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Hello again toy enthusiasts, and welcome to another installment of San Diego Comic-Con Funko releases! You know Funko, the purveyors of the highly popular POP! series of collectible figurines, who also vow to “cover as many beloved licenses and characters as possible to remind every Comic-Con attendee why they fell in love with these stories in the first place.”
Monday will be the last announcement for San Diego Comic-Con exclusives, so make sure to check back soon. And remember, there is no pre-buy option this year. So if you see any of these toys you want to get, you’ll have to visit the booth while supplies last, or cry into your Lean Cuisine.
Without any more procrastination, here’s the next installment:
Pop! TV: Arrow – The Arrow: Unmasked
We can’t get enough of the show “Arrow.” Feed the hunger with this ruggedly-handsome Arrow: Unmasked. His arrow will go straight… to your heart!
Pop! Disney: Big Hero 6 – Transluscent Glitter Emoticon Baymax
How would you rate the “kawaii” factor of this toy? The Translucent Glitter Emoticon Baymax from Pixar’s “Big Hero 6” always rates a big smiley face in my opinion.
Pop! Movies: Minions – Gone Batty
Can you imagine you’re life without a minion? Not only do they get the menial tasks done while you are plotting world domination, but they do it in historical style. Joining the large POP! minion collection is this Gone Batty. Wearing a purple cloak and showing off some pointy fangs, this blood sucker should be flying into your hands.
Pop! Disney: Tangled – Frying Pan Rapunzel and Burnt Pascal
Not too long ago, every Disney princess would be the equivalent of a damsel in distress; but not this feisty lady. Frying Pan Rapunzel and Burnt Pascal are ready for a fight. She’s got cookery, and she knows how to use it!
Dorbz: Marvel – X-Force Deadpool
The impending “Deadpool” movie has comic fans squealing with delight. Satisfy your Deadpool cravings with this X-Force Deadpool, dressed in his alternative grey onesie. If you don’t get it… well I just don’t know what this anti-hero will do to you. So, why chance it right?
Dorbz: Guardians of the Galaxy – Mossy Groot
And rounding it up, from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” we have this Dorbz Mossy Groot. We’ve already seen this fella on our list, but instead of the XL we are getting the regular size. Options are good to have.
Thanks for tuning it guys and gals, and don’t forget to come back for our last exclusive Funko releases post!
0 Comments on *SATURDAY UPDATE* SDCC ’15 Exclusive Funko Toy Announcements as of 6/27/2015 10:22:00 AM
Movie producers have altered the way fairy tales are told, but in what ways have they been able to present an illusion that once existed only in the pages of a story? Below is an excerpt from Marina Warner’s Once Upon a Time that explores the magic that movies bring to the tales:
From the earliest experiments by George Meliès in Paris in the 1890s to the present day dominion of Disney Productions and Pixar, fairy tales have been told in the cinema. The concept of illusion carries two distinct, profound, and contradictory meanings in the medium of film: first, the film itself is an illusion, and, bar a few initiates screaming at the appearance of a moving train in the medium’s earliest viewings, everyone in the cinema knows they are being stunned by wonders wrought by science. All appearances in the cinema are conjured by shadow play and artifice, and technologies ever more skilled at illusion: CGI produces living breathing simulacra—of velociraptors (Jurassic Park), elvish castles (Lord of the Rings), soaring bionicmonsters (Avatar), grotesque and terrifying monsters (the Alien series), while the modern Rapunzel wields her mane like a lasso and a whip, or deploys it to make a footbridge. Such visualizations are designed to stun us, and they succeed: so much is being done for us by animators and filmmakers, there is no room for personal imaginings. The wicked queen in Snow White (1937) has become imprinted, and she keeps those exact features when we return to the story; Ariel, Disney’s flame-haired Little Mermaid, has eclipsed her wispy and poignant predecessors, conjured chiefly by the words of Andersen’s story
A counterpoised form of illusion, however, now flourishes rampantly at the core of fairytale films, and has become central to the realization on screen of the stories, especially in entertainment which aims at a crossover or child audience. Contemporary commercial cinema has continued the Victorian shift from irresponsible amusement to responsible instruction, and kept faith with fairy tales’ protest against existing injustices. Many current family films posit spirited, hopeful alternatives (in Shrek Princess Fiona is podgy, liverish, ugly, and delightful; in Tangled, Rapunzel is a super heroine, brainy and brawny; in the hugely successful Disney film Frozen (2013), inspired by The Snow Queen, the younger sister Anna overcomes ice storms, avalanches, and eternal winter to save Elsa, her elder). Screenwriters display iconoclastic verve, but they are working from the premise that screen illusions have power to become fact. ‘Wishing on a star’ is the ideology of the dreamfactory, and has given rise to indignant critique, that fairy tales peddle empty consumerism and wishful thinking. The writer Terri Windling, who specializes in the genre of teen fantasy, deplores the once prevailing tendency towards positive thinking and sunny success:
