FYI: Today’s Daily Variety has a special section focusing on animation. The print edition has a cool faux-celluloid cover advertising The Simpsons Movie. Among the articles within (all available online), “Why ‘Beowulf’ passed Oscar test but ‘Alvin’ didn’t,” Bill Plympton commentary on traditional hand drawn animation, and a piece on the Oscar chances of foreign animated features (namely Tekkonkinkreet and Persepolis) written by some guy named J. Beck.

Once I saw this image (above) of Spritle and Chim Chim, I had the feeling the filmmakers were on the right track (pun intended).

And then I saw the trailer – and I think the Wachowski’s have nailed it. I’m not a fan of live action versions of cartoon shows (think Underdog, Scooby Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Magoo and on and on), but the Brothers Wachowski’s forthcoming live action Speed Racer movie is lookin’ very good to me. It’s the 60s Japanese cartoon come alive in a candy-colored, pop art way, not seen since Adam West’s Batman series from 1966. I’m sure there are some purists out there who will feel the subject isn’t being treated as seriously as they would like. To those people I say: Get over it. It’s not Jonny Quest or even 8th Man. It’s Speed Racer!

I have no idea if the film is any good. It’ll be out in May and we can all judge it then. In the meantime this looks like a lot of fun. And thank goodness Chim Chim is a real chimp, not a CG animated blob. Watch the trailer here and see more still images here.

UPI is reporting that for “the first time in its 40-year history, New Line will release an animated feature”.

That’s not quite true. New Line Cinema has previously released the animated features Hooray For Betty Boop (aka Betty Boop For President) in 1976, Nelvana’s Babar The Movie in 1989, and Richard Rich’s The Swan Princess in 1994. That’s one per decade. Perhaps they meant to say it’s the first animated film New Line will release in the 21st Century. Or maybe they mean it’s the first CG film the studio’s ever distributed.

However they meant it, it’s a slap in the face to the previous hand drawn cartoon films (admittedly a forgettable lot) that the studio had a hand in. The new film is Planet 51, written by Joe Stillman (Shrek), produced by Ilion Animation Studios in Spain and directed by Jorge Blanco and the team behind the video game Commando. It’ll be released in 2009.

Disney’s Enchanted is a blockbuster hit. The critics are raving and there is Oscar buzz swirling for its star, Amy Adams.

In addition to the film’s obvious tributes to Disney past, the film is loaded with hidden references that only the truly geeky – and readers of Cartoon Brew – would get. A whole list of the them (four pages) was post by Kansas City.com.

The film sends up Disney cliches, but does so with respect and class. What’s more, it’s reminding audiences of what Disney-style hand drawn animation looks like in movie theatre. I can only wonder, might the film’s accomplishments – along with success of The Simpsons Movie and the upcoming Persepolis – lead to an actual theatrical resurgence of traditional cartoon animation?

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 formally 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?