FILM 2016: MOANA

FILM 2016: MOANA

TRIVIA: Dwayne Johnson believes that voice acting is the most difficult career in acting, and is personally annoyed when celebrities are cast in animated films despite voicing their characters badly. When Johnson was cast for the film, he repeatedly asked the other voice actors present if he was really giving a good performance.

The spiral on Moana's necklace and on the sail of her boat is called a koru. It represents the unfurling fern frond, symbolizing new life, new beginnings, personal growth, hope, a new start, perfection, rebirth, awakening, purity, the spirit of rejuvenation and peace. As a double spiral, it also symbolizes kinship and belonging.

The genie's lamp from Aladdin (1992) can be seen on Tamatoa's shell.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has said the character of Tamatoa the Giant Crab was a tribute to David Bowie.

The tattoos on Chief Tui's abdomen are the same tattoos worn by pro wrestler Peter Fanene Maivia, Dwayne Johnson's maternal grandfather.

When he first gets his hook and is trying to shapeshift, Maui changes into various animals. For a split second, he turns into Sven the Reindeer from Frozen (2013).

The first baby in the Production Babies credit is Sebastian, Lin-Manuel Miranda's son, who was born during the making of this film. He's named for the crab in The Little Mermaid(1989).

Although it's a computer animated film, Maui's tattoos are hand-drawn. This is the first full-length Disney animated feature film since Winnie the Pooh (2011) to feature pure hand-drawn animation.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has said that The Little Mermaid (1989) had inspired him to become a songwriter for films like this. Interestingly enough, both The Little Mermaid (1989) and Moana (2016) were directed by the celebrated duo directing team of John Musker and Ron Clements.

Flounder, Ariel's side kick in The Little Mermaid (1989), makes an appearance in the background sketch graphic during the song "You're Welcome".

The first draft of the screenplay was written by Taika Waititi, who would go on to direct Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Rachel House appeared in both films.

ACTOR TRADEMARK: Dwayne Johnson: [eyebrow] When Moana first meets Maui, he cocks his eyebrow in a strange way. This is the people's eyebrow, Johnson's signature move from his wrestling career.

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 1632: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 

TRIVIA: Ryan Gosling was offered the role of the Beast, but turned it down to appear in La La Land (2016) instead. Emma Watson was offered the lead role in that film, but turned down that film to star in this one.

Sir Ian McKellen originally turned down the voice of Cogsworth in the original Beauty and the Beast (1991).

According to Ewan McGregor, the hardest part about playing Lumiere was getting the character's French accent right, although his wife of twenty years is in fact French. He said his voice ended up sounding Mexican instead of French, so he had to redo his dialogue after filming had completed.

Alan Menken, who scored Beauty and the Beast (1991), returns to score this live-action adaptation, which includes new recordings of the original songs in addition to new songs written by Menken and Tim Rice.

Ewan McGregor performed Lumiere's dances in motion-capture. However, he was embarrassed at wearing the motion-capture suit, and couldn't dance properly, unless he was completely alone with the filming crew.

During the ballroom scene, Emma Watson had a hard time not looking at her feet, because Dan Stevens was wearing steel toed shoes, and she was afraid he would step on her.

According to Disney, the first teaser trailer was viewed 91.8 million times in its first 24 hours. This marks the first teaser trailer of "Beauty and the Beast" to be the most viewed teaser trailer in history. Beating the previous record by Star Wars: The Force Awakens' (88 million views), followed by Captain America: Civil War (61 million views), each of them Disney films as well.

Bill Condon had actors sing The Lion King (1994)'s "Hakuna Matata" at the auditions to measure their singing voices. This was how he chose the final cast for this film.

Luke Evans (Gaston) had to wear fake teeth during filming due to having canines that are longer than normal, which he said would have made Gaston look like a vampire. Interestingly, he did in fact play a vampire in 2014's Dracula Untold as the title character.

Hidden Mickey: The lock on the stagecoach that Maurice and Belle are imprisoned in

In the 1991 classic the Beast's castle is shown to be quite close to the village, close enough for an angry mob to reach it in a few hours at most, yet nobody in the village know about it or notices the absence of those who live there when they are cursed. The prologue of the 2017 version elaborates on the story of the curse, stating part of the curse involved the world forgetting about the castle and its inhabitants.

