whither now, true animation?

Cartoon Brew » Oscar ‘07: The fallout from the Happy Feet win:

I won’t deny that Happy Feet was a well made, entertaining film. I liked it personally. It does qualify under the definition of an animated film. But it doesn’t represent the medium.

Unfortunately, the win by Happy Feet will reinforce to the powers-that-be in Hollywood that motion capture is a valid substitute for authentic character animation. That live action writers, directors and actors can make a “cartoon” without the skills honed by decades of accomplishment created by Walt Disney and his successors.

[...]

Perhaps this win will cause Warner Bros. to now take animation a little more seriously, after a history of botched releases (notably The Iron Giant and The Ant Bully). Perhaps this will inspire John Lasseter and the revived 2-D team at Disney to really prove themselves, to blow us away with something that mo-cap can never be - and force Hollywood to return the art of animation to the hand of the artist.

Actually, I wasn't aware that Lasseter had rekindled 2-D, aside from the remnants of the tv team that were doing the made-for-video sequels (Bambi II was led by Andreas Deja, a survivor of Eisner's rampant stupidity).  For an upcoming movie, Enchanted, Disney had to outsource the 10 minutes of 2-D animation, though Deja is on the team as a consultant and the team itself is led by former Disney 2-D animator James Baxter, who founded the company after Dreamworks killed its own 2-D studio.

yup...

Mickey News °o° - 'Toy Story 3' Coming Along, without Lasseter; More Disney Details Outlined:

Lasseter also revealed a behind-the-scenes shift at Walt Disney Feature Animation - which is separate from Pixar but also under the control of Lasseter and Catmull - by announcing that Chris Williams, a veteran Disney story artist, is now directing the 2008 release American Dog in place of Lilo & Stitch director Chris Sanders, who recently left Disney.

Catmull denied speculation that Walt Disney Feature Animation may become a 2-D-only studio, with Pixar handling CGI, though he did confirm Disney will bring back hand-drawn films.

"We're really excited about that and have brought back some great directors to work on that," he said, presumably referring to The Frog Princess, a 2-D pic being developed by Aladdin and Treasure Planet directors Ron Clements and John Musker, whom Lasseter brought back to Disney last year. 'Princess' is believed to be on the fast track and may be the division's next release after American Dog.

Sad that Sanders couldn't find a home in the merged company, but I suppose when all that gets asked of him is "do Stitch's voice one more time", I can understand if he felt a little frustrated. Maybe some more Disney-Aware friends here can shed some light on what's going on?

One of the nice things (if it's not too impolite to say) about some of the recent 3-D flops is that it vindicates the Disney team that Eisner destroyed: story and character matter, not the media.  Just because it's 3-D doesn't mean it is inherently better (or even just more box-office savvy) than 2-D.

Its moments like this that make me glad the Canadians haven't had to fight a real war since 1945...

UFO science key to halting climate change: former Canadian defense minister - Yahoo! News:

A former Canadian defense minister is demanding governments worldwide disclose and use secret alien technologies obtained in alleged UFO crashes to stem climate change, a local paper said Wednesday.

"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet," Paul Hellyer, 83, told the Ottawa Citizen.

Seriously,

1. why the hell is this front page news on Yahoo?
2. why the hell isn't there a single line from a (normal) ufo skeptic going "what the fuck?"

*sigh*

I'll have moved by then, I'm sure...

Pharyngula: At least we can look forward to being proud about something:

At least we can look forward to being proud about something

Category: Creationism • Humor
Posted on: March 4, 2007 9:21 AM, by PZ Myers


(via Hypnocrites)

Today's AT40

Is from March 1985.

I'm a freshman in high school, 98 pound weakling, and complete wimp.

And a total geek.  (yeah, some things haven't changed)

And I still hadn't quite gotten used to living in a new town.

Still, the music was cool.

So far, Hall & Oats's Some thing are better left unsaid (ok), Foreigner's I want to know what love is (sick of it then, sick of it now - dude, you were 35 years old.  If you hadn't figured it out by then you were a lost cause), The Cars Why Can't I Have You (underrated, impressive, though if you hated the over-keyboard wash direction they went in, you hated this one - it took me a while to really *get* this one but today I love it), and Sade (I liked it, but not to any great degree).

---

Woah - David Bowie with Pat Metheny Group, This is Not America.  How had I *never* heard this before, 'cause this is excellent!  eac why didn't you tell me 'bout this one? :)  Geeze, I even *HAVE* this on CD (Best of Bowie 2cd) and hadn't heard it.  Sure beats that overplayed cover of Dancing in the Streets from about the same time...

oh.  oops.  there was a scratch on the LP they used to mastered this broadcast.  Yes, for those that don't know, these broadcasts were sent to the respective radio stations on vinyl LP, with the national-level commercials, from which a staffer would take it and insert into it local commercials and expand it out to fit the 4-hour timeslot on half-inch reel to reel, from which the local broadcast would come from.

Paul Rogers & Jimmy Page - the Firm.  A few good ones from them, but Radioactive (at #31) wasn't one of them.

