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Posts Tagged ‘A Christmas Carol’

Oscar animation race is wilder than a Roadrunner chase

November 10, 2009 - 1:54 am

By Steven Zeitchik

pr 251x300 Oscar animation race is wilder than a Roadrunner chase

When the buzz on a best picture nom for “WALL-E” hit a fever pitch last year, one Pixar exec confided to us that, “This is it. This is our last chance. After this year, we’re out of the awards game.”

Well, maybe not.

The Oscar buzz this year couldn’t be higher for Pixar’s “Up,” not only for the best animated category but for best picture, thanks to a warm Festival de Cannes playdate and a lucky-to-be-born late blessing of 10 best-picture noms.

A dual accolade would make history (the only instance of an animated movie being nominated for best film was “Beauty of the Beast” in 1991, long before the best animated feature category existed). It would also  create complications — and not only for Pixar execs who might have to shell out some extra coin on a broader campaign.

Pixar and director Pete Docter might hope that the best picture momentum will carry it to a victory in the animation category. But for some voters, it could slice the other way, prompting them to choose something else in animation because they’ve already put “Up” high on their best picture ballot. (In that sense, “Up” would be unlucky to be nominated twice.)

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Will Disney be caroling next week?

November 1, 2009 - 11:25 am

By Steven Zeitchik

11729008 gal Will Disney be caroling next week?

We’ve been pretty receptive to the idea that Disney’s Robert Zemeckis pic “A Christmas Carol” will be a hit when it comes to theaters in six days. But after seeing the movie last week, we’re less sure.

The 3D motion-capture pic, a faithful retelling (in tone and dialogue) of the Dickens classic, is a a technical marvel, uncannily beautiful and attentive to detail. But narratively, the story of Ebenezer’s Scrooge visit to his past, present and future feels less compelling.

Some of the biz and media people we talked to at the screening Wednesday weren’t showing overwhelming support. The buzz was of a masterful filmmaking feat that’s nonetheless lacking in charm. (The movie has its dark moments, and while it’s not like we wanted easy uplift, it still feels like only a wonderfully constructed series of set pieces, without the emotional and storytelling swells you’d want from a story like this.)

cont reading button Will Disney be caroling next week?

Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol,’ a movie with more blessings than Scrooge

October 17, 2009 - 3:55 pm

By Steven Zeitchik

The growing ubiquity of the Disney “Christmas Carol” spots shows the favorable arc the pic has taken.

When Disney first showed footage at Cannes this year it seemed like so much overkill, promotion trying to will its way into a hit (the fact that several rooms in the lobby of a five-star hotel had been retrofitted to look like a holiday cottage — and that when we stepped outside we almost smacked into a battalion of horses, lining up to pull carriages on an 80-degree beach day — may have had something to do it).

It’s not that the movie wouldn’t achieve some sort of success — it’s more that it wouldn’t be a phenomenon in the way Robert Zemeckis fantasies can be. But now that spots are creeping into all manner of primetime programming (a trailer after the jump), it’s looking increasingly like it could be something more – a monster hit with laurels for its performance-capture technique and plaudits for actors (and, finally, a winner after a three-pic cold streak for Jim Carrey, though the guy still can’t get one in the live-action category).

By design or accident, the film sits at the crossroads of a perfect snowstorm of recent trends. The 3D treatment will buoy word-of-mouth, as it seems to do for so many pics (if it can do it for “My Bloody Valentine”). The title has the kind of built-in brand recognition that studios not only want but demand. And the talk in the animation community is fizzier by the moment.

cont reading button Disneys A Christmas Carol, a movie with more blessings than Scrooge

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