Chicken Little

Post by **Kinoo** » February 22nd, 2006, 6:12 am

Anyway the cover art is as cheap as the movie. And I bet that a special edition with a better cover will be in shops for Xmas.

Post by **Ben** » February 22nd, 2006, 5:48 pm

Yep.

And as I said in the other thread, the MIB thing really confuses ChickLit's age. Why is he a middle-aged man in a business suit?

Seems those David Stainton rumors just won't go away!

Post by **Dacey** » February 23rd, 2006, 7:02 pm

I wish the disc had more extras. Still, those alternate openings should be interesting to see.

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 30th, 2006, 12:05 am

http://www.animationnation.com/ubb/ulti ... 1;t=011242

I wonder if this has anything to do with the new direction WDFA is taking?

EDIT: according to the article, it was decided before the Pixar deal....but who knows?

Post by **spaz** » March 30th, 2006, 12:33 am

the new tenants are bleaching the premises. it's very simple.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » March 30th, 2006, 1:44 am

Let me pipe in and clue you all in on something.

Animation has NEVER been a very healthy career choice in the U.S. (and most countries it seems) for the past few decades.

The fact that you can have almost an entire industry stripped to the bone by the closing of a very few major studios' traditional animation production facilities tells you how healthy it was in the first place.

It's not just Disney, Fox, and WB animators that got laid off -- entire independent animation studios around the COUNTRY disappeared within two years' time after Lilo & Stitch was released. After work dried up on traditional theatrical features and every major studio decided to pile up all their animation work in CGI, the independent studios that hadn't adapted or had good business plans went bye-bye.

Where I live right now, 2-3 independent studios that regularly employed upwards of at least 20-30 people fell apart after Disney quit traditional features. It's the same case all across the U.S. coast-to-coast.

The independent animation studios that still survive are scraping by with much smaller crews than they had 5-6 years ago.

I don't really think the Disney/Pixar merger is going to bring back the good old days and revive hand-drawn animation any time soon. Nor will it likely increase the available jobs for animation, period. In fact, I don't think we've seen the last of the shrinkage in animation jobs by a long shot.

It'll just take yet another round of lousy films (which looks like it's coming, by the way). This time, however, those films will largely be CGI efforts and it will prove to all but the biggest dimbulbs in Hollywood and the viewing audience that animation's problems were never really the choice of media (hand-drawings or CGI) but story and production values.

After all, look at how great Chicken Little, the bulk of the DreamWorks output, and the Weinstein Company CGI productions have been so far! That spells a "great future" for any graduate wanting to get into computer animation now. The "boffo" box office of these films that are barely breaking even with home video sales and utterly drawing empty theater auditoriums ought to tell you where the animation industry is headed YET AGAIN.

Fairy dust and explosions is not going to make a turd anything more than a turd...

Post by **Ben** » March 30th, 2006, 7:36 am

I get the feeling that, while this may have been on the cards for the two for a while, especially what with the runaround on Chicken Little, that the Pixar deal has cemented a desire to try pastures new.

With their track record of making two fairly successful movies out of what could have been disasters, they may have even felt they were a dead cert to run the A-Team at WDFA, and now with Pixar coming in, they might be thinking - and quite rightly too - that they might find their own pet projects sidelined, the way Meet The Robinsons seems to be happening for Steve.

As has been mentioned by a couple of reviews, it looks as if their limited participaton on the Chicken Little DVD was intentional and it'll be very interesting to learn if a commentary track was indeed ever recorded for an eventual Blu-Ray release. Despite the sunny outlook, I wouldn't mind betting that their departuure isn't as rosy as it seems.

That said, the best of luck to 'em - Dindal certainly has the chops to pull of a combo movie like he says he wants to, and follow in the footsteps of other Disney animators turned live-action directors Kevn Lima and Rob Minkoff.

Post by **Macaluso** » March 30th, 2006, 10:29 am

I liked Chicken Little.

Post by **ShyViolet** » March 30th, 2006, 1:23 pm

Despite the sunny outlook, I wouldn't mind betting that their departuure isn't as rosy as it seems.

I agree, I think they have very different sensiblities as artists from the Pixar crew. That might also be why they left.

I liked Chicken Little.

Me too!

It was very funny and really sweet. Kinda "too much" here and there but a good ride, and it looked absolutely spectacular, in my opinion anyway.

It'll just take yet another round of lousy films (which looks like it's coming, by the way).

Do you mean specifically DW, Blue Sky or Weinstein films? Does "Cars" count as a "bad" film in your opinion? Just curious.

Post by **spaz** » March 30th, 2006, 5:15 pm

you know Cars will be a great movie. and do well. what i am curious about though is how Europeon audiences will recieve the undertone of NASCAR. National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. interestly NASCAR only exits in one country .. the USA. people in Europe are largely unaware of NASCAR. factually there is nothing "Stock" about those cars , and they have to conform to 360 cubic inches plus restrictor plate between the carb and the manifold. these facts are seen as silly in Europe in the eyes of race fans, who consider F1 or "open wheel" without any restrictions other than weight, to be real car racing. don't get me wrong , i love NASCAR and will be one of the 1st guys in line to see Cars, but, this form of racing does live in a fish bowl... state side only. it probably won't matter and be seen as greatly entertaining and partially educational. regardless, you know ticket sales won't be hurt, that's for sure.

Post by **Ben** » March 31st, 2006, 6:25 am

I think Disney is aware of that and are really selling the film based on the stuff outside the racetrack, at least over here.

Plus, NASCAR got a good deal of attention with the Herbie film last summer, which pretty much launched the idea of that kind of racing with Cars' audience core.

The big thing here though, is how much they're just saying this is a movie about CARS, and not really pushing the race stuff at all. And I think the international advertising is doing that as well - look at the focis on the characters emotional story in the Japanese trails for example.

Post by **ElFlorro** » April 8th, 2006, 12:28 pm

Now Disney released it's first full length CGI movie on DVD and you saw the movie again, what do you think? Have you changed your mind?

Post by **Meg** » April 8th, 2006, 6:21 pm

I still haven't seen it so I can't say.

Post by **eddievalient** » April 8th, 2006, 6:52 pm

I always thought Chicken Little was a great movie. I have to say that as much as I love John Lasseter's work, I kind of resent the fact that he shut down the planned sequel and/or tv series. I would have liked to see the characters in another story (and I'm sure I'm not alone here). Disney has had great success with the Lilo & Stitch franchise and I think that it's a shame CL will never be given a chance to follow it. Could this be the end of Disney's sequel machine?

Post by **Meg** » April 8th, 2006, 6:55 pm

Hopefully...

Chicken Little

Dindal and Fullmer leave Disney chicken little

"Chicken Little" again!