The fairy tale journey may look like an outward trek across plains and mountains, through castles and forests, but the actual movement is inward, into the lands of the soul. The dark path of the fairytale forest lies in the shadows of our imagination, the depths of our unconscious. To travel to the wood, to face its dangers, is to emerge transformed by this experience. Particularly for children whose world does not resemble the simplified world of television sit-coms . . . this ability to travel inward, to face fear and transform it, is a skill they will use all their lives. We do children—and ourselves—a grave disservice by censoring the old tales, glossing over the darker passages and ambiguities
Fairy tale and film enjoy a profound affinity because the cinema animates phenomena, no matter how inert; made of light and motion, its illusions match the enchanted animism of fairy tale: animals speak, carpets fly, objects move and act of their own accord. One of the darker forerunners of Mozart’s flute is an uncanny instrument that plays in several ballads and stories: a bone that bears witness to a murder. In the Grimms’ tale, ‘The Singing Bone’, the shepherd who finds it doesn’t react in terror and run, but thinks to himself, ‘What a strange little horn, singing of its own accord like that. I must take it to the king.’ The bone sings out the truth of what happened, and the whole skeleton of the victim is dug up, and his murderer—his elder brother and rival in love—is unmasked, sewn into a sack, and drowned.
This version is less than two pages long: a tiny, supersaturated solution of the Grimms: grotesque and macabre detail, uncanny dynamics of life-in-death, moral piety, and rough justice. But the story also presents a vivid metaphor for film itself: singing bones. (It’s therefore apt, if a little eerie, that the celluloid from which film stock was first made was itself composed of rendered-down bones.)
Early animators’ choice of themes reveals how they responded to a deeply laid sympathy between their medium of film and the uncanny vitality of inert things. Lotte Reiniger, the writer-director of the first full-length animated feature (The Adventures of Prince Achmed), made dazzling ‘shadow puppet’ cartoons inspired by the fairy tales of Grimm, Andersen, and Wilhelm Hauff; she continued making films for over a thirty-year period, first in her native Berlin and later in London, for children’s television. Her Cinderella (1922) is a comic—and grisly— masterpiece.
Early Disney films, made by the man himself, reflect traditional fables’ personification of animals—mice and ducks and cats and foxes; in this century, by contrast, things come to life, no matter how inert they are: computerization observes no boundaries to generating lifelike, kinetic, cybernetic, and virtual reality.
Featured image credit: “Dca animation building” by Carterhawk – Own work. Licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Whether it be for lack of budget or a desire to take center stage, series creators lending their own voices to their animated television shows has always been fairly commonplace – Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy), Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) and Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) immediately spring to mind. However, in recent years, more and more feature directors have started getting in on the trend. From throwaway one-liners to continuous roles throughout entire franchises, here is a list of some animation directors and the characters they brought to life in their own films.
1. Eric Goldberg
As the animation director for Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Goldberg not only supervised the animation of the WB’s classic characters but he voiced some of them as well. Goldberg recorded the dialogue of Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird and Speedy Gonzalez.
2. Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud
The distinctive sputters, spurts and high-speed mutterings of The Minions in Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013) belong to the films’ co-directors Pierre Coffin (above left) and Chris Renaud. And as the character’s popularity grows, so does their vocal commitment, as the two will reprise their roles in next year’s prequel Minions.
3. Ralph Bakshi
In his debut film Fritz the Cat (1972), director Ralph Bakshi voiced one of the boorish antagonist Pig Cops, who is also referred to as “Ralph” multiple times in his scenes.
