The Incredibles

[ono]

And despite my overjoyed reaction... I have absolutely no faith in Cars.  What the fuck is THAT about?  I hope there's something I'm missing here...

Have you seen any promotional material for Cars?  It'll be much better than it sounds.  This is one case where things like teasers and trailers are necessary.  I'm really pumped for that one too.  It has potential.

[Stefen]

And despite my overjoyed reaction... I have absolutely no faith in Cars.  What the fuck is THAT about?  I hope there's something I'm missing here...

Have you seen any promotional material for Cars?  It'll be much better than it sounds.  This is one case where things like teasers and trailers are necessary.  I'm really pumped for that one too.  It has potential.

I don't know. It looks like a ploy to get all the nascar fans into a theater, and i hope it's not cause I won't fucking see it. Also, it looks very childish. Granted this is all from a teaser but that was the impression I got. It's just trying to cash in on the nascar craze right now. But, pixar has never steered me wrong before so i'm probably wrong like I normally am.

[ono]

...there's a Nascar craze now?

[Pubrick]

...there's a Nascar craze now?

yeah dude, havn't u heard?

[Ghostboy]

Just got the DVD. Jack Jack Attack is wonderful - so wonderful that it feels way too short.

[MacGuffin]

FEATURE - A Very Animated Speech

Brad Bird, the writer and director of last year’s phenomenon The Incredibles, takes time out to blister Hollywood studios, theatre owners, moviegoers and the media. Souce: FilmStew.com

When The Incredibles writer-director Brad Bird took to the stage this past weekend at the 48th San Francisco International Film Festival, the very same sensibility that powered his 2004 animated Pixar smash immediately took hold. As this year’s invited ‘State of the Cinema’ speaker, Bird suggested instead that his 90-minute speech should simply be thought of as ‘A Bunch of Stuff I Think About the Movies.’

Here is a man whose seminal moviegoing experiences are of an unabashedly populist bent: watching A Hard Day's Night as a child, mystified by the screams of the teenage girls in the audience; attending Star Wars that magical spring of 1977 and cheering along with a crowd that didn't yet know that they were witnessing a phenomenon; seeing Casablanca in a packed rep house in the days before video took over and becoming one with a group that passionately reacted to every turn in its classic story; and taking his own children to the first 12:01 AM screening last year of Spider-Man 2 at a single-screen theater in Corte Madera, California so that they would be able to see the movie in all of its widescreen splendor before heading off to summer vacation in Vermont and temporary banishment to a small-screen multiplex.

"The thrill is not what it used to be," Bird warned of today’s cinematic experience, noting that even San Francisco festival attendance has been dwindling, a reflection of the changes happening in the wider world of the box office that has reflected declining attendance for the past nine weeks.

Certainly, the festival has had its early triumphs, with films such as Todd Solondz's Palindromes and hot Korean director Kim Ki-Duk's 3-Iron selling out their screenings. But unlike in years past, the main board in the Kabuki lobby that provides a master festival calendar is not yet covered in a sea of red dots, indicating sell out shows and rush only tickets.

To Bird's way of thinking, the blame for this drop off in movie attendance is shared among the studios, exhibitors, media, and the audience. He objects to the shabby way the studios treat a movie's theatrical release. "They're training people to wait for the DVD release," he complains, noting that the window between exhibition and the home consumer release grows ever shorter. "The vibe is the DVD release is more important than the theatrical release."

He holds particular disdain for what he calls "flops that aren't," movies like Godzilla that open big based on their marketing campaigns and then die quickly, making money for the studios on clearly inferior properties. Nor is Bird pleased with the way that the studios throw their movies on as many screens as they can in anticipation of making a killing on opening weekend, caring little whether it makes sense to show something like a Cinemascope movie on a tiny multiplex screen, so long as they make their money back.

But Bird does not let the theaters off the hook either, citing ads and video games in the lobby as sources of irritation. Ironically, while he was speaking in a multiplex, he hates them, referring to them contemptuously as the ‘googleplex.’ He is a passionate advocate for the survival of the single-screen theater and not just because those full-size screens provide the ultimate viewing experience for a 'Scope film like The Incredibles, but because of their architectural magnificence.

