Disney's return to 2-D animation? Color me (so far) impressed

When I first heard the news that Pixar was going to do all of its movies in vaunted 3.D, I have to admit it made me more than a little sad.

It wasn't just that this extremely broad embrace was more than a little bit of exaggeration. It's also that this just seems like a loss of innocence, of animated movies containing old-fashioned magic and being aimed - as corny as this sounds - at the kid in all of us.

So you can count me as rather psyched for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog," coming at Christmas and starring "Dreamgirl" Anika Noni Rose. As you can see from the trailer below, after a thoroughly unnecessary intro listing the various accomplishments of Disney (in case we somehow all didn't know already), it indeed makes New Orleans look like a magical place.

My only beef with any of what I've seen or heard so far is that they couldn't find anyone but Randy Newman to do the score. Having just bought a copy of Allen Toussaint's first strictly "jazz" album, "The Bright Mississippi," I can attest that that great pianoman or, for that matter, any number of other New Orleans musicians, would have been a much more inspired choice.

Anyways, enjoy the trailer, and continue after that if you wish for two more clips that deliver varying degrees of funny.



Sacha Baron Cohen and the limits of funny

Anyone who's seen "Borat" knows that for Sacha Baron Cohen there really isn't even anything like an "envelope" to push, but from what I've seen of his upcoming flick, "Bruno," I think it's gonna still manage to shock (and hopefully make people laugh too.)

Below is a clip from his "Meinspace" page in which Bruno talks about recruiting "Friends," and describes the specific kinds he's looking for (and talks about, just to warn you, his bleached ******* and how he's a chocoholic.)

After that is the first trailer for "Whatever Works," which is Woody Allen's movie starring Larry David but unfortunately seems to contain the broadest and easiest kinds of jokes about Southerners and gay people. Here's hoping this is just an attempt to get this to play as wide as possible (maybe even in my rather Southern little corner of the world), and that the movie itself will prove to be a whole lot more satisfying. And with that short report, I'm out.

Meinspace Vassup!

David Chase and the golden age of Hollywood

Wow. I knew NBC's "Kings" would be a hard show for folks to get into, but from the numbers it looks like only Al Swearengen's devoted fans even bothered to start with it in the first place. Though I didn't bother to tune in for these other two, it can't be a good sign that Sunday's two-hour debut had numbers (6 million viewers, 1.6 preliminary 18-49 rating) that get it the honor of being mentioned in the trades in the same sentence with "Chopping Block" and "Crusoe." Enjoy it while you can.

In much, much better - deliriously better, I'd go so far as to say - TV news, Henry Rollins will join the cast of "Sons of Anarchy" for six episodes when the FX show returns April 27. Though, not unlike "Kings," the tale of the SAMCRO motorcycle gang starring Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal and Charlie Hunnam of "Undeclared" fame (if there really is any of that) unfolds slowly, it's pretty friggin' engrossing if you let yourself go along for the ride.

Rollins, who puts both the bad and occasionally the ass too in badass, will play one of the club's new enemies in the California town of Charming. That should be nothing but cool, and besides, shouldn't the leader of Black Flag get the chance to add more to his acting resume so the trades won't keep pointing out he was in "Bad Boys 2"?

But, before I got off on that slight tangent, this was supposed to be about the return of David Chase to HBO, which can only be called a good thing, especially since it's NOT to do a "Sopranos" flick that picks up where the series rather ambiguously (and, in my book, flawlessly) left off.

Instead he's developing a miniseries called "A Ribbon of Dreams," which will begin in 1913 and follow two men, one a college-educated mechanical engineer and the other a cowboy with a violent past, who head out to Hollywood to get into the movie business. In the story, the two begin as employees of D.W. Griffith and then cross paths with the likes of John Ford, John Wayne, Raoul Walsh, Bette Davis and Billy Wilder as they become powers in the movie industry themselves.

The casting options for this alone are enough to keep my mind occupied and off of my daily workload for quite a while, but no other info (like when any of this might hit the airwaves) came out this morning.

Sounds plenty cool to me, but long before that HBO is also cooking up something with a lot lower profile that will hopefully turn into enough of a hit that I get to watch it soon for free online.

The last movie that Anthony Minghella managed to direct before he died (eerily enough) of a hemorrhage exactly one year ago tomorrow was one based on Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," easily one of my favorite books. Minghella made it into a TV movie last year for HBO that just this morning got added to the "save" list on my Netflix queue for the day when it finally hits DVD, and come March 29 it will be reborn as a series for the channel. (And, it appears that if you're willing to watch it in installments on your computer, the entire movie is somehow on YouTube too in 11 parts or so.)

Starring R&B diva Jill Scott (who Tyler Perry has already proven is a pretty darn good actress), "The Wire" veteran Idris Elba and "Dreamgirl" Anika Noni Rose, the book, movie and now series are about Precious Ramotswe (Scott), who becomes the first female private detective in Botswana. It's light as air but all kinds of fun, so definitely tune in for this one if you can.

