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velvet-cupcake-games · 11 months

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Monday Mini Dev Update

This week's Monday mini-dev update!

Becky: Had a cold this week, which brings back the Covid brain fog, so instead of forcing my brain to write this week, I coded in most of Robin Chapter 1 (except the facial expressions because Robin's new expressions just came in today). It looks great and I learned how to do several new types of special effects. Arrapso: Robin's updated face and facial expressions are done! Robin CG 1 is about 40% redesigned in the new style. Robin CG 2 is unchanged but Marion's face and expression will be redone, then it will be finished. Lawri: Migraine city. :( Sandra: BG 45 in process.

Coding Assist Team: Shawna has received the spec for our Extras menu and will start coding it in in a couple weeks. We've brought VN pro Jaimie Scribbles on for at least one coding commission as well - coding in a pop-up that informs players why a locked choice is locked. (Coding Assist Team will not be reporting in weekly, but I was busy with them this week!)

#made marion #made marion dev update

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kylesvariouslistsandstuff · 2 months

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Pixar's ELIO, directed by COCO co-director Adrian Molina, would've opened today... Albeit a much different version of the movie.

The delay from this date to June 2025 meant that the fast food promo deals put in place a while ago couldn't be changed, thus - HOODWINKED TOO style - some of the toys are out now, as seen in the pic above...

Yep, I've heard by now what ELIO has supposedly been going through.

It's a unique Pixar production in that it was delayed by about a year and a half...

... AFTER a teaser trailer and poster for the film were released, following a big info drop on the movie at the fall 2022 D23 Expo...

Not even THE GOOD DINOSAUR, an infamously troubled Pixar production, went through that. That film was delayed before anyone outside of D23 attendees saw any footage from the scrapped version of the film, though renders of the older bigger Arlo and the bipedal version of Spot did leak.

All of this agita for ELIO...

... and I feel fine! Yeah, I'm not really worried about this movie.

It's easy to equate "troubled production" with "oncoming disaster", something that's absolutely gonna fail, an abomination from the get-go.

Yet, TOY STORY 2 and RATATOUILLE exist. Other Pixar films, and plenty of other animated movies, go through some form of hell before the ship is steered away from the cyclone. Sometimes within a year or so from release. The end results are always subjective anyways.

So, I have no idea how ELIO will turn out. If it's a movie *I* myself like, if it's a movie that resonates with the public, yadda yadda yadda.

ELIO, however, does not seem like a GOOD DINOSAUR situation to me. GOOD DINOSAUR not only lost its director (Bob Peterson), but the whole movie was thrown out and the replacement director (Peter Sohn) started over from scratch with a few core elements retained. ELIO seems like it's going to be half the movie we saw in the teaser this past summer, and a lot of new stuff. Sections being reworked, rather than the whole movie being thrown out and Molina & co. starting over. Voice work to be done, especially post-strikes, and they'll need time to animate all the new stuff. Pete Docter isn't the leader John Lasseter was, Lasseter likely would've canned Molina and had another director reimagine the concept/story to his liking.

I think it's cool, if this is all true, that Docter is giving Molina and the filmmakers more time to rework the film. Especially after the marketing campaign has kicked in. With that, it probably should stay in June 2025. I had thought for a bit that it could move up a bit and take MOANA 2's place, because that Thanksgiving release sounds like it's going to be a crunch production, what with Auli'i Cravalho and The Rock signing on *just recently* to reprise their roles nine months before release. I'd delay that to spring 2025, honestly. Disney can afford to miss the Thanksgiving slot this year, they'll be fine. INSIDE OUT 2 and CG LION KING prequel can be their sole animation releases this year, even if the latter won't be billed as such.

As for its box office prospects? Big budget sci-fi animated features, even in a not-COVID world, struggle. Especially space-setting sci-fi animation. TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET, anyone? Only something very low-budget would cut it, but we're talking $200m Pixar movies, not that microbudget CLONE WARS movie. (STAR WARS isn't sci-fi to me, but you get my drift, right?)

Pixar, however, *did* score a box office hit with WALL-E all the way back in 2008. Despite the spacebound adventure and the future Earth setting, the marketing wisely focused on the cute robots in love. That got folks to see it back then, methinks. ELIO will need a similar hook, and it's a summer release as well, so it could be primed for a blockbuster run.

