mike this summer.
Los Angeles Times Two of the stars of the Tribeca winning Una Noche have defected from Cuba and are seeking asylum in the US. They're a couple in real life and siblings on the screen.
Movie|Line asks everyone to calm down with their "best picture!" proclamations in April. Oopsie. We just completed all of our predictions. But at least The Film Experience has never been driven to "lock!" proclamations before movies are even finished.

The Wrap Any Day Now, a gay adoption drama starring two fine actors (Garrett Dillahunt & Alan Cumming) won the audience award at Tribeca
My New Plaid Pants James Franco and Michael Shannon in compromising positions for The Broken Tower 
24 Frames Henry Selick still hush hush about his Coraline follow up, another spooky sweet stop motion film. It will probably be released in 2013. Scribble it down on your Oscar predictions for next next year. Then he's doing Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.
The Mary Sue eye makeup looks inspired by The Avengers. As colorful as any superhero comic.
Collider yes, they're still planning to reboot The Fantastic Four
Guardian Olivia Williams isn't one for "flamboyant self display". Perhaps she'll rethink that if she wants Oscar traction this year for Hyde Park on Hudson.

Finally...

if you follow the Oscar race religiously and have for at least a few years you've probably discovered that the craft categories are inherently like the acting categories in that some giants of the trade can't seem to win the gold man despite rich filmographies and stunning year-best work. The Oscars require some luck as well. So I'm very happy to congratulate Michael Ballhaus, pictured above, an amazing cinematographer for his lifetime achievement award at Germany's Lolas this past week. 

His Oscar nominations came for The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Gangs of New York (2002), and Broadcast News (1987) but he also lit Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972)... and that's only a handful of the visual wonders he's produced. The Film Experience ♥s him and has ever since La Pfeiffer spun around on that piano and Made Whoopie. We congratulate him sincerely on this career honor.

A Look at Pixar's Forgotten Treasure

Amir here. With Brave’s release on the horizon and Nathaniel writing a lot more about animated films lately, I’ve been thinking about Pixa. Let's talk about a film not many people talk about these days. Counter programming!

If the collection of Pixar films were a large family, A Bug’s Life would be that one child whom everyone always seems to forget. He just never comes up in conversation. It’s not that he’s in any way less than the other children. Quite the contrary, he’s interesting and handsome and courteous, but of all the sisters and brothers and cousins, he’s the one who sits in a corner in Christmas gatherings; he’s happy on his own and nobody bothers him either. That’s A Bug’s Life, essentially.  It’s a story as well told as any other Pixar film; its characters are as memorable as anything else they’ve created; it’s exciting, colourful, intelligent and mature. But ask around and see how many people cite it as their favourite Pixar.  

I’m not sure what happened in the time between the critical and box office success of the film at the time of its release and today, but something prevented A Bug’s Life from becoming a cultural phenomenon like the rest of the studio’s oeuvre. Is it because this film is more about pure entertainment than the grand ideas discussed in WALL-E and Toy Story 3? Say, more of a kids cartoon than an animated film for adults? Is it because Bugs’ greatest asset – its magnificent visuals – were trumped by Pixar’s return to nature in Finding Nemo and the rapid advances in technology that have so significantly improved the look of CGI animations? Or is it because they followed this up with Toy Story 2, part of a trilogy that still dominates the Pixar conversation?

Irrespective of those arguments, A Bug’s Life is as entertaining today as it was when I first watched it. Revisiting it this week, I found it to be one of Pixar’s most unhinged moments: imaginative in bringing an impossibly distant world to life but also adding an extra-saucy dimension to its anthropomorphic characters, richly detailed and attentive to landscape and the insects without sacrificing the vibrancy of the atmosphere and the journey. Everything about it just comes together perfectly, from the cinema’s only German caterpillar to the consistently zappy humour to the exhilarating frenzy of the finale, from the endearingly clumsy anti-hero in Flik to his monstrous arch-rival Hopper (voiced by Kevin Spacey whose immense talent for voice acting was utilized to carry a film more than a decade later in Moon).

