Kyle O, here. Zesty honey bbq autistic man who loves animation, wants to make animated features in the future, artist, also loves the music of yesterdecade, film, Disney VHS collecting, retro games, and then some.
An Autistic Animated Mind
RIP Blue Sky Studios…
Established in February 1987… Iconic commercials, early innovation in CGI, packed to the brim with top talent, a rare East Coast-based house, and one of the first studios in a post-Don Bluth age to really challenge Disney and Pixar in the feature animation field…
Gone.
Once a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Company had them since early 2019 after the acquisition of their parent company. It looked as if Disney was going to keep them around, despite already having two powerhouse animation studios making family features for them. I wondered back in the day if Disney could rebrand Blue Sky as a sort-of outre little studio that did more experimental, quirky fare as opposed to the more digestible works of Disney Animation and Pixar.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, signs were rather troubling. Despite a management change, you had the rather ho-hum marketing for SPIES IN DISGUISE. To me, Disney sort-of let that one disappear between FROZEN II and STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER. I found SPIES IN DISGUISE to be a fun little movie, with a timely pacifist message and memorable gags. Sadly, it did not make its money back. Even more troubling was the constant delaying of NIMONA, an adaptation of Noelle Stevenson’s webcomic of the same name from FEAST and PEARL director Patrick Osborne. From the rumblings I’ve heard, it looked to be an innovative CG film and a next-level family film in general. Like a next SPIDER-VERSE. It was to be released January 14, 2022. 70% of the film was completed by this point… It is no longer a reality, Blue Sky is done…
450+ animators and staffers out of a job during an awful worldwide crisis…
Why couldn’t The Walt Disney Company just sell off Blue Sky Studios to a distributor looking for more animation to stock up on? If they didn’t need more than two animation studios (see the shuttering of their own Disneytoon Studios in early 2018), why shutter them and wait so long to do so? I know that absorbing competition and killing it is nothing new, but this is **expletive** for a multitude of reasons. Multiple talent out of a job, more movies and work squashed, a nearly-completed film likely dead. (It would be great if it was instead on the market, so that someone could snatch it up and complete it, but we shall see…)
Blue Sky Studios were no slouches. ICE AGE established them, big time. In fact, I’d say they helped show the industry that the features world wasn’t just Disney’s game anymore. Disney had seen rivals in feature animation in the past, notably Don Bluth and Ralph Bakshi, but they continued through the decades while Bluth and Bakshi’s feature opportunities waned. Blue Sky, alongside DreamWorks and a fledgling Sony Pictures Animation, changed that, and they were here to stay. And it’s quite sad that Disney had to acquire this notable studio and shut them down, they would’ve thrived elsewhere because of the success of their previous work and the amount of talent they have/had over the years.
They have a pretty distinct body of work, too. ROBOTS, HORTON HEARS A WHO!, RIO, EPIC, THE PEANUTS MOVIE, FERDINAND, SPIES IN DISGUISE. Some of them, I’d argue, were quite innovative. ICE AGE stabbed at cartoony, Looney Tunes-esque humor and visual design. The work in that movie rung more Warner Bros. than it did Disney or something more naturalistic in design. Their later work embraced that kind of outlook as well, but you started seeing other studios doing this as well: DreamWorks with MADAGASCAR, Sony Animation with OPEN SEASON and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, and so on. The antithesis to the ever-more-realistic Pixar styles. Then Blue Sky just straight up redefined the computer animated feature with THE PEANUTS MOVIE, which not only kept the comic strip aesthetic of Charles Schulz’s iconic characters and world, but adapted them to a computer animated world while doing something new in the process. PEANUTS MOVIE, along with similar pictures like THE BOOK OF LIFE and CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, are indeed stepping stones to SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE and what lies beyond that feature. In short, Blue Sky played a big part in computer animation showing that it didn’t just have to look like Pixar movies, or most other computer animated works that were out at the time of ICE AGE’s early 2002 release.
