It's the Not-Even-Remotely-Annual Summer Animated Trailer Post!

A lot, an awful lot, of trailers for upcoming animated, kind-of-animated, and "how the blazes are we even defining what an animated film is anyway"-ted feature films have premiered lately, so let's all take a look at them!  Boy I hope you like sequels, franchise movies, remakes...



And here's a damn good example of how long it's been since I did one of these blogs: "Incredibles 2" comes out TONIGHT!?  Like, that's soon!  Really soon!  Oh my God, please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck...!!!

Weirdly, I feel like I haven't seen any excitement for this.  It's almost as if we can't even believe an "Incredibles" sequel is actually happening after Brad Bird denied he wanted to make one for all these years.



Boy I hope "Ralph Breaks the Internet" ends up being better than this teaser suggests.  I'm not the first to point this out but the Internet looks like a hellscape of Brands (I mean, it IS, but it'd be nice if they depicted it as anything else), and I'm having a hard time defending the "We are Disney, look upon our I.P.s and despair" scene.  Still, I can't wait to see that Princess scene in context and at least they're acknowledging that the Muppets exist.

Anyway, speaking of Disney, Brands, and Hell:



It's "Hook".  But, like, a Winnie the Pooh version.  Just what the world needed.  Though I like how most of Disney Twitter (TM) is using this as a teaching moment:

For those of you riding the nostalgia wave on the CHRISTOPHER ROBIN trailer, here’s a friendly reminder that Disney did a terrific new animated Winnie the Pooh movie in 2011 that made exactly $12 because they released it the same day as DEATHLY HALLOWS 2. pic.twitter.com/51waBnx6PZ

— David Daut (@DavidMDaut) March 6, 2018

Note: prepare yourself for a lot of people not understanding what hyperbole is in that thread.



I know a sequel to "Mary Poppins" is a thing that is happening, but why?  I can’t shake the feeling that "Sequel to Mary Poppins" is something that either would’ve been a Disney Sunday movie in the 80’s or would’ve happened somewhere between "102 Dalmatians" and "Chicken Little".

But good on them for remembering those crazy neighbors with the ship house.



Guys.  I am so God-damn tired.

Honestly.  I really can't wait until Disney gets this "Remake everything in live-action (for a given definition of live-action)" thing out of their system.  Hell, this might be more annoying than the era of DTV sequels...

Okay, enough bleakness:



Okay, maybe a little bleakness.  I'm conditioned to immediately dislike any new take on "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", doubly so if it gives Grinch a sad backstory to explain why he hates Christmas.  It's a damn sight cuter than the 2000 version at least, though that's a heck of a low bar to clear.



I like "How to Train Your Dragon 2" more than most but it really does feel like a part two and part three crammed together.  That doesn't leave much for part three to resolve, but I feel optimistic.  At least we're going to get more and hopefully even weirder monster designs.



I've been waiting for an official, actual "LEGO Movie 2" for a long time it feels.  All the theatrical LEGO movies have been very good, IMO, and I can't wait to be unexpectedly weepy by the end of this one too.



And here we have the one upcoming (like, not premiering in a few hours) animated film I'm most excited about.  Look at this; look how cool and creative this looks!  More unabashedly trippy CGI please!

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Art of the Day!

Hey, you know what very conspicuously did NOT get a trailer recently?

Forgotten Christmas Specials 2010!!! Part One

As I stated on Thanksgiving, I found a YouTube Channel that had a bunch of Christmas specials I never thought I'd see again. Among them is "George and the Christmas Star", a strange and oddly melancholy little special from our Canadian friends:



I remember seeing this in New Hampshire a very long time ago, and all I remembered was Ralph the Robot's song. All the songs are by Paul Anka and... you can tell.

The aforementioned YouTuber was also kind enough to share "Raggedy Anne and Andy and the Great Santa Claus Caper":



When we think of Chuck Jones Christmas Specials, we probably immediately think of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" But that's not the only one. "Santa Claus Caper" is an oddity from the late 1970's and the world has seemed to forget it entirely even though it's cute and really quite good.

Fun things to notice: I don't think Chuck could ever let Wile E. Coyote go. June Foray should be in every Christmas special ever. The message of the special comes across as "Don't leave your toys mint in the box because that is bad and wrong," which is... an odd point of contention to have indeed.

Chances are you'd see commercials like these during these specials:



I love the montage of all the "Celebrate the Season with Kraft" ads that ran during the first-ever broadcast of "The Christmas Toy". They made all that cheesy goop look *so* appealing!

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Obliquely Festive Thing of the Day! It is, in Any Case, Timely!

