CONTORTED PASTA

This had a back story once upon a time, but it is lost to the ether. Perhaps it's better that way:




Yesterday I realized that in a year, chances are Frog will be out on DVD* and I will finally be able to post A BILLION SCREENCAPTURES of all my favourite frames, and make the icons I've been plotting for months now. Sometimes living in the future can be so hard!

*brain: asplode

It occurred to me while visiting California Adventure (soon to be Pixarland*) that despite Pixar's modus operandi of 'creating worlds,' my imagination is never tempted to explore them outside the confines of the film, whereas I often find myself mentally wandering the possibilities of Disney worlds. The only explanation I could come up with is that Pixar movies are more self-contained ... everything in them was created for them; nothing exists that does not relate to the plot or characters; everything is explained and there are no loose ends. It's a very tidy way to make a movie but it doesn't give much room to play – it feels like the movie is shot on a sound stage rather than on location, that if you wandered past the end of the street that is visible in the establishing shot, you'd either meet a blank concrete wall or ... nothing. I don't wonder about the rest of the characters' lives, or 'what would happen if...', or how their society works or anything, because everything I need to know is spelled out for me and nothing further is hinted at, which squashes all curiosity I might have. And for all that the world is painstakingly created I never wish I could just go there to hang out – it's a closed-off room that exists for the purpose of the movie and the movie alone; it doesn't have any doors.** So I wondered: am I the only one? Is your imagination piqued by Pixar movies as much as Disney? I did a brief and extremely unscientific survey of fanfiction.net and the fic tallies for Disney and Pixar movies seem to prove that I am speaking out of my butt, but I cannot recall one Pixar character that, for example, has a squeeing fangirl following. Have you experienced Pixar fandom online? Is it as fruitful or pervasive as the Disney fandoms I followed for a while before running away screaming? What are your thoughts/observations/comments/suggestions/snarkings? Is it better to make a beautiful, clean, perfectly-wrapped up origami of a movie, or leave some loose ends and cracks that the imagination can crawl into?

ETA: I ought to set Incredibles a little bit aside from the Pixar pantheon – it's really much more of a Brad Bird movie than a Pixar movie, and he's the only one to my knowledge who can stand up to Lasseter and get away with it. He directed Ratatouille too, but it was someone else's project that he took over.

ETA2: This seems as good a time as any to point out one of my favourite Daily Show clips ever ... Forks!

*Not officially. But basically ... yeah.
**with the exception of Monsters, Inc which has a lot of doors (literally) ... but none of them open into my head (figuratively)

Found a new high-quality clip – behold! Animation! (But no sound!)



See there? That's FOOTAGE, that is! Awwww, so pretty. Did you know John Lasseter came up with all the ideas for Pixar's movies? Babawawa, you so ignernt. Is it just me or does it look like Whoopi Goldberg would rather be anywhere else?

There are screencaps and some photos of the new Prince* and Lobotomized Princess lineup here... I see they still have Naveen in his oh-so-pretty poofy sleeves and tights. Poor guy.

If you want to see the whole show in possibly higher quality, follow the instructions kindly posted by Noodledaddy.

I didn't do anything on any of those shots so I can't count them for my drawing-a-day. Drat.

*for a given value of Prince; I'm sure James II would have had something to say about John Smith ... and why is he a prince, when Pocahontas, who was actually from a ruling family, is not a princess? Lack of male leads, Disney? Why not put Tarzan in his civilised suit and call him 'prince of the jungle'? Or include Simba – or do princes have to be bipedal? I'm drifting.

Squeaking in under the wire... I have possibly made peace with the scanner situation.

Caricature dump!

( People Not in my Peer Group )

Big company meeting yesterday = good chance to caricature. I thought. Only most of the people I could see were from the back, so it was pretty much the same as dailies. Oh well. ( Got a few... )

Rotten Tomatoes has just posted a Photo Tour of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, which I must say has some highly flattering photos of the building and grounds. I wish they'd posted photos of the Frog pod, but that wasn't really what they were covering ... I guess we'll have to wait till next year. The best tour is still on the Emperor's New Groove special edition DVD but that, apparently, is hard to find.

Hey there internet people!

Do you have any suggestions for internet marketing? What sort of things do you see online that make you excited for a movie? What would you like to see? What turns you off? If you belong to a fan community, what gets them going?

Inquiring minds would like to know! Your input could lead to a significant reduction in eye-rolling and shuddering in the near future.

Right ... it's been, like, a week since I've seen it, but these are the references and in-jokes that I remember.

( Thingies, and one spoiler )

Behold the glory of JIN KIM'S SWEENEY.

Yes. Yes. That is it.

By the way, I sure hope this is all just a flood of traffic slowing things down because if not, your new servers are pretty crummy, LJ.

JIN KIM HAS A BLOG

The world is that much of a better place, today.

He's one of my favourite artists at Disney, possibly my very favourite, but I haven't been able to find any of his artwork in an art book or anything so I can't show anyone why. Until now! Enjoy! With any luck he'll have a load of stuff in the Rapunzel art book, but that's a long way off yet ...