Who knows where that could’ve all gone. NIMONA looked to be something new and exciting, something to really push things forward and widen the computer animation canvas. A musical called FOSTER also sounded like it had potential. When TWDC acquired 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios), Fox Animation in general had several animated films in development, hoping to branch out beyond their one studio… All of that seemingly died after the Disney acquisition, with only Blue Sky and a couple of Fox primetime TV-showed based movies (i.e. THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE, another - and inevitable - SIMPSONS picture) left. Now Blue Sky is gone. More animation, gutted. And for what? Disney didn’t have to do this…
It’s even more egregious when you consider where Disney was in 1991… As opposed to now, 2021…
Think of this… Under the controversial Michael Eisner, The Walt Disney Company was willing to sink a massive amount of money into a project that had already been cancelled. Said project was given to blockbuster king Steven Spielberg, hit director Robert Zemeckis, and animation mastermind Richard Williams. This was not even a few years after Disney was a quiet establishment being circled by corporate raiders that could’ve ended them for good… And what came of it. WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. An innovative animation-live action hybrid movie for a more adult audience. One of the biggest films of 1988, a bonafide blockbuster that Disney hadn’t seen in years, and more than lit the fuse of animation’s 2nd Golden Age.
Then, in 1990, a former animator of theirs turned big-time director realizes that a short story he wrote while at the company was still owned by them. That man was Tim Burton, and he expressed interest in revisiting that poem. A studio was set up, with similarly outre director and former Disney animator Henry Selick taking the helm. The result was an innovative stop-motion film that leaned more towards horror and German expressionism than something like BEAUTY AND THE BEAST did. The result was THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS in 1993. A respectable hit then, an iconic classic today. Without NIGHTMARE, would have ever gotten future stop-motion efforts like CHICKEN RUN and everything Laika has made?
Finally, in 1991, Disney makes a three-picture deal with a small computer graphics studio based out of Marin County. One of their main guys was a former Disney animator as well, similarly outed for being too ambitious. Their plan? Make the world’s first all computer-animated movie. That studio was Pixar, their first movie was TOY STORY. Need I say more?
The Disney of today would’ve never in these three instances. Blue Sky could’ve been their chance to really make some kind of a splash in a post-SPIDER-VERSE world. Various shorts made at Disney Animation (including Osborne’s own FEAST) suggested this, and some Pixar shorts as well… But nothing really came of this. In terms of features being put out by Disney Animation and Pixar, only parts of MOANA, INSIDE OUT, and SOUL put this kind of thing in a long-form format. Blue Sky, who operated on smaller budgets, could’ve been their arm for more experimental feature animation. I say this because while Disney doesn’t need to hog up animation, Blue Sky was owned by them, and I felt the best way to go about this was to re-establish them as a more experimental studio. Make the most of it, you know? But no, they had to shut it all down.
When a studio shuts down, I feel a chunk of the animation world is just broken right off… While some of the artists are apparently being welcomed into various Disney houses, it sucks to see a studio with its own identity and output gone. Of course, my hope is that everyone employed there will have somewhere to go by April (when the studio shuts down completely) and that maybe, just maybe a new studio could be formed up from the remains. (Think Don Bluth setting up shop upon his departure from Disney in 1979.) Somebody has to get their happy ending, right? I know it’s moot asking for such a thing in this hellscape business of massive octopus conglomerates engulfing everything into their eight tentacles, but…
I wish everyone involved well, and that they’ll prosper afterwards. I certainly hope the ¾ completed NIMONA doesn’t remain unfinished. (Netflix? Someone?) I hope to see some good come out of this…
Just like old times, I’m going to make some Best Animated Feature Oscar predictions…
Thanks to streaming and other alternative methods, a good number of animated features were released in the hell-year that was 2020. We still got a Pixar film, we got two DreamWorks pictures, but we also were lucky to get a wide variety of smaller films as well. This season, we’ll see five candidates vying for best animated feature of 2020. This morning, we got the Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture - Animated. They are:
Pete Docter and Kemp Powers’ ambitious, weighty Pixar odyssey SOUL
Dan Scanlon’s Pixar fantasy adventure mashup ONWARD
Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s innovative, atmospheric fantasy WOLFWALKERS
Glen Keane’s heart-smothered moon musical OVER THE MOON
and lastly, DreamWorks’ wild sequel THE CROODS: A NEW AGE. I have yet to see that film. My plans to see it safely were knocked right off course this past autumn, and I don’t want to pay $20 for something I’m going to watch all by myself only once or twice. I’m going to blind buy the Blu-ray, because I’m sure to like the film.
The tangent aside, I think this gives us a fair idea of what the Oscar nomination slots will look like.
For me, the definites are SOUL, WOLFWALKERS, and OVER THE MOON.