However, most non-sequel animated features play a different game now, in a post-COVID outbreak world: Open tiny, have ludicrous legs. That's fine if your feature cost $90m and you made around $250m at the worldwide box office, but like ELEMENTAL before it, ELIO's probably going to need to make around $500m worldwide to break even in the eyes of the money people - who seem to keep forgetting that animated movies have fantastic longevity beyond their theatrical release. ELEMENTAL had the fun premise and the love story working in its favor after its blah opening weekend (though it was pretty high for a post-outbreak animated opening), ELIO... I don't know what it has at the moment. Will the "kid becomes Earth's ambassador within a massive council of aliens" really get audiences to come flockin' in summer 2025? I do not know, but I hope it does good, for Molina's sake, and so we can be spared the five gazillion "is Pixar circling the drain???" articles...

All I know is, I'm looking forward to it. Space adventure and colorful aliens and stuff, by way of Pixar and their resources.

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milkplusvn · 1 year

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Three Lilies — Delay, Progress, Talking About Direction

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:pensive: :face_holding_back_tears: Three Lilies is now being pushed to December. I’ve been having little bouts of illness that have been hindering my progress as well as sleep issues. Don’t worry about it, it’ll be okay. It’s not COVID, at least!

As it stands, because of those bouts of illness, I’ve only gotten halfway through scene one of Suburb. I do want to make Three Lilies a fun experience throughout the whole visual novel, so I don’t want Countryside to be great in terms of direction and then have the other two stories fall flat.

So, let’s look at the breakdown now!

Countryside

Writing — 100% written and edited

Artwork — 100% complete

Programming — 90% complete, needs an accessibility pass

Suburb

Writing — 100% written and edited

Artwork — 98% complete, need to add an expression to a CG

Programming — 5% complete, scene 1 of 7. All stories have 7 scenes each and are at least 10k words.

City

Writing — 100% written and edited

Artwork — 100%(?) complete. Another background is being floated, but this might have to be included in an update.

Programming — 0% complete (on standby)

Game Overall (AKA the things that (mostly) aren’t the script itself like the game screens)

Programming — 92% complete, gallery’s almost done! Still need to create one more screen for liner notes, need to finalize first time setup screen. I’m probably going to finish these things today—I’ve been doing lots of setup for them when I’m too sick to be particularly creative.

UI — 98% complete, need to finish City chapter select button.

Accessibility — All of the groundwork is implemented like functions, dictionaries etc. Chapter staging must be completed before I do a second sweep where I add image descriptions, screenshake and photosensitivity safety, etc.

Fun Direction Rambling Stuff

I thought I’d make this entry a little fun (for people who like to hear about technical stuff) to make up for the disappointment of the delay.

Three Lilies is a vast step up in quality compared to Soundless, which was intentionally designed to fake technical limitations. Now that I’m living in the present, I’m going all out with how it looks!

My main source of inspiration has been the recent TYPE-MOON visual novels, Mahoutsukai no Yoru and Tsukihime Remake. By taking advantage of things like crop, motion, and zooms, I’m trying to create a somewhat dynamic, filmic experience. Of course, it’s nowhere near the level of Mahoyo and TsukiRe since I’m just one person, but I think I’m doing pretty well especially when it comes to engine limitations.

These are all effects that I’m accomplishing just using code known as Ren’Py’s ATL language. I’m not making entirely new assets just to do what I want to do. The above screenshot was accomplished like this:

(The code can't be copied and pasted to Tumblr—view it on Substack!)

You’ll also notice that I’ve been posting GIFs of little emote marks next to character heads. This is accomplished using a neat little system I’ve made where I pre-animate the mark, then supply arguments to its transform to make it go wherever I’d like on the screen at whatever size I want.

Here’s the code for the floating heart mark beside Najwa’s face at the top of this entry:

(The code can't be copied and pasted to Tumblr—view it on Substack!)

And here’s how I show it in-game:

(The code can't be copied and pasted to Tumblr—view it on Substack!)

The first two numbers in the parentheses let me position it. The third argument, myzoom, doesn’t always have to be supplied because I gave it a default value, but here I chose to make the heart smaller.

Feel free to use this code in your own game. It’s very useful…If you didn’t know you could supply arguments to transforms in Ren’Py, well, now you know!

(I was going to show a biiig GIF of some animation I did, but Substack said the image was too large and it’s too big for a trustworthy GIF compressor, too…)

By the way...

