Pixar has finally seemed to answer the question of when we're going to see a Pixar film with a female main character with the announcement of their upcoming slate of movies and the planned 2011 release of The Bear and the Bow, an action/adventure retelling of a Scottish tale of a rebellious heroine. It also boasts a female director and producer. I have high hopes for this one, but since it sounds like a different route for Pixar to take, we'll have to see. The rest of the forthcoming Disney/Pixar films (barring the unfortunate "Fairies" DVD series, which looks like sparkly little girl bait and nothing more) also look pretty great.
After the trailer for the upcoming 3-D movie version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, one of my favorite books, was leaked to the internet, the studio went ahead and released their own, higher-quality one. I have some trepidation about seeing a book I love through another's perspective, which I generally have with all movies adapted from books - but, beyond that, I'm excited to see this.
This week's IFC News podcast is an especially good one - discussing the increasing use of motion capture technology in film versus traditional animation. Of course, it's inspired by the premiere of Beowulf, which, despite Neil Gaiman's writerly involvement, I have next to no desire to see. I'm all for employing new technologies, and computer animation can be wonderful (proved by Pixar) - but I think there's a line where it stops being creative and ends up being only convenient. Matt and Alison talk about all the pros and cons in the podcast.
