“Smurfs” Reboot Teaser Released

It’s safe to say that the previous two attempts at a movie based on the classic Smurfs cartoon didn’t amount to much critical success, but Sony Pictures Entertainment will deliver a fresh take on the franchise in early 2017.

Smurfs: The Lost Village is the latest offering from Sony Pictures Animation, and a full-fledged reboot that will have absolutely nothing to do with the live-action/animation hybrid Smurfs films that were released in 2011 and 2013 to much critical ire. And this week, we got our first taste of what this newly imagined take will look like.

For starters, it will be fully animated, which in and of itself is a huge sigh of relief. The “animated characters find themselves stuck in our world” trope that was popularized by Disney’s Enchanted has become painfully over-used in recent years – and besides, the possibilities for adventure in the Smurfs’ own world are endless! And this teaser definitely pokes fun at the viewers’ knowledge (or lack thereof) of the Smurfs’ world in this respect.

As for the teaser itself, it doesn’t really show much beyond a fourth-wall-breaking slapstick introduction to our main Smurfs, including Smurfette, who in this iteration will be voiced by singer Demi Lovato. There is some modern music included as well, but that can be attributed more to the marketing team than to the production itself.

All in all? I’m interested to see how this iteration of the beloved characters plays out; I’m hopeful that this film will look and feel much more like the classic comics and cartoon.

Smurfs: The Lost Village, directed by Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2), will be released on April 7, 2017, and also stars Mandy Patinkin, Jack McBrayer, Danny Pudi, Joe Manganiello, and Rainn Wilson.

THE BLOG: Let’s Catch Up, Shall We?

It feels weird to come back to this. It’s been a few months since I wrote a proper, casual entry on the blog.

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted here in January. Films have come out (that I’ve reviewed here), companies have been bought (my thoughts on that here), and there’s been another season of Dragons: Race to the Edge, among other things. I’ve also spent four months in the United Kingdom – which is in a bit of turmoil at the moment that I won’t get in to here – and I’ve grown in many ways that became apparent upon my return to America. Put simply, life has happened, and I’m not the same person I was at the start of the year.

First things first, the stream of content on this site has stagnated for a bit, save for a review of Finding Dory and the Dreamworks sale. Like I said before, life has gotten in the way of that. You might be surprised to know that when I sat down to write this entry, I had at least 20 drafts of articles for news stories dating back to April. These are things I would start, say I would come back to later, and then revisit when it had already become old news. It’s not a good feeling to let so many things like this go, and starting today, I’m going to get that back on track. You guys deserve more than the effort (or lack thereof) that I’ve been putting forth in the last two months, and I’m determined to make that up to you.

In the meantime, I’d like to offer some of my opinions on recent goings-on very briefly in this post.

First, various trailers have come out in the last two months for upcoming projects.

–Moana: It’s only a teaser, but I already love Maui and the title character herself. The animation looks gorgeous. And judging by the song snippet we heard in the trailer, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Te Vaka’s songs are going to be fantastic. Barring any gigantic competition, I think Miranda will EGOT at next year’s Oscars (A/N: In my absence I have become Hamilton trash. I own the soundtrack and the Hamiltome. Judge me). Phillipa Soo (aka Eliza in Hamilton) has also been added to the cast. Disney’s on the right track here.

–Storks: Looks like we’ve got a more stable idea of what the tone of the movie will be. There looks like there could be some heart in there! Still a big “if”, and hopefully it will prove Warner Animation can do well out side the LEGO-verse.

–Kubo and the Two Strings: Please take my money now. I’m so excited for this movie to come out. We now have a glimpse of some of the humor in addition to the darker tone, and each time I see more footage it makes me wish August would get here a little faster.

–The Secret Life of Pets: The teaser was funny, but the magic has been lost a bit on me. Trying to go in with reasonable expectations, but I’m hoping it isn’t Kevin Hart being annoying for 90 minutes. Review coming next weekend.

–Ice Age: Collision Course: Please God, just get this over with.

–Trolls: JT still writes ridiculously catchy music. The film looks visually appealing, but the story and characters don’t give me much hope. This hurts my team Dreamworks argument, and between this and the sale to Comcast, things aren’t going so well for them (there is some good news though – more on that in a minute). Here’s hoping I’m pleasantly surprised.

–SING: I think Illumination really wishes Zootopia hadn’t come out earlier this year. The trailers I’ve seen for this look like a lesser, karaoke version of that film. We’ll probably get one or two more, but I think everyone will be seeing Fantastic Beasts instead of SING this Christmas.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk sequels! You might remember last fall that I complained about Pixar’s case of sequelitis. Welp, apparently they’ve heard mine and just about everyone else’s complaints, and announced that there are no more planned after The Incredibles 2. According to Pixar president Jim Morris, the sequel-heavy slate was down to scheduling; he also announced that there are currently at least four original projects planned from 2020 onward. Their slew of sequels has started off well, I might add: Finding Dory was actually quite good.

