Two animated films led the U.S. Box office this weekend: Beowulf came in first place, and Bee Movie is holding strong in second postition.

I reluctantly concede that Beowulf is to be forever classified as an animated feature. In my book and my online listing I’ve counted prior rotoscoped films like Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, American Pop and Fire & Ice, or Linklaters’ Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly as the animated films they rightfully are; I even include partials like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Adventures Of Rocky & Bullwinkle, so I guess I have to yield a place for Robert Zemeckis’ latest foray into what he calls “performance capture”.

I bit the bullet and paid to see Beowulf (in 3D) over the weekend so I could join the discussion and speak from authority. I won’t formerly review the film, but if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t bother. It’s just as ugly as the trailers make it out to be. Mark Mayerson nails all the problems with the movie on his blog. But what disturbs me, even more than Zemeckis’ misguided embrace of the motion capture technology, is the press and Hollywood pundits who are eating up the b.s. publicity surrounding the “performance capture” technique, making this picture out to be the next revolution in movie making.

The kool-aid drinking Steve Mason at industry watchdog Fantasy Moguls.com proclaims “Beowulf is likely the future of the film business…”. He and several others who have been fawning over this film don’t even know what they are looking at. Far from being the future, Beowulf is a leap backwards into Gulliver’s Travels (1939) terrain (if only it were half as entertaining as the Fleischer film).

To cleanse my palate, I went to ASIFA-Hollywood’s Raggedy Ann and Andy reunion at the AFI on Saturday, and had a great time re-watching a 35mm CinemaScope print of the 2-D hand drawn film (I hadn’t seen it in over decade). The best part was listening to the panel of animators (most of whom were only assistants at the time - 30 years ago) who held a grand on-stage reunion to discuss the craziness of making the film. The movie itself is a mad mess of Broadway showtunes and Williams artistic excess, but watching it again on the big screen (especially following Beowulf) was rather pleasurable - especially for the moments animated by Grim Natwick, Emery Hawkins, Art Babbit, Gerry Chiniquy and Tissa David.

For all it’s flaws (and it had plenty), Raggedy Ann and Andy contained more imagination, creativity and heart than Beowulf could ever hope to.

Above: Raggedy Ann animators at the reunion included, from top left, Lou Scarborough, Carol Millican, John Kimball, Alyssa Meyerson, Russell Callabrese, Sue Kroyer, Tom Sito, Dave Block and Kevin Petrilak. Front and center, Eric Goldberg. (Photo by Art Binninger)

Above, Saturday night at The Grove; The Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles

Say what you will (and most of you have) about Bee Movie, but it’s being reported that it will take the number #1 slot this weekend at the U.S. box office, its second week of release. It’s on track to gross over $100 million by Thanksgiving weekend.

I’m not looking to start another thread bashing the film - I liked it and, yeah, I wrote the Art of book, so I’m a bit biased - but I tend to agree with Steve Hulett that success leads to more health in our industry, and hopefully to more diversity in subject matter and visual styles in future animated films. You can add my congratulations to all the artists involved.

In case you haven’t seen this, Pixar has established a website for the fictional corporation in their forthcoming film Wall-E.

Check out BuynLarge.com. Once you realize it’s bogus, it’s subversively hilarious. And check out the Store page (with actual stuff for sale).

(Thanks Brad Constantine and the Luxo Blog)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the names of the 12 films submitted (and potentially qualified) for a Best Animated Feature Film award this year.

“Alvin and the Chipmunks�
“Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters�
“Bee Movie�
“Beowulf�
“Meet the Robinsons�
“Persepolis�
“Ratatouille�
“Shrek the Third�
“The Simpsons Movie�
“Surf’s Up�
“Tekkonkinkreet�
“TMNT�

Only three will be nominated. Care to take any guesses?

FPS magazine reports that film distributor Atopia has acquired the North American rights to The District! (Nyocker!). The 2005 Hungarian feature, directed by Aron Gauder, did quite well on the festival circuit, but has otherwise been difficult to see. Atopia’s limited rollout includes engagements at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin beginning November 16, the Cinematheque in Winnipeg in late November, and Cleveland’s CIA Cinematheque in late January. Additional cities and dates will be listed on the film’s MySpace page.

