#joe ranft

[90smovies]

[weaselbeaselpants]

All the storyboards I could find of James and the Giant Peach

I apologize for the low-quality. In some, if not most of these cases, this is all that exists and they're almost all on auction sites.

At least more than a few of these were definitely drawn by Joe Ranft, Disney/Pixar veteran. His drawings are so god damn cute for the bugs it's near criminal.

Here's Joe being a god to the giant peach

and a screengrab someone took of a promo of Joe explaining the storyboards for what appears to be the "we're going to New York City" scene. Abysmal quality. No there's not a view nicer/better than this.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

A Bug's Life (1998, John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton)

09/06/2024

[mikheleworld]

[mikyapixie]

33 years ago today Beauty and The Beast released in theaters!!!

I know I’m not the only one who was disappointed with beast’s face reveal!!!

[thebutcher-5]

Cars - Motori ruggenti

Benvenuti o bentornati sul nostro blog. Nello scorso articolo siamo andati avanti con la saga di Tremors, arrivando a un punto dove le cose a livello produttivo sono cambiate parecchio e dando vita a Tremors 5: Bloodlines. Burt Gummer non dà più la caccia ai Graboid, adesso è il protagonista della sua web-series sul survivalismo. Un giorno lui e il suo cameraman, Travis, ricevono la visita di un…

[camyfilms]

FINDING NEMO 2003

I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food.

[cinematitlecards]

"Cars" (2006) Directed by John Lasseter & Joe Ranft (Animated/Adventure/Comedy)

[theartofpixar]

[loveaetingkids]

Can I please have some facts about Coraline?

Wow,I never thought someone would be interested! I gathered a few fun facts,and while I’m sure they’re easy to spot, these are fun to tell to the new viewers:

•To start it off,the movers who were unpacking Coralines family furniture were modeled and named after Joe and Jerome Ranft,who worked on Nightmare Before Christmas:

•The dollar that was handled over to them has the image of Henry Selick on it,director of Coraline:

•Wybie Lovat is not part of Neil Gaiman’s novel-he was created so that Coraline won’t talk to herself( in the book we read about her thoughts,but  it’s much harder to do so in film).

•The medal of Mr Bobynsky is real one: it was awarded to the Chornobyl disaster liquidators(fun fact:the power plant is called ChOrnobyl, not ChErnobyl since it was built in Ukraine,so Ukrainian spelling style applies). His exposure to radiation explains Bobynsky’s blue skin and unwell mind:

•The “jumping mice” are also real.They are native to the south of United States:

•During Coralines first encounter with Other Mother,when she asks Beldam what rain is she talking about,we see a quick appearance of lightning which looks suspiciously like a hand. This is not a coincidence, as the hand is closely associated with the witch (this sign appears in the cup during the foreshadowing of Spink and Forcible; her severed hand chases the heroine at the end of the movie):

•It’s a pretty well known fact,but on the cake itself we see that “home” in “Welcome home” has an “o” written with a double loop,which according to pseudoscience called graphology means that the person who wrote it is lying.Thus,Coraline is welcomed but it isn’t her home:

•Here’s my own little theory: each time Coraline crawls through the tunnel to another world, it dims,until all the colors disappear and the true essence of the pathway is revealed - a cobweb with children’s toys in it(a trap for kids).Now it might be just a trick of light,but it’s interesting to think about nevertheless:

•The audience gets hints of Beldams fairy/witch nature throughout the film; the first time is when Coraline finds a well surrounded by a circle of mushrooms, which in the beliefs of many people was associated with fairies who lured people into them(sounds familiar?).The second time is when she was given a stone with a hole in it by Spink and Forcible.This rock is often called Hag stone,and is believed to serve as a protection against evil spirits.It is also believed that you can see through the guise of a witch by looking through the hole(exactly what Coraline did to find the eyes of missing children):

•Now,the bug theme in Coraline is really prevalent,and later in the movie we can see that Other Mother is heavily associated with spiders.Meanwhile Coraline has similar thing going on-she wears hairpin resembling dragonfly,who are known for eating spiders.Because of this,the game of predator and prey is turned on its head:

That’s it for now,hope these were interesting for you!

[j4m3s-b4k3r]

BACK TO THE FUTURE: the animated series

I was working at Disney France when John Hays contacted me, looking for an overseas supervisor for a Saturday Morning cartoon that he'd be directing for Colossal Pictures. I’d done such things before. What interested me about this particular gig was that John wanted the supervisor to firstly work as part of the pre-production team at Colossal. I absolutely loved that idea. So headed to San Francisco to work on the BACK TO THE FUTURE cartoon.

I’d been introduced to John by mutual pal Tony Stacchi while backpacking in the USA a few years earlier. When Colossal diversified from special effects & TV commercials into longer form animation, John remembered me. Thinking my experience in Saturday Morning animation would fit with this new project, that both he & Phil Robinson would direct.. 

The crew had not fully assembled when I arrived in San Francisco. In fact, it was so early in production that even the look of the show had not yet been locked down. Many freelance artists, including Steve Purcell & Dave Fiess, plus Colossal staffers had a crack at design proposals, and I had a go too. 

Colossal had acquired a new building for long form production, but it was still being refit. So, a few of us worked in a cold drafty room at Colossal’s 3rd street building. As the crew expanded, we were housed in a cramped annex in their Custer Street sound stage. Until we finally moved into the facility on 15th street. (That building would eventually host the entire Colossal animation department).

When some designs of mine were selected for the main characters, the plan for me to supervise production in Taiwan was modified. Instead, I became one of two art director/character designers on the series. The mighty John Stevenson being the other. 

There was such a back & forth between Colossal & Universal over the main characters (even the actors got involved) that it was hard to do anything truly unique (although I was happy with how Doc Brown turned out). But we definitely had fun on the secondary character designs. 

Private Stevenson & Private Baker..

John & I both worked on designs for the first episode together, then took it in turns thereafter. I designed characters on even-numbered episodes, and John designed for odd-numbered episodes. We both sat side by side, cracking each other up with sillier & sillier designs. Joyfully competing as the series progressed. (In my opinion, John utterly killed it with his designs for his ROMAN episode..)

Directors John Hays & Phil Robinson really assembled a mighty crew for this series. Dave Gordon & Richard Moore did the BG styling, with Dave doing a lot of great VisDev too. Robin Steele, and future Pixar heavyweights Bud Luckey, & Joe Ranft did the storyboards. Two more future Pixar legends, Bob Pauley & Bill Cone, led much of the layout & location design. Future LucasFilm directors Bosco Ng, & Steