FILM 1915: LILO & STITCH

FILM 1915: LILO & STITCH

TRIVIA: The name "Lilo" means "Generous One" and its origin is Hawaiian. It can also be interpreted as "Lost" and this would give the song title "He Mele No Lilo" a loose translation as "Lullaby of the Lost". The name Nani means "Beautiful" in Hawaiian.

Disney promoted this movie with a series of trailers inserting Stitch into some of its "classic" titles. Examples: 

The Little Mermaid (1989): Stitch surfs a wave that crashes down on Ariel.

Beauty and the Beast (1991): Stitch causes the chandelier to fall during the ballroom scene, nearly smashing Belle and the Beast

Aladdin (1992): Stitch steals Princess Jasmine from Aladdin during the "A Whole New World" magic carpet ride.

The Lion King (1994): Stitch takes Simba's place on Pride Rock during the "Circle of Life" opening.

Hawaii-born cast members Jason Scott Lee and Tia Carrere helped the writers with dialog and accents.

Although it uses computer-colored (but hand-drawn) digital cels instead of hand-painted ones, this was the first Disney animated feature to use watercolor-painted backgrounds since Dumbo (1941). A conscious effort was made to give the film a warmer, more old-fashioned look than most other modern Disney films: this film does not use the "Deep Canvas" technique used in Tarzan (1999), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), or Treasure Planet (2002); it only contains about five shots which use either a "multiplane camera" or "3D camera" effect; and the use of tone mattes (shading/shadows on the characters) was kept to a minimum.

Like the live-action monster movie that appears briefly, photographs of Elvis Presley are real pictures and not animated drawings.

Most of the license plates in the film (the fire engine, gas tanker, and Nani's Beetle - but only at the end, not at "blue punch buggy" - plus one in Lilo's room) are A113. The same as Mrs. Davis's plate number in Toy Story (1995), Mater's plate number in Cars (2006), and also used in many other Disney and Pixar films. It is a reference to a room number at California Institute of the Arts, where many of the animators at those two companies received their educations. The fuel truck in the volcano has the license number "A113". A113 was the room for the animation department at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts; the room now houses graphic design classes). During the 1970s, directors John Musker and Ron Clements, in addition to Disney/Pixar animation executive John Lasseter and Pixar director Brad Bird, studied animation in room A113. "A113" labels are hidden in many Disney and Pixar films.

After completing this film, director Chris Sanders's next project for Disney was Bolt(2008). When John Lasseter took over as head of animation at Disney, he dismissed Sanders, who then moved on to DreamWorks Animation.

Since Lilo's parents died in a car accident, where rain made the road more treacherous, it is possible the reason she wants to appease Pudge by feeding him peanut butter sandwiches and cleaning his grove for him is because she believes he controls the weather, and that if she continues to treat him in such a manner, a similar accident to the one that killed her parents won't happen again.

FILM 1912: COCO

FILM 1912: COCO

TRIVIA: The orange flower seen throughout the film is the Aztec marigold (known also as the Mexican marigold or the Cempasúchil). The flower is used in the tradition of Dia de Muertos in México to guide the deceased to the living.

The film contains certain themes and content which would ordinarily be banned in China. Reportedly, the Chinese censor board members were so touched by the film that they made an exception and allowed it.

This film opened in Mexico three and a half weeks before it opened in the U.S., where it surpassed Avengers Assemble (2012) as the country's highest grossing film. 

In the movie the spirit of Frida Kahlo identifies Dante as a Xolo (Xoloitzcuintli dog), which is a nice tribute to the real Frida. During the mid-20th century the Xolo breed began to decline in popularity. Frida and her husband, Diego Rivera, helped to save the breed by including the Xolo dog as part of their art. Thanks to Frida and Diego, the breed became known again to the world.

Spent more days #1 at the box office than any other animated film in the 21st century.

The Land of the Dead is shown to use a lot of antiquated technology -- for example, an 80s MacIntosh computer and walkie-talkie radios. This is fitting, as that technology is obsolete and so in a sense dead.

John Ratzenberger, long considered Pixar's good-luck charm, continues his streak of appearing in every one of the studio's feature films. In Coco (2017), he plays a ghost called Juan Ortodoncia. He is the skeleton who is allowed to cross over to the land of the living because his dentist remembers him.