I’ve been working on some promotional art. The pieces will be revealed closer to release.

#three lilies vn #three lilies and their ghost stories #vn development #vndev #horror vn

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cgdailytimes · 3 years

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भादो में बारिश से तबाही का मंजर, गांव के घरों में घुसा पानी, प्रशासन अलर्ट

गरियाबंद, बीते रात से हो रही रुक-रुक कर झमाझम बारिश से जन जीवन अस्त व्यस्त हो गया है, लोग अपने घरों में ही रहने को मजबूर है, जिला मुख्यालय के मुख्य मार्गो, अनेक घरों में बारिश का पानी घुटने तक भर गया है। जिला मुख्यालय से अनेक ग्राम कट गए है, वही सिकासार जलाशय से 11097 क्योसिक पानी छोड़ा गया है जिससे पैरी नदी का जल स्तर अधिक बढ़ गया है। राजधानी मुख्यमार्ग में स्थित ग्राम पनटोर में सोंढुर, पैरी नदी…

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bansalnews · 3 years

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साल 2021 से आम आदमी से लेकर वैज्ञानिकों तक को उम्मीदें थी। सबको लग रहा था कोरोना (Corona) इस साल खत्म हो जाएगा। लेकिन फिलहाल ऐसा होता हुआ दिख नहीं रहा है। कोविड के नए स्ट्रेन मिलने के बाद पहले दक्षिण अफ्रीका, फिनलैड, इंग्लैंड और अब भारत में कोरोना के नए मामले सामने आने लगे हैं

#Bansal News #Bansal News MP CG #Breaking News In Hindi #Hindi News Channel #Today Headlines #Corona #Covid 19 #New Covid Strain

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lovebirdgames · 2 years

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Band Camp Boyfriend Progress Update! Jan 2022

Happy 2022, everyone!

Wow, typing that out slightly horrified me. It really does feel like “2020, too” at the moment as we are retreating back into quarantine to try and keep everyone safe since the number of Covid cases have skyrocketed here. We are bunkering down and working hard on Band Camp Boyfriend and making tremendous progress. I can actually sit down and play through the game now! This is HUGE! And it means I can share more screenshots with you!

But it’s still missing a lot of pieces, particularly the audio. The voice acting really brings the characters to life and you absolutely cannot have a game about marching band without an amazing, original soundtrack. Now let me finally shut up and jump into our--

PROGRESS UPDATE!

First off, you may notice an addition to my Programming Progress chart: Final. That’s right, a final route has been added! It was initially going to be DLC because we didn’t want it to delay the game’s release, but we decided the game did not feel complete without it.

But let me reassure you that it will not delay the game’s release at all! I may have just begun writing it, but I am a fast writer (the characters write themselves honestly) and we are taking steps to make the programming easier. Lastly, it’s also a bit shorter than the other routes. I’m confident I can get it done while my sister focus on the soundtrack, voice clips, and GUI. And my mom has once again offered to aid me with programming because she is the best.

Up next, did we achieve the goals we set for the end of 2021?

Just about! We don’t have all of the voice clips sent in yet, but we do have all of the backgrounds! WOOHOO! Alex completed programming the affinity while I programmed the new backgrounds and glossary cards into the game. These are really major mile marks! Seriously. We’re starting to feel like the end is in sight. 2023 release, anyone?

We’ve been sorting our goals into yearly quarters. So these are our goals for the next 3 months...

Taylor (Me!):

-Play through each route and test for crashes -Write the final route -Put out a casting call for the remaining characters (March!) -Continue plaguing social media Alex: -Round up the last of the voice acting -Cut voice clips -Fix history menu + Map out extras menu

Both of us are researching ideas for the GUI Extras menu, which contains the CGs and soundtrack. We’ll be diving into all my favorite otome games today for inspiration and mapping out exactly what we want. That will be fun! It’ll be a walk down memory lane for me (I’m coming up on my tenth anniversary of playing otome).

As always, thanks for sticking with us! I hope 2022 treats you gently and that there are better times ahead. Look forward to the next progress update in a few months and keep an eye out for that casting call!

-Taylor

#progress update #devlog #indie game dev #screenshot #game dev #indie game developer #marching band #band camp boyfriend #visual novel dev #otome dev #dating sim

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crossovereddie · 3 years

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Thoughts on 11x12 Series Finale

Okay I’m wine drunk and teary still so this might not make any sense but does it ever really make sense?

