DISNEY PANEL

disney panel!

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so that happened. the pixar boys came out to show toy story 2 in 3-d as well as a brief new trailer for the toy story 1 + 2 double feature that will be playing in cinemas for 2 weeks beginning on october 2nd. then trotted out the opening sequence of beauty and the beat in 3-d, which is being prepped for a valentine's day 2010 release. needless to say,everything looked stunning and as if it was designed for 3-d from the ground up (particularly beauty and the beast). note... as i was typing this sentence i just got a wee bit eyed from peter jackson. spooky.

then 2-d american animation makes its highly anticipated return with this fall's "the princess and the frog." new orleans setting... heavy on cajun culture... a wee bit of atonement for "song of the south," perhaps? anyhoo, it's been too long since we've witnessed 2-d animation this effing pretty... and the fact that it's a bonafide musical makes me particularly nostalgic. songs by randy newman. hilarious. the footage looks good but the characters... i'll reserve judgment. just so happy that disney finally brought 2-d back to the table.

and then MIYAZAKI.

everything at every comic-con until this point mires in the shadow of this cinematic titan... okay, that sentence was a wee bit ridiculous, but what's not ridiculous is that in my not at all humble opinion, miyazaki is the greatest filmmaker to have visited comic-con in the six years that i've been attending. and he's getting water next to me right now. i'm weeping on loquacious muse's computer. okay, where was i? oooh boy... such goosebumps. i now know how it feels to be a twilight fan. the man... donning a white fedora in the style of akira kurosawa... emerged on stage to the largest standing ovation i've ever seen at the con. the questions posed to him were enraptured, as was patton oswalt's moderation of the panel. the PONYO footage was as breathtaking as i anticipated. the animation almost impossibly rich, and the kinetic momentum of the action beats we were treated to as fluid, inviting, and revelatory as anything studio ghibli has produced thus far. fish waves = awesome. ponyo's hair... still vexes.

i hope the film is a wee bit more accessible than what i've seen suggests, as the 800 theaters disney is plopping this sucker into amounts to miyazaki's largest american release by far, and i hope that some of miyazaki-san's singularly weird concoctions don't lessen our chances for a greater stateside reception of his masterworks. why disney didn't give the ponyo treatment to "spirited away," one of the best and most approachable animated films of all time... is beyond me.

i loves me that man.