The orchestra conductor for Ernesto de la Cruz's musical show "Sunrise Spectacular" is a caricature of the film's composer Michael Giacchino.

STUDIO TRADEMARK: The Pizza Planet truck, which has appeared in every Pixar movie, can be seen driving past the Rivera Shoe Shop while Elena (Miguel's grandmother) explains the "No Music" rule to Miguel.

When originally released, the film featured the short film Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017) before the film, which runs 22 minutes long. Many moviegoers thought they had wandered into the wrong film. Beginning December 7, 2017, Olaf's Frozen Adventure(2017) was withdrawn from theatrical release, and no short film was substituted in its place.

On December 5, 2017, it got enough votes to take the number 45 spot in IMDb's Top 250, surpassing WALL-E (2008) as the highest rated computer animated movie.

Ninth Pixar film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and third Pixar film to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

FILM 1614: THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 

TRIVIA: Chloe tells Pops (who thinks she's a dog) that she's a cat, and he replies "Nobody's perfect," an iconic line from Some Like It Hot (1959).

The leader of the Flushed Pets is named Snowball. The Flushed Pets hate humans because of past mistreatment. In George Orwell's Animal Farm, Snowball is one of the two pigs who lead the revolution on the farm against humans who have mistreated animals.

A scene shows a cab driver listening to his radio, which is playing Pharrell Williams' "Happy," which debuted in Despicable Me 2 (2013), another Illumination Entertainment film.

A Times Square billboard advertises Saturday Night Live (1975). Jenny Slate, Bobby Moynihan, Dana Carvey, Laraine Newman, and Louis C.K. have all appeared on and/or written for that show.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/chen-winner-innerviews-290216

FILM 1597: FINDING DORY

TRIVIA: Hank has only seven tentacles because the animators realized they could not fit eight onto his body. His backstory was rewritten to account for the missing limb. For similar reasons, in the 1955 live-action sci-fi film "It Came from Beneath the Sea" special effects genius Ray Harryhausen was only able to create a stop-motion giant octopus with six arms.

Hayden Rolence replaces Alexander Gould as the voice of Nemo, due to having outgrown his original role since Finding Nemo (2003), though Gould does have a Cameo as Passenger Carl.

The setting of the film was changed from an aquatic park to a Marine Biology Institute after the controversial documentary Blackfish (2013) was screened for the crew of Pixar.

The film is set one year after the events of Finding Nemo (2003), forgetting the 13 year gap between their releases.

The Pizza Planet Truck, a truck that is used to make delivery for "Pizza Planet" in Toy Story (1995), in a wrecked sunken state appears at the area where Dory, Marlin and Nemo encounter the Giant Squid, as well as on the Freeway, passing by the Truck heading to Cleveland.

This film marks Idris Elba's last of three Disney films in 2016, after Zootropolis (2016) and The Jungle Book (2016), in which all are voice roles of animal characters.

With over 25 million likes, Dory is the most liked character on Facebook from any Disney or Pixar film.

When Nemo and Marlin are in the tidal pool exhibit, they meet a loquacious clam, voiced by the film's Director Andrew Stanton. When they ask the clam how he is doing, he enthusiastically responds, "I'm happy." This is a gag relating to the colloquial expression, "Happy as a clam."

Sia, a good friend of Ellen DeGeneres, who voices Dory, sang the theme song named "Unforgettable."

The eyebrows on Gerald, the third Sea Lion who has no dialogue, resemble those of Baby Gerald, Maggie Simpson's archenemy from The Simpsons (1989). Many alumni of The Simpsons (1989), most notably Brad Bird, have gone on to work at Pixar.

Dominic West and Idris Elba co-starred on The Wire (2002).

FILM 1655: THE JUNGLE BOOK

TRIVIA: Amid the treasures in King Louie's temple, one of them happens to be Genie's lamp from Aladdin (1992).

In The Jungle Book (1967), King Louie was an orangutan. In this film, he's a gigantopithecus, an ancestor of the orangutan whose range is believed to have included parts of India. This change in species was made to make the film more fantastic, seeing as it would be a good way to represent him as King of the Monkeys, and since orangutans are not native to India. Despite this, the film does still feature some animals not native to India, like Peccaries and Red-Eyed Tree Frogs.

