The Little Mermaid (1989)

QUICK NOTE: I won’t be around much, but I will still be posting on Twitter. My computer is dead, for more information check out my other blog.

The Walt Disney Company has temporailily forgotten how to make animated films… Fast forward a few years to the late 80′s, One of the most iconic pictures the company has ever produced began the second golden era of Disney Animation (or Disney Renaissance.) For those of you who are not Disneyphiles, and for those of you who didn’t read the title of the post, the film I am referring to is the Walt Disney Company’s 1989 smash hit, The Little Mermaid.

The great 1988 picture, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, breathed life back into the feature animation studio, and they now knew they could make a feature again. The pulled off an idea that Walt Disney had actually begun to develop decades earlier, right after Snow White & The 7 Dwarfs, they took what Walt had, and built on it.

The screenplay is notable, as it grew from a 2 page treatment, then the dscovbered Walt’s notes, and then a 20-page rough draft. The film was ready to roll and screenwriters began to pen the script, but production stopped as the studio started work on Oliver & Company, and the afforementioned Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

But enough back story: onto the movie!

The music was composed by Alan Menkan, one of my favourite composers, and lyrics were penned by Howard Ashman. The team of Menkan-Ashman went on to write tons of films together, including a few more for Disney.

The film (of course) showcases some brilliant animation. An important note to make is the movement of hair underwater. Occaisonally the hair moves and adds a small accent to the film, but for a great majority of the time spent underwater, the hair acts naturally. This never calls into question the realism of the film, and when the hair does float, it does not distract from the dialog and key action.

The animators also used live action references (I can only imagine Jodi Benson trying to deliver lines from a giant pool) but I don’t see anything on rotoscoping.

Another interesting note on animation is the select use of CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) which eliminates the needs for cells in traditional animation as well as serves as an aid to ink and painting. (Think layered flash) And with CAPS coming into the company Walt Disney’s multiplane camera leaves.

We also see some wonderful integrated CGI animation. While wonderful for the time period, it shows the world still had a lot to learn about lighting.

The film grossed $183,355,863, an amazing return for their $84,355,863 investment, recieving over 1 million dollars. In the films opening weekend, it recieved $6,065,716, and this film clearly shows that box office sales on opening weekend are not the whole film. Nearly everyweek following that, sales increased. (By the way, if any of MY films made $6,065,716, I’d be happy…)

One last note: the film was re-released in 1997. Not in 3-D, probably not very many optical upgrades, and still made a killing. This clearly shows iconic films, no matter home video sales, will do great in a re-release, but the question we see know is: Define “Iconic”

It’s a great film, and if you’re animating underwater, it’s a must-see for refereneces, and sha-la-la-la-la-la-la don’t be shy, come one and leave a comment!

Good night Hollywood! I’m doug Hanna, and I’ll be here ’til Friday!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

On March 30, 1990, the decade was still young. The world was still yet to be introduced to children’s live action sitcoms, and one comic book was rocking the world. The comic book series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, written by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and published by Archie Comics was a very successful brand, and the animated series, produced by Fred-Wolf Films, also was loved by every boy and girl.

As the eighties closed, it was time to bring Turtle fans something they wanted: A Feature Film.

The Jim Henson Creature Shop built the animatronic puppet characters in the amazing timespan of 18 weeks. In interviews Jim Henson would say the turtles were the “Most advanced he had ever worked with.” We know they were advanced! They were 5 and a half feet tall turtles doing spin jumps and drop kicks for 93 minutes! Even by today’s standards, the puppets hold up. (When I think of that I really want to see Wild Things Versus Ninja Turtles…)

I am not sure if the puppets still exist, but they were also used for two other movies, a few television specials, and a really weird touring show event.

Another note to be made about the puppetry: Brian Henson was hired as Captain. This is probably Brian’s first major directing job without his father on production. Other Muppeteers joined Henson on the film, such as Martin P. Robinson, David Rudman, and Kevin Clash.

The music was a wonderful mix of eighties, Japanese, Hip-Hop, and New York, all thrown into a blender. Penned by British composer, John Du Prez, it is a true shame most of the score was not released on the Soundtrack album.

The film was produced for 13.5 Million dollars (US), an amazing feat. The cost of puppets, sets, performers, and music probably drove the price tag up quite  a bit.

Most of the sets used in the film were built on a studio lot. An interesting fact I found was for every scene that showed someone crawling down a manhole the manhole led to a 8 foot room underground. When creating this room, the crew found water at 5 feet and had to pour in concrete to build the room. Did anyone think of using PLATFORMS??? Hello!! Anybody in there? Obviously, no one from Henson was helping out with the sets, as nearly every Muppet set is built on raised platforms.