In other sequel news, Walt Disney Animation Studios, who have for nearly their entire 90-year history been anti-sequel (save for The Rescuers Down Under, which was actually quite good), announced not only a confirmed release for a sequel, but a one that almost no-one expected: Wreck-It Ralph 2. If you’re like me, you were probably surprised that Frozen 2 didn’t get the official date first – but on the other hand, this doesn’t come as much of a surprise given director Rich Moore’s success with Zootopia. I’m a bit apprehensive about sequels from WDAS, but it’s so nice to see Ralph get some love after being overshadowed by Frozen (arguably a lesser film).

Finally, there is a lot of big release date news to cover.

-The big news of course is that Wreck-It Ralph 2 is scheduled for March 9, 2018 (approximately 5 years after the original). WDAS had originally booked that date for its Jack and the Beanstalk-inspired Gigantic, which has since been moved to November 21 that same year – presumably to give songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez time to get the announced stage adaptation of Frozen rolling on Broadway (oh, that’s a thing, by the way. Let it go…).

-Annecy 2016 brought several release date announcements, including Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming film slate. Among their films are the already announced Smurfs: The Lost Village (moved to April 7, 2017 from a previously announced March date) and Hotel Transylvania 3 (confirmed for September 21, 2018). There’s also Emojimovie: Express Yourself aka the Emoji movie no one asked for (targeted for August 2017), The Star, a re-telling of the nativity story due out, appropriately, on December 8, 2017, and an animated Spider-Man movie due out December 21, 2018.

-Warner Animation Group has plenty of LEGO-centric movies on the horizon, starting with The LEGO Batman Movie on February 10, 2017 and The LEGO Ninjago Movie is due out on September 22 that same year. The big news is that the official LEGO Movie sequel has been moved from May 18, 2018 to February 8, 2019. This doesn’t worry me much, considering how well the first film dominated in February 2014. Plus, animated features take about 4-5 years to make – I’d rather wait for a polished product. And besides, when one highly-anticipated movie vacates a release date…

-…another even more highly-anticipated movie can fill the spot. After being pushed back TWICE, How to Train Your Dragon 3 has been moved forward from June 29, 2018 to May 18, 2018. This is fantastic news across the board for both fans of the franchise, who will see the final chapter over a month earlier than expected, as well as for Dreamworks executives, who no longer have to worry about opening in the shadow of Toy Story 4. It’ll have to time to make its mark on the box office before Pixar comes in, and fans will have ample time to cry (kidding). Dreamworks’ release schedule remains otherwise unchanged, with Boss Baby, Captain Underpants, and The Croods 2 all due out in 2017. However, if NBCUniversal’s Steve Burke has any say, the company could potentially bring back Shrek (let’s hope common sense wins out here). Aside from Trolls, I think Dreamworks has a bright future post-merger. (As a sidenote, HTTYD3 just so happens to arrive two days before I turn 23 – happy birthday to me!).

-Netflix has set a release date of August 5, 2016 for the long-awaited adaptation of The Little Prince. No Oscar-qualifying theatrical run has been announced, though I wouldn’t rule it out. Either way, it’s finally coming to America, and I am pumped!

-Finally, Illumination has confirmed their animated adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas – with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role – for November 9, 2018. Given how they did with The Lorax, I’m a bit skeptical, but Chris Meledandri also shepherded the well-received Horton Hears a Who! while he was still at Blue Sky, so the jury is still out on this one. The inevitable Despicable Me 3 is out June 30, 2017. Please don’t let there be another minionpocalypse.

I think I’ve just about covered everything I missed. If I haven’t, there will probably be an article at some point.

In my absence, I’ve been active on both my primary and secondary YouTube channels, where I’ve posted content from and about my experiences abroad, and on Tumblr, where you can see what I got up to in that time.

As for forthcoming content, I will be reviewing The Secret Life of Pets when it arrives in theaters this coming weekend, and you can also expect a review of Race to the Edge Season 3 once I finish re-watching it (soon, my pretties). I will try to keep things up on The Blog, though I haven’t decided on a set day to post. Other than that, from here on out it’s business as usual.

If you’ve stuck around this long when there’s been so little content, I applaud you. I do appreciate the feedback I get from you guys, and I can’t wait to geek out with you more as I inch near Year Two of running this site.

Stay tuned – the fun is just beginning.

-Helen

More Details for Sony’s Fully Animated “Smurfs” Reboot Revealed

Regardless of whether or not we as a public wanted a Smurfs reboot, we are getting one in March 2017 – only this time, it will be fully animated.

It appears that Sony Pictures animation has learned its lesson; the studio is starting the Smurfs franchise over after largely negative reviews of the two live-action/animated features that were released. This time we will see more of the Smurfs in their natural habitat. Although it was already announced that Demi Lovato and Mandy Patinkin had joined the film as Smurfette and Papa Smurf, respectively, Sony recently revealed more details of the film to USA Today.

To begin with, the film, originally titled Get Smurfy, will now be known as Smurfs: The Lost Village. Sony also revealed that Jack McBrayer will voice Clumsy Smurf, Danny Pudi will voice Brainy Smurf, and Joe Mangianello will voice Hefty Smurf. Going further, director Kelly Asbury (Shrek 2) has stated that Hefty Smurf’s design took inspiration from his buff voice actor. The studio additionally shared some of the first images from the film as well.

