Monday, June 23, 2008

Williams' Guest...


The guys over at Animated News have got a nice article about the new Disney short, "Glago's Guest" with some very intriguing artwork from it. I've been hearing really good vibes about this one. It is after all, what got Chris Williams the co-directing gig in the first place. Lasseter trusted this guy to help him bring out the first "John Lasseter" produced film, so he must have saw something in him...

"Glago's Guest" will play in front of Walt Disney's next animated feature, "Bolt". We'll have to wait until November to see them both, but soon we'll get our first trailer for Walt Disney Animation Studios new regime. Although, it seems like the time it's taking to see this film is in dog years...

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

This short was presented ad Annecy, but NOBODY talked about it. You can find a lot of reviews about Presto, the new Pixar short (that everyone say it's fantastic, Pixar best), but NOTING about poor Glago. I don't understand why.

Anonymous said...

Oh... today I find a mini review on CartoonBrew...

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/presto-and-glagos-guest

I'm afraid that the wonderfull Presto overshadowed the interesting Glago...

David Gilson said...

I saw both Glago and Presto at Annecy!!!
Sure Presto is maybe the best Pixar'short and was premiered after Glago. The audience was crazy about and i think the reason for why Presto was so much succeded is because it's very-very speed and cartoony, so very fun!
But Glago's impressed me a lot and i really love it!! It's very unique, not so disneyish at the first view and Chris is a very talented director! Can't wait to see his Bolt that he's actually working on alongside with Byron Howard.
More, Chris is a very cool and kind guy.
I will speak a bit more about Glago's Guest on my blog soon...
I think that Lasseter was completely right to give Chris Williams his chance for both Glago'short and so Bolt...

Anonymous said...

Hi david!! Remember me?
I was wondering why you didn't write anything about Annecy on your blog!!!
I think that in the last two weeks I went there 2-3 times a day... and nothing...
Please tell us something as soon as possible.
Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

Is it really accurate to say that "Bolt" is the first Walt Disney Animation Studios film under the new regime? Given that Lasseter ordered substantial changes and revisions to "Meet the Robinsons," wouldn't you really have to count that one as the first film under the new regime?

I know it may be more convenient to overlook it since it underperformed, but it does bear the stamp of Lasseter, he's even listed as Executive Producer, and it also was the first film with the new studio logo.

-Doopey

Anonymous said...

Also, for the record, I'm not meaning to imply anything negative about "Meet the Robinsons." I thought it was a very good, though not great, little film. Very worthy of the Disney label and a good example of how Lasseter's influence had an immediately positive effect on the studio. It was light-years better than "Chicken Little."

-Doopey

Honor Hunter said...

Robinsons was deep into production when Lasseter came on board. Yes, he did have them make a great deal of changes that delayed the film, but it still bared a much lighter stamp of his fingerprint than does "Bolt"... so no, I don't count it. This one will squarely fall on his shoulders though.

Anonymous said...

If you're going to insist on that logic, Honor, then Rat should be mostly credited to Jan instead of Brad. You can't have it both ways just to suit your Emeryville prejudices.

Honor Hunter said...

The jobs of producers and directors are quite a bit different, anonymous...

And just so you know, much more of Ratatouille was changed than Robinsons. MTR only focused primarily on the middle act, while the story of Remy was entirely reworked from beginning to end. All that basically remained were the sets and general plot of a rat the could cook.

Anonymous said...

MTV Movies article on "Toy Story 3"

Ch-Ch-Ch-Check it out...

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/06/24/toy-story-3-tale-of-superhero-redemption-for-one-porky-character/

Anonymous said...

About the Robinsons, please, open your eyes...
Nearly 60 percent of the original film was cut.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/05/features/lass.php

If Bolt flops, Chris Sanders would be guilty...sure.

Anonymous said...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/05/features/lass.php

Honor Hunter said...

Derrek, I don't care how much the article talks about what was changed. The cuts in MTR are nowhere near the changes made to Ratatouille.

My eyes are clearly open. Just like those of the people I know that worked on both films...

Anonymous said...

Honor: OK, But Disney said that, to ALL the press. However Lasseter "had the time" to improve the story, or delay the release date... instead, he approved the movie. Perhaps Ratatouille needed more help.

No matter what, I loved "Meet the Robinsons"

Doopey said...

Yeah, I think I'm only further convinced that "MTR" falls squarely as a "Lasseter regime" film. He actually did delay the release date. It was originally supposed to be a Holiday 06 release but got pushed to spring 07 because of the changes Lasseter required. The change in release date was significant because it altered the earning potential of the film.

Honor, I get that Lasseter affected Bolt/American Dog at a much earlier point in development and that's why you're making the distinction, but you can't disregard his influence, oversight, and final responsibility over "Robinsons".

-Doopey

Honor Hunter said...

I'm not saying he didn't have any influence over the project guys...

I'm simply saying that him coming in when that project was deep in production is not really a fair judging, good or bad of that film. He will be judged, good or bad on "Bolt" though...

And just for the record, I didn't hate MTR... I enjoyed it quite a lot as I told it's director when I met him. I don't think it's as good as I would have liked it to have been though. And I don't blame him or Lasseter, I blame the Suits that made bad decisions and gave countless notes years before Lasseter got there...

Doopey said...

I think we mostly agree on all of this, but just have to "agree to disagree" on the conclusion. Although Lasseter came in much further along in the process, he did have an opportunity to substantially affect the film, and that's why I think it "counts" as a "new regime film" for purposes of this discussion.

But I see what you're saying that "Bolt" is a different situation than "MTR", I get that.

And I agree with you that "MTR" was very good but not great. To the extent it is very good, I definitely credit Lasseter's influence. It disappoints me that it didn't perform better at the box office, because in terms of quality it is much better than some of the other recent product put out by WDFA (see my comment above).

-Doopey

Anonymous said...

"I'm simply saying that him coming in when that project was deep in production is not really a fair judging, good or bad of that film."

And you're forgetting that Jan was the director of Rat for 3 YEARS before Lasseter pulled him off and put Brad in charge. It was Brad's decision to keep the existing characters and rewrite the script with only 18 months left before its release. Rat was "deep in production" when Brad came in, so I'm not buying your excuse.

And if Lasseter is so great at heading up animation production, how did he allow Rat to get as far as it did before turning it over to Bird? Given all the press about how Lasseter is WDFA's savior, you'd think he would have caught Rat's missteps a lot sooner.

You may think Uncle John walks on water, but some of us know better.

Honor Hunter said...

Ok anonymous,

Where in anything I said did I mention "forgetting" Jan was in charge for 3 years?

This is YOUR assumption...

And it usually takes around two years(sometimes more) for them to work out the story. They were a little over that but each picture is different and it doesn't mean much since it wasn't more than six months longer than the the last film was in story. Jan was removed because the story he was trying to tell wasn't working. Lasster gave him a great deal of latitude and that is main reason he was on it for so long. The process at Pixar revolves around directors and it takes a while for them to decide if what the director is doing won't work. Perhaps it was out of loyalty and friendship to Jan that Lasseter let stay on as long as he did. I'd call that being pretty human... not exactly something I'd expect from someone that walks on water.