Kev is so dumb lmao

He’s that we’re the millers meme

Please someone get franny and Liam out of there

EMT Ian

How are they all still shocked by the shit Mickey says

Fuck this new girl I want Sandy

Carl is me needing coffee

This girl is so unnecessary this is the dumbest thing why would they even write her in

GET YOUR KID DEBBIE

pat pat

Mickey you’re not subtle

Good thing your husband is a himbo

He’s so sweet :((((((

Debbie and lip are annoying. Throw Tami in there too

MICKEY

Let my baby take the potato masher he needs it

Liam 😂

I actually really like the Mickey Debbie dynamic

He’s used to having a little sister to piss off :((((

Lip go back to college challenge

Not me triggered by this pregnancy lmaoooo

Kate’s bump :(

GOOD MEMORIES STAINED INTO THIS ONE

The 21st :((((((((((((

The glare lmao

WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS GIRL AROUND YOUR CHILD

Okay since Debbie is a fictional character am I allowed to mom shame her or are y’all gonna come for me

Who tf does that

Save franny

Just looking at those drinks Kev is making is making my stomach churn oh god 🤢

You can’t just call it a toilet?

Oh god don’t pick up a used mask 😩

RIP patsys

Oh my god now I’m thinking of CG

This job is actually perfect for dumbass Carl 😂😂

That’s so LA I fucking hate that they couldn’t film in Chicago 😭😭😭

I hope brad has a good life

Mickey makes his decisions based on blowjob capability

HUSBAND

GET MY ASS IN THAT POSITION YOU LIKE

Fuck this lady

FIGHT HER IAN

Mickey’s face lmao

HIS LITTLE CLAP GIVE YOUR HUSBAND SOME PIZZA IAN

He’s baby

SAVE FRANNY

DEBBIE IS THE WORST

Y’all I would be just as angry as Kev HOW DARE YOU PUT THEM IN OTHER JERSEYS THAN YOUR TEAMS

BURN THEM KEV

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GEOGRAPHY

IM WITH KEV ON THIS ONE

Wtf kinda tip is that

Carl looking out

This is pissing me tf off

Lip you’re so fucking smart please do something with it my gosh

This fucking asshole HE JUST MAKE YOU LOTS OF MONEY WTF

V just adopt Liam please

They’re gonna cook in their new apartment :((((

MICKEY IN LEATHER KINKY MF

CRIB

GIVE THEM A BABY

This was too much

HIS FACE IS TOO MUCH

I literally sobbed out “you’d be the best dad!!” And J just sighed and hugged me 😭😭😭😭

He’s over my shit but he cares I guess lmao

His fault for buying the wine

YOU WOULD NEVER BABY

YOU BOTH ARE GONNA BE THE BEST DADS

YOURE GONNA BE A GREAT DAD

This is the best comfort hug GIVE US MORE ANGLES COWARDS

Oh no the flashbacks are too much

Wait he has covid?

I didn’t catch that first time

I love a good pretend to forget an anniversary and surprise spouse

IANS LITTLE ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

he was so upset

I LOVE THIS MAN

ME TOO

MICKEYS SMILE

He’s so proud of himself

LAST EVER THUMB CARESS 😭😭😭😭😭

Is the band playing at last 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Omfg Kermit and tommy lmao

Why am I in love with this nurse

MICKEY DANCING I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

We all know Ian had zero doubts

OH MY GOD GIVE THIS MAN A BABY ITS WHAT HE WANTS

To raise a baby with his baby

This brothers scene made me 🥺🥺🥺

Now I miss my brother 🥺🥺🥺

This would’ve been a perfect I should probably go dance with my husband

this scene :(

THEYRE BEING SILLY HUSBANDS TOGETHER

Liam :(

I wanna watch them be husbands forever

Ian always has to hold

So much singing this season

Goodbye sweet nurse you’ll always have my heart

The letter omfg

MICKEY AND CARL

MICKEY AND LIAM

We just needed Mickey and lip and it would’ve been the holy trinity

I don’t know how I feel about frank floating

Also they should’ve warned me when the last ever Mickey shot was

Of course that happened lmao

Overall? I feel good about the way it ended. I’m not sad. Or it just hasn’t hit me. Oh god I miss Mickey already oh god oh god oh god

#LAST #weekly recap #weekly thoughts #mickey milkovich #shameless #gallavich #shameless us #ian gallagher #Lip gallagher #Liam Gallagher #Debbie gallagher #Carl gallagher #shameless final season #shameless last call #11x12 #shameless 11x12 #shameless spoilers

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kylekozmikdeluxo · 3 years

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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 3/4 completed NIMONA doesn’t remain unfinished. (Netflix? Someone?) I hope to see some good come out of this...