4. Brad Bird
Agnes Gooch, Edith Head, Patricia Highsmith, Linda Hunt – when it comes to figuring out who inspired the character of Edna Mode, people love to toss out many names, but in the end, the cutthroat designer of superhero fashion was brought to life by The Incredibles (2004) director Brad Bird.
5. Rich Moore
Rich Moore, director of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) provided the dreary monotone of acidic jawbreaker Sour Bill, the henchman to the bombastic King Candy.
6. Richard Williams
Even to this day, the toon celebrity cameos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988) remain some of the best nods to the golden age of cartoons, especially that of Droopy Dog, who gets his opportunity to best Eddie Valiant with some traditional ‘toon high-jinks as a tricky elevator operator, sluggishly voiced by the film’s animation director Richard Williams.
7. Chris Wedge
What began as the high-strung snivels and snarls of Scrat in Ice Age (2002) has become a second career for director Chris Wedge who has gone on to vocally personify the prehistoric rodent in 3 sequels, 6 short films, 2 video games and in a walk-on role in an episode of Family Guy.
8. Chris Miller
Royal messengers, tower guards, army commanders, friars and penguins, story artist Chris Miller has lent his voice-over skills to numerous animated films, most notably his returning roles as Geppetto and The Magic Mirror in the Shrek franchise, including Shrek the Third (2007), which he co-directed.
9. Mark Dindal
The often ignored and underrated animated film Cats Don’t Dance (1997) features some beautiful hand-drawn work and stellar vocal performances, including that of director Mark Dindal as the tight-lipped bodyguard/butler Max.
10. Joe Ranft
Pixar story artist, the late Joe Ranft, brought a handful of memorable animated characters to life, including Heimlich (A Bug’s Life), Wheezy the Penguin (Toy Story 2) and Jacques the Cleaner Shrimp (Finding Nemo). But it was in Cars (2006), which he co-directed, that he voiced three characters including the semi-truck Jerry Recycled Batteries.
11. Chris Sanders
In Lilo & Stitch (2002) co-director Chris Sanders takes on the nuanced role of Alien Experiment 626, aka “Stitch,” who escapes from an intergalactic prison only to find himself trapped on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
12. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Nathan Greno (above right) and Byron Howard not only paired up as co-directors of Tangled (2010) but also doubled as duos of Thugs and Guards in the animated picture.
13. John Lasseter
With five features under his belt, John Lasseter has had plenty of opportunity to throw himself behind the microphone, however upon review of his filmography, you’ll find he has chosen his roles very carefully, as the role of John Lassetire in Cars 2 (2011) and the hilariously bug-zapped Harry the Mosquito in A Bug’s Life (1998).
Are you an aspiring screenwriter who dreams of creating magical and intimate moments that simply teem in human behavior? If you answered “yes”, then Jon Bernstein might be the instructor for you. “My classes strive to master the ‘rules’ only so that we may creatively break them,” says Bernstein in his bio for his upcoming screenwriting course at UCLA.
The course listing also provides a handful of respectable writing credits for Bernstein, including crafting the screenplays for 2000’s Beautiful, the Jerry Springer vehicle Ringmaster, and Disney’s Meet the Robinsons. But it’s his claim of working as a contributing writer for Disney’s Tangled that has the film’s co-director, Nathan Greno, tied up in knots.
“We never worked with the guy on Tangled,” said Greno in a recent public post on Facebook. The post, not surprisingly, has only generated more skepticism about Bernstein’s professional claims as Greno’s friends and co-workers point out holes in the writer’s IMDB page and compare professional notes. In regard to Bernstein’s credit for writing Meet the Robinsons, screenwriter Michelle Bochner Spitz pointed out, “Jon Bernstein wrote the first draft(s) of Meet the Robinsons, and then had nothing to do with the movie when it was rewritten several times over for more than three years.”
Hollywood credits work in quirky ways, and Bernstein could have a legitimate, legal claim to the Tangled credit, which he also used to sell his 2011 script workshop, The Inspired Screenplay. But according to Greno, Bernstein didn’t seem eager to shed any light on the appropriation when he was contacted. “I brought up this ‘credit concern’ to Jon on his (personal) Facebook page and was I quickly deleted/blocked,” Greno wrote on Facebook. “I credit all of the writing on Tangled to our actual writer, Dan Fogelman… and so does IMDB.”
If Bernstein wishes to set the record straight on Cartoon Brew and allay Nathan Greno’s concerns, we welcome hearing his side of the story.