Having seen the film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival a couple years ago, I’d say that it’s commendable more for what it attempts than what it accomplishes. It’s definitely worth a look though, and in fact, I’m curious to see it again myself as a standalone film instead of in the overwhelming and hectic film festival setting. The trailer is below, but first, the film synopsis:

A group of teens from the wrong side of Budapest’s tracks band together to make themselves rich by traveling back in time, burying a horde of wooly mammoths under the city’s streets, then returning to the present and drilling for oil. As creators of a new oil-producing nation, their scheme draws the attention of Putin (who uses the district’s Russian hookers as spies), Blair and George W. Bush. In the midst of it all, star-crossed teen love is in bloom.

What to make of Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf.

Is it to be considered a pure animated film or a digitally enhanced live action feature? Is it of a piece with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Polar Express? Or does it end up in the company of 300, Sin City or Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow?

I haven’t seen the film; I’ve only seen the trailers and clips. So far, I’m not impressed. And so far I’m having a hard time accepting this as an animated feature. Should this film compete for an Annie or an Oscar against Persepolis, Ratatouille and The Simpsons Movie?

Buzz from the first public screenings this weekend is overwhelmingly positive (these screenings were in 3-D Imax). This film is shaping up to be huge at the box office. Early reviewers are blown away by both the filmmaking and the technical razzle dazzle. Even sourpuss film critic Jeffery Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere (no fan of animation nor sword & sorcery pics himself) has posted an ecstatic rave:

“Robert Zemeckis’s Beowulf is an exceptional film on its own terms, but the 3-D version I saw last night is, no exaggeration, something close to stupendous… This film is obviously animated through and through. It deserves the Best Feature Animation Oscar, bar none. I don’t care what anyone says — this is not live-action except in the most rudimentary sense of the physical acting aspects, which represent, in my view, a relatively small portion of the whole.”

I’ll decide for myself what camp this picture falls into after I actually see it. In the meantime, I’d be interested in hearing what our readers have to say.

Back in February 2006, I wrote about an intriguing French animated feature Peur(s) du Noir (Fears of the Dark), which is a black-and-white anthology of scary stories. Each of the stories has a distinct look designed by alternative comic artists and illustrators like Charles Burns, Lorenzo Mattotti and Richard McGuire. The English trailer can be viewed here (Quicktime) and the film website is here. The film opens on February 13, 2008 in France. No word yet on whether there’ll be an international release.

After months of seeing clips, excerpts, storyreels and tons of production art, I finally saw the finished film for the first time today.

Let me back up a little. About fifteen months ago I began working on latest volume in Chronicle Books ongoing “Art Of” series, The Art of Bee Movie. I’d been a fan of Jerry Seinfeld’s since viewing the first episode of his famous TV series in 1989. Working on this book project allowed me to take a first hand look at the making of a modern animated CG feature and the rare chance to immerse myself with the spectacular preproduction sketches, paintings, visualizations and character designs that both made it and didn’t make it in the finished film.

The book, just going on sale this week, is loaded with much of the incredible art that didn’t make it, and early versions of characters, props and places that ultimately helped the filmmakers realize Seinfeld’s script. There’s enough good stuff here for ten different visual versions of the film. The book is justified if only to preserve the amazing unused material that Craig Kellman, Nico Marlett, Christophe Lautrette and Tony Siruno produced, and I’m proud to have done my part to preserve it.

Obviously I’m biased about the finished film. If you are (or were) a Seinfeld fan, you won’t be disappointed. It’s funny - very funny - and sweet (no pun intended). The film is a “screwball comedy”, as just about everything in it is about getting laughs, telling jokes or a set-up for a comic set piece. It has a good story and I even learned a few things about bees I never knew before (some of them factual: like how honey is produced; some of them fanciful: that bees can talk). Producers Christina Steinberg and Jerry Seinfeld also attended todays screening and were clearly jazzed by the reception the film got: almost non-stop laughs from begining to end (this was a screening for members of the Producer’s Guild - not Dreamworks employees).

Members of ASIFA-Hollywood, ASIFA-East and ASIFA-San Francisco are invited to a members only sneak preview screening on Tuesday night (10/30) in their respective cities. I’ll be there, in Hollywood, to do a Q&A with the directors after the film. Can’t wait to see it again. I’m buzzed.