Ten In Twelve...

The honor roll for last year...

It's that time of the year when I look back on 2012 in film...

There were a lot of films that I saw that didn't make the top ten.  Many were good, but didn't make it in to my list.  It doesn't mean they weren't good, or I didn't like them, but it's simply a matter of taste.  These are the films that reflect what I liked best.  I'm sure your list would be different because everyone has their own likes and dislikes.  Life is filled with variety and flavor, and it's great we all have the choices we do, and the freedom to actually choose our own desires.

So, without further ado...


10  Looper - Finally, a futuristic film that didn't try and rip off "Blade Runner" in its approach to the story.  Looper is a great twist on time travel, and originality with Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis channeling the same character; one from the future and one from the far future.  A clever script, a interesting tale, and a compelling ending that wasn't all wrapped up in a bow.

 9 - The Grey - A harsh tale, centering on Liam Neeson and a band of survivors of a plane crash as they trudge through the wilderness looking for civilization.  I've never been so happy to have electricity.  It shows how primitive things can get when all that we have fails us.  All we have left is what makes us human to survive with.

 8  Argo - Watching the first ten minutes of this film make it seem like it was set in current times, with current conflicts.  But this film is shot like the wonderful 70's films like "All the Presidents Men" and "The Parallax View," even though it's a clean cut story of getting a group of Americans out of a very bad situation.  It shows you the messy bureaucracy that people have to go through, to get common sense done in a chaotic situation.  Ben Affleck shows his directing chops at their best with his third film behind the camera.  A gripping film that has you invest in all the characters and root for their escape from a bit of history that many have forgotten.

 7  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - The first third of a massive nine hour film, really.  And since you know I love "The Lord of the Rings," I'm sure you'd think I like this.  And you would be right.  Even though the film has added scenes not in the book, the story feels great and expansive.  It takes almost an hour to get out of The Shire, but for those like me who love Middle-Earth, it's a wonderful chance to enjoy the world that Tolkien created.  While some were left frustrated with the open ended conclusion, I simple was frustrated at having to wait an entire year to see Smaug.

 6 - Zero Dark Thirty - A intriguing portrait of what it takes to find a monster.  The details of what it took to find Osama Bin Laden in what would be the biggest manhunt in human history is at once, both frustrating and fascinating.  It takes you to a very different place and shows you how, and why the murky shades of grey fall to one side or the other.  The last act as they descend on the compound in Pakistan is incredibly gripping with tension, even though we know the outcome.

 5   Django Unchained - It was as if Sergio Leone had made a comedy.  A bloody, bloody comedy.  Quentin Tarantino's revisionist/escapist take on the War of Northern Aggression is a funny, brutal twist on the spaghetti westerns of the 60's/70's that were so iconic in American film history.  The characters were all interesting, even when they were bad, really bad.  The tale of a slave taking revenge for the act that led to his people being put in chains was an interesting twist on the Western, or the Southern, as Tarantino would call his.

 4   Jack Reacher - Tom Cruise plays a character that looks nothing like him with a great amount of skill and believability.  I was skeptical when I heard that he had signed on to play the character of Jack Reacher, but will admit that there was no need to be.  It's a fine detective story of a man who was built to take and handle a whole lot of pain.  Reacher is a man that finds himself in some serious trouble, but it's usually trouble that he is looking for.  This film was like watching an old, late 60's/early 70's film with the very organic way it was handled.  A great through back to the kind of films that Steve McQueen used to do.  The car chase in it is very reminiscent of the one in "Bullitt" and Cruise gets kudos for doing most of the stunt work himself.

 3   Skyfall - A great Bond film.  Not as good as "Casino Royale" was, but darn good.  Daniel Craig shows why he's the best James Bond since the original here in this tale that actually delves into the past of 007, and shows us a bit of why he is who he is.  With a very muted ending that comes out as if it is something from the Seventies (like Jack Reacher), like "Get Carter" or "Point Blank" type films.   More license to kill, the better when in the capable hands of Sam Mendes and Craig.

 2   Marvel's The Avengers - Nothing like going to the theater for a Saturday matinee, even if it's not on a Saturday.  This big budget superhero film is a refreshing break from the bleak, dark and serious stories told by Hollywood today.  It didn't try and explain away the tights, it embraced them and had a grand time doing so.  I look forward to more of these adventures.

