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Cohen’s Cartoon Corner: Apr 2020 by Karl F. Cohen
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Jamie Foxx stars in the Pixar's new feature, 'Soul'. photo: courtesy Pixar
During this time of plague and paranoia, cineSOURCE is honored to feature Karl Cohen's monthly column, which he has been doing for 12 years and turned in a great column, despite being approaching 80 and hunkered down in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.
In Pixar's Soul Looks Deep
Hopefully Pixar's new film, "Soul", will open on June 19th. Check out the new trailer from Disney and Pixar here.
The film’s story begins with Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher, who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to the "Great Before"—a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth.
Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22, who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions.
“Soul” is directed by Academy Award-winner Pete Docter (“Inside Out", 2002, “Up”, 2011), co-directed by Kemp Powers (“One Night in Miami”, 2005) and produced by Academy Award nominee Dana Murray (Pixar short “Lou”). Jon Batiste wrote the original jazz music, and Oscar-winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (“The Social Network”), from Nine Inch Nails, have composed the original score that drifts between the real and soul worlds.
Pandemic Accelerates Switch to Streaming
With theaters in many parts of the world closing temporarily and more people staying home, either because it is a temporary law or they are scared, the streaming market has been booming.
In North America, “Onward,” the family-oriented animated film fell 73% to an estimated $10.5 million, the biggest second-weekend decline in Pixar's history (“The Good Dinosaur” fell 59 percent in its second weekend in 2015).
The two kooky characters—alright hippies—from Disney's new, not-so-successful 'Onward'. photo: courtesy Disney
Internationally, “Onward's” second-weekend gross from 47 markets was $6.8 million, a 765 dip. “Onward” has only earned $60.3 million domestically and $41.4 million overseas since its release. Believe it or not the 2nd week gross was OK considering that the weekend was the worst in 20 years, according to the trade publications.
As a result of the Covid-19 virus, Disney was forced to change their marketing plan for “Onward”, making it available for digital purchase on March 23rd. The fear of the virus has changed the world!
While the stock market is on a roller coaster ride with steep falls and rises, one company that has been doing OK—stock wise—is Netflix. Although it took a fall last year, about the time Disney+ was going online, since then, while Disney has gone down from about $150 to around $100 dollars a share, Netflix, has been mostly going up.
So far they have kept most of the 167 million subscribers worldwide (61 million in the US) and have added new members, although not as many as they wanted.
To keep Disney subscribers excited about being members, the Big Mickey premiered “Frozen 2” on Disney+ on March 15th. That was almost three months sooner than expected. Disney had a release schedule for features prior to the pandemic that meant films would become available on Disney+ about seven months after their theatrical debut. Indeed, “Toy Story 4” was released on June 22, 2019 and became available on the streamer in late February.
The streaming picture is soon to become more interesting as Comcast will unveil the Peacock streaming service in April, featuring products from the Universal film studio, including the “Jurassic Park” and “Fast and Furious” franchises. Meanwhile, WarnerMedia plans to launch their service in May that will include “Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter, “Game of Thrones,” “Big Little Lies” and a lot of other popular shows.
Disney has suspended film production on both films that were about to go into production and those already underway. They include a live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid,” that was set to start shooting in London late this month along with “Peter Pan & Wendy,” Guillermo del Toro's “Nightmare Alley” and “Shrunk,” a sequel to the 1980s classic “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”.
Yet another change thanks to the virus is Disney’s top executives have taken a pay cut. Robert Iger, the former CEO, who now heads their board, will forgo his entire salary. He recently named Bob Chapek as their new CEO and will take a 50% pay cut to his base salary. Vice presidents will take a smaller cut.
Not to be underbrowed, Universal created three kooky characters, also not so successful. photo: courtesy Universal
Tragedy of Miniona
I’m sorry to report that "Minion" fans will not get their fill of stupid humor on July 3rd when the silly film from Universal, “Minions: The Rise of Gru”, was going to open in North America. Due to conditions beyond their control, it will be delayed to the summer of 2021.
In addition, Illumination’s Mac Guff studio in Paris has been closed to reduce the chances of their employees catching the virus.
Scooby-Doo Talks in 3D
The first full-length animated Scooby-Doo adventure for the big screen is the never-before told stories of Scooby-Doo’s origins. Due out May 14th (maybe), “Scoob!” is directed by Tony Cervone, Annie Award nominee for the feature “Space Jam” and two-time Emmy nominee for his work on “Duck Dodgers.” See the trailer here.
Trolls World Tour
Watch, if you dare, the Trolls World Tour trailer. “This massive musical medley's unleashing incomparable amounts of pizazz, untold volumes of glitter, and one lone tumbleweed.” What does that copy from their publicist even mean? Who knows but DreamWorks Animation is responsible for this “animated extravaganza” and the trailer can be seen here.
Star Wars Saga Not Over
A new “Star Wars” feature film is officially in development at Lucasfilm with director J.D. Dillard (“Sleight,” “Sweetheart”) and writer Matt Owens (“Luke Cage, “ “The Defenders”)! And the article says, “that’s all we know!” It adds there is a Star Wars project that might be released in Dec. 2022, but the announcement doesn’t say what that project is.
The steep hill, striking views and interesting gate welcomed all comers both to the San Francisco Art Institute's magnificent Moorish building and ambitious art projects. photo: courtesy SFAI5
San Francisco Art Institute Closes
I have so many fond memories of SFAI as a cultural hub. I must have seen hundreds of film shows there starting with Oskar Fishinger’s widow presenting several shows of his work, including clips from Disney's “Fantasia” (1939), which he worked on.
Their gallery exhibits were occasionally memorable. I provided light show films for parties where the floor bounced up and down so much that I feared it might break. Friends were on their staff and others were students.
I read years ago they had financial problems, but this still comes as a shock. See article here.
Alberto Uderzo, French cartoonist, with two of his characters. photo: courtesy A. Uderzo
Uderzo Passes
Alberto Uderzo, co-creator of French comic series “Asterix", died from a heart attack at 92. Draw on in peace.
Fun Under Quarantine
Make sure you see "Roll'em Lola", a magnificent film by Fred Burns, made at USC in 1974 with music by George Winston. It was just beautifully restored by Casey Herbert with Flying Foto Factory, Inc. in Los Angeles, see it here
The National Film Board of Canada has over 4000 films to stream (free), check their site here.
‘In Pursuit of Ghost’ by Kevin McGloughlin, Max Cooper and Tom Hodge. is a visually exciting work of experimental animation, see it here.
Area 51
Trip out in Nevada’s Area 51 with Vince Collins, who takes us inside the secret military where a UFO supposedly landed. i sent him the link to “pursuit of ghosts” and he wrote back “heavy stuff! here is my new movie about the pursuit of aliens,” see it here.
I have been enjoying Vince’s work since the mid-70s when he was an award-winning graduate film student at the SF Art Institute in North Beach.
Stop Motion fans
Stop-motion fans don’t miss “Rebooted” by Michael Shanks, about a skeleton living in our world, ” see it here.
Stay Tooned
Phil Machi produced stay 'Tooned!", an animation podcast. It just posted an interview with Bill Plympton, considered the king of independent animation in the U.S. on the internet, here it here. In fact, Phil was planning an animation convention in Texas before the virus hit, which you can find out about here.
Karl F. Cohen—who decided to add his middle initial to distinguish himself from the Russian Karl Cohen, who tried to assassinate the Czar in the mid-19th century—is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached .Posted on Apr 03, 2020 - 10:49 AM