Munir Presents Walt Disney Animation Studios: A Retrospective -- Introduction

By Munir Abedrabbo.

Hello folks! With the beginning of the New Year and the fact that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs just turned 75 this past December, I thought it would be nice to have a rundown over all 52 animated films that the Disney Studio has released so far. Each week, a film from the Disney canon will be presented alongside a short commentary and a rating system. All films are going to be presented in chronological order from Snow White to Wreck-It Ralph. I hope you enjoy this and that this retrospective will stir up discussions about these films and of these 75 years of great legacy!

Brilliant First Wreck-It Ralph Trailer

One day early, and following on from the reveal of the first stills yesterday, the first trailer for Disney's Wreck-It Ralph (above) has arrived online, and it's fantastic.

Introduced by the voice of Ralph, John C. Reilly, and packed full of great cameos ranging from Mario's Bowser and Sonic's Dr. Eggman to a Pacman ghost, the trailer is a great sign. It's funny, the animation is brilliant and it definitely has a Toy Story vibe to it! I'm also loving Game Central Station. Really, I'm just completely in love with this film!

The characters, the story, the voices, the animation; everything looks brilliant, following on from strong efforts with Bolt and Princess and the Frog and hits with Tangled and Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph looks like it can be the film to once and for all re-establish Disney as the home of animation. Welcome to the Third Golden Age of Disney Animation.

Wreck-It Ralph is due to be released on 2nd November in the US and 15th February here in the UK - that seems so long away now though.

Via MSN Movies.

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Oh, and please remember to vote in our poll to the right, to say what your favourite Aardman film is!

Wreck-It Ralph

Disney's animated slate was supposed to be blank in 2012, with their next feature, Reboot Ralph, coming in 2013. However, now that Pixar's Monsters University is pushed back to 2013, Reboot Ralph steps forward to 2012, under a new name, Wreck-It Ralph.

Disney's 52nd animated feature looks to continue the studio's recent run of success, and from what I've read of the film, it looks like it may edge us ever closer to being in the Third Golden Age. Looking to continue the recent success of Tangled and Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph is a revolutionary film, exploring the world of video games from the inside. The film is set to be directed by Rich Moore, a former long time animation director on The Simpsons and Futurama, and stars the voices of John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman.

The offficial synopsis, courtesy of Disney's Press Release, is featured below:

Wreck-It Ralph (voice of Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his game's perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix (voice of McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes... so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan -- win a medal -- but soon wrecks everything, and accidently unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph's only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Silverman), a young troublemaking "glitch" from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy. But will he realize he is good enough to become a hero before it's "Game Over" for the entire arcade?

The films sounds pretty solid to me, it seems like a great shift for Disney, both tonally and in terms of plot, and it's good to see the Disney animation department finally staying awake, after being stagnant for so many years.

Only time will tell, the film is due out on November 2, 2012 in North America, no announcement yet on when it will hit other countries around the world.

Winnie the Pooh Review - No Bother

This review is of a film that I very much wanted to see, the classically animated and wonderfully charming, Winnie the Pooh. However, as regular blog followers will know, I was unsure how good it would be. I knew a Winnie the Pooh film would be charming, funny and nostalgic, but would it be "the defining film"? Would it be great? Or just good? Would it be purely a nostalgia film, or could it sustain itself? I found that Winnie the Pooh faced some of the same questions that I aimed at Toy Story 3. Fortunately, Winnie the Pooh - like TS3 - did not disappoint.

Are We in The Third Golden Age?

Disney. The word that embodies animation. When you think animation you think Disney and vice versa. Yet, Disney hardly has the best track record when it comes to animated films, sure when you think of Disney animated films, you'll think of the classics; The Lion King, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast etc..., but since the end of the second Golden Age (or Renaissance) Disney has been a bit down in the dumps. Particularly in the majority of the 2000s we've had a lot of flunks (in terms of critical consensus and box office revenue), with Chicken Little, Brother Bear, Home on the Range and Atlantis (among others) with some exceptions i.e. Lilo and Stitch.

Through all of the turbulence, there's been so much speculation about when - if ever - the third Golden Age of Disney will begin.