And, on a short tangential note before I close with the series trailer, was I the only who didn't know (until this morning) that Rashida Jones of "The Office" is Quincy Jones' daughter? I never would have guessed, but there's an interview with her this morning at Blackfilm.com to promote Friday's release of "I Love You, Man." Blackfilm.com, by the way, is a fantastic site and one that's a daily stop on my morning reading list, so definitely check it out.

But now here's the trailer for "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," and with that I'm headed to the job I thankfully still have (though at least eight of my co-workers can't say that as of yesterday.) Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.

Why does Oscar hate music so much?

Actually, the big news about music this morning is that HBO has hired John Sayles to write and I would assume at least partly direct "Scar," an upcoming series about the childhood of Red Hot Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis. Even though Sayles' last foray into music, the blues-tinged "Honeydripper," was just a mangled mess, Kiedis' colorful upbringing (with a father who sold drugs on the Sunset Strip) should make for entertaining fare.

But as is often the case on a Monday morning, I really start today with a beef. Though last night's Oscars broadcast was an enjoyable enough affair with some pleasantly surprising winners (but how in the world did Mickey Rourke not win?), the treatment of the best songs was simply atrocious.

And, even though they had already snubbed two worthy contenders in Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" and Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" by failing to even nominate them, they still had two worthy contenders from A.R. Rahman's sensational "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtrack (a big winner) and a pretty solid tune from Peter Gabriel in "Down to Earth" from "Wall-E."

So why in the world couldn't they have at least offered those three separate performances, well spaced out and bookended by the Indian pop extravaganzas? I mean, really, if you can't mount a Bollywood-style musical number or two, what good is the awards show in the first place?

Instead, though Hugh Jackman got plenty of chances to ham it up (and do one grand musical number with Beyonce Knowles, who should have been a nominee and probably a winner for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Etta James in "Cadillac Records"), the Best Original Song nominees were crammed into one melody, with fairly disastrous results.

It started off well enough, with little A.R. Rahman (and, being a man of fairly short stature, I say little with the highest respect possible) surrounded by beautiful dancers and big drums for "O Saya," which only could have been better with an appearance from M.I.A. (now that she's had the kid and all.) Fair enough.

But then, John Legend - a k a the man who murdered what's left of R&B (sorry for that, but I really hate John Legend, and that shot of him in a coffin from "Soul Men" was just one of my favorite images from all of 2008) - came out to croon "Down to Earth," perhaps because Peter Gabriel knew how his work was going to be treated and refused to show up.

This was pleasant enough, John Legend notwithstanding, but then things really fell apart. Rather than anything even approaching the grand finale of "Slumdog Millionaire" for "Jai Ho" (I mean, really, didn't they already choreograph it for you perfectly, and weren't Dev Patel and Freida Pinto - as well as all those adorable kids - in the audience and ready to dance?), they just limped back into it with none of the grand delivery it deserved. Worst of all, poor Mr. Rahman was left to fight for air time with Legend, who producers thought would be a good idea to have show up for the end of "Jai Ho" (after less than a minute of it!) to sing some of Gabriel's tune at the same time. Simply dreadful.

Oh well. At least Rahman won for both score and for "Jai Ho," though "O Saya" is the better song. And I guess that's enough of a rant about a show that, like I said at the start, had at least a couple of pleasant surprise winners.

Penelope Cruz as Best Supporting Actress might only have been a surprise to me, but it was certainly a welcome one. She was perfectly charming in her acceptance speech, and it was worthy recognition for one of the best comedic performances of the year in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (and the first Oscar win for a Spanish actress.)

And though I thoroughly enjoyed the disturbing Katrina documentary "Trouble the Water" when I got to see it at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, I was happy to see "Man on Wire" (another flick I saw in Rehoboth) take home the big documentary prize. If you're a fan of heist flicks, than I highly recommend this flick (which must be out on DVD by now) about what might just be the ultimate caper, Philippe Petit's walk between the Twin Towers.

It was also, of course, cathartic to see Heath Ledger's family accept his Best Supporting Actor prize for "The Dark Knight," probably the most deserved award of the entire evening, and being a big backer of "Slumdog Millionaire" I was very happy to see it take home eight awards, including Best Director for Danny Boyle and Best Picture (I suppose I could have started with that, but it is a Monday morning, after all.)

And I'll leave you with the montage clip of 2009's coming attractions from last night's show. The best things to me were the glimpses of "Public Enemies," "Julie & Julia" and Larry David in "Whatever Works," and the most groan-inducing shot would have to be the one of Robin Williams and John Travolta in "Old Dogs." I have no idea how in the world they managed to leave out Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" with Anika Noni Rose, but even with that rather glaring omission, it's still a cool little preview. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.

