Comic Con: Disney Panel

Comic Con Disney Panel

As most people in the Klingon speaking world already know, Comic Con kicked off yesterday in San Diego California, an event which has be writhing in jealousy every year at those lucky enough to bag themselves a ticket. However the highlight of my day (had I have been there of course…) would have been the Walt Disney Studios panel, which revealed much info a few of my most anticipated films of the next year or so, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Tim Burton’s next feature Frankenweenie and what most girls will just term ‘the new Johnny Depp, Lone Ranger. Oh yeah, and Wreck it Ralph.

OZ 

Oz: The Great and Powerful, not for release until march next year (GOD!!!) stirred up excitement by revealing its first trailer which quickly followed up seconds later online  for the pleasure of the viewing public.

Apparently the movie contains giant sets, is ‘classically Disney’ and will continue the tradition of bearing Sam Raimi’s trademark car, the Oldsmobile (although apparently some changes to its appearance have had to be made). The story will follow the development of Oz the wizard into the character we know today as presented in the Frank L. Baum books.

The trailer starts off in black and white before bursting into colour upon the arrival into Oz, naturally nodding towards the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Also, following the same theme as Dorothy, it seems poor Oz gets caught up in aKansas tornado during a failed flight in his hot air balloon (note to self: never go toKansas…or do?), and embarks on a journey to become ‘a great man’. Of course, I’m sure he’ll face numerous doubts over his ability to achieve greatness as heroes these days always do. However, if we go by the books, we all know he turns out to be a big old fraud, so I wonder how they’ll translate than into ‘greatness’.

Oz in the trailer looks fabulously fantastical, a little too much for my liking! It kind of feels like you are trapped in some big, lurid fishbowl, with that horrible little naked pink guy buzzing around your face. However, the following shots show some of the many aspects of Oz; some dark, some made out of teapots, and some on fire, so it seems like its going to be really imaginative, a really big concept mapped out across the great Kingdom. Which is cool. It looks like there’ll be action, romance, good, evil, flying monkeys and lots of witches, so really embracing the world of Oz.

Me, I have always loved The Wizard of Oz and watch it every Christmas, I was obsessed with The Return to Oz as a child and am in LOVE with Wicked: The Musical, so pretty much will go for any thing Oz themed. SPEAKING OF WHICH, apparently there have been more talks of translating said musical into a film screen adaption suggesting Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Reader) as its director. I want this to happen so bad, but these ‘talks’ have been happening for years regarding this production, so I wont hold my breath just yet (but pleeeeeeeeeaase!! WHAT is the hold up!!!)

Frankenweenie

Tim Burton discussed his latest film, the reworking of his earlier short animation Frankenweenie due for release October of this year, making a nice little Halloween treat for us all!

You can catch the original trailer for it here on IMDB, but at Comic Con Burton revealed a sort of 50’s style reworking complete with spooky letters, music and dramatic voice over. It works really well and will probably please grown up Tim Burton fans more than the kid audience. The effect is that classicBurtonfeel the fans love; it’s stop animation, it’s retro and it’s ghouly, but still retains that sense of innocence and childhood humour. It even seems to have a character that possesses a striking resemblance to Vincent Price.

Anyway, the story follows a boy who figures out how to bring his dead pet dog to life. I have real trouble watching things about peoples pets dying. I don’t care how high the human body count is. If the pet dies, I am out of there, which is why I very wary of the ending of this film as surely the dog will go back to rest. But knowing Burton films, the little boy will find closure or the dog will WANT to die or something to ease my pain, so I’m willing to give this one a go.

During the Q&A, Burton pondered the potential of the outcome of his black and white film in 3D as it is pretty new to the format, so that should be interesting. I wonder if kids will be into it, as it starkly contrasts with the technicolour bubblegum renderings of Oz, Wreck it Ralph and The Lorax. I know I’d force my kid to watch it whether they liked it or not, and be all ‘appreciate it dammit!’

Lone Ranger

A few sneak peaks of The Lone Ranger have been allowed along with an exclusive trailer preview, which hopefully will be released to the public soon (pleeeease??!!). Apparently its packed with action and guns, has a huge train set piece and suggestions of time travel. The film, directed by Gore Verbinski of Pirates of theCaribbeaninfamy, follows the story of the fictional legendary masked ex- Texas Ranger (played by Armie Hammer) and his Native American companion Tonto (Johnny Depp).

The reuniting team of Verbinski and Depp would lead me to expect a reappearance of the Jack Sparrow character in Native American disguise, which is great for the audience but is obviously typecasting for Depp. However, it will also hopefully bring that swinging, swashbuckling epic action of Pirates of the Caribbean, with lush sets to die for and a soundtrack to follow.

There has also been a bit of news on Wreck-It Ralph which is starting to gain my interest. At first I thought the main pleasure for the viewer would just come from the recognition of various retro gaming characters, but with the addition of Sarah Silverman (hoping she will be in it for more than 15 seconds) and Jane Lynch, I’m starting to see the personality and possible depth emerging, so might give it a chance. There was also plenty of stuff going on with The Hobbit elsewhere, but even I am getting tired of my own voice going on about this bloody hobbit, so I’m giving that a rest. The last Twilight instalment was discussed along with a preview of the 7 minutes of the film. I’m not really a fan of Twilight and don’t follow the films so can’t really comment, but there is a good article on it here: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/07/13/comic-con-2012-robert-pattinson-kristen-stewart-preview-the-twilight-saga-breaking-dawn-part-2/?mod=google_news_blog.

Of course there was plenty of other interesting stuff going on too such as discussions of the use of prosthetics in horror featuring make- artist of True Blood, a demo from Dreamworks Animation, a panel discussing the effects of censorship on female artists, a live stage demo of Assassins Creed III, the return of Klaspy Csupo….in fact I’m going to give up on naming interesting sounding things as there are justy far too many! Tomorrow brings a Q&A with The Big Bang Theory cast, presentation of the new Judge Dredd, Game of Thrones panel, Jonathan Ross turns up, the cast of Breaking Bad make an appearance, the best Korean animation is displayed, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards take place and Blade Runner’s 30^th anniversary gets celebrated. So you know, not much.