The fact that A Bug’s Life doesn’t feature on the “Best of Pixar” lists frequently is more a product of the consistently high quality of the studio’s output than any shortcoming on the film’s behalf. So if you haven’t seen it in a while, pop it back in the DVD player. It’ll be a fun ride.

Wet Willy (via Pascal)

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HMWYBS: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

In the "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series we invite everyone to choose their favorite shot from a movie and explain why. This week's film is the impossibly influential Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) which launched Disney's feature animation empire. Given that the Snow White myth is the subject of two new films Mirror Mirror (reviewed) and the upcoming Snow White and the Huntsmen (interview tease) we thought it was time to take a look way back.

So Heigh Ho Heigh Ho, it's off to work we go.

When I think of Snow White these days my first thought is no longer the movie itself but my first trip to Disney World just three years ago with friends. On the last day of the lengthy trip my friends realized I hadn't been to the part of the park that had the oldest rides, the ones that were considered more for children and it turned out to be my favorite part. My absolutely favorite ride was Peter Pan (such gorgeous dioramas) but I remember Snow White best because I was startled by the nightmarish imagery. This is for children?

In my  last two subsequent screenings of Disney's first classic, it all made sense. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is much more adult in its terror than modern animated films ever dare to be, raising knives and clubs at its heroine, threatening her with non-consensual heart surgery, and throwing her into a haunted forest. It repeatedly threatens her with warped and clawed hands whether they're from trees, shadows, or evil queens disguised as old crones.

So it only seemed right that the iconic shot I'm choosing as best pans diagonally down from gnarled hands to a smoother one, the fairest of them all in point of fact. 

Witch: Don't let the wish grow cold!
Snow: Ohhhh. I feel strange.
Witch: Her breath will still
Her blood congeal...

Though the entire scene is filled with implied terror this shot actually averts its gaze demurely the way the film doesn't in other scenes, unexpectedly making Snow White's poisoning by apple much scarier. Our focus here is entirely on the evil Queen's evil as it were, as her breathing and hand motions and whispering all ecstatically await Snow's demise. It's very creepy and makes Snow's collapse feel not just terrible but inevitable.

But... 

In order to live happily ever after, we close with a happier moment. My favorite shot in the film if not my choice for "best" comes in the film's very first minutes as Snow sings "♪ I'm wishing... (I'm wishing) for the one I love ♫" and listens to her own voice echoing back to her. It's an unexpected image (who thought to shoot from the well's point of view?) and it's also richly prophetic. When I see this shot I think of the movie and character echoing ever after in cinema through every princess, every "I Want" song and every fairy tale fantasy. It started everything and ripples still. 

 Heigh Hoooooooo ♫ It's Off to Blogs You Go...
In honor of Happy, Sleepy, Bashful and the like, we're giving these blogs dwarf names befitting their awesome choices for best shot. Click around to see why I chose these names.

• "Shiny" (Animation Revelation) 
• "Flirty" (Cinesnatch)
• "Fabu" (Awww, the Movies)
• "Slippery" (Antagony & Ecstacy)
• "Dainty" (Okinawa Assault)
• "Juicy" (The Tomas Experience)
• "Bitchy" (Dial P For Popcorn)
• "Dreamy" (Encore Entertainment)
• "Grumpier" (Serious Film)
• "Thirsty" (Film Actually)
• "Moody" (Pussy Goes Grrr)
• "Vanity" (The Film's The Thing)
• "Purity" (Movies Kick Ass)

Next on "Hit Me"...
April 18th Serenity (2005) and/or "Firefly" (2002)
With two Joss Whedon related movies about to hit theaters (The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods) let's look at his feature film directorial debut. If you've never seen Firefly, the series on which this is based you can substitute the tv pilot for the feature if you want (one time only!). Both are available on Instant Watch.
April 25th Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
I've been itching for Gong Li lately and rather shockingly I've never seen this major film in her career. Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.
May 2nd Pariah (2011)
I thought we'd do something brand new on DVD (we never do that!). Mostly because I'd like more people to see this moving LGBT indie.