CoolTrainerTerry
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2005
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From IMDb.com:
Article 1:
The Cannes Film Festival opened today (Wednesdy) on a high note, both literally and figuratively, with the screening of Disney/Pixar's Up for the press in the morning and the invitational screening this evening. There appeared to be general agreement among the writers that Pixar will have its tenth straight hit with the movie. And with the main character, an elderly gentleman voiced by Ed Asner, becoming the first senior citizen since Mr. Magoo to be the focus of an animated film, it is likely to attract ticket buyers of all ages. (Indeed, the villain, voiced by Christopher Plummer, is named Muntz, a name likely to be recognized by baby boomers who can recall Earl "Madman" Muntz, a post-wwii used-car salesman who introduced low-cost TV sets in the '50s ("I wanted to give them away, but my wife wouldn't let me -- she thinks I'm craaazy!"), eight-track stereo car systems in the '60s, and home satellite units in the '70s. (The filmmakers have not indicated whether they borrowed his name; it is also the name of a Simpsons character.) In his review of the movie, Daily Variety's Todd McCarthy remarked, "The two leading men are 78 and 8 years old, and the age range of those who will appreciate the picture is even a bit wider than that." At a news conference following the press screening, Ed Catmull, president of Disney Animation, commented: "There's a perception that animated films are for kids. A lot of people have that, which I think is very unfortunate. The films are made by adults who have very adult concerns." And John Lasseter, who holds the title of chief creative officer at Disney/Pixar, told reporters that the decision by Cannes officials to spotlight Up as the festival's opening film this year represents "one of the greatest kinds of rewards, it's one of the greatest things that's happened to us in our career. ... To see animation respected at the world's premier film festival ... you pinch yourself."
Article 2:
Disney/Pixar went all out at Cannes Wednesday to produce an elaborate PR stunt that would gain attention from the hundreds of journalists and photographers of all media stripes attending the festival. On a pier across from the elegant Carlton Hotel, studio workers tethered an enormous cluster of balloons, almost identical to the one created digitally for their new movie, Up. (It was impossible to tell whether thousands of small balloons had been bundled together or whether an outsized helium balloon was being concealed by hundreds of smaller ones.) The balloons were fastened to a miniature house resembling the one in the movie and brilliantly lighted. According to Up director Pete Docter, the original plan had been to release the balloons, which would carry the house over the Riviera, but strong winds caused them to keep the balloons tethered to the pier. Up director Pete Docter later explained to USA Today that the studio didn't want the headline around the world to read, "Oh, no! It's crashing into the boat."
Article 3:
Film critics attending the Cannes Film Festival, who ordinarily hone their scathes on the opening-night film (in 2006 The Da Vinci Code, the last U.S. film to open the festival, was loudly booed at the press screening during the closing credits) lofted Disney/Pixar's Up to heights of praise usually reserved exclusively for Cannes's arty-est competitors. Indeed Stephen Applebaum acknowledges in his review in The Scotsman: "It left critics on the Croisette feeling buoyant yesterday, which makes a change from opening movies in recent years." Few disagree. "Winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever" is the way Michael Rechtshaffen in the Hollywood Reporter describes it. "It really is a lovely film," writes Peter Bradshaw in Britain's Guardian newspaper, "funny, high-spirited and sweet-natured, reviving memories of classic adventures from the pens of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne, and movies like Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon." Indeed, the Lamorisse classic is mentioned in numerous reviews, but only a single balloon figured in that small film; the new one features thousands, and the delights, the critics suggest, are a thousand fold. "This is a wonderful film," Roger Ebert writes in his "unofficial" review in the Chicago Sun-Times. (He's saving his "official" one for the U.S. opening on May 29.) Ebert reserves most of this review for a lengthy criticism of 3D, which, he insists, degrades the vibrant color of animated film. His advice: "Find a theater showing [Up in 2D], save yourself some money, and have a terrific visual experience." Recalling Walt Disney's admonition to his animators that "for every laugh there should be a tear," Peter Howell in the Toronto Star writes that Up is "one of the most emotional movies Pixar has ever made." To be sure, a few critics appear about as steadfastly grumpy as the central character in the movie, a 78-year-old voiced by Edward Asner (who often sounds eerily like Lionel Barrymore's definitive Scrooge). Kaleem Aftab writes in the London Independent, "Once the adventure moves into its obligatory action denouement, it enters a world of stereotypes that disappoints" with "blockbuster moments [that are] surprisingly uninventive." And Joe Morgenstern writes in the Wall Street Journal that he was left "with an unshakable sense of Up being rushed and sketchy, a collection of lovely storyboards that coalesced incompletely or not at all."
