And now, the latest Animation Good, Bad, and Ugly

It's been awhile since I've complained about something, so I figured it's high time I filled my quota.

Me right now.

The Good

Disney UK has released the international trailer for Inside Out, and I must say it's been some time since a movie trailer has made me laugh. 

This post, however, with go without honesty if I didn't express my disappointment. I'm ashamed to say that I can no longer track the source... I think I read it on Cartoon Brew... but what I read online when the movie was originally announced suggested that this film would be a 2D / 3D hybrid. From all of the teasers that have been released, and this recent trailer, I am sad to see that there's nothing that supports this initial announcement.

This trailer almost entirely redeems itself, though... and I don't know if it's just a question of novelty, but as I've discussed in a previous post, my favorite stand up comedian, Lewis Black, stars as the role of Anger. And boy, he does not disappoint. I would be so bold as to say that he stole the show in this trailer. This is a movie I definitely plan to go see in theaters.

The Bad

Oh, Bento Box... why did you think this was a good idea?

Thanks to the magic of limited puppet animation, I can safely confirm

that Madea is actually more creepy than in live action form.

I have uh... issues with this movie. I've never been a gigantic fan of the Madea movies in the first place, mind you, but Bento Box did not facilitate her (his?) transition into animation well. And a lot of the problem for me is that I have no idea what they're going for visually. The characters look sort of like they're designed for a fully-animated Disney flick, mixed with a more stylized, exaggerated Bruce Smith (Dr. Facilier) flavor. The problem with that is that it doesn't work with Bento Box's limited animation approach... these characters are in desperate need of being more flexible, and for that reason it becomes painful to watch. Also, this is another one of those situations where there really isn't anything here that couldn't have been accomplished in live action, so animating this movie just seems like a waste of resources... and it's hard to tell if any of the crew was invested in doing this.

In short, Madea's Tough Love, in totality, just seems like a bad idea.

The Ugly

In the past year, the big dogs in the feature industry have been found out conducting the entirely unfair business practice of wage-fixing, where they chose to keep the wages of their animators and other staff as low as the company thinks they can get away with in order to maximize profits on their output. 

Well, Sony Pictures Imageworks decided to take it to the next level while reaching out to future animators at the CTN Expo. Look at the wonderful advice they're offering.

And by "wonderful," I mean the worst possible advice 

you can possibly offer to anyone ever. Image via Cartoon Brew.

Basically, what Sony is telling people is that seeking employment that would value their skill set is not only discouraged, but - get this - "unprofessional". And according to another article at Cartoon Brew, an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit was nearly given the axe for comparing his wage against that of his colleagues. This leads me to believe that this is also a terrible, terrible practice that the same studios in heat for wage fixing are conducting. 

The bright side to this is that the studios are actually being exposed for this crime, but with Pixar CEO Ed Catmull being entirely unapologetic, borderline proud of being unethical, it could be some time before we see any positive resolution.

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