Disney's "Planes: Fire & Rescue" is coming. You'll recall that "Planes" was a surprise hit last summer, so Disney did not waste any time bringing this "Cars" spinoff back in a hurry. Above is trailer "Thunder."
Dane Cook returns as the voice of Dusty Crophopper, the cropduster plane with big dreams. He is joined by Julie Bowen ("Modern Family"). Stacy Keach returns as Skipper, and Ed Harris, Erik Estrada and Fred Willard have roles. The film is directed by Bobs Gannaway and opens July 18th in the US and August 8 in the UK.
In case you were wondering, the original song in the trailer (not the Elvis Presley tune) is "Still I Fly." It was written and produced by Michael Smith (Smidi Music, Inc.).
Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue comes to theatres on July 18!
"Planes: Fire & Rescue" is a new comedy-adventure about second chances, featuring a dynamic crew of elite firefighting aircraft devoted to protecting historic Piston Peak National Park from raging wildfire. When world famous air racer Dusty (voice of Dane Cook) learns that his engine is damaged and he may never race again, he must shift gears and is launched into the world of aerial firefighting. Dusty joins forces with veteran fire and rescue helicopter Blade Ranger and his courageous team, including spirited super scooper Dipper (voice of Julie Bowen), heavy-lift helicopter Windlifter, ex-military transport Cabbie and a lively bunch of brave all-terrain vehicles known as The Smokejumpers. Together, the fearless team battles a massive wildfire and Dusty learns what it takes to become a true hero. Directed by Bobs Gannaway ("Secret of the Wings").
Chicken Little: A Fun Little Disney Movie with the Legendary Don Knotts
Many people are familiar with the "Cola Wars" of the 1980s, when Pepsi challenged Coke's supremacy and Coke famously "blinked." Less well known is that the same thing happened in the 2000s in the context of Disney and its rivals. The result basically was the same in both cases - Coke and Disney both remained "on top," depending on how you choose to define that term. Coke went back to its original formula and retained its market share, while Disney eventually bought out its biggest competitor, Pixar.
Chicken Little and Ugly Duckling
The source of Disney's troubles was Pixar's (and eventually DreamWorks' and others) continuing perfection of computer graphics. Audiences liked the slick new animation styles being peddled by the upstart animation companies and no longer seemed as excited about Disney's combination of computer imagery and traditional hand-drawn animation. Walt Disney Feature Animation's solution was to lay off its animators and try doing what the others were doing.
"Chicken Little" (2005), directed by Mark Dindal from a script by Steven Bencich, Ron J. Friedman and Ron Anderson and story by Dindal and Mark Kennedy, was Disney's first fully computer-animated feature film, and it showed the studio still had some work to do to win back its audiences of the 1990s.
Chicken Little, he's the greatest dancer!
Chicken Little (Zach Braff) lives in Oakey Oaks. He wildly rings the school bell one day, telling people to run for their lives. Everyone panics, but when Chicken Little finally tells everyone that the reason for alerting them was that a piece of the sky had fallen on him, they all just laughed at him. Chicken Little's father, Buck Cluck, dismisses Chicken Little's fears as being caused simply by an acorn that had fallen on him. The town decides that Chicken Little is crazy and ignores him.
Chicken Little is ready to go
A year later, Chicken Little's only remaining friends are fellow outcasts like Abby Mallard (Joan Cusack), who has a crush on Chicken Little, Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn) and Fish Out of Water (Dan Molina), who wears a helmet full of tap water. Chicken Little wants Buck Cluck to be proud of him, so he joins a baseball team. The coach ignores Chicken Little until the last inning of the last game, when the coach finally calls him to bat. Chicken Little hits the ball and rounds the bases, barely making it home after some confusion. For winning the big game, Chicken Little becomes a hero.
Don Knotts plays Mayor Turkey Lurkey
Later that night, though, Chicken Little is hit in the head again. He discovers that it not the sky that hit him, though, but something else that he does not recognize which blends into the background. Chicken Little's friend Fish Out of Water fools around with the piece and pushes a button on its back. It turns out to be a hexagon that flies off into the sky and was hiding a UFO. Once again, Chicken Little rings the school bell to warn the town, but the aliens quickly leave. Nobody believes Chicken Little, and once again he becomes a figure of fun.
