My Top 40 Animated Feature Films

In honor of Wall-E, which I saw yesterday and LOVED, here’s my list of 40 favorite animated films:

1.    Alice in Wonderland*                            1951

2.    Bambi*                                          1942

3.    Fantasia*                                       1940

4.    Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*                1937

5.    Finding Nemo**                                  2003

6.    The Little Mermaid*                             1989

7.    Cinderella*                                     1950

8.    Toy Story**                                     1995

9.    My Neighbor Totoro†                             1988

10.   WALL·E**                                        2008

11.   The Lion King*                                  1994

12.   Cars**                                          2006

13.   Dumbo*                                          1941

14.   The Nightmare Before Christmas*                 1993

15.   Ratatouille**                                   2007

16.   Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind†             1984

17.   Happy Feet◊                                     2006

18.   Princess Mononoke†                              1997

19.   Monsters Inc.**                                 2001

20.   Shrek‡                                          2001

21.   Shrek 2‡                                        2004

22.   Aladdin*                                        1992

23.   The Incredibles**                               2004

24.   Shrek the Third‡                                2007

25.   Beauty and the Beast*                           1991

26.   The Simpsons Movie¨                             2007

27.   The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh*         1977

28.   A Scanner Darkly§                               2006

29.   Sleeping Beauty*                                1959

30.   Over the Hedge‡                                 2006

31.   Robin Hood*                                     1973

32.   A Bug’s Life**                                  1998

33.   Lilo & Stitch*                                  2002

34.   Kung Fu Panda‡                                  2008

35.   Akiraª                                          1998

36.   Ice Age¨                                        2002

37.   Ice Age: The Meltdown¨                          2006

38.   Open Season©                                    2006

39.   Shark Tale‡                                     2004

40.   Antz‡                                           1998

*Disney (including Touchstone Pictures)
** Disney/Pixar
† Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki)
‡ Dreamworks
◊ Village Roadshow/Warner Bros.
¨ Fox (including Blue Sky Studios)
§ Warner Bros.
ª The Akira Committee
© Sony

Last revised and updated July 2, 2008

Another NEW Punisher: Zone Poster featuring Ray Stevenson !!!

Bringin’ out the big gun…

NEW Punisher: War Zone Poster featuring Ray Stevenson !!!

Hey Frankie, why so serious?

You Don’t Mess With the Johann

One of the first clips featuring Johann Krauss, and he speaks in this one.

 

 

more about “Johann Smacks Red Around the Locker Room“, posted with vodpod

New hints of The Riddler in Nolan’s Bat-world?

Many of you may be aware of the extensive (and I must say very cool) viral marketing campaign currently hyping Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Dark Knight. I found something interesting related to that campaign on ComicBookMovie.com today. It seems that on the newly revealed Jokerized page of the Gotham Times, there are a series of letters circled in red. An astute observer figured out that the letters combine to form this message:

Herrings are red
Corpes are blue
You’re on the right track
But you don’t have a clue

Now, I know the big bad villains in The Dark Knight will be The Joker and Two-Face, but doesn’t this sound suspiciously like something The Riddler would come up with? Apparently, there was also a letter to the editor written in the last issue of the Gotham Times authored by an Edward Nashton, one of the Riddler’s aliases! Here’s the text from the newspaper, taken from the Dark Knight ARG Wiki:

“Dent Cannot Be Believed”

So now Assistant District Attorney Harvey Dent pretends to turn upside-down the city, speaking of truth, justice and so on. Should we believe him? I think not. The more he’s posing as a man of justice, the more it means he is corrupted like every powerful man in the city.

Right now Dent seems different from the others, but that is only part of the game, so he can get power by the fools who support him. A man who comes in the darkest moments to save the situation exists only in fables; in real life, people like that have always had other (bad) intentions.

Edward Nashton
Granton Beach

There had been rumors that Anthony Michael Hall was going to play The Riddler, but these seem to have been dispelled after it was confirmed that he was playing TV reporter Mike Engel.  Will there be a Riddler cameo? Is this a set up for the next Bat-film? Am I crazy and is this just the Joker being clever?

