Digital Media FX News Archives

Friday - June 8, 2001
- New Monsters, Inc. Trailer Released!
- Atlantis Reviews
- Toon Boom Announces Animation Contest for Mac Users
- News Link of the Day - Disney Domain is Under Siege

New Monsters, Inc. Trailer Released!
(by digitalmediafx.com) Disney has released the official first movie trailer for Monsters, Inc. giving more depth into Pixar's newest animated production. Here is the synopsis for the movie:

"Monsters, Incorporated is the largest scare factory in the monster world and James P. Sullivan (John Goodman) is the top kid Scarer. Sullivan is a huge, intimidating monster with blue fur, large purple spots, and horns. His Scare Assistant, best friend and roommate is Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), a feisty, one-eyed, green ball of a monster. The cast of characters also includes the factory's CEO, a crablike monster named Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn) and the snake-headed, beguiling receptionist Celia (Jennifer Tilly). One of the top Scarers is a sarcastic chameleon monster named Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi). Visiting from the human world is Boo (Mary Gibbs), a tiny girl who goes where no human has ever gone before."

The movie trailer is available via the Internet (see link below) and is also attached to Disney's animated Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

> Click here to view the movie trailer.
> Click here to post your comments - or read others comments - about the trailer.

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Atlantis Reviews
(by digitalmediafx.com) Atlantis: The Lost Empire opened today in Los Angeles and New York to mixed reviews. Here are some initial critic quotes pertaining to Disney's newest animated production:

Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today - "...What Atlantis gains in chills and thrills, it loses in pure emotion. The visuals are a stunning widescreen mix of digital and hand-drawn artwork that is far more edgy and angular than typical Mouse fare. The giant waves, monster crustaceans, flame-throwing fireflies and rivers of lava arrive in a furious rush. It's a Saturday-morning cartoon pumped up on steroids..."

Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times - "...Disney's newest animated feature, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, is a monumental treat as well as a crafty assemblage of mythologies. The movie accepts the squareness of its period, 1914, instead of trying to amuse audiences with anachronisms, although a few do slip in..."

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly - "...Atlantis, with its gee-whiz formulaic characters, is the essence of craft without dream, but the movie, in a strange way, is more personal than the artists who made it realize. Its real lost empire might almost be the day that hand drawn animation in the conventionally Colorform Disney style could still saturate us with wonder..."

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times - "...Atlantis: The Lost Empire plays more like the best Disney animated film of 1981 than 2001. Story line and characterization are decidedly old-fashioned, and a curious decision about production design gives this wide-screen cartoon some of the look and feel of a Saturday morning TV cartoon series..."

Atlantis opens nationwide next Friday.

> Click here to visit the "Atlantis is Waiting" dFX Movie Site.

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Toon Boom Announces Animation Contest for Mac Users
(by digitalmediafx.com) Toon Boom Technologies, a leading supplier of 2D animation software for major film and television studios, has announced a contest where the winners will be awarded an opportunity to work with professionals. The contest, which officially started yesterday and runs through June 30, challenges users to unleash their creative talents by using Toon Boom Studio (Mac version) in one of three Web animation categories: music videos, political cartoons and online advertising.

The winners of each category will work directly with interactive entertainment giant Sega of America, Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist Mike Luckovich and internationally-acclaimed DJ Mark Farina to create Web-based animated shorts.

The work of each winner will be shown at Macworld Expo in July. In addition, each winner will receive $1,000, Toon Boom Studio 1.0 software (worth $499), a 9x12 inch Wacom Intuos Tablet (worth $429) and a trip to Macworld.

For full contest details, click here.


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News Link of the Day - Disney Domain is Under Siege

According to USA Today:

"Disney isn't just releasing its usual big-event animated feature this summer. When Atlantis: The Lost Empire is launched on Friday in New York and Los Angeles (and then wide June 15), consider it a counterattack akin to the explosive Tokyo raid in Pearl Harbor. The artists are sketching outside the studio's G-rated formula with this PG-macho action-adventure about the search for the missing continent…"

Click here for the full story.

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