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Monsters University In Theaters Today + Monstrous Summer Sweepstakes – #MonstersUEvent

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Disclosure – I received an invite to the #MonstersUEvent. All expenses were paid for and covered by Disney. This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own.

I am excited to announce that Disney’s Monsters University hit the theaters today. For those of you with little ones that have been patiently waiting, this weekend you can now take them to see the prequel to Monsters Inc. With this movie you find out about the early days of the characters from Monsters Inc.

Monsters University Now Playing

Back in April I was able to see 40 minutes of this film at Pixar before the film was officially finished. I can tell you that I LOVED what I seen and I have been really anxious to see the entire film from beginning to end. My kids are also excited to see this so we are going to be making a movie night soon with my youngest two children.

Like to enter sweepstakes? Visit the Disney Parks Monstrous Summer Sweepstakes to WIN a family vacation for 4 to any Disney park of your choice!

Monsters University Sweepstakes

I want to let you know that Monsters University is NOT scary. Even though it is full of monsters, it is definitely going to make your kids laugh and smile! In April I also got to meet the producers, directors and other key members that put this film together and learn how this movie was made (view my posts here). I learned a lot there and this is another reason I am anxious to see it. I also want to see how it ends…

Here is the Monsters University trailer for those that haven’t seen it:

Want to see Monsters University too? Find showtimes here.

 

The Blue Umbrella + Interview With Saschka Unseld – #MonstersUEvent

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Disclosure – I received an invite to the #MonstersUEvent. All expenses were paid for and covered by Disney. This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own.

Poster for The Blue Umbrella

If you have been following along for the last couple months, you might know that I had the opportunity to visit the Pixar Studios and meet some incredible people. What I haven’t mentioned yet was our roundtable interview with Pixar Director, Writer and Technical Director of “The Blue Umbrella”, a very cute little animated short that you will see along with Monsters University.

Sascka Unseld Pixar Director

Saschka was born in Frankfurt, Germany and moved with his family to Hamburg when he was only 14 years old. He then went on to pursue his interest and passion for animation by attending the Animation Institute in Ludwigsburg, Germany. After graduation Unseld co-founded the animation studio “Studio So” where he produced and directed numerous film shorts and commercials.

In 2008 Sashka Unseld came to Pixar Animation Studios where he is currently serving as a director and writer for the animated short “The Blue Umbrella”. He has previously worked on camera and staging assignments for the features, “Toy Story 3”, “Cars 2” and “Brave”. When Unseld presented the idea for “The Blue Umbrella”, he had no idea that this would stand out as one of the highlights of his career. He says that he practiced pitching the idea for a long time and was amazed at the reactions he received. Working on this project has been a real dream come true for him.

Take a sneek peek at “The Blue Umbrella” clip below:

 

Now if watch this short, you might think it looks very realistic where in fact, the whole film is animated. You might also question where the film takes place for some of the scenes might look a little familiar to you.  We had to ask Saschka just how many cities are involved in “The Blue Umbrella” and here is his response:

Um, I mean, there is clearly New York, because I went on, on two trips there to take photos.  Um, there is some of the characters, from the city characters out of San Francisco, because that’s just, like, the very first one on the, on the sidewalk.  Um, we called her Lisa.  They actually have all names because you couldn’t say, like, you know that weird metal thing in the 15th shot?  They actually all have names.  Um, so Lisa is two blocks down from where I live.  And Lisa was part of a test I shot on my iPhone as well.

Since I have been to both New York and San Francisco, I thought it was neat that this short included shots from both of these big cities. While watching the short, I myself was trying to guess what cities were being included.

The Blue Umbrella Director

We then of course had to ask where he got the idea for this story.

Um, well the core of the story was… I was living here already since, like, four years or something like this.  And it really rarely rained.  And then finally it was raining.  And I went for a walk through the city, and I saw an umbrella someone had thrown away on the side of the street.  Um, and I took a picture of it.  Like, I think, on the, on the Tumblr blog I have, the first post of that is that photo I had taken.  And, um, on the… I don’t know if you I had this weird, incognito blog called Rainy City Tales on Tumblr that I actually was running during the production.

These are just a couple of the questions we were able to ask Saschka during our interview. To find out more about this short, you will have to see it next week when Monsters University comes to theaters on June 21st.

The Blue Umbrella

 

Disney Launches ‘Kerpoof Tell a Story’ a New Digital Storybook Building App for Kids

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Disney just launched a new digital storybook building app, Kerpoof Tell a Story.

Tell A Story

Based on the popular Kerpoof.com web app, Tell a Story, allows kids to create storybooks by assembling backgrounds, characters and other objects on their iPads. A truly interactive storytelling experience, the app lets little authors bring their stories to life with animation, audio narration and sound effects. The first Tell a Story title, Dino Edition, features adorable dinosaurs – helping kids foster their imaginations.