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sssshhhthefilmsabouttostart · 3 years

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The best and worst films of 2020

Let’s be honest - 2020 was an extremely shitty year for moviegoers everywhere, as the Queen would say an annus horribilis.

Due to the Covid pandemic’s dramatic impact on nearly every facet of human life, cinemas closed, film festivals went virtual and film productions became an intricate mess of insurance and safety challenges.

Yet despite these dire challenges and an unpredictable future, cinema remained very much alive throughout the year, with a wide range of ambitious undertakings snaking their way into whatever form of release seemed viable. Blockbusters receded to the background, allowing a wide range of movies to trickle through an uncertain marketplace that would have been hostile to them even in pre-pandemic times.

So what cinematic gems and unmitigated disasters were dropped upon audiences during the year?

Ladies and gentlemen, may we please offer for your consideration...

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

THE CURRENT WAR - THE LIGHTHOUSE - IN FABRIC - BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY (D) - BOMBSHELL - THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON - THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (D) - LIGHT OF MY LIFE - THE ASSISTANT - THE LODGE - THE GENTLEMEN - THE WAY BACK - DARK WATERS - 1917 - THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY - THE HUNT

2020′S TOP TEN BEST FILMS

10. THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW

Hot off the critical success of his debut feature ‘Thunder Road,’ writer-director Jim Cummings’ refreshing yet effective take on the werewolf genre amped up the dark comedy whilst delivering quite a few chills. Tinged with realistically flawed characters and clever scares, ‘The Wolf of Snow Hollow’ might not have been your typical werewolf flick but it successfully managed to bring that classic legend to life once again.

9. LET HIM GO

Previously last seen together as Clark Kent’s adoptive parents in ‘Man of Steel,’ Diane Lane and Kevin Costner were reunited onscreen as husband and wife again in writer-director Thomas Bezucha’s neo-Western drama ‘Let Him Go.’ Adapted from author Larry Watson’s 2013 novel, the film featured stunning landscapes, full-blooded moments of sudden violence and compelling performances from Diane Lane, Kevin Costner and, most memorably, Lesley Manville’s turn as a gritty and cunning matriarch.

8. COLOUR OUT OF SPACE

Based on the classic short story by HP Lovecraft and featuring another scene-stealing performance from Nicolas Cage, this clever adaptation was an effective horror film with an unrelentingly grim sci-fi bent. In addition to the truly disturbing and inspired images of queasy body horror, ‘Colour Out of Space’ also marked the eagerly-anticipated re-emergence of filmmaker Richard Stanley (his first time back in the director’s chair since being fired from his 1996 remake ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’).

7. THE INVISIBLE MAN

Who knew a remake could be so refreshing? With this updated take on the H.G. Wells tale, writer-director Leigh Whannell did just about everything right, delivering a tense, clever thriller with touches of both horror and sci-fi. As the fascinatingly flawed yet appealing tough protagonist, Elisabeth Moss gave a captivating performance in a film that was chilling in all the right ways, packed with plenty of twists and a deliciously nasty resolution.

6. THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (NETFLIX)

Whilst the subject matter of ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7′ shared an uncanny relevance to today’s politically charged times, as a gripping courtroom drama with a stellar cast, the film ticked all the boxes. ‘West Wing’ creator Aaron Sorkin put his trademark traits - razor-sharp wit, rhetorical flair and political insight - to very good use in this masterful retelling of the trial following the 1968 anti-war protests outside the Democratic National Convention.

5. HEARTS AND BONES

In his debut feature film, Australian director Ben Lawrence created a spiritually rich and immersive drama about the relationship between a grizzled, broken war photographer and a Sudanese refugee. Whilst Hugo Weaving was note-perfect in his portrayal as a crumbling man wrestling with his past, equally impressive was first time actor Andrew Luri who delivered a quiet yet memorable performance in what was an affecting piece of cinema.

4. TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL (DOCUMENTARY)

Watching a documentary about the COVID-19 crisis in the middle of a global pandemic might not sound appealing but prolific filmmaker Alex Gibney’s latest work was easily the most essential non-fiction film of 2020. Shot safely in secret for five months, ‘Totally Under Control’ played out like a tightly-wound thriller as it placed the Trump Administration’s inept response to the coronavirus pandemic under the microscope.

3. BAD EDUCATION (HBO)

As far as crime stories go, embezzlement isn’t always the most thrilling subject. However, ‘Bad Education’ turned a relatively simple white collar crime story about a New Jersey school administrator caught stealing money into a compelling drama, thanks to an incisive and nimble script and spot on performances from Allison Janney, Geraldine Viswanathan, Ray Romano and especially Hugh Jackman.

2. MANK (NETFLIX)

Director David Finch’s dazzling portrait of Herman J. ‘Mank’ Mankiewicz, the screenwriter who collaborated with wunderkind filmmaker Orson Welles to write the first draft of ‘Citizen Kane,’ was a cinematic jewel from start to finish. Similar to last year’s ‘Once Upon A Time in...Hollywood,’ ‘Mank’ delivered a layered depiction of the filmmaking process, whilst Gary Oldman continued to excel at immersing himself in playing real-life characters, this time as the hard-drinking, intellectual screenwriter.

1. NOMADLAND

Writer-director Chloe Zhao’s intimate drama about an unemployed widow living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad was a thoughtful, contemplative and reflective piece of storytelling. It may have touched upon mature themes about loneliness, financial instability and restlessness, but ‘Nomadland’ remained an uplifting and hopeful piece of cinema that captured the various bittersweet reasons people choose to live a life on the road.

With an outstanding performance from Frances McDormand, brought to life through the charm of the ‘real life’ supporting cast, great direction and Joshua James Richard’s mesmerising cinematography, ‘Nomadland’ was the perfect film for 2020.

...AND NOW THE WORST!

DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS

VAMPIRES VS THE BRONX - BAD BOYS FOR LIFE - THE OLD GUARD - PROJECT POWER - ISN’T IT ROMANTIC - THE RHYTHM SECTION - WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE - I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS - MIDWAY - YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT - BABY DONE - FORCE OF NATURE - CAPONE - THE NEW MUTANTS - DOOLITTLE

10. WONDER WOMAN 1984

To quote Red Letter Media’s resident film critic Mike Stoklasa, “this movie was the cinematic equivalent of the Bluesmobile.” Directed by Patty Jenkins, this 80′s-set sequel to the 2017 DC superhero hit was lethargically paced and featured a completely bonkers narrative that made absolutely no sense. Horribly scripted, disjointed and overstuffed (a runtime of 2.5 hours), ‘Wonder Woman 1984′ sadly jettisoned everything that made Jenkins’ original film so compelling. The result? An appalling misfire.

9. THE GRUDGE

A curiously talented and interesting cast were somehow lured into - and subsequently wasted in - this pointless, tired, reboot/revival of the long-running ‘Ju-On’ Japanese-based horror series. Despite director NIcholas Pesce’s attempt to disguise the rudimentary nature of the plot via back-and-forth timeline jumping, ‘The Grudge’ was just a formulaic paint-by-the-numbers meander through a poorly developed story that existed only to prop up a bunch of uninspired jump scares.

8. BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

There are many movies that have no reason to exist - and this latest misfire from DC Comics was one of them. Directed by Cathy Yan, ‘Birds of Prey’ was a mire of uninspired ideas and recycled genre conventions that got old real quick. Penned by Christina Hodson (’Bumblebee’ being the ‘highlight’ on her resume), the script was as simplistic as it was thin, with needless subplots merely introduced to inflate the film to a decent running time. Even Margot Robbie’s manic performance as the ‘Mistress of Mayhem’ couldn’t save this mess.

7. JAY AND SILENT BOB REBOOT

What could’ve been a dream film for fans of these two classic stoner characters instead was nothing but a string of cameos and callbacks in a plot-less bore. Director Kevin Smith sucked all the life and fun out of this watered-down story, that suffered from a constant series of awkward and forced jokes that were painfully unfunny. An unfortunate stinker.