DreamWorks animator Jamaal Bradley has been a long-time aficionado of pencil tests, and his website Pencil Test Depot has evolved into the place for collecting and sharing pencil tests. Encompassing animators from the Golden Age of animation through today’s heavyweights Bradley’s website is a valued resource for both aspiring animators and professionals in the field.
The pencil test, though rarely seen by anybody outside of a film’s production, reveal one of the most intimate views into an animator’s thought process. It is the lifeblood of the hand-drawn animation pipeline; it is through the pencil test that an animator evolves a character’s personality and fine-tunes the movement and staging of a performance before it’s passed down the line to the assistant animators.
But in a CG world, what has become of the pencil test and drawing in general? Cartoon Brew spoke with Jamaal Bradley about his site Pencil Test Depot, the role of drawing in CG, as well as his own animation career and work as a teacher. The New Jersey-born artist currently works at DreamWorks Animation’s Glendale studio as a Senior Animator on The Croods. Bradley other credits include Disney’s Tangled and Sony Picture Imageworks’ Open Season and Monster House. Although all of his recent projects have been CG animation, he’s kept his hand-drawn animation skills sharp by relying on it for some of his preliminary scene thumbnails as well as his work as a teacher at iAnimate.
Chris Arrant: PencilTestDepot.com has become a hit in the student animation community. What led you do create Pencil Test Depot, and did you know it would make such a big impact on animation students?
Jamaal Bradley: Pencil Test Depotwas around for a while before it went public. I love animation and the beauty of looking at a well crafted pencil test makes me smile externally and internally. It probably sounds corny but that’s what it does for me; like food for the soul. I had a personal site with pencil tests on it and I had tests I received from friends, stuff I shot myself, and things I was finding on the web. I initially created it for personal growth and didn’t think about maintaining it as a blog. Only one other person had access to it and he convinced me to open it to the public.
” …Jamaal if you make it public and ask for people to donate works, you will surely get more pencil tests and I bet people would appreciate seeing the stuff you have also…”
It made perfect sense and it worked. I am very happy people enjoy the site and support it. I didn’t think it would be a big hit, I just wanted to see what pencil tests were out there. It has been amazing to have fantastic animators like Glen Keane, Bruce Smith, James Baxter, Kristof Serrand, Sergio Pablos, Sandro Cleuzo, Pedro Daniel Garcia, Rune Bennicke, Mike Surrey, and more showing great support for Pencil Test Depot. I used to collect figures and maquettes. I like collecting pencil tests now!
Chris: When you were studying animation, I assume you were being inspired by pencil tests of traditional animation like the ones you post on the site. Was it disappointing that the industry changed so rapidly and that you’re not animating more penci
Carolyn Mackler's Tangled has a new paperback cover, and it's out this week. So I had a chat with her about the changes (and also how she came to write with Jay Asher)! Here she is:
"My publisher had the vision for the hardcover jacket - the blue and pink tangling hearts, and also this new paperback cover. I love its energy, especially with the butterflies since they strangely showed up in three of my four characters' stories.
"Harper was wonderful about including me in the development of Tangled's paperback cover. They wanted to do a photo shoot with models, and I got to look over several headshots and pick who I thought would work on the cover. The girl is Jena for sure, but in my head the guy is a mix of Dakota and Owen. They're brothers, so they have the same basic look. And Jena DOES kiss both of them. Surprised? Shocked? If you read the book it'll all make sense..."
Read the rest of Carolyn's Cover Story, and see the original hardcover, at melissacwalker.com.
Things that have happened this week...which is a strange sort of post for a Thursday, but then I'm an odd sort of gal.
Most important news first. There's an excellent review of my story collection, Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits, by Peter Tennant in the current issue of Black Static. I was so nervous about this review because it's a) Peter Tennant and b) Black Static and c) I'm nervous about every review.
Here's an excerpt from the review: ...is a smorgasbord of the surreal with strands of absurdity ripping through its core, each quirky story riffing on an internal logic with echoes of Monty Python at its most bizarre and informed by a delight in language that matches the exuberance of Bradbury at the height of his powers... There is an addictive quality to these stories, so that as soon as you finish one you want to rush on to the next...
You can read the rest of the review in Black Static. I shall have to secure my subscription copy behind glass when it arrives.