 1   Prometheus - A controversial film that many either loves or hated.  I was in the "loved" camp.  I found the correlation between our own history and the creation of our existence a fascinating story.  Finding out we didn't evolve from monkeys has never been so interesting to me.  Ridley Scott's return to a film that made his career is a grand tale, told by a master of film in a way that few films do today.  If you haven't seen it, please do.  If you have seen it, take a look at it again.  There is so much here to ponder.



Honorable Mention (In No Particular Order):

The Impossible

 The Amazing Spider-Man

Les Miserables

The Cabin In The Woods

John Carter 

The Raid: Redemption

Snow White and the Huntsman 

Wreck-It Ralph

Life of Pi

Flight

Cloud Atlas 

Untitled Road...

Don't stop, go, go, go...








A lot has been happening in the Hat Building over the past six months...

After all, at the end of last year saw the release of "Tangled," which was a huge film for the studio. Not only did it relieve a bit of pressure to perform by the Disney animators, it also made way for a lot of projects to move further into development. Many have complained that there wasn't much in development over the past few years, causing many an animator/artist to get a layoff notice.

I am happy to tell you that that is not the case now. Of course, the development slate is nowhere near as large as DreamWorks Animation, which has a very large and long list of projects, but it is getting fattened up, and it's still growing.

First off, we know that Walt Disney Animation Studios next film is the hand-drawn sequel "Winnie the Pooh," which comes out as counter programing to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2." But where does the road take us after that?

Well, come 2012 we know that Rich Moore's "Wreck-It Ralph" will be the studios' animated offering. I hear that the project is very different from the last few films, but still shares the same, Disney heart. If some of the hysterically dark scenes I heard make it though the cut then this one will get an unusually rare, PG13 rating for the 52nd animated feature from Disney Animation. But we'll have to wait and see what final form it arrives in.

As of 2013, the next project to be moving down the pipeline is newly re-envisioned "King of the Elves," which has been chugging along under the direction of Chris Williams (something we reported exclusively last year). The storyboarding has been going on, new scenes are being written and the story structure is being tightened up. This CG animated feature should tentatively arrive during the holidays unless a kink in the production process pops up. I've heard many people asking if rumors of it being out of development were true and from what I know, it has continually been moving forward since last year.

Now for 2014, it gets a little murkier, as these projects are in a more fluid state of development, so changes could happen. But as of now, this is what you are likely to see.

Based on the current state of projects, a CG version of "Snow Queen" directed by Chris Buck is likely to see release sometime during the year. The story structure problems that popped up in the last hand-drawn version seem to be ironed out and storyboarding has moved forward with Chris' unique take on the material. And for those of you wondering if it'll be faithful to the original story? I can only say that it'll be as faithful to it as the Mouse was to "The Little Mermaid." Presuming that another film gets released that year, it is likely to be the new hand-drawn film from John Musker and Ron Clements. And no, I'm not talking "Mort" as the rights to that would have required the Mouse to purchase the entire series, which it didn't want to commit to. So this new project is something else that the duo has pitched Lasseter. All that is known, is that it will be hand-drawn.

After that, in the 2014/2015 range will be the untitled project coming from Nathan Greno & Bryon Howard's. Not much is known about this film, but the duo hit it off on "Tangled" and have apparently pitched a project that Lasseter thinks will be great. If their project is not ready, then Dean Wellins' project will fill the slot. His is a story that will be very different from the mold we picture Disney animated films and this is a project that is aimed at all those boys that don't like princess movies.

Sometime around this point in the schedule, Don Hall's super secret project may have been greenlit and far enough down the line to be penciled in for a 2015/2016 release. That project, once announced will generate a lot of buzz in certain geek communities, as it's going to surprise a lot of people for what it is and what it's not. But it's in the very early embryonic stage and it depends on how well the project is received upon the presentation that is being prepared for John and Ed.

After that, there are several ideas that are being prepared for pitches which could compete for time on the release slate, but as of now there you have it. It will be interesting seeing how Disney's marketing department deals with some of these titles as they are out of what we normally picture for a Disney film. Even some of the ones you would think are in the classic mold, are really not.

Although several of these films have titles, they are very much temporary ones and are as much in flux as is the schedule itself. The development track expanding in the last year is a very positive step and Lasseter's trust in the talent is also a very reassuring development as well.

The greatest contribution about last years hit is not the box office it generated, but that it may have untangled the restrictions that had been placed on the company's animation future...