6. AVA

This latest foray into the ‘female assassin for hire’ genre was about as cliched as you could get. An emotionally troubled female killer whose male mentor assumes the role of the surrogate father? Check. Pounding dance music score? Check. Obligatory nightclub fight sequence? Check. Confused love interest? You betcha! Humourless, dry and uninspired, ‘Ava’ played out like a poor man’s ‘La Femme Nikita.’

5. FANTASY ISLAND

Hollywood’s obsession with repackaging Gen-X childhoods continued with this absurd attempt to reboot the classic 1970′s TV series as a low-budget horror joint under the Blumhouse label. At a dangerously close two hour runtime, there was simply nothing interesting about the film’s characters or its inane plot about a mystical island that grants wishes (a’la ‘The Monkey’s Paw’). Our advice? Turn ‘de plane’ around if you ever plan to visit this ‘Fantasy Island.’

4. ARTEMIS FOWL

For every ‘Harry Potter’ that explodes into the public consciousness, there always seems to be a dozen or more failed franchises. Sadly, Disney’s ‘Artemis Fowl’ found itself in the latter category. Director Kenneth Branagh’s dull and superficial attempt to transfer this popular children’s book series from page to screen suffered from a lack of character development, an over-reliance in CG effects and featured a lifeless performance from newcomer Ferdia Shaw as the titular character.

3. HUBIE HALLOWEEN (NETFLIX)

A month before last year’s Oscar nominations were released, Adam Sandler joked on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ that if the Academy snubbed him for his role in the film ‘Uncut Gems,’ he would make a movie “that [was] so bad on purpose.” And that’s exactly what happened. Supposedly a comedy, ‘Hubie Halloween’ was unfunny, disposable and completely devoid of any originality. Sadly for audiences, Sandler signed a four-movie deal with Netflix last year, worth up to $275 million - so we can expect to see more of this shit soon!

2. ALIEN ADDICTION

Aliens visit New Zealand and get high smoking human faeces? Someone should have advised Kiwi director Shae Sterling that audiences have moved on from such puerile comedies as this abomination. Suffice to say, if anybody ever admitted to finding this film remotely funny, they’d probably be outcast from society. An embarrassment to all those involved.

1. THE BEACH BUM

Director Harmony Korine’s generic stoner comedy about a prolific poet who drifts through life in a drug-induced haze had all the natural high of an unfiltered, soggy joint and was easily, hands down, 2020′s worst film.

‘The Beach Bum’ was a pretentious and uninteresting movie whose lead character, considered to be an ‘artistic genius,’ was nothing more than a relentless shithead to everyone around him. As Moondog, the semi-naked, bongo-playing, pot-fuelled beat poet, Matthew McConaughey was insufferable and grating in his portrayal of a character you would quite easily want to punch in the face - repeatedly. Blazed and confused, ‘The Beach Bum’ had no plot, no class and no entertainment value whatsoever.

MOVIE POSTERS

From the classic to the abstract, here is just a sample of some of the best poster designs from a highly unusual year of movies.

...AND FINALLY, WHEN WHEN IT COMES TO DIRE-LOG, THEY SAID WHAT!?

“I've never wanted anything more. But he's gone, and that's the truth. And everything has a price. One I'm not willing to pay. Not any more. This world was a beautiful place, just as it was, and you cannot have it all. You can only have the truth. And the truth is enough. The truth is beautiful” (’Wonder Woman 1984′).

And who could forget this little chestnut of advice...

“That is the only truth and truth is all there is. You cannot be the winner because you are not ready to win. And there is no shame in that. Only in knowing the truth in your heart and not accepting it. No true hero is born from lies” (’Wonder Woman 1984′).

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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DEEMO THE MOVIE Reveals Full Name in New Trailer for CG Anime Film

DEEMO THE MOVIE was expected to be released near the end of 2020, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was pushed back. Today at the stage for DEEMO at AnimeJapan 2021, the musical CG anime film got a new title DEEMO THE MOVIE: Sakura no Oto -I Still Hear The Sound of Your Piano-. To celebrate a bunch of character art for the film was released alongside a new trailer.

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The Twitter account for DEEMO THE MOVIE released the character art shown off during the stream last night:

♪Deemo 不思議な城の中で暮らす謎多き住人。全身真っ黒で、目だけが青白く光っている。 An enigmatic resident of the strange castle, Deemo's entire body is black as the darkest night... except for his shiny blue-white eyes.#animejapan 3/28 12:00～オンラインイベント開催#deemo pic.twitter.com/tWNXo2GFIv