Meet The Robinsons

Post by **Daniel** » October 19th, 2006, 2:54 am

Wendy's Jane wrote: Dang it, "Curious George" and "Monster House" were NOT flops, and "Barnyard" was lucky to make as much as it did.

Agreed! Though the only film I've seen was George and I loved it

It out did my expectations!

At first I thought it looked corny, boy was I mistaken

Post by **Ben** » October 19th, 2006, 6:24 am

It's funny. Vanguard ("Valiant") Animation's next movie WILL be distributed through...DreamWorks!

And I just saw Curious George on my never-ending quest to see all the animated films this year, and I loved it. Very sweet, very simple and very cute. And exceptionally well made.

Post by **Wonderlicious** » October 19th, 2006, 9:01 am

Wendy's Jane wrote:Dang it, "Curious George" and "Monster House" were NOT flops, and "Barnyard" was lucky to make as much as it did.

And Curious George is 2D as well, isn't it (from what I've seen, it very much looks like it's a hand drawn pic)? That would make it pointless to include on a list of CGI flops.

Post by **Dacey** » October 19th, 2006, 11:09 am

Yes, it's 2D, but since he's talking about animated movies in general, it's not "Pointless" to mention it.

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 22nd, 2006, 11:05 pm

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... pixar.html

This is quite interesting. I don't agree with all of it though. I actually pointed out some of these things before about Pixar films, and how their domination of current CGI has usurped the type of Broadway musical/epic film that people want to see again. This is no one's fault, just saying that by looking at what Pixar films are, we also see what they aren't.

And they don't believe that screenwriting is real storytelling? Why don't they tell that to Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, Linda Woolverton, John Logan, and other animation screenwriters?

Post by **YCougar** » October 23rd, 2006, 2:40 am

I saw "screenwriting is not writing," not "screenwriting is not storytelling." They'd kinda be undermining themselves if they were claiming that. And if they are highlighting the difference between how you handle writing for a book and writing for a film, I agree. You don't have the benefit of using words to explain actions or anything - it all has to readable visually. Which can be hard to make work right.

It would be nice to see an animated movie break out of the simple comedy/Pixar mold (because I don't see Pixar movies as the same kind of "comedies" as, say, Dreamworks movies) and go for a little more melodrama and epic...ness. Heck, I almost want something with the maturity/darkness that Hunchback had... something more serious and less light-hearted, but still at a level where you could show it to your family, even if it does freak out your 6-and-unders. Just for a change.

Post by **Ben** » October 23rd, 2006, 7:16 am

Well, screenwriting <I>isn't</I> always storytelling.

I did like it to some extent, but the recent Fantastic Four movie which I just saw fits into this theory. It was merely a bunch of unconnected scenes that didn't really pass as an overall story. That was "screenwriting 101 for beginners" if you ask me, on some of their "plot" points.

As I say, I enjoyed it for the 14 year old boys movie that it was intended as, but great storytelling it wasn't.

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 23rd, 2006, 3:33 pm

It was merely a bunch of unconnected scenes that didn't really pass as an overall story.

So was Finding Nemo.

Post by **James** » October 23rd, 2006, 3:44 pm

So was Shrek.

Post by **Meg** » October 23rd, 2006, 4:17 pm

So.
Meet The Robinsons.
Looks good, huh?

Post by **Josh** » October 23rd, 2006, 4:54 pm

Yes, it does, Meg. Yes, it does.

Recently, more names were added to Meet the Robinsons' cast list at Wikipedia: James Earl Jones, Wayne Knight, Andre Benjamin (also known as "André 3000") and Jill Talley. Unfortunately, several of Wikipedia's pages for upcoming animated films have been given incorrect casting info lately. Hence, I'd take this Robinsons news with a grain of salt.

I hope we soon hear more about the music for Meet the Robinsons. The soundtrack was to feature Rufus Wainwright ("Motion Waltz"), Jamie Cullum ("Where Is Your Heart"), Rob Thomas ("Little Wonders") and They Might Be Giants ("There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow"). However, I wonder if the notes Lasseter gave to Anderson called for one or more of those tunes to be cut.

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 23rd, 2006, 4:55 pm

Sorry, Meg!

It's just that there hasn't been a whole lot of news on this film lately, so we're talking about issues that are "relevant" to WDFA/Pixar.

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 23rd, 2006, 5:42 pm

Just had to comment on this:

He [Andrew Stanton] described the list of rules they started Toy Story with (you've probably seen this elsewhere -- no songs; no "I want" moment; no love story; no happy village; no villian), and how at an early story screening at Disney, a top lyricist who was then working with Disney gave a list of notes calling for every single element on that list. The message was to dare to be different, and to do things your own way, without relying on formulas.

AHHHHH!

The irony! Now Pixar's stuck in their own rut due to their reluctance to stick to the "Disney" formula.

This led to the idea of Unity of Opposites -- characters need clear goals that directly oppose each other. Woody's selfish goal, to get back in Andy's good graces, directly opposed Buzz's goal.

Any room for a villain in there? Or is that too "formulaic?

Post by **Dacey** » October 23rd, 2006, 5:58 pm

ShyViolet wrote:Sorry, Meg! It's just that there hasn't been a whole lot of news on this film lately, so we're talking about issues that are "relevant" to WDFA/Pixar.

Yeah, but...

We've been doing that in every other thread lately!

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 23rd, 2006, 6:02 pm

I know.

Zipping it!