During Belle and Beast's waltz, the letters WD can be seen in the coat of arms design on the floor. This is a nod to Walt Disney.

Jean Dujardin was strongly considered, and was the filmmakers' choice, for the role of Lumiere.

Bill Condon was chosen to direct Beauty and the Beast (2017), based solely on his previous work on Dreamgirls (2006).

When Maurice first enters the castle, he takes a second glance at the sconce holding up a lantern, as it resembles a human arm. This is a nod to the Jean Cocteau 1946's French film version of La Belle et la Bête (1946), where the halls of the castle are lit by human arms covered in gold holding up candelabras.

In the first half of the film, the Beast wears raggedy clothes, symbolizing his initially savage persona. After the song "Days in the Sun", the Beast's outfits become more refined and princely. This mirrors him slowly regaining his humanity.

The fictional town of Villeneuve is so named for the original author of "La Belle et la Bête," and Production Designer Sarah Greenwood used the real French village of Conques in Southern France for the inspiration.

http://www.wonderandcompany.com/youre-curious-walt-disney-quote/

FILM 1566: ZOOTOPIA

TRIVIA: Originally, the film revolved around Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman). However, test audiences reported that they had a hard time connecting with him emotionally and instead found themselves drawn to Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), so the story was changed.

Animators decided upon Judy's purple eye color because they thought the rest of her gray fur markings were too dull, particularly for a main character. Purple was chosen to represent her energetic and optimistic personality.

Nick Wilde's design is heavily based on the title character of Disney's Robin Hood (1973) (who is also a fox).

The pirated DVDs that Duke Weaselton is selling are movies with word plays to other Walt Disney Animation Studio features. Examples are: "Pig Hero 6" (Big Hero 6 (2014)), "Floatzen" (Frozen (2013)), "Wrangled" (Tangled (2010)), "Wreck-It Rhino" (Wreck-It Ralph (2012)), "Meowana" (the upcoming Moana (2016)), and "Giraffic" (the upcoming Gigantic (2018)).

There are numerous sight gags consisting of animal versions of common human brand names, including, Lucky Chomps (Lucky Charms cereal), Urban Snoutfitters (Urban Outfitters clothes shops), Zuber (ride hailing service Uber), Pawpsicle (Popsicle frozen pops), Lemming Bros. Bank (erstwhile Lehman Bros.), Trader Doe's (Trader Joe's food stores), Mousy's (Macy's department store), Moustercharge (MasterCard credit cards), Furs National Bank (instead of First), Targoat (Target), Catsio (Casio), MuzzleTime (FaceTime), and Hoof Locker (Foot Locker), among others.

HIDDEN MICKEY: If you look closely at Clawhauser's spots, you will see a hidden Mickey Mouse on his cheeks.

The horn heard when Judy Hopps leaves her hometown and again when she arrives in Zootopia is the horn from the Monorail at Disney Parks. The SkyTram in the rainforest zone is a reference to the Skyway that ferried guests from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. The Sky Buckets were removed from Disneyland in 1994 and from the Magic Kingdom in 1999.

Chief Bogo, when chastising Judy for having unrealistic dreams of becoming a "real cop" tells her that they aren't living "in a cartoon world where you sing a little song and all your dreams come true" before telling her to "let it go." This is an obviously self-referential nod to the large body of prior Disney animated classics, which frequently feature heroes seeking to fulfill lofty dreams, singing, and wishing, particularly the mega-hit Frozen (2013) whose feature song was the anthem "Let it Go" by Idina Menzel.

Judy's two obnoxious next-door neighbors, who can constantly be heard to tell each other to shut up, are a reference to the infamous "shut up little man" recordings. The tapes were a pre-internet viral sensation where a pair of next-door neighbor male roommates were captured on audio arguing incessantly, often ending with the pair screaming at each other to shut up.

In Doug the Ram's night howler lab he is talking on the phone when he hears a knock at the door and says, "Walter and Jessie are here so I'm leaving now..." Walter and Jessie are the names of the two main characters in the American television drug drama Breaking Bad. Doug also wears a yellow boiler suit, as do Walter and Jessie in the later seasons of the drug drama.

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.