Wreck-It Ralph

Recently composer Henry Jackman says that Wreck-It Ralph 2 is in the works.The film might released in 2016 but Disney Animated Studios isn’t commenting. Is this 2011 animated film worth a sequel?

The concept for Wreck-It Ralph was developed in the late 1980’s and was redeveloped several times.Before production there was a list of characters from existing video games that the directors wanted to be in the film. Rich Moore was determined that for a film about video games, like the film Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? “it had to have real characters from real games in it.” And they got there request; but the existing characters where to only appear in camos and backgrounds. “There’s so much mythology and baggage attache to pre-existing titles that I feel someone would be disappointed.” Moore said when asked why they created characters instead of existing ones. There was about 188 individual character models in the movie for all the cameos.

The Story

Wreck-It Ralph has been the villain of his video-game for thirty years, destroying a residential building while Fix-It Felix uses his powerful hammer to rebuild what Ralph has destroyed. During the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the game, Ralph is not invited to the party since nobody loves him. Ralph decides to win a medal to become a hero and he goes to the game Hero’s Duty, commanded by the tough Sergeant Calhoun, where he sees the chance of winning the medal. Ralph collects the aimed medal, but when he is returning to his game, he brings accidentally one enemy Cy-Bug with him. Ralph accidentally crashes his plane in the kart-racing game Sugar Rush and loses his medal. When he is ready to retrieve it, the annoying glitch Vanellope von Schweetz takes the medal and uses it to dispute a kart racing in her game. Meanwhile Felix is seeking out Ralph to tell him that their game will be shut down since he is missing. Felix meets Sergeant Calhoun that tells him that the Cy-Bug would destroy any game and he immediately falls in love with her. Ralph helps Vanellope to build her own racing car and becomes her hero; but soon he is convinced by King Candy that Vanellope is just a glitch and she may destroy Sugar Rush. Ralph destroys her car and her dreams expecting to protect Vanellope. But when he sees her picture on the cabinet of Sugar Rush, he learns that something is wrong in the explanation of King Candy.-Walt Disney Animation Studio

Characters

Ralph went through a lot of revisions from his first sketches. He went from a fuzzy troll,ogre and caveman then it was decied to transform him into a human.The goal was to given Ralph a mountain man look to his outfit, with knit plaid shirts in different colors.

Felix was a character that had to be funny and loved by all.Artist Leo Matsuda was great help in defining the character design. Wanting to  simple Felix only has basic accessories: hat,tool belt and shoes.Orginally Felix was suppose to follow Ralph throughout the adventure and did not have a romance with Sergeant Calhoin.

Vanellope von Schweetz was difficult to developed, with thousands of design of this character.It took Art Director Mike Gaberiel to come up with the final design,choosing a brown skirt made of candy wrappers and with Rich Moore adding a hood (for a street kid look) as a finishing touch.

Sergeant Calhoun was actually a man! It is the writer Phil Johnston proposed to Rich Moore to make a woman and create him a romance with Felix. For its design, the artists have kept in mind that it was a woman wandering in the middle of a very violent game, she had to look strong, intimidating, but also attractive. The artist Kevin Nelson had a great influence on the overall look of the character. When actress Jane Lynch was chosen to double the character, Glen Keane drew new sketches inspired by the actress, giving Sergeant Calhoun her blonde hair and domineering look.

I do think Wreck-It Ralph does deserve a sequel, the story was funny emotional and had you routing for Ralph to succeed in his quest.The designs were original and it was fun to see how many cameos you can spot while watching. I am just hoping that its not another Cars 2.

The Incredibles

Recently the Disney/Pixar announced the superhero family was to have a sequel. Its been 10 years since the last film and the technical achievements that had made. I recently wrote about the orginial film, the art work and technology that went behind it. The film did create a fan base, that wants more stories about the family. I can only wonder is the next film can live up to the fan’s expectations? Will the movie stay with the 1960s style, and what kind of technical achievements will come from the film?

Treasure Planet

Take Robert Louis classic Treasure Island reset it in space and add in steampunk elements, and you’ll get Treasure Planet. This movie is really good for being consider a box office bomb. Perhaps the movie was ahead for its time to be appreciated, or people where getting sick of Disney reimagining Treasure Island to give this film a chance.

Treasure Planet is about Jim (voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a young man who grew up reading tales of pirates and adventures on the high seas, and longs for similar excitement in his own life. One day, Jim happens upon a dying man who hands him a map and warns him to “Beware the cyborg” shortly before he passes on. Jim realizes the map charts the course to Treasure Planet, a distant world where hundreds of space pirates have stashed their loot. Jim is certain this is the adventure he’s been dreaming of, and joins the crew of the spaceship R.L.S. Legacy and Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson) as they set out to find the fabled Treasure Planet. While Jim signs on along with his friend Dr. Doppler (voice of David Hyde Pierce), he soon becomes close friends with John Silver (voice of Brian Murray), who works in the galley but has big plans. Jim discovers just how big his plans are when Silver reveals he’s part cyborg and all pirate, instigating a mutiny and attempting to take control of the ship.

The film operated on a “70/30 Law”  which was 70% traditional 2D animation and 30% 3D or “sci-fi” animation.The concept art of Treasure Planet was inspired by illustrations from classic story books.

 There were many alien type pirates that weren’t used in the film.Cretian pirates ended up being combined into the final character designs.

 

When it came to the main characters of Jim Hawkins, John Ripa the movies supervising animator of Jim cited James Dean as an important reference for the character. “There was a whole attitude and posture;you felt the pain and the youthful innocence”

 Treasure Planet is definitely a good movie it was ahead of its time and unfortunately watching it now with the effects we’re now used to seeing the movie does outdated itself.

Mars Needs Moms

Not all box office bomb are bad but surprise surprise this one is. I found one of Hollywoods top animated Box office bombs and watched it in its entirety. Mars Needs Moms this movie Cost Disney $150 Million to make and only grossed $38,992,758 worldwide.

  

 Mars Needs Moms, a movie about a 9 year old young boy named Milo who rebels against his mother because she makes him do his chores and eat his broccoli. After an argument Milo wishes he didn’t have a mom,later that night his wish comes true and Martians kidnaped Milo’s mom. Milo goes to apologize to his mom and discovers her being taken to a spaceship Milo stows away and gets taken to Mars.Where he’s on a mission to save his mom, before sun rise or else her brain gets extracted into nanny bots, that takes care of the new Martians being born…from the ground.

The film uses motion capture and has realistic looking human animated characters. Milo was acted out and modeled after Seth Green,however his voice was too mature for the 9 year old, Milo was then voiced by Seth Dusky.This combination created a weird Seth Green look alike with a kid voice.If you enjoyed the human characters in Polar Express you’ll get a nice refreshing watered downed version in this movie.

The Martians character models in the movie where repeated so many times that if one moved different thats how you can tell which one is suppose to be the main character.

The story’s plot is simple save mom before its too late,however getting from point A to point B has some twists and some some backtracking

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This movie makes me want to make a drinking game, to stop me from crying to think that  Disney actually made this movie. The only upside to this movie is the concept art, and the hope that there will never been a remake or a sequel. I don’t recommend this movie for anyone who isn’t in 5th grade.