The 25 Most Influential People in Comic Book Movies: #4 David S. Goyer

     Despite his career ups and downs, David S. Goyer has become the go-to guy for getting screenplays written for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and other comic book publishers. In 1996, he wrote The Crow: City of Angels, the sequel to #20 Jeff Most’s dark hit The Crow. Alex Proyas, director of The Crow, hired Goyer to write a polish for his next film the sci-fi/fantasy success Dark City. Goyer’s first adaptation of a Marvel Comics character was the 1998 television film Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., starring David Hasselhoff. The same year, the cinematic feature Blade was released, written by Goyer and executive produced by #22 Michael De Luca. Goyer created the original character of Whistler, Blade’s mentor, for the film. Marvel later added the character into the comic book’s continuity. Goyer would follow Blade as writer and executive producer of Blade II, directed by #10 Guillermo Del Toro in 2002 with designer #13 Mike Mignola on board.  In 2004, New Line released Blade: Trinity, which Goyer wrote, directed and produced himself. Although Trinity received an unfortunately ill reception from critics and fans, Goyer found redemption in 2005’s Batman Begins, for which he shared story and screenplay writing credits with director #18 Christopher Nolan. Goyer also wrote the dialogue and story for the accompanying Batman Begins video game. In 2006, Goyer returned to Blade as writer for the short-lived televisions series “Blade: The Series,” which aired only 12 episodes. His last released works include 2007’s Ghost Rider, for which Goyer served as executive producer. The film’s final script was written by director #14 Mark Steven Johnson. Goyer also wrote the screenplay for the segment “In Darkness Dwells,” part of the animated compilation Batman: Gotham Knight to be released on July 8, 2008.
     David Goyer’s future projects include The Dark Knight, set for release on July 18, 2008, on which he again shares story writing credits with director Christopher Nolan. He is working on a final version of a screenplay for X-Men Origins: Magneto, after the original screenplay by Sheldon Turner.  Goyer is also attached to direct the Marvel film, set for release in 2009. He is credited as a writer of the screenplay for the currently in-production film adaptation of the DC character The Flash, scheduled for release in 2010. Hollywood.com reports that he has been announced to produce Super Max, based on the DC character Green Arrow.  He is also announced to produce a film adaptation of Vertigo Comcis’ Y: The Last Man, and to direct an adaptation of Platinum Studios’ Unique. Variety reports that Goyer will be directing a film adaptation of the 2007 graphic novel Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, co-written by Mike Mignola.

Influence Meter: ++++++++++

The 25 Most Influential People in Comic Book Movies: #5 Michael E. Uslan

Michael E. Uslan is the undisputed father of the modern Batman film. A comics lore legend, he was the first professor to teach a course on “comic book folklore” at an accredited university (his alma mater Indiana University.) He famously convinced the Dean of the school to allow his course after equating the Dean’s recollection of the story of Moses with the story of Superman. Since 1979, he and co-founder of Batfilm Productions #8 Benjamin Melniker have owned the feature motion picture rights to the DC Comics Batman franchise. Uslan has shared production credits on every one of Melniker’s comic book screen works, including every Batman film since 1989. He was the first to pitch the idea of a darker Batman, as opposed to the campy 1960s TV Batman, to producers, but was turned down repeatedly. His persistence, however, eventually led to the production of Tim Burton’s 1989 classic, and he has remained the Batman authority since then. In addition, he was executive producer of 2008’s direct to video Turok: Son of Stone, based on the Dell, Gold Key and Valiant Comics hero. He is set to produce Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam, based on the original DC Comics Captain Marvel. With #11 Sam Raimi, he will be producing a film adaptation of The Shadow, a long time pet project of Raimi’s.

Influence Meter: +++++++++

The Dark Knight TV Spot

Here’s some particularly maniacal Joker for you:

Bloody Joker Poster

Now this one’s creepy.

Seth Rogen? Really?

Direct from sonypictures.com

Is he really?  Looks like they’ve got Steven Chow of Kung Fu Hustle playing Kato.  I’d like to see Jackie Chan, following in the tradition of Bruce Lee, but Chow’s a pretty good choice.