Ugly Duckling "is the babe"
The next day, though, Chicken Little and his friends discover an orange alien child that the aliens left behind. The aliens return in a fleet of spaceships, looking for the lost child. They destroy the town with their ray guns. Chicken Little finds his father and manages to show that he is not crazy, and that he can stop the aliens. Buck helps fight the aliens, but they all get vaporized, which actually sends them into the alien space ship. Once they get the child back, the aliens restore everything to normal, and Chicken Little again becomes a hero for averting a catastrophe.
Chicken Little, Fish out of Water and Ugly Duckling
The voice cast of "Chicken Little" is chock full of old and new television comedy veterans. Don Knotts, who had been an animation pioneer 40 years earlier as Henry Limpet in "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," voices the Mayor of Oakey Oaks, Turkey Lurkey. Garry Marshall plays Buck with his usual comic flair. Fred Willard, Wallace Shawn, and Amy Sedaris are well-known comics who round out the cast. Having such amiable actors portraying the characters in this fable was a wise move, making the rote script come alive and enhancing the amusement of "Chicken Little" by letting the audience reconnect with old friends once more time. This was one of Don Knotts' final films, and he is his usual amusing self as the mayor.
Chicken Little and the orange alien baby
While this was a feature animated Disney movie, with a top-notch voice cast and all the trimmings, in essence it was the equivalent of a small, experimental Disney movie. Trying to unshackle itself from dependence on Pixar, this Disney movie has a good technical animation presentation but is completely lacking in its story. Everyone knows what a "chicken little" is, as it is a catchphrase for an alarmist, and this Disney movie did not expand on that concept at all. It has a lot of bright colors and constant chaos, with amusing dialogue and the types of one-liners you would expect from the cast of comedy pros. The father-son relationship is emphasized, which you also would expect in a Disney movie and is in line with Disney's efforts at the time to win over boys. All of this makes "Chicken Little" a very suitable film for small children. Anyone else, though is likely to be only mildly amused at hearing Don Knotts one more time, before quickly growing tired of the succession of clichés and paint-by-numbers plot turns.
Ugly Duckling and Chicken Little watching the sky
The soundtrack is fairly idiosyncratic, including numbers by Barenaked Ladies, Spice Girls, Joss Stone and Patti LaBelle, and R.E.M.John Debney did the score, which is okay. Perhaps the most amusing aspect of "Chicken Little" for older audiences is the parade of cultural references that the animators include to spice things up a bit. The false opening parodies "The Lion King," and there are nods to "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Independence Day" and "War of the Worlds."
Chicken Little always the center of attention
If you are watching "Chicken Little" with your child, you might be able to stop your mind from drifting off by catching the numerous throw-away references - some fairly subtle - to high-profile television shows and films like "90210" and Ridley Scott's "Alien."
Chicken Little with reporters after saving everyone
Overall, "Chicken Little" is a sweet, inoffensive film for little children. There are DVD, Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray versions available. Perhaps the most lasting impact of "Chicken Little" is that its mere production showed Pixar that Disney meant to compete in the computer-animation field, thereby perhaps nudging it toward accepting Pixar's takeover by Disney shortly after this film's release. Disney, on the other hand, saw by "Chicken Little's" problems that it might be able to learn a thing or two from its young rival. Disney blinked, all right, but then it opened its big, wide, toothy jaw and swallowed its main competitor whole. Hey, that would make a good animation scene....
Some would call the animated Pixar feature film "WALL-E" (2008), directed by Andrew Stanton, the top animated film of all time. Truly, it is difficult to find fault with this film, but I'm not making that call here. his is a quality animated film that definitely is at the top of the recent pile along with "Beauty and the Beast" and a few others. But virtually all recent animated films are done with exquisite quality and detail, so saying one is "the best" is simply pointless. One will be "the best" if its particular focus and theme speaks to you.
