Apologies that this is a day late, but we were recording our two-part (and thus rather long) Disney Renaissance podcast late yesterday, and frankly, if I looked at anything else animation related, I fear I may have imploded. Nonetheless, here's the recap of what was a very packed - if not all entirely cheery - week of animation news. Lots of
Frozen stuff (you wouldn't have believed that a month ago), two hotly anticipated 2014 animation films pushed back to 2015, a spooky new trailer for
Toy Story of Terror!, your usual features, some special editorials and a brand new interview/podcast all make this an exciting week! Check out what happened
this last week on A113Animation.
News
New Frozen poster and trailer countdown: We started the week with a snowy new poster for Disney's
Frozen, which is again heavy on Olaf. As we'd see later on in the week, there's not an awful lot of the little snowman in the new trailer (and, we assume, neither in the film), but Disney are definitely putting the heft of their advertising campaign behind him. Director Jennifer Lee also announced on Twitter that the trailer would (officially) be released online on 26th September (so that's only 3 days now)! Check out the full poster
here.
Pixar push The Good Dinosaur back to November 2015: A few weeks back, Bob Peterson was removed as director of Pixar's upcoming dino film, and we all started to fret about how the studio would meet the fast-approaching May 2014 release date. The answer? They won't. The film has been pushed back a year and a half, to the date previously occupied by
Finding Dory, which has in turn been pushed back to summer 2016. 2014 will be the first year since 2005 that Pixar haven't released a film; Pete Docter's
Inside Out will be their next film, in June 2015. More on all that
here.
Toy Story of Terror! trailer: After releasing a curious Sky Broadband ad, Pixar have now released an official trailer for their upcoming Halloween TV special,
Toy Story of Terror! This is the happy news that Pixar fans needed after a stream of successively more gloomy announcements, and Pixar's first TV special looks to capture the same brilliance that made the
Toy Story trilogy such a hit. Watch the new trailer in all its PEZ-puking glory
here
Frozen trailer leaked online... and then pulled back down: Fans of
Frozen were ecstatic to see that the new trailer (due, as stated above, on the 26th) had been leaked online almost a week early - even if it was very low-res and shaky-cam. They didn't have long to check it out though, because the trailer was promptly yanked down by Disney within a few hours. All the same, trust us, it was enormously fun and promising; check out our recap of what we liked in the trailer
here. You're all in for a treat on Thursday.
Minions also pushed back to 2015: 2014's exciting animation slate is slowly migrating to the already packed 2015. Just days after
TGD was pushed back, Illumination and Universal announced that they were pushing their
Despicable Me spin-off back from December 2014 to July 2015. The good news is that the move doesn't sound to be due to creative problems; check out the full story
here.
Features
Disney Retrospective, Mulan: The subject of this week's Retrospective is a very personal film for Munir, as he recounts a story from his childhood and the important role that 1998's
Mulan played in it. We discussed on our just recorded Disney Renaissance podcast how high quality this film is, and Munir echoes that here.
"With very relevant messages and a wonderful leading character," he says
"Mulan is a Disney film that should not be missed, and it ranks in a high place in the Disney canon." Read the full review
here.
Other
Guest Editorial: Is Disney Animated Princess Marketing Sexist? Morgan Stradling from The Rotoscopers paid A113Animation a visit this week (figuratively speaking, of course), and penned this excellent guest post for us. Particularly relevant in the midst of all the Olaf-heavy
Frozen marketing, Morgan examines Disney's recent promotion of their animated princess movies, and asks whether the strategy is sexist, or very clever. Check out that article
here.
A note to Hayao Miyazaki: Hayao Miyazaki's retiring. Sad, but expected news. This week, our Studio Ghibli correspondent, Mayra, penned a short note to the legendary animation director, thanking him for his many years in the business, for his many marvellous films, and his impact on so many lives. To check out Mayra's thoughts, and to leave your own in the comments section, about what Miyazaki has done for the world of animation, head on over
here.
Interview: Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian: Moonbot Studios' latest short film,
The Scarecrow, is an add for Chipotle, yet still manages to be the most enthralling and affecting short of the year so far. This past Wednesday I got the chance to chat to the short's directors about its production, its roots in classic cinema, music and animation choices, what's next for the young studio (they're developing a feature film with Guillermo del Toro!) and some animation hot topics. Check out the full transcription of that interview
here.
Podcast
Episode 5: An interview with the directors of The Scarecrow: If you don't feel like reading, you can still check out my interview with Brandon Oldenburg and Limbert Fabian, as it's available to download now as the latest episode of the A113Animation Podcast! The interview runs about half an hour, so the show's just a mini bonus one, rather than a full episode. All the same, check out the podcast
here! Episode 6 (part 1 of our Disney Renaissance special) should be out before the end of the month; episode 7 will be out in October.
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