Next up... My story The Sound of Sharp Voices which appears in The Tangled Bank anthology is now available in print. The book originally appeared as an ebook last February and I'm really happy to be able to add the print version to my 'me' shelf. Yep, I have a me shelf. I guess my me shelf is an ego shelf and thus my ego is small.
And talking of Tangled... A Disney Store bag* freaked me out. It's one of those big numbers with a huge saucer eyed Rapunzel on the front and I'd left the darn thing hanging over the back of my door. It got dark. I hadn't drawn my blinds because I often don't. Something caught my eye in the window. EEK! For a millisecond I thought a giant eyed something was staring at me through the window. Thank god, I didn't pick up a Mickey Mouse bag.
*Note to concerned readers - the bag contains pressies for my talented niece and swashbuckling nephew and isn't a fashion accessory.
12 Comments on Flying Saucer Eyes, last added: 2/18/2011
*Amazing* review! And well-deserved. I'm constantly scaring myself with oddly-placed clothes and hats. The shadow people are always nipping at my heels.
What a sweet review excerpt! Black Static is top-notch, just like your collection, Cate.
That's pretty awesome on the anthology too! A "me" shelf. Good thinking!
The rest is too funny to comment on because it made me pee my pants. :O
Thanks a lot for the pimpage on FB, too, sister! (Wow, I'm dumb, or tired. I just started typing the word verification right here... Dum, dum, dumb...) :)
Facebook rolls out revamped profile pages (to display user info more visually with photos made prominent, top interests showcased as images and more descriptive relationships. In a savvier roll-out than years past, the new layout was announced on... Read the rest of this post
'Tangled' takes a close second (to 'Harry Potter' over the long weekend, faring better than studio expectations. Will this give Disney second thoughts about the decision to move away from fairy tales? Jezebel shares some non-commercial concerns for... Read the rest of this post
I had a chance to see Tangled a few weeks ago and I’ve been biding my time and collecting my thoughts about it. The arrival (in my mailbox) of Jeff Kurtti’s terrific new Chronicle “Art of” book permits me the opportunity to discuss my feelings about the film in a context that doesn’t allow me [...]
Thanksgiving isn’t the only thing to look forward to this fall–Hollywood has lots of new literary movies scheduled. Here is a round-up of five upcoming literary movies.
How is it that a studio that once represented the height of creativity in filmmaking is now clinging onto the tails of tired Internet memes to promote its films? This viral ad for Disney’s Tangled is based on the “double rainbow” meme, and unlike the blammed Up, it’s not a parody.
Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all at Paradise—the resort in the Caribbean, that is—for different reasons, but in Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Over the course of four months, through four voices and four stories, what happened in Paradise will change them all.
In this extraordinary novel, the Printz Honor–winning author brings us her most accomplished work yet. Tangled is a story of the secrets we keep, the risks we take, and the things we do for love.
Because it’s Carolyn Mackler (moving from Candlewick!) and I like the cover. That blurb by Daniel Handler doesn’t hurt, either, and this is coming from someone who only made it through the first book in The Series of Unfortunate Events.
Violet Ambrose can find dead bodies. Or at least she can sense those that have been murdered. She locates them by the echoes they leave behind…and the imprints they leave on their killers. As if that weren’t enough to deal with during her junior year, she also has a sudden, inexplicable, and consuming crush on her best friend since childhood, Jay Heaton.
And now a serial killer has begun terrorizing Violet’s small town…and she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Filled with suspense, a gripping romance, and deadly consequences, The Body Finder is an impressive debut novel that’s impossible to put down.
Let’s see, psychic powers + trying to stop a serial killer + romance = must read!
must read! + what?! this got postponed until next year? = is it March yet?
Sophos, heir to Sounis, doesn’t look like much of a prince. At least, according to those in power. At least, to those who do not know him or the size of his heart and the depth of his courage, loyalty, and love. But Helen, Queen of Eddis, knows him, and so does Gen, the queen’s Thief, who is now King of Attolia. Gen and the queen believe that Sophos is dead. But they also believe in hope, especially since a body was never found. So when Sophos is discovered in Attolia, climbing a lamppost, peashooter in hand, the obvious question becomes: where has Sophos been all this time?