The foley, produced by an artist named Richard Shorr, left something to be desired. Punching noises that sound like those of a Batman cartoon take a large sense of realism away from the film, and yet brings it a sense of the fleeting eighties. I’m not sure how it compares to other action films of the time, but I think the directors wanted a cartoony feel to go with the characters that jumped right out of a comic book and animated series.

This really is a good movie, especially amazing for the time period. Seeing how the film stands today, while other Turtle properties die within months, is a testament, not only to the turtles themselves, but also to the artists behind them and the vision they had.

Toy Story 3-D Double Feature

I get the picture in my head of a bunch of Disney Executives, Dick Cook, Steve Jobs, and a bunch of other folks, sitting around a table asking two questions: “How can we earn some money?” and “How can we promote *INSERT FILM NAME HERE*”

In order to drum up some publicity for the upcoming June 18th release of Toy Story 3, the Walt Disney Company re-released their smash hit blockbuster films, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in a 3-D Double Feature!

The event saw limited release, a surprising decision coming from the behemoth, and sported the tagline “One ticket, two movies, three dimensions!”

I was quite excited to catch the event, and when I got to the theatre, I purchase my ticket, head into the theatre and sit through previews, the film rolls and I see… Space? Everyone knows Toy Story 2 starts in space, and I immediately realized the timing was messed up and would have to watch the movies out of order! (Oh the horror! I know, I’m a nerd)

I don’t want to go much into the films themselves, but focus more on the event. While the films were being remastered to 3-D, I noticed they had also received a phenomenal re-mastering, bringing them both to an extremely wonderful view of very very VERY high definition.

The restoration team also gave the soundtrack a quality upgrade, which was another plus. It looked and sounded amazing. So, with Randy Newman coming at me at me from all sides, and opening credits flipping through space into the theatre, I began my viewing pleasure.

In case you haven’t gotten the hint, I really liked the restoration. The 3-D effects were provided by Real-D, and really got me excited for the upcoming releases of Disney’s A Christmas Carol.

Speaking of upcoming Disney releases, I saw new trailers for Toy Story 3 and The Princess and The Frog!!

Toy Story 3 comes back, and from what I’ve seen in the trailer, it has an AMAZING score! Randy Newman returns to tie off the trilogy, and for future examination, refer to this video. Randy Newman’s new song with vocals is going to kick the butt of You’ve Got A Friend in Me. We can also see that the film is going to be visually stimulating. All of the lighting in the trailer is beautiful, and the human models look a lot less creepy then the first two films. Then, when the trailer brings us to the nursery, we are given a wonderful contemporary song that I am sure will be amazing.

I see that I think the story will be a lot thicker and more complex, which is going to be great, that is Pixar can handle it. Let’s face it, a lot of their features is very simple in structure, story and adventure. There’s nothing wrong with that, but now we’ll see how they fare in deeper water.

Another thing that really caught me: this film is going to be EXPENSIVE! Toy Story had a budget of $30 million, Toy Story 2 $90 million, and I’d bet dollars to doughnuts this one will be over the 200 million dollar mark. Let’s look at statistics here folks: Pixar’s most recent film, Up, was brought down with $175 Million. Now because this film is part of a series inhabited by very loved characters, it is a guaranteed success, therefore, it would be logical to spend a lot of money on the production.

The new Princess and The Frog trailer can be viewed here and it revealed a lot more about the story, and we are guaranteed our already made assumption that the animation would be fabulous.

Opinions on any of this? Leave a comment!

Where The Wild Things Are

October 16th saw the release of the latest Village Roadshow/Legendary release, Where The Wild Things Are.

Based on the classic children’s book by Maurice Sendak, with puppets built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Directed by Spike Jonze, and Distributed by Warner Brothers, the film was guaranteed to be great!

I must say, my first draw to the theater on opening day was to see the puppets, and in this matter, the film did not disappoint. The Creature Shop has done some amazing things, but I must say this is the peak of their work. Beautiful puppets, looking extremely realistic, while at the same time, bringing a fun, almost-cartoony feel to the film. Not only were the puppets built wonderfully, but the puppeteers were wonderful performers. The only downside is the fact they were credited as “Costumes” to quote Kermit Love, “It’s a full-bodied puppet, not a costume!”