"They aren't going to make them like that again," he notes, waxing rhapsodically over Oakland's Art Deco gem, the Paramount, and mourning the recent passing of San Francisco's own Coronet, one of the first theaters to show a little unheralded 1977 film called Star Wars.

Bird accuses the media of being guilty of ‘television think,’ ruing the day in the mid-1980s when publishing box office stats became the norm. "It's not a horse race, people!" he declares, averring that the emphasis on big weekend grosses has changed the way the studios do business to the detriment of movies that might benefit from word-of-mouth and the old, platform release model.

Not left out of the equation are the moviegoers themselves, who he thinks need to be far more assertive in demanding quality from theaters, so that exhibitors cannot get away with such practices as trying to save money by not turning their projector bulbs to full brightness. And while he acknowledges that a six-track, surround-sound home theater system can be had for under $150, he would like to hear that question, "When can I get on DVD?" a lot less often. In the future, he believes, "Small movies will [screen] in the home," but for big event movies or comedies, Bird cannot imagine why anyone would stay at home when they can sit in the dark in communal delight.

Bird concluded his speech with a call to arms. "No tiny screens on opening day!" Further, he thinks the studios should dump their MBAs and find executives with good instincts and the courage to follow them. He would love to see an end to the box office handicapping, the banishment of ads, the return of movie music before screenings, and the revival of movie programs. He believes that the half-century prohibition on studios owning theaters should end, giving them more of a stake in the exhibition. And he longs to see movies more elegantly presented. "I want to see theaters with curtains!"

Mostly, though, Bird just wants to see a return of the showman with enough sense of razzle-dazzle to make going to the movies something special again. Bird cited Disney's Dick Cook as one such specimen, offering a local example in Cook's arranging for premiere of 1996's The Rock to actually take place on the movie's set on the rock, a.k.a. Alcatraz.

Certainly, the San Francisco International Film Festival itself seems to get Bird's point about showmanship. It is evident in the presentation of their Midnight Movies series where festival programmer Rod Armstrong whips up an already enthusiastic crowd with a pre-screening trivia contest. It is evident in the festival's latest gambit, their sold-out Sneak Peeks program, a slate of three movies sold as a package, which they promise will be among the year's hottest but keep the titles under wraps until the movies actually screen. It is evident in the way the festival recruited two very different screenwriters, Todd Solondz and Paul Haggis, to participate in screenwriting seminars.

Most of all, it is evident that SFIFF understands what Bird means by "showmanship" just in the fact that they tapped him for the ‘State of the Cinema’ address. Alone on stage with just a lectern, a pile of 3"x5" cards, and a microphone, he held an audience in the palm of his hands for 90 minutes with no clips and no cartoon characters to embroider his speech.

And yet when he was done, one could only conclude, "Now that's entertainment!"

[modage]

wow.  amen to that.  if it werent for the pixar protection he would probably be blacklisted everywhere else in hollywood right now.

[Tryskadekafobia]

God bless Brad Bird.

[Redlum]

Excellent.

I hate the shopping center vibe you can find now. Ive seen someone walk into a film with some flat pack furniture, before.

I was watching 'In Good Company' and in the last 20 minutes some girl comes in looking for somebody in the audience. When she couldnt find him/her she started asking people what the time was and when we thought the film would end. Where were the hell were the ushers?

[meatball]

"They're training people to wait for the DVD release," he complains, noting that the window between exhibition and the home consumer release grows ever shorter. "The vibe is the DVD release is more important than the theatrical release."

So very, very true. Some people are becoming obsessed collectors. The very act of collecting the DVDs becomes more important the the films themselves. Everything is being packaged in plastic and handed out by the millions for the masses to grab, rush home, and bundle together with the rest of their unopened cases. I'm sick of it.
[/size]

[life_boy]

Some people are becoming obsessed collectors. The very act of collecting the DVDs becomes more important the the films themselves. Everything is being packaged in plastic and handed out by the millions for the masses to grab, rush home, and bundle together with the rest of their unopened cases. I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of being that way.  I've played that game and it's really not that fun.