Delicious and magical, here is a debut novel about a new (and slightly misunderstood) girl at an exclusive boarding school. Laurel has always loved flowers, but when a class project calls for research into the Victorian language of flowers, she makes a potent discovery. Her affinity for blooming things is actually age-old magic, passed from one generation to the next-a bittersweet gift from her beloved mother, who’s recently died-and it gives Laurel the power to make people fall in and out of love. Laurel’s introduction to the secret society of flowerspeakers is rife with complications and mishaps-especially when her classmates convince her to use her magic at the prom. This evocative coming-of-age story lingers in the air much like the fragrant blooms that determine Laurel’s fate so mysteriously.
Alessandra is desperate to escape—from her stepmother, who’s locked her away for a year; from the cloister that awaits her if she refuses the marriage plans that have been made for her; from the expectations that limit her and every other girl in fourteenth-century Italy. There’s no tolerance in her village for her keen intelligence and her unconventional ideas.
In defiant pursuit of her dreams, Alessandra undertakes an audacious quest, her bravery equaled only by the dangers she faces. Disguised and alone in a city of spies and scholars, Alessandra will find a love she could not foresee—and an enduring fame.
In this exquisite imagining of the centuries-old story of Alessandra Giliani, the world’s first female anatomist, distinguished novelist Barbara Quick gives readers the drama, romance, and rich historical detail for which she is known as she shines a light on an unforgotten—and unforgettable—heroine.
Wow–thanks for the heads up on Conspiracy of Kings! I can’t wait.
Amy Brecount White said, on 7/17/2009 10:12:00 PM
Thanks for including my novel! Hope you love it. I’ m so excited to be able to share my cover, too.
-Amy
tanita said, on 7/18/2009 12:10:00 PM
Wow, a new Carolyn Mackler. And what a great cover. Some really great covers overall, and I CANNOT WAIT for the next Attolia story. YAY.
cindy said, on 7/21/2009 9:51:00 PM
my editor kept mentioning MWT
and i didn’t have a chance to read it
until i was done revising my debut.
am so excited for the fourth book for
sure. editor says we will not be disappointed–
as if we were worried. i’m a fangirl
of MWT!!
amy–i can’t wait for yours either!!
YAY!!
Trisha said, on 7/22/2009 3:03:00 AM
You’re welcome!
And, Cindy, are there any other hints your editor has dropped?
As the animation director for Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Goldberg not only supervised the animation of the WB’s classic characters but he voiced some of them as well. Goldberg recorded the dialogue of Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird and Speedy Gonzalez.
The distinctive sputters, spurts and high-speed mutterings of The Minions in Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013) belong to the films’ co-directors Pierre Coffin (above left) and Chris Renaud. And as the character’s popularity grows, so does their vocal commitment, as the two will reprise their roles in next year’s prequel Minions.
In his debut film Fritz the Cat (1972), director Ralph Bakshi voiced one of the boorish antagonist Pig Cops, who is also referred to as “Ralph” multiple times in his scenes.
Agnes Gooch, Edith Head, Patricia Highsmith, Linda Hunt – when it comes to figuring out who inspired the character of Edna Mode, people love to toss out many names, but in the end, the cutthroat designer of superhero fashion was brought to life by The Incredibles (2004) director Brad Bird.
Rich Moore, director of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) provided the dreary monotone of acidic jawbreaker Sour Bill, the henchman to the bombastic King Candy.
Even to this day, the toon celebrity cameos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988) remain some of the best nods to the golden age of cartoons, especially that of Droopy Dog, who gets his opportunity to best Eddie Valiant with some traditional ‘toon high-jinks as a tricky elevator operator, sluggishly voiced by the film’s animation director Richard Williams.
What began as the high-strung snivels and snarls of Scrat in Ice Age (2002) has become a second career for director Chris Wedge who has gone on to vocally personify the prehistoric rodent in 3 sequels, 6 short films, 2 video games and in a walk-on role in an episode of Family Guy.
Royal messengers, tower guards, army commanders, friars and penguins, story artist Chris Miller has lent his voice-over skills to numerous animated films, most notably his returning roles as Geppetto and The Magic Mirror in the Shrek franchise, including Shrek the Third (2007), which he co-directed.
The often ignored and underrated animated film Cats Don’t Dance (1997) features some beautiful hand-drawn work and stellar vocal performances, including that of director Mark Dindal as the tight-lipped bodyguard/butler Max.