The next thing that really caught my eye was the music by Carter Burwell. I’ve been a fan of Burwell’s music for quite awhile (I liked him BEFORE Bella’s Lullaby) and this is some of his best stuff, the music was FABULOUS, and thankfully it has been released on the film’s soundtrack (Don’t you hate it when they don’t include the score?!?!) I definently need to get my hands on a copy of the OST album! A little more on the music- the song Igloo is beautiful and will be ingrained in your head for AGES, another good piece from the score is All Is Love featuring singer, Kathy O (Never Heard of her, but she dated Spike Jonze, so can’t be THAT bad.) who also contributes to all the other vocals of the score.

Sticking with sound, the film also held to its name a great work of foley, but unfortunately, I forgot to get the artist’s name from the credits! If anyone sees the film and catches his/her name, throw it my way!

If you’ve heard about this film from anywhere, you’ve probably heard somewhere along the consensus of “It was terrible.” So, I am cornered to discuss the film’s downsides.

Cinematography was nothing to marvel at. The film was shot almost entirely on hand-held cameras, Jonze explains this decision by saying it was done “in order to complement the evocative, other-worldly feel of the film.” Not something I entirely agree with, but it was his movie, and I respect his artist decision. Perhaps one or two scenes could be shot with hand-helds, but they should not of been used to the extent that they were.

They other major “downside” of the film, the thing people are riving about, is that it wasn’t “fun.” I disagree with this wholly, it was not a kid’s movie, it was not marketed as a kid’s movie, and the trailers really did not suggest it was a kid’s movie. I really support Jonze as an artist here, as do many others, including the author of the original book, Maurice Sendak, who was quoted to say, “I’ve never seen a movie that looked or felt like this. And it’s [Spike Jonze's] personal ‘this.’ And he’s not afraid of himself. He’s a real artist that lets it come through in the work. So he’s touched me. He’s touched me very much.”

It was not meant to be an action-packed film (Although the trailers DID suggest that) so the world should stop complaining that it isn’t. Jonze decided he wanted a narrative, and so thats the way the movie should be.

The major downfall of this film in the mainstream market is that the film is too dark for kids, and an adaption of a kid’s book, should be an action packed adventure movie with lots of fart jokes… for kids! But, if Jonze wants to make a dark movie from a happy story, then let him do it! The world was not misguided, as the film was, in fact, marketed as an adult film, and thus should stop complaining about the “darkness” the “Narrativeness” (Is that a word?) and the “Non-Fartiness” (That is definitely not a word.)

So, all in all the film was great for adults, older teenagers, and most importantly, film-geeks! Right now, there’s a book really tempting me, called Heads On and We Shoot: The Making of Where The Wild Things Are. Written by Spike Jonze and David Eggers. The Amazon.com listing shows us it really tells about all ends of production, including Live-Action storyboarding, which is something I lack strength in. I WOULD buy it, but it wears quite a price tag at $26.39… That’s a lot if you’re a teenage indie Film-Maker. If you get your hands on a copy, let me know how it is, but I think I’ll buy the DVD… or the soundtrack? (GAH! Decisions, decisions!)

Well, that’s all for this review, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more geeky junk from Frames of Film!

A New Blog!

Hey there! Welcome to my fabulous new blog: Frames of Film! Before I begin blogging away I want to tell you a bit about myself, my name is Doug Hanna, I’m an Indie film-maker, and long-time film geek.

I have another blog for my professional life, but most of the time I blog about my personal life, or upcoming releases and news from my media brand, Blue Squid Productions. Being a film geek, I always wanted to blog about movies, but don’t want to scare away potential fans of my own movies, just because I use words like foley.

I wanted an outlet to really just geek out. To spew information out to the world about the great movies I’ve seen, to share tips, to, well, just geek out.

Enter Frames of Film.

I want to use this blog to talk about movies, television shows, any moving picture. A place I can share tips I’ve learned, things I liked/didn’t like about movies, tips for different softwares (I am a beast with Sony’s Vegas), and so much more!

And most importantly: Your feedback is important! I’ll probably still blog if I get no readers, but I want your comments!!! Is there a specific movie you’d like me to review? Let me know! Want me to study a certain artist or producer in the field? Let me know! Want me to dance the Macarena while wearing a chicken suit???? LET ME KNOW DARN IT!

If you don’t understand a term I use, please, feel free to comment! If anyone leaves any RTFM comments in here, I assure you, people will be blocked!

And that brings me to the end of my first post over here on Frames of Film, coming quite soon: reviews on Where The Wild Things Are and Disney·Pixar’s Toy Story 3-D Double Feature!

STAY TUNED!