SOUL, it’s obvious why. It might even be nominated for Best Picture. If so, that’s the first time an animated feature has ever been nominated in that category since 2010′s TOY STORY 3. That was a decade ago. It would be the fourth animated movie **ever** to achieve this, too. (A depressingly low number, the best animated movies of any given year should be nominated for BP as well.) Pete Docter’s 2-for-3 when it comes to this category; his MONSTERS, INC. lost to SHREK, long considered a mistake on the Academy’s part. His UP got nominated for Best Picture, and easily took home BAF. INSIDE OUT won for 2015. SOUL might just be it, but it’s surely a lock for nomination. 105%.
Similarly, Cartoon Saloon and Tomm Moore are Oscar bonafides. Moore’s THE SECRET OF KELLS and SONG OF THE SEA were nominated in their respective years, and Nora Twomey’s THE BREADWINNER was nominated in its release year as well. WOLFWALKERS is a lock, and being acclaimed, free of any potential controversies (unlike SOUL), and being much more easier to access than previous Cartoon Saloon pictures (which were released by GKIDS in less than 500 cinemas each time out), this one could very well win it. I know it’s the one **I** myself am rooting for.
OVER THE MOON is being pushed by Netflix, its distributor here in the states. I think this, combined with Disney maverick Glen Keane being director, and the musical elements, make this one a strong candidate, though I don’t see it winning due to SOUL and WOLFWALKERS being robust. That being said, it’s easily getting nominated. Out of the few animated features Netflix released in 2020, this one’s clearly the favorite. I honestly would’ve pushed for THE WILLOUGHBYS, but maybe that one - something of a twisted dark comedy in the vain of a Roald Dahl story - was too outre for some? Maybe the familiar heartfelt musical was the easier ticket?
So… What do I think will fill the other two slots?
Sometimes, the Globe’s choices skew more mainstream than the Academy’s. With the animation branch nominating the pictures, we are bound to see some smaller films in there. I think ONWARD and THE CROODS: A NEW AGE will give way to such films… What do I think the two will be?
For me, the first choice is rather easy. FARMAGEDDON: A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE. Aardman. Stop-motion. Critically acclaimed. The original was beloved and was nominated in its release year. Aardman stop-motion films never miss the slot. CHICKEN RUN is mostly why the Best Animated Feature category exists in the first place. The only times Aardman ever missed the slots were with their CG films. (It also helps that a lot of 2011′s crop was so strong, that ARTHUR CHRISTMAS was probably not a guarantee to begin with.) But w/ Netflix being its distributor, I think it has a big chance to come in along with OVER THE MOON.
The fifth? This is a little more open. So far we have one big studio picture released by the biggest of the biggies (Disney, obvs), an Aardman film, an Irish indie, and a Disney legend-helmed musical. It could be anything. Maybe the DEMON SLAYER movie, given how well that’s doing in its home country, and sometimes the Academy makes room for an anime film. Maybe Remi Chaye’s CALAMITY has a shot? Or maybe it’s the CGI’ed LUPIN THE III movie? A WHISKEY AWAY could work out, but Netflix probably will get two slots. If no FARMAGEDDON, it could either be that or WILLOUGHBYS. The rest don’t sound like definites, given how the Oscars tend to gloss over the further corners of animated features. They go indie, but just enough. Not full force… WOLFWALKERS, perhaps, fills the indie quota, along with the Aardman movie and the mid-scale Netflix musical… So that slot five will go to another mainstreamer.
Out of the mainstreamers, I think the ones with the highest chances are ONWARD and the two DreamWorks sequels. THE CROODS 2 more so than TROLLS WORLD TOUR, given the warmer reception and fairly successful run in theaters (for a movie that opened amidst a pandemic with a custom release window), plus it’s up for the Globe. DreamWorks often gets shut out of races, probably because competition is usually so strong. They did get a slot with the final HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON film, and THE BOSS BABY, more recently. The original CROODS was up for best of 2013, too. It could very well be the cavemen once more. What else is there? SCOOB! got mixed reception and seems to have been forgotten. (I thought it was alright.) Despite being eligible, the latest SPONGEBOB won’t be it, either. The previous two SpongeBob movies weren’t, so I doubt this would be, too. Heck, it might just be ONWARD, given that it was also Pixar (released by big bad Disney) and was also critically liked and also got a Globe nomination. But surprisingly, the Academy didn’t do a two-for-Disney for their 2019 crop: Pixar’s TOY STORY 4 was in that race (and won), but Disney Animation’s FROZEN II - despite getting good reviews, making $1.4 billion worldwide, and the original being the winner in its respective year - was left out. The last two times Pixar released two movies in a calendar year, only one of the two got nominated. INSIDE OUT ran for 2015, THE GOOD DINOSAUR wasn’t nominated. Ditto 2017, COCO ran, CARS 3 didn’t. Interestingly, neither of those years had a Disney Animation picture, either. 2020 didn’t, for RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON opens next month. Looking at it this way, it seems very, very tight…
With that, I think the race will be between…
SOUL, WOLFWALKERS, OVER THE MOON, FARMAGEDDON: A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE, and THE CROODS: A NEW AGE.