The Power Station's Some like it hot.  Good rockin' dance tune (given that it has both rockers and dance-beat players), great for parties. 

Yet more Foreigner (That was Yesterday).  They really milked that album for all they could get.  They used to have guitars in that band, right?  They're being eaten up worse than Steve Howe in the second Asia album.  I wonder if the late Mike Stone did this one, too...nope, it was (also the late) Alex Sadkin, the one who over-produced Duran Duran's Seven and the Ragged Tiger and Arcadia's So Red the Rose.  Supposedly, Agent Provacateur was a "concept album", according to Wikipedia, though the concept is probably buried in the overplayed singles.

Billy Idol, you *really* missed your chance, 'cause here's Simple Minds doing the smash you were offered, Don't You Forget About Me.  If you were a high school student in the mid 80s, this was your life, right? :)

yeah, i'm writing a lot more, 'cause this really is in that peak of 80s coolness, you know?

"One night in Bankok makes a hard man humble" was actually a dummy lyric for the hit from Chess provided by the Abba guys who wrote the music.  When Tim Rice heard it in the tune, he loved the reference so much he kept it and built the rest of the song around it.  Great song, but annoying in that it otherwise stylelistically has very little to do with the rest of the show.  I have to thank Cami (now of the O'Dannys) for introducing me to the full cast album all those years ago; a few years later we would spend an afternoon singing our way through the whole show.  My voice hurt for a week after that, 'cause Pity the Child was *just* out of my range...The scat flute player I *think* later went on to contribute to Mike Oldfield's Islands album.  Today, Murray Head is still banned from entering Bankok by their government even though he had absolutely nothing to do with the song other than singing it.

"Then along comes a woman, and you know that it's right..." - Chicago in their transition from jazz-rock to soft-ballad hell, 'til Cetera left.

Purple Rain soundtrack - another one of those i like a lot more now than I did then, though I did have the 45 for When Doves Cry.  Take Me With You, on the other hand, should have just been left behind, I think.  Prince is good, but not perfect.

how to intro this next one? "never let a successful third album get in the way of milking one more single from your second", or "the order in which duran duran songs become hits bears no relation to the order in which they were recorded and released on their original albums"?  Save A Prayer, by then a 3 year old song, hit the top 20.  Technically the single was the live version from the Arena album, but AT40 is playing the original studio version.

#21 "Keeping the Faith" by Billy Joel: a bit of history, really, 'cause most of the references are lost on 80s-era kids.  "A pocket full of Trojans and some Old Spice aftershave..." - a lyric I never really heard 'til now.  DAMN did he get away with a lot with that one, 'cause that was in the middle of some churches decrying the "use a condom" ads on MTV.  gee, 20 years later and nothing's changed... "ain't it wonderful to be alive when the rock'n'roll plays" - ok, that doesn't change either. :)

"Relax!"  a song with legs in the popularity of things even though it peaked only up to #10.  Continued to be an 80s party hit long after the 80s were over.  I never really heard this 'til I was a junior, 2 years later, and didn't own my own copy 'til 89, so yeah, that's hanging around.

Animotion's Obsession.  Yet another one who's recap plays on, say, VH-1 Classic, are far out of proportion to its original popularity, I think.

Ah, Careless Whisper again...well, we've already covered that recently, so moving on...

Only the Young, probably the only decent thing (besides Matt Modine hitting it big) to come out of the Vision Quest movie.  Granted, Madonna had a hit from there, too (update, it just showed up 10+ spots later).  and Linda Fiorentino was in it, but really most geeks didn't figure out who she was 'til Men in Black. :) Journey tell the story that they debuted the recording of this to a teenage fan dying of cancer.

Springsteen's "I'm on Fire".  Don and Mike played this from the album, but at '45 instead of '33, calling it "Dolly Parton sings Springsteen's Hits".  It worked, dammit.  But that is, of course, the only memory of that song I'll ever have.

I wondered this back when the AT40s first started on XM while I was up at NYRF - was there an ex-Eagle that DIDN'T have a top-40 hit?  Yeah, Walsh had a hard time, but he did get in there at least once.  However, this mention comes as Frey is in there with The Heat is On, and Henley's "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" (featured in the film Real Genius, of all things) was on the way down.

Julian Lennon's Much Too Late For Goodbyes.  Good singer.  I wish the record industry had treated him with more respect.  Of course, I can say that about most artists, I suppose.

Geeze.  We are the World debuted in the top 100 at #21, and was in the top 5 the next week (this week).  "Check your egos at the door."   One Live Aid, Coming Up (in 4 months).  ("Shouldn't that be you and I?")

Ah, the Material Girl gets her name into the top 5.  We may all hate her attention-getting campaigns and personal re-inventions every 3 years, but on the other hand, if success through popularity is your only goal (you can't convince me she's ever been otherwise), being able to say you're still talked about after 25 years must count for something.

And the number one song, from No Jacket Required, is Phil Collins: One More Night!

("American Top Forty has been brought to you by SPAM luncheon meat.  It just might surprise you.")