Actor Neel Sethi said that since he never actually worked with real animals onset during filming, director Jon Favreau would on occasion stand in for where the animals would be present, one most notably as Shere Khan lunging out from the tall grass.

All the locations in the film are computer-generated VFX. The story may have been set primarily in India, but the film was completely shot at the LA Center Studio in Los Angeles, California.

The CG character Baloo is so large and furry, he took almost five hours of rendering time per frame.

This is the first time that Kaa the snake is portrayed as a female, rather than a male. Jon Favreau said the change was a deliberate one, as he felt there were too many male characters in The Jungle Book (1967).

Lyricist Richard M. Sherman, who wrote songs for The Jungle Book (1967), composed a new verse for "Wanna Be Like You" for Christopher Walken.

Ben Kingsley described Bagheera as a military character: "He's probably a colonel, he is instantly recognizable by the way he talks, how he acts and what his ethical code is."

The animal characters were both motion-captured and performed live on set by puppeteers from the Jim Henson Company. For the on-set performances, Jim Henson's Creature Shop built elaborate life-sized puppets to act alongside Mowgli and serve as eye-lines.

The 3D of the film and the original 1990s Walt Disney Pictures opening logo were a tribute to the multi-plane camera system. Director Jon Favreau said that one his is "rules" for making The Jungle Book (2016) was "let's treat the 3D like multi-plane. Let's be as gimmicky as Walt Disney would have been-but not more." The multi-plane camera is a special camera used to create a sense of dimensional space-of a camera moving through a set, instead of one just taking photos of a series of still images. Disney had a special version of the system developed, which was used first in the Silly Symphony animated short film The Old Mill (1937) and later in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Favreau went on: "There are tremendous shots in Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi (1942) where the multi-plane was a new technology and they were using it to show off, and that was the 3D of its day. And so we were studying that very closely and became very fascinated with the multi-plane and what went into it and the artistry and ingenuity." This aesthetic philosophy extended to the movie's treatment of the main castle logo. "I got the idea, 'Let's do the opening logo, and instead of doing a super high-tech one, let's have a hand-painted, cel-animated multi-plane logo,'" Favreau said. "And not only that but 'Let's make the kingdom behind the castle have elements from what the live action version would have been,' so it was almost like a little taste of what's back there."

Right before he meets King Louie, Mowgli finds a cowbell in the monkey palace and proceeds to pick it up and shake it, causing Louie to appear. King Louie is played by Christopher Walken, who once famously stated on a sketch on Saturday Night Live in 2000, "I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!"

The animal characters were created entirely in key frame computer animation, with the assistance of footage of real animal movement, the actors recording their lines, and performance capture for reference. The production team underwent a thorough process to realistically convey the animals' speaking, while still making them perceptually believable to the audience. Favreau researched earlier films featuring anthropomorphic animals - including Walt Disney's animated features, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942), as well as modern films such as Babe (1995) - and adopted certain techniques from those films into The Jungle Book (2016). Nearly 70 separate species of native animals are featured in the film, with several species being portrayed as "150% larger" than their actual counterparts. Jim Henson's Creature Shop was brought in to provide animal puppet figures for Sethi to act against, although none appear in the finished film. Director Jon Favreau expressed a desire to avoid overusing motion capture in order to prevent an uncanny valley effect. Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Weta Digital created the film's visual effects. MPC developed a new software for animating muscular structure in the animals. Around 1,000 remote jungle locations in India were photographed and used as reference in post-production.

This is Idris Elba's second of three starring roles in Disney films of 2016, following Zootopia (2016) and Finding Dory (2016). All of the three films feature Elba in prominent animated voice-over performances.

Over 2,000 children auditioned for the part of Mowgli, in his first audition, acting newcomer Neel Sethi won the part.

The first time King Louie appears on the screen, he is sitting in a chair, his face obscured by shadows and talking in a sinister, slightly muffled voice about offering Mowgli protection before finally revealing his face. This is an obvious homage to the classic film Apocalypse Now (1979) in which Marlon Brando's character, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, first appears on screen similarly composed.

The end credits feature "The Jungle Book" in book form that has the same cover design as the book seen in the opening credits of The Jungle Book (1967). It is in fact the original book prop, taken from Disney's archives, as mentioned in the making of featurette.