What are your predictions?
Probably the “cringiest” fanart I’ve ever made. For some reason, I wanted to combine Baldi from ‘Baldi’s Basics’ with long time manga/anime assassin - and perpetual frowner - Golgo 13.
The Mitchells’ Rumble with Dragons…
Just some quick thoughts on some recent animation developments…
1)
I absolutely love that Sony Pictures Animation is going back to the
original title of their upcoming Mike Rianda-Jeff Rowe sci-fi road trip
adventure picture. THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES is what it was first
known as, before a last-minute title change to the adjective CONNECTED
in early 2020. When it was still intended to be a theatrical release, we
got promo materials and a trailer bearing that (in my opinion) bland
new title… Coming to Netflix sometime this year, it’ll be THE
MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES once more. Great title, and I’d rather see
animated movies like these keep such titles, instead of having them
watered down for “marketing purposes”. (I get it, a title is merely a
title, and it’s the movie that ultimately matters most. There are bigger
issues, yes, but this little switch-back makes me pretty happy…
There’s also nothing wrong with one-word titles, but I think there’s a
tendency in mainstream feature animation to go for vague or adjective
words because someone else did it and now everyone’s gotta do it.)
2)
So many release date changes. But it’s necessary, the ever-so-horribly-handled worldwide pandemic wasn’t going to just end, magically, after our new president took office. Skydance Animation’s LUCK and SPELLBOUND
were going to be theatrical releases - complete with concrete release
dates, 2/18/2022 and 11/11/2022 - from Paramount, until Apple TV+ got
them, now they are both off of the schedule. Paramount Animation
subsequently delayed their adaptation of MONSTER ON A HILL - bearing the
title RUMBLE, to emphasize the WWE’s involvement I suppose - to the
former. Previously, it was set to open in mid-2020, then in Q1 2021,
then in May… Now we have to wait till early 2022. This is probably
because Paramount is relaunching CBS All Access as Paramount+, and I
don’t think that service is as big as Disney+, HBO Max, et al…. So
they want to launch that in theaters when the time is right. Disney/20th
Century Studios also pushed back Locksmith Animation’s debut feature
RON’S GONE WRONG to 10/22/2021, the latest in many delays for what was
once a fall 2020 release. BOB’S BURGERS: THE MOVIE is without a date,
another film that would’ve debuted in mid-2020 in a pandemic-less world.
Lastly, we had the announcement that Sony Animation’s Chinese
co-production WISH DRAGON will be a Netflix release some time this year.
Their next theatrical release is set to be VIVO on 6/4/2021, but that
is sure to change some time soon…
3) I’m not really into
GAME OF THRONES, but the idea of an animated “drama” series based on the George R. R. Martin multi-media franchise made for HBO
Max does very much intrigue me… Because Western animation needs more
kinds of adult animation, other than just “hah hah cartoon characters
swearing”. I mean, we have Netflix’s CASTLEVANIA, but it’s always good
to have more. GAME OF THRONES, I feel, is a potentially good step. Now, whatever happened to Warner Animation Group’s planned feature adaptation of Martin’s THE ICE DRAGON? Speaking of dragons…
4) Disney Animation’s RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON’s latest trailer is very impressive. The picture is being sold as a straight up action-packed adventure, though the trailer doesn’t spare the funny bits, mostly the scenes with Awkwafina’s Sisu character. (I just want to hear her say “bawk bawk, bitch!” from CRAZY RICH ASIANS, hehe.) One of its filmmakers even remarked that it could’ve gotten an R-rating, that’s how intense the action is going to be in this film. It seems to be Walt Disney Animation Studios channeling ATLANTIS and TREASURE PLANET, and it’s also not dissimilar to recent non-musical adventures of theirs like WRECK-IT RALPH, BIG HERO 6, and ZOOTOPIA. They keep going strong. If I’m vaccinated by then, I may just make that one my comeback theater movie. Pixar’s ONWARD was my last theater visit before this is all broke out, which was a March 6th release. This is aiming for March 5th… Would be one hell of a circle.
