Animation

An unlikely duo going on a rambunctious colorful ride seeking truth and vindication is at the heart of the new animated film Nimona out in select US theaters this weekend and streaming on Netflix on June 30 – just in time to wrap up Pride month with themes of inclusivity and acceptance. Based on the New York Times bestselling webcomic character created a little over a decade ago by non-binary and transmasculine graphic artist ND Stevenson, Nimona is a mischievous teenage shapeshifter perceived as a villainous threat to be feared in a futuristic medieval world, when all she actually wants is to be accepted for who she really is while having fun creating chaos by transforming herself into various living beings.

In the field of animation, the name John Musker is synonymous with greatness. Alongside Ron Clements, Musker was behind the second golden age of classic animation with titles like The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992) and Hercules (1997) under his belt, as well as more recent successes like The Princess and the Frog (2009) and Moana (2016).

The discussion was, shall we say, quite animated: it was around 2005 when Hollywood Foreign Press Association members felt animated films should have a unique category, pointing out the difficulty of judging animation the same way as live-action films. Others argued a film is a film, whatever the means of their creation.

Interesting and heavy, consequential questions of art’s relationship to commerce hang all over the terrifically engrossing documentary Claydream, informing its bittersweet portrait of the rise and fall of the man largely considered the father of modern-day clay animation. That its subject’s actual name remains unknown outside of tight-knit industry circles while his rebranded, formerly eponymous studio, wrested away from him two decades ago and given a new moniker, has gone on to garner considerable acclaim with a fanciful origin story speaks to a time-honored Hollywood axiom: when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

Pakistan is not known for its animation. Animated cinema, especially traditional feature film animation, is noticeably absent in that country.

Animation, the very core of the Disney empire, always comes first at D23- and the 2017 edition was no exception. A slew of new animation features was announced, including the return of a favorite of audiences and critics a like - The Incredibles.

Kubo And The Two Strings, directed by Travis Knight. A boy with extraordinary powers goes on an epic quest to find his late father’s armor and vanquish an evil spirit.

All of this weekend's newcomers struggled to stay afloat as Moana left the competitors in its wake for the second frame in a row. Disney’s Dwayne Johnson led high seas adventure earned $28.

This weekend, Disney Animation’s Moana grabbed the biggest plate of turkey and also took home most of the leftovers. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson voices the Polynesian demigod Maui, who aides Moana, a teenage princess voiced by 16 year old Auli’I Cravalho, in this open water adventure to save her island from the vengeful lava spirit Te Ka.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from – if you barely speak the language, or genders – it all comes down to the work done at one's desk and what you have to offer”, asserts Carolina Lopez Dau about working in the male- dominated field of animation. One of the growing number of women in the industry, the Pixar employee grew up watching cartoons and playing video games with her brothers and their friends in her native Spain.