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Adam Sandler is expanding his animation empire with a new feature.

The post Adam Sandler Will Write and Star In Animated Feature For STX Entertainment appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Critics lambasted "Hotel Transyvlania 2," but the complaints were directed at Adam Sandler's underwhelming humor and not Genndy Tartakovsky's directing.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Genndy Tartakovsky talks to Cartoon Brew about the challenges of making "Hotel Transylvania 2" and what he's trying to do next.

Sony Pictures Animation and Nelvana's 'Hotel Transylvania' animated television series is scheduled for an early 2017 launch.

Mavis and company will arrive on TV in 2017.

Our first look at Genndy Tartakovsky's "Hotel Transylvania 2."

In a nice bit of Halloween-themed marketing savvy, Sony has released a free character rig of a zombie bellhop from "Hotel Transylvania."

Sony Pictures Animation announced today that Genndy Tartakovsky will direct Hotel Transylvania 2, scheduled for September 2015. Tartakovsky will co-write the pic with Robert Smigel (TV Funhouse, Saturday Night Live). Sony also says that while Genndy is “busy working an all-new CG take on the comic strip hero, Popeye,” he is developing an original idea, which currently has the working title Genndy Tartakovsky’s Can You Imagine? (Click on artwork above for bigger version.) It is being described as “a fantastic journey through one boy’s imagination.” Says Tartakovsky, “It’s good to be back at the Hotel Transylvania, and I’m very excited to work on Popeye, a character that I’ve loved since I was a kid. I’m also looking forward to developing an entirely new and original animated feature here at Sony Pictures Animation. This is an exciting time for me and for the studio.”

The LA Times conducted an hour-loung roundtable with the directors of five recent animated features: Mark Andrews (Brave), Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians), Chris Butler (ParaNorman), Rich Moore (Wreck-It Ralph) and Genndy Tartakovsky (Hotel Transylvania).

Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie debuted weakly last weekend in fifth place with $11.4 million. The opening is significantly lower than Burton’s last stop motion feature, The Corpse Bride, which debuted with $19.1M in 2005.

The opening of Frankenweenie concludes this year’s great stop motion experiment. It was the third major stop motion feature this year, following Aardman’s The Pirates!: Band of Misfits and Laika’s ParaNorman. None of the three films were able to crack a $15 million opening. In fact, no stop motion feature has ever had an opening north of $20 million. It begs the question, Are stop motion films simply incapable of grossing as much as CG or has no one ever made a stop motion film with mass audience appeal? In a year with more stop motion features than usual, it’s a question worth considering.

Meanwhile, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania is on its way to becoming one of Sony’s biggest animated hits. The film dipped a modest 36% in its second weekend, grossing $27.1M and pushing its U.S. total to $76.7M.

The Genndy Tartakovsky-helmed Hotel Transylvania overcame overwhelmingly negative reviews to lead the U.S. box office with an opening weekend total of $43 million (estimated). It is the best opening weekend ever for a Sony Pictures Animation feature, topping the $30.3 million opening of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs in 2009.

The New York Times has flicked off this film with a 180-word blurb by third-string reviewer Neil Genzlinger. He essentially says, “The story flags, but the animation… is never less than vivid.”

Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times calls Hotel Transylvania “…a droll bit of cartoon fluff”. Sharkey gives the film a mixed-to-the-positive review, but calls attention to what she calls the “clash between the character animation and the storytelling style”. She states,

“Hotel Transylvania” marks the feature-directing debut for animator Genndy Tartakovsky, the artistic mind behind such cult TV favorites as “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack.” The hyperkinetic cartoon vibe and visual style of those series can be felt in the film, with the animation team exaggerating effects rather than going for a more life-like design, as motion capture in particular has aimed to do in recent years.

I’ve seen the film and I liked it. In fact, I saw it a few days ago – and the more I think about it, the more I like it. I’m going to go see it again. To be sure, Genndy Tatakovsky’s Hotel Transylvania is not the heaviest, most important animated film of the year. But it’s good entertainment and even more important, I think it represents a trend that I hope to encourage.

Genndy made a full “cartoon” feature – with caricatured creatures, comically exaggerated poses and physically impossible “gags” that would make no sense in the somewhat realistic worlds of Happy Feet, Rio or Shrek. Trying to make “cartoons” in CG isn’t new – it is something Pixar has been working towards since day one. Lasseter and his team of classicly-trained animators have done a great job infusing Disney-style storytelling into computer generated images. So good, it permeates the entire field. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But it’s time for Hollywood’s CG features to evolve – and it looks like it will take a cartoonist to blaze that trail. I like what Genndy is bringing to the table – a sense of style and humor that pushes (however slightly) what a modern day animated feature can be. It’s a small refreshing step in a exciting direction – and I look forward to seeing where this could go.