10 (fairly) fresh faces to watch

Though I cribbed this idea directly from Variety, anyone who's been here before (and, amazingly, there do seem to be a few of you who actually read my ramblings) knows these names are all from my own head and close to my heart.

So, without wasting any more time, here are 10 names of rising stars you probably know already but will hopefully hear a lot more about in the future, with, when I could find it, their most interesting upcoming movie project.

Amy Adams

While I'd hesitate to call it a "great" movie, "Junebug" is easily one of the most charming movies I've seen in many years, largely due to Ms. Adams' great performance as the very pregnant (and not terribly happy about it) Ashley Johnsten. Amazingly, according to the IMDB, she worked at a Hooters restaurant until she turned 18 and they tried to make her wear the customary cleavage-promoting attire. Look for her this December in Mike Nichols' "Charlie Wilson's War."

Paul Dano

In "Little Miss Sunshine," he managed to steal the show in a cast crowded with heavyweights even though he didn't have much to say at all until near the very end. His reward? He landed the lead role in Spike Jonze's sure-to-be-wild adaptation of Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are," which we unfortunately won't get to see until at least October 2008.

Taraji P. Henson

This D.C. girl is, so far, best known as the lady who sang D.J.'s hook for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" in "Hustle & Flow." Since then, she's been the only good thing about "Smokin' Aces," playing off Alicia Keys, and David Fincher has apparently had the good sense to cast her in his next movie, so look out for her in his take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Jonah Hill

I've already pimped the upcoming "Superbad" to death, so instead I'll recommend another flick that proves Mr. Hill is just astoundingly funny. I rented "Accepted" from that $1 DVD machine at the supermarket, which was surprisingly good, and he was very funny in it. Though I'm not sure I can call this a good thing, he'll soon be contributing his voice to the thoroughly unnecessary update of "Horton Hears a Who."

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The only good thing to come out of the rather excremental TV show "3rd Rock From the Sun" (and no, it wasn't French Stewart) was the very talented Mr. Gordon-Levitt. All the proof you need can be found in "The Lookout," which was probably seen by about 10 people when it came out earlier this year but deserves to garner a lot more fans on DVD.

Derek Luke

Of all the actors and actresses who can claim to have been snubbed at last year's Oscars, Mr. Luke gets my vote for his outstanding turn as a South African man driven to terrorism by torture in Phillip Noyce's "Catch a Fire." Look for him soon in Robert Redford's upcoming Oscar bait "Lions for Lambs."

Ellen Page

Though Ms. Page deserves the most recognition for her surprisingly hardened work in "Hard Candy," I'll always remember her for giving me just about the only reason to smile while watching Brett Ratner's simply awful "X-Men: The Last Stand." Next, she'll be the titular star of Jason Reitman's "Juno." This coming-of-age story about a young lady who finds herself pregnant also stars three of the world's funniest people, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman and Rainn Wilson, so definitely keep your eyes out for it. (And, of course, it was written by Minneapolis City Pages blogger Diablo Cody.)

Keke Palmer

I usually have little time for sweet family films, having no rugrats of my own to tend to, but "Akeelah and the Bee" was a breed apart for its smarts and young Ms. Palmer's spunk. Since then, she's appeared in an episode of Tyler Perry's fairly awful TV show "House of Payne," and her only upcoming credit is for something from Renny Harlin called "The Cleaner," which also stars Samuel L. Jackson in what sounds like a fairly run-of=the-mill thriller.

Freddy Rodriguez

I've liked Freddy ever since his work on "Six Feet Under," and it was loads of fun watching him slay zombies (or whatever they were) in Robert Rodriguez's half of "Grindhouse." He currently resides in my Netflix queue opposite Christian Bale in "Harsh Times," and is apparently working on a flick called "Bottle Shock," to be about the birth of Napa Valley wine industry.

Anika Noni Rose

After holding her own with but ultimately getting overshadowed by divas Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce Knowles in "Dreamgirls," Ms. Rose is soon to get the ultimate last laugh. For what's being billed as Disney's first black princess, Ms. Rose will voice the lead role of Princess Tiana in its upcoming musical extravaganza "The Princess and the Frog," to which I can only offer a hearty huzzah!

So, there you have it. Please feel free to add the names of any young folk who just make you smile when they appear on the big screen, and have an entirely suckfree Wednesday.

P.S. A hearty congratulations to Robert Reichert, who scored a thoroughly impressive victory in the Macon mayoral race in Tuesday's Democratic primary, virtually assuring he will be my city's next mayor. Though the horse I backed, the Rev. Henry Ficklin, only got five percent, I only wish Mr. Reichert all the best in tackling all the serious problems we have to deal with. In his honor, here's a clip of the simply stunning "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke (audio only.) Enjoy!