So, there's this movie adaptation of "Yogi Bear" out now. It looks like pretty much the Worst Thing. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and io9 writer Cyriaque Lamar has watched the film for our sins. Cyriaque then wrote this amazing review, which is a must-read, because it gets downright philosophical about Yogi and his fellow Hannah-Barbera animal characters:

"If chipmunks, beagles, and platyhelminthes suddenly begin yammering at us about shamanistic folk remedies, humanity's entire philosophical, religious, and legal edifices will be blasted to smithereens... the Jellystone bears are creatures that should make SETI sh*t its pants, but they're greeted with apathy."

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Sketch of the Day!

More Craft Fair silliness!

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs... tonight?

Yes, tonight. At eight PM EST. On TBS. Followed by "Shrek" and "The Cat in the Hat". Yes, THAT "The Cat in the Hat". The visual representation of the opposite of fun that also made Audrey Geisel halt any further live-action film adaptations of her late husband's books and keep very strict quality control on any other adaptations (deep breath) THAT "The Cat in the Hat". I guess we should be grateful they aren't airing the ghastly live-action "Grinch", but still,

OK, that issue aside, why November? Why the week before Thanksgiving? I recall "Grinch" being aired very early last year as well, and at this rate, we'll be seeing the special air in October some year.

But who am I kidding? It's the Grinch! You could make a great argument that this was Chuck Jones' Crowning Moment of Awesome. And having Jones and Dr. Suess and Boris Karloff and Thurl Ravenscrofft and June Foray all working together is like a perfect storm of win. This is easily the greatest Christmas special of all time and is also an excellent litmus test. Any adult who doesn't go "aww" at any moment in the show, particularly the ending (only acid reflux is more guaranteed to bring me to tears), is very likely going to display worse problems later on.

In most markets, I have noticed that "The Grinch" is often rerun in December, closer to Christmas. I'll have a list of things to look for ready by then; I just need to dig out my copy of Chuck Reducks.

What's a little bit more interesting is that there is a brandy-new "Futurama" holiday special this Sunday...
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In other news, New England Comicon is this Sunday. Lots of Comic Art Guild people will be there (but possibly not me as I have a prior commitment and just learned about this event.)

Also, the AV Club has a very nice write-up on watching the DC Animated Universe. They are dead-on about "Superman" but I disagree with them on "Batman Beyond".

ALSO also, here is a drinking game idea. "Harry Potter" fans, Drink when you have flashbacks of the long, l-o-n-g summer of 2003 (when a considerable number of movie reviews for the second and third "Matrix" movies -which are essentially one long movie released in two parts and also it had been a while since the first movie- were written by people -people paid to write reviews of movies, mind you- who did not bother to go back and watch the first movie...)

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Art of the day! Actually, it is time to start thinking of this year's Christmas card design isn't it?



EDIT: I didn't go with these designs, but cards are now available at the Zazzle store.

"How The Grinch Stole Christmas" is on tonight!

But not for all of us.
While eating leftover apple pie for breakfast for the third morning in a row, sitting in a weird amalgamation of Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations, and fretting over how I'm going to tackle the holiday season on this blog, I saw this at the Christmas Specials Wiki and thought I should share the heads-up:

Viewers in the Boston and Manchester, New Hampshire areas are going to need to have a DVR ready as the specials "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "Shrek the Halls" will be pre-empted for the New England Patriots-New Orleans Saints NFL Monday Night Football game telecast produced by ESPN this Monday (10/30).
The programs are scheduled to air at approximately 3 AM EST. (Emphasis mine.)

Oh man, it's Fox's treatment of the last season of "Futurama" all over again!!!
Seriously, though. This is the only time Chuck Jones' "Grinch" - arguably his crowning moment of awesome - will be viewable on broadcast television. Now, as a drooling Chuck Jones fangirl, I obviously have the DVD. And anyway, didn't ABC have the stones to cut scenes out of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" last year? For more commercials even?!
Ah, well. Here is a helpful schedule of almost every holiday special airing on television this season. The big three are all this week: "Charlie Brown" is on tomorrow night and "Rudolph" follows on Wednesday. I really wanted to do long, loving tributes to each of these animated Christmas special for the days on which they air (it is obligatory for an animation blog written by someone who grew up with them). I am probably going to do this anyway, but you'll have to DVR the specials to follow along, I guess. It's still November, dammit! Who'd expect Christmas specials on now? I remember when you didn't see any specials before the Solstice.
I'm rambling.
For now, eh, go Pats I guess.
EDIT: Boston gets the Grinch on December 23, which makes a heck of a lot more sense anyway.