Article 1:
The Cannes Film Festival opened today (Wednesdy) on a high note, both literally and figuratively, with the screening of Disney/Pixar's Up for the press in the morning and the invitational screening this evening. There appeared to be general agreement among the writers that Pixar will have its tenth straight hit with the movie. And with the main character, an elderly gentleman voiced by Ed Asner, becoming the first senior citizen since Mr. Magoo to be the focus of an animated film, it is likely to attract ticket buyers of all ages. (Indeed, the villain, voiced by Christopher Plummer, is named Muntz, a name likely to be recognized by baby boomers who can recall Earl "Madman" Muntz, a post-wwii used-car salesman who introduced low-cost TV sets in the '50s ("I wanted to give them away, but my wife wouldn't let me -- she thinks I'm craaazy!"), eight-track stereo car systems in the '60s, and home satellite units in the '70s. (The filmmakers have not indicated whether they borrowed his name; it is also the name of a Simpsons character.) In his review of the movie, Daily Variety's Todd McCarthy remarked, "The two leading men are 78 and 8 years old, and the age range of those who will appreciate the picture is even a bit wider than that." At a news conference following the press screening, Ed Catmull, president of Disney Animation, commented: "There's a perception that animated films are for kids. A lot of people have that, which I think is very unfortunate. The films are made by adults who have very adult concerns." And John Lasseter, who holds the title of chief creative officer at Disney/Pixar, told reporters that the decision by Cannes officials to spotlight Up as the festival's opening film this year represents "one of the greatest kinds of rewards, it's one of the greatest things that's happened to us in our career. ... To see animation respected at the world's premier film festival ... you pinch yourself."
Article 2:
Disney/Pixar went all out at Cannes Wednesday to produce an elaborate PR stunt that would gain attention from the hundreds of journalists and photographers of all media stripes attending the festival. On a pier across from the elegant Carlton Hotel, studio workers tethered an enormous cluster of balloons, almost identical to the one created digitally for their new movie, Up. (It was impossible to tell whether thousands of small balloons had been bundled together or whether an outsized helium balloon was being concealed by hundreds of smaller ones.) The balloons were fastened to a miniature house resembling the one in the movie and brilliantly lighted. According to Up director Pete Docter, the original plan had been to release the balloons, which would carry the house over the Riviera, but strong winds caused them to keep the balloons tethered to the pier. Up director Pete Docter later explained to USA Today that the studio didn't want the headline around the world to read, "Oh, no! It's crashing into the boat."
Article 3:
Film critics attending the Cannes Film Festival, who ordinarily hone their scathes on the opening-night film (in 2006 The Da Vinci Code, the last U.S. film to open the festival, was loudly booed at the press screening during the closing credits) lofted Disney/Pixar's Up to heights of praise usually reserved exclusively for Cannes's arty-est competitors. Indeed Stephen Applebaum acknowledges in his review in The Scotsman: "It left critics on the Croisette feeling buoyant yesterday, which makes a change from opening movies in recent years." Few disagree. "Winsome, touching and arguably the funniest Pixar effort ever" is the way Michael Rechtshaffen in the Hollywood Reporter describes it. "It really is a lovely film," writes Peter Bradshaw in Britain's Guardian newspaper, "funny, high-spirited and sweet-natured, reviving memories of classic adventures from the pens of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne, and movies like Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Albert Lamorisse's The Red Balloon." Indeed, the Lamorisse classic is mentioned in numerous reviews, but only a single balloon figured in that small film; the new one features thousands, and the delights, the critics suggest, are a thousand fold. "This is a wonderful film," Roger Ebert writes in his "unofficial" review in the Chicago Sun-Times. (He's saving his "official" one for the U.S. opening on May 29.) Ebert reserves most of this review for a lengthy criticism of 3D, which, he insists, degrades the vibrant color of animated film. His advice: "Find a theater showing [Up in 2D], save yourself some money, and have a terrific visual experience." Recalling Walt Disney's admonition to his animators that "for every laugh there should be a tear," Peter Howell in the Toronto Star writes that Up is "one of the most emotional movies Pixar has ever made." To be sure, a few critics appear about as steadfastly grumpy as the central character in the movie, a 78-year-old voiced by Edward Asner (who often sounds eerily like Lionel Barrymore's definitive Scrooge). Kaleem Aftab writes in the London Independent, "Once the adventure moves into its obligatory action denouement, it enters a world of stereotypes that disappoints" with "blockbuster moments [that are] surprisingly uninventive." And Joe Morgenstern writes in the Wall Street Journal that he was left "with an unshakable sense of Up being rushed and sketchy, a collection of lovely storyboards that coalesced incompletely or not at all."