WALL-E going about his work
The plot is fairly original, and has a valuable lesson for kids. This is the kind of thing that will stick with them when they grow up, so if you want them to become aware of the ecology and how important it is to not trash planet Earth, this film is a must-see.
WALL-E
It is the future. Earth has been abandoned by mankind because it has become covered in trash. The powerful multi-national conglomerate "Buy N Large" (personified by CEO Fred Willard) is responsible. WALL-E (Ben Burtt) is a garbage collecting robot who has been left to clean things up.
Captain and Eve, with Auto in the background
WALL-E is fascinated with the things that have been left behind. He finds Earth's history and culture fascinating. He is alone except for a pet cockroach.
One day, EVE (Elissa Knight), a sleek (and
dangerous) reconnaissance robot, arrives. She has been sent to find out if life is once again sustainable. WALL-E
rescues EVE from a storm and shows her around. Of course, he falls in love with her, and she likes him.
Earth is a barren wasteland
However, when WALL-E shows Eve a plant growing amongst the trash, thereby fulfilling her mission, things change. Following her programming, Eve automatically enters a deactivated state, going to sleep until someone comes to retrieve her. All that is left of her consciousness is a blinking green beacon. WALL-E then must try to figure out how to bring his love back to life.
True Love
Rather than having just a rote tale designed to showcase its lovable characters (such as, oh, getting kicked out of your simple village by some mean guy and then having to find your way back), this film actually becomes philosophical about loneliness and alienation. It is very sophisticated, but at the same time, very down to earth in its focus on love. Thus, it is suitable for more mature audiences as well as just kids.
Pixar was at the top of its game when it made "WALL-E." It borrows heavily from the classic Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey," which is undeniable and which is the case with a lot of other films, too. "WALL-E," though, is not a remake, but instead has its own distinct style and themes. Comparing the two is pointless. "2001" was ground-breaking, solidified the careers of people who wound up making "Star Wars" and other classics, and dealt with profound philosophical issues in the context of the manned space program and man's glorious future (which, at the time of that film, seemed shaky). "WALL-E," on the other hand, is a wonderful love story, primarily (but certainly not exclusively) aimed at younger viewers that is another in a seemingly endless series of quality products turned out by the Disney/Pixar machine.
WALL-E walks the walk
If you enjoy "WALL-E" more than some other film, then it is the better film for you. It certainly is more accessible for a general audience and especially younger viewers, with its cute robots and quirky love story and over-arching theme of loneliness. That doesn't make it "better" in the grand sense unless that is how you, reading this, choose to define quality, which is perfectly fine if that works for you. If you're hungry, a quick crust of bread may be more satisfying to you than a seven-course meal. It seems a clear choice to this critic, however, as to which film is the more "influential," and I don't think that's even debatable: "2001." Be that as it may, this may well be "the Pixar movie for people who don't like Pixar films." My biggest complaint is that it seems too short, but maybe that's just because I enjoyed it so much.
There are many thoughtful moments in "WALL-E"
"WALL-E" is kind of sad in a way, which makes it a bit difficult for some kids. We are made to sympathy with these robots, but the future inevitably is a dead end for their kind and they know it. Still, it is a wonderful tale about how love can grow in the strangest places. The film received nominations in several major categories at the 2009 Annie Awards, including: Voice acting (Ben Burtt), Best Feature Film, Animated Effects, Character Animation, Direction, Production design, and Storyboarding.
"WALL-E" is well worth giving a shot. Probably the main reason it does not seem to have stayed in the public imagination as much as some other films is that Disney/Pixar hasn't seemed to figure out the right way to market it at theme parks - while the "Frozen" princesses have meet and greets, for instance, that is a bit tougher to do with robots. Perhaps Disney just needs to develop a cool ride for it, and nobody's better at doing that than Disney. In any event, you may wind up enjoying watching "WALL-E" more than you thought you would.
Below is the trailer for "WALL-E."
And here are some cute vignettes of WALL-E doing zany things.
