Up With Pixar

So what's next for Pixar after the critical and financial success of WALL-E? Well, things are looking Up.

The computer animation giant was at Comic-Con today to preview their next feature (directed by Monsters, Inc.'s Pete Doctor) and it sounds like they have another winner on their hands.

Click here for a charming sneak peek of the film, in theaters May 29, 2009.

I Wanna Be a Cowboy

Yippee-ki-yay! Today is National Cowboy Day, and to celebrate, Entertainment Weekly is counting down the top cowpokes in pop culture history, including a very familiar pair (pictured above) and a certain village person. Yee-hah!

That Galaxy Far, Far Away Will Now Be Really, Really Close

Leave it to George Lucas to figure out a way to get Star Wars fans to pay to see his movies all over again ... again. Plans are underway to re-release not one, not two, but all six Star Wars movies using state-of-the-art 3-D technology. So now moviegoers will get to experience the thrill of dodging light sabres, laser beams and Jabba the Hut drool sometime in the future, as no exact schedule has been set at this time.

Lucas had mentioned his intentions for this 3-D bonanza at least three years ago, where the plan was to re-release one movie a year. I have to imagine that interest would die down about half way through that scenario though. I remember when the much-ballyhooed "special editions" of the original trilogy came out back in 1997 and everyone was pretty much over it by the time Return of the Jedi (I refuse to call it Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi) came out.

Sleeping Beauty Castle to Reawaken

Just in time for the release of Sleeping Beauty as a two-disc Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray(ah, that infamous Disney synergy at work), Disneyland will reopen one of its lower-key attractions, the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough.

Longtime Disneyphiles will remember this A-ticket as a self-guided walking tour up inside the park's central icon, where they could view nifty little dioramas of Barbie-esque dolls depicting scenes from the 1959 animated fairy tale (here's a video retrospective). It was definitely low-tech stuff, mostly appealing to little girls and window display designers. (I remember as a kid we would always do this one last because if we missed it, no big loss; why we waited to do the one attraction that required a lot of walking -- up flights of stairs, no less -- after a full day at the park, I don't know.)

However, for the 2008 version (planned to open sometime this fall), Imagineers are promising a little more bells and whistles, including a virtual walkthrough for park guests who aren't able to walk up all those stairs.

UPDATE: The attraction has re-opened to guests, and LaughingPlace.com has a full report, including pictures and video.

The Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray will be available October 7. Click hereto pre-order it from Amazon.com.

Thoms Pays the Rent

Tracie Thoms, who played lesbian lawyer Joanne in the movie version of Rent, will take to the Broadway stage tonight in that role in the long-running Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical hit.

Thoms, who was one of the two film Renters who wasn't in the original cast of the show, will stay with the production through its closing date, September 7.

In the News: Way to Burst Their Bubble

Hilarious but true headline (from Broadway.com):

"Gazillion Bubble Show Robbed; 3.4 Tons of Bubble Solution Missing".

Reel Thoughts: ABBA-cadabra!

If you don’t like ABBA, you have Australia to blame for their resurgent popularity. Would the Swedish pop group have had such a comeback without Toni Collette’s marriage-obsessed Muriel’s Wedding and the ABBA-riffic Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? Why, even the Broadway posters for Mamma Mia! were a direct rip-off of Muriel's.

Of course, once it opened, Mamma Mia! became a worldwide sensation, easily one of the best “jukebox musicals” of all time. The reason it succeeds onstage, even in fickle Las Vegas where it has outlived about a half dozen other Broadway imports, is that the wafer-thin story is just framework enough to hang ABBA’s infectious hits. On the other hand, it doesn’t feel like a tired retread of what it’s celebrating, like All Shook Up did.

The film version is extremely exciting, mostly due to its all-star cast and spectacular Greek locations. Opened up and blown up on the big screen, some of what works on stage feels flat on film. The other problem is that now, you really get the chance to hear the lyrics, and it reminds you that English wasn’t really ABBA’s first language. No amount of song selling on Christine Baranski and Julie Walters’ parts will improve the inherent silliness of “Chiquitita”; and much as I adored Meryl Streep’s heartfelt rendition of “The Winner Takes It All”, after the fourth repetition of the same lyrics, you start to feel a little bad for her -- let the poor woman finish the song, already!

The story of Mamma Mia! takes place on a magically beautiful Greek Island where Donna (Streep) is running an inn and preparing for her daughter Sophie’s wedding. Sophie, played with charming sweetness by Amanda Seyfried, is determined to have her father give her away, despite never having met him or even knowing his name. Reading her Mom’s diary, she narrows it down to three men with whom Donna “dot, dot, dotted,” and Sophie invites them all to her wedding. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård play the prospective papas, while Baranski and Walters play Donna’s best friends and former back-up singers (when they were “Donna and the Dynamos”).

The film is set to every ABBA song you’ve ever heard, and a few you haven’t. Donna and Sophie bond while confronting the past, and everyone finds love in one way or another. My favorite thing about the film and show is the way it focuses on the middle-aged women and their supportive friendship. The music may not always be equal to the quality of the people singing it (especially Streep), but everyone is clearly having a ball, and you will, too.

UPDATE: Mamma Mia! is now available on DVD and Blu-rayfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.