Pixar story artist, the late Joe Ranft, brought a handful of memorable animated characters to life, including Heimlich (A Bug’s Life), Wheezy the Penguin (Toy Story 2) and Jacques the Cleaner Shrimp (Finding Nemo). But it was in Cars (2006), which he co-directed, that he voiced three characters including the semi-truck Jerry Recycled Batteries.
In Lilo & Stitch (2002) co-director Chris Sanders takes on the nuanced role of Alien Experiment 626, aka “Stitch,” who escapes from an intergalactic prison only to find himself trapped on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Nathan Greno (above right) and Byron Howard not only paired up as co-directors of Tangled (2010) but also doubled as duos of Thugs and Guards in the animated picture.
With five features under his belt, John Lasseter has had plenty of opportunity to throw himself behind the microphone, however upon review of his filmography, you’ll find he has chosen his roles very carefully, as the role of John Lassetire in Cars 2 (2011) and the hilariously bug-zapped Harry the Mosquito in A Bug’s Life (1998).
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Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all at Paradise—the resort in the Caribbean, that is—for different reasons, but in Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Over the course of four months, through four voices and four stories, what happened in Paradise will change them all.
Violet Ambrose can find dead bodies. Or at least she can sense those that have been murdered. She locates them by the echoes they leave behind…and the imprints they leave on their killers. As if that weren’t enough to deal with during her junior year, she also has a sudden, inexplicable, and consuming crush on her best friend since childhood, Jay Heaton.
Sophos, heir to Sounis, doesn’t look like much of a prince. At least, according to those in power. At least, to those who do not know him or the size of his heart and the depth of his courage, loyalty, and love. But Helen, Queen of Eddis, knows him, and so does Gen, the queen’s Thief, who is now King of Attolia. Gen and the queen believe that Sophos is dead. But they also believe in hope, especially since a body was never found. So when Sophos is discovered in Attolia, climbing a lamppost, peashooter in hand, the obvious question becomes: where has Sophos been all this time?
Delicious and magical, here is a debut novel about a new (and slightly misunderstood) girl at an exclusive boarding school. Laurel has always loved flowers, but when a class project calls for research into the Victorian language of flowers, she makes a potent discovery. Her affinity for blooming things is actually age-old magic, passed from one generation to the next-a bittersweet gift from her beloved mother, who’s recently died-and it gives Laurel the power to make people fall in and out of love. Laurel’s introduction to the secret society of flowerspeakers is rife with complications and mishaps-especially when her classmates convince her to use her magic at the prom. This evocative coming-of-age story lingers in the air much like the fragrant blooms that determine Laurel’s fate so mysteriously.
Alessandra is desperate to escape—from her stepmother, who’s locked her away for a year; from the cloister that awaits her if she refuses the marriage plans that have been made for her; from the expectations that limit her and every other girl in fourteenth-century Italy. There’s no tolerance in her village for her keen intelligence and her unconventional ideas.
*Amazing* review! And well-deserved. I'm constantly scaring myself with oddly-placed clothes and hats. The shadow people are always nipping at my heels.
A big congrats on the Black Static Review. And, might I add, well deserved.
Wonderful review! And totally deserved. And just look at the result--Rapunzel herself is stalking you!
I see shadow people, Anthony ;)
Thanks, Barry
I always knew I'd attract the oddest of stalkers, Kate. :D
Congrats on a yet another (and richly deserved) positive review, Cate.
Congratulations on the well-deserved review!
Love the "smorgasbord of the surreal with strands of absurdity ripping through its core"
makes me definitely want to read it :) CONGRATS!
Congratulations on the review! : )
And I feel for you regarding the bag. We all have those moments.
What a sweet review excerpt! Black Static is top-notch, just like your collection, Cate.
That's pretty awesome on the anthology too! A "me" shelf. Good thinking!
The rest is too funny to comment on because it made me pee my pants. :O
Thanks a lot for the pimpage on FB, too, sister! (Wow, I'm dumb, or tired. I just started typing the word verification right here... Dum, dum, dumb...) :)
A great review, Cate. So well-deserved. You are a class act. ;)
Congratulations on the wonderful review! "Me" shelves are quite necessary. ;-)
LOL @ the scary Disney bag.
Thanks you all :D