As far as the story goes, Smurfette and crew will embark on a search for a fabled lost Smurf Village, while trying to evade the evil wizard Gargamel (voiced in this iteration by Rainn Wilson). I don’t have particularly high hopes for this movie, but surely it can’t be worse than the two films we’ve already gotten (right?). The concept of actually exploring the Smurf world is much more intriguing than dropping them in New York City.

Smurfs: The Lost Village will be released on March 31st, 2017.

Two More Animated Features Now Have Confirmed 2018 Release Dates

Award season for the films of 2015 hasn’t yet concluded, but many studios are already nailing down 2018 release dates for their upcoming animated features.

Because animated films take an average of three-to-four years to produce, it would make sense for studios to place holds on certain dates ahead of time in order to secure a deadline for the production.

First up, Aardman Animations announced release dates for their next feature, Early Man, which will be directed by stop-motion veteran Nick Park (AKA the man who brought us the beloved Wallace and Gromit) and produced with StudioCanal. This will be Park’s first feature since Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2005. Sadly, only dates for the UK (January 26th), France (January 31st), Germany and Australia/New Zealand (both March 29th) are confirmed for 2018. A U.S. release will probably come later in the year, but that strategy yielded poor box-office returns for its most recent feature Shaun the Sheep Movie (but it is nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards).

Second, Sega CEO Hajime Satomi confirmed in an interview with The Worldfolio that the company is moving forward with Sony Pictures to produce a live-action/animated hybrid movie featuring the popular video game character Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega’s animation division Marza Animation Planet will supervise the animation of the CG characters. This announcement comes just before two other video game adaptations are set to hit the screen this year (Ratchet and Clank will debut in April, while The Angry Birds Movie will arrive in May). However, I would just as soon have it be entirely animated – Sony Pictures learned that lesson the hard way with The Smurfs. It is worth noting that Sonic himself has technically already appeared in an animated movie: he had a small cameo in Disney Wreck-It Ralph in 2012. No exact date has been set, but the studios appear to be aiming to have the film released in 2018.

These films will join an already-crowded 2018 that includes Disney’s Jack and the Beanstalk-inspired Gigantic, Pixar’s Toy Story 4, and Dreamworks Animation’s third and final How to Train Your Dragon film.

 

16 Films Submitted for Consideration for Best Animated Feature Oscar

Let the Oscar race begin!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has officially revealed the sixteen films that have been submitted for consideration for the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 88th Academy Awards.

Among those submitted are crowd-pleasers Inside Out (Pixar), Minions (Illumination Entertainment) and Home (Dreamworks), along with the as-yet-to-be-released The Peanuts Movie (Blue Sky; out tomorrow) and The Good Dinosaur (also Pixar; out November 25). Sony’s Hotel Transylvania 2 (which is hot on the heels of a sequel announcement), Aardman’s Shaun the Sheep Movie, and – because it had enough animation to count, evidently – Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water are also in the running.

On the independent side, Japanese great Studio Ghibli’s potentially final film When Marnie Was There, though it was released in Japan in 2014, was screened in North America in 2015, and will therefore qualify for the upcoming Oscars ceremony. Charlie Kaufman’s Kickstarter-funded Anomalisa, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Cartoon Network’s Regular Show: The Movie, and the multi-nationally-produced The Prophet, make up the other English language contenders. International entries in include Japan’s The Boy and the Beast and The Laws of the Universe – Part 0), Brazil’s Boy and the World and the French-Finnish co-production Moomins on the Riviera.

Noticeably absent? Walt Disney Animation Studios, who are the most recent winners (for “Big Hero 6”), and who are sitting out 2015 in favor of releasing two films next year (Zootopia and Moana).

For the category to be activated, at least eight feature-length animated films (defined as more than 40 minutes and containing at minimum 75% animation) must be released in Los Angeles County in the calendar year which can be narrowed to three nominees; if 16 or more are released, as is the case as of this writing, there will be five nominees. However, as the Academy noted in its announcement, several of the films have not yet had their Los Angeles run yet.

It’s a bit early to make some solid predictions, but should the Academy allow five nominees (and I hope it will), I think it will go a similar major studio/independent studio ratio to past years (either 3 and 2 or 4 and 1, respectively). In that respect, Inside Out is a most definite lock, and the Academy will most likely honor When Marnie Was There as a farewell gift to Studio Ghibli. I could see The Good Dinosaur also getting a nomination, marking the first time Pixar has received 2 in one year, and The Peanuts Movie could also sneak in as well. My final pick would then be a toss-up between Anomalisa and Shaun the Sheep Movie (I love Dreamworks, but unless they suddenly move Kung Fu Panda 3 up a month, they’re most likely going to have to sit this race out).

To sum up: if there are 3 nominees, my picks are Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, and When Marnie Was There.

If there are 5 nominees, I’m also including The Peanuts Movie and either Anomalisa or Shaun the Sheep Movie.

To read the Academy’s official announcement and see the official rules, visit oscars.org. Nominees will be officially announced on Thursday, January 14, 2016; the 88th Oscars Ceremony will take place on Sunday, February 28, 2016.