But that’s what I think – what about you? What did you think of Hotel Transylvania? Submit you reviews and opinions in the comments section below. (As always, this talkback post is only open to those who have actually seen the film. Since we’ve seen it, we can tell if you have too. We will delete comments by those who have not actually seen the film).

Genndy Tartakovsky on making Hotel Transylvania:

“I took all the aesthetics I like from 2-D and applied them here. I don’t want to do animation to mimic reality. I want to push reality. You want to have your own identity. You don’t want to have an expression that Pixar has. That was super important to me. In 2-D, the way you draw defines you, but in CG the computer takes away your identity. I wanted to make sure the movie had my point of view.”

There’s more surprisingly frank commentary from Genndy in this LA Times piece.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania, Sony Pictures Animation

Here’s our second look at Genndy Tartakovsky’s feature for Sony Pictures Animation, Hotel Transylvania.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania

At first glance, the incendiary comments about free labor by Digital Domain CEO John Textor may appear to be an isolated issue, but many artists working in the visual effects industry see it as emblematic of the type of abuses they’ve been suffering for years. These labor violations have simply become more public thanks to a vocal online community and watchdog sites like VFX Soldier. The growing awareness is also part of the maturing of the vfx industry, which is still a relatively young art form compared to feature animation. In the past decade, most of the highest-grossing films at the global box office have been visual effects-driven, yet there has been no trickle-down benefit to the artists who have helped these media conglomerates make hundreds of millions of dollars.

A group of artists at Sony Pictures Imageworks is leading a push for change at their studio that could have big ramifications for the rest of the vfx industry in Los Angeles. Their goal is to unionize Imageworks, and they are promoting their cause publicly through the SpiUnion blog, as well as Twitter and Facebook accounts.

What makes the plight of Sony’s artists particularly urgent is that there are different standards of treatment for LA-based artists working on the same films: Sony Pictures Animation artists enjoy union benefits, whereas Sony Pictures Imageworks artists don’t. In other words, if you’re storyboarding and designing films like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania, you get treated better than if you animate on those same films in Los Angeles. This divide-and-conquer tactic that Sony uses is distinct from other Los Angeles feature animation studios like DreamWorks and Disney Feature Animation that extend union benefits to all their artists, including the animators.

To learn more about the situation, Cartoon Brew conducted an interview with the Imageworks artists who are leading the effort to unionize the studio. For obvious reasons (i.e. not being fired), they have chosen to remain anonymous.

CARTOON BREW: As an outsider, I struggle to understand the mindset of the vfx industry and why it’s so difficult to organize those within it. Can you shed some light into why the vfx field has been so reluctant to organize in LA, especially considering the working conditions, which involve ridiculously long hours. It seems that union representation like your counterparts in CG feature animation would be a benefit.

Artists of SpiUnion: Yes, you would think so right? It’s just as difficult for us to understand as well. We can’t speak to the economics of other companies, but we feel Sony is in a unique situation as opposed to other purely vfx facilties. We produce our own content (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Smurfs), we produce the 3D content our parent company depends on to sell 3D Blu-ray players and televisions, we’re partially unionized (SPA) already, we produce vfx for other studios, we have offices in multiple countries, and we’re owned by one of the major studios.

The LA vfx industry seems to based on FUD (Fear , Uncertainty, and Doubt). There is the prevailing opinion that if any artist dares to stand up and make any noise, the entire company/industry will closeup shop and leave town. Companies are not in LA out of the kindness of their hearts, they are here because there is a large talent base here. (See VFX Sol

It’s an international trailer. Watch it at WorstPreviews.com.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania, Sony Pictures Animation

“It’s refreshing to go back to the beginning of Dracula — and then have Adam Sandler put his spin on it.” So says Dexter’s Lab and Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky of his first theatrical feature Hotel Transylvania. The troubled Sony Pictures Animation film, which has had at least four directors prior to Genndy, is set to open on September 28. USA Today published these images today along with more details about the film’s story.

(Thanks to all who sent in a link to the images.)

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | 6 comments | Post tags: Genndy Tartakovsky, Hotel Transylvania, Sony Pictures Animation

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