To find out more about this app, visit: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id630197048

 

Oz The Great and Powerful Available On DVD & Blu-ray Tomorrow

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Oz the Great and Powerful

I have to say that the original Wizard of Oz is still one of my most FAVORITE movies. I have probably seen the movie at least a 100 times and I was thrilled when Disney came out with Oz The Great And Powerful. For those that didn’t get a chance to see Oz the Great and Powerful at the theaters, tomorrow (June 11) this movie will be available on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Digital Copy. This is definitely a must-own for any home entertainment collection and especially for those Wizard of Oz fans.

Oz The Great And Powerful brings the epic adventure to life and has some never-before-seen bonus materials that you might want to see:

  • “The Magic of ‘Oz The Great and Powerful’ Second Screen Feature” that provides viewers with an immersive opportunity to journey into the fantastical lands of Oz
  • James Franco’s personal story of his journey to the land of Oz that is produced and directed by the Oscar® nominated star himself
  • Golden Globe® nominee Mila Kunis’ makeup metamorphosis which is hosted by Academy Award®-winning makeup artist Howard Berger
  • A back-stage journey through each of the visual effects process that brought China Girl to life including an interview with Joey King
  • And much more!

Right now you can purchase the Oz The Great And Powerful Blu-ray Combo Pack on Amazon for only $27.99 with FREE Shipping!

 

Interview With Monsters University Director, Dan Scanlon #MonstersUEvent

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Disclosure – I received an invite to the #MonstersUEvent. All expenses were paid for and covered by Disney. This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own.

Back in April I had the opportunity to visit Monsters University (aka Pixar Studios) to not only get a sneak peek at the “Monsters University” movie, but also chat with some of the people behind the scenes that have made the Pixar movies such a huge success.

Pixar Director Dan Scanlon

I think we were all excited when we had got to sit down and have a roundtable interview with the director of “Monsters University”, Dan Scanlon. Not only did we find out about his role in the movie, we also learned that Dan had a HUGE LOVE for Warner Bros. cartoons and animated Disney films when he was young. His passion turned him to study film and animation in high school and then he focused on illustration at Columbus College of Art and Design.

In 2001 Dan joined Pixar Animation Studios as a storyboard artist on “Cars” and “Toy Story 3”. During the beginning stages of the production on this film, Dan worked to translate the director’s story ideas onto the film’s first visual format which is a storyboard.  Dan now makes his animated feature directional debut with Disney Pixar’s 14th feature film, “Monsters University” which comes to theaters this month on June 21, 2013.

So what did Dan Scanlon have to say about the upcoming movie, “Monsters University”? I share below a few of the questions we asked and what he had to say…

Directory Dan Scanlon at Pixar Studios

Q: How long did it take for you to get to the college scenario?

A:  I think the reason college came up was, in the first film, in the early stages of the movie, they had actually talked about them being in college. They had versions of the story that they talked about their old college days. And so I think when the idea of going back came up, everyone was, like, oh, of course they went to college. It also gives you an opportunity to just get to see another place for monsters to go that seemed classic and we’d never done a college movie. No one had ever really tried that, so I think that was where the idea came from.

Monsters University Cap

Q: What was the process of coming up with the fraternities and sororities names, like Ooma Kappa is OK?

A: It was actually really weirdly hard. We wanted them to be monsterized, but we just knew we wanted all those (EEK, ROAR) to sound really scary but then theirs (OK) to sound, sort of, small and to be this little extra badge of frustration for them. Strangely difficult to come up with fun. It was fun to just come up with names that also described the fraternities and sororities. You tend to get into kind of a clique and so we wanted them to describe the type of group that they were.

Monsters University Sulley

Q: When it comes to fear in kids’ movies, how do you decide how much is too much?

A: I think initially we always sort of make these movies for ourselves, and our own families in mind as the gauge. But then we do test screenings and things to kind of get a feeling that type of stuff. It is a tricky movie when you’re dealing with the issue of fear. The good thing is, the kids are still with the monsters. The monsters are still these sort of fun characters and, even when there’s intimidating monsters like her (Dean), I think you’re still kind of with your main characters.

It is always a tough line. You want to make sure there’s a story that’s fear we remember from being kids ourselves. It’s thrilling too. It’s those great characters and villains in films we remember from our childhood. They’re pretty scary. You just always want to make sure you’re not hurting the experience by taking too much.

These were just a few of the questions we got to ask, but I wish we had more time to ask him more. If you haven’t already, be sure to read our interview with Producer Kori Rae.

You will also want to take a peek at PopSugarTV’s video Monsters University Creators Dan Scanlon and Korie Rae on “Going Backwards” With the Prequel.

 

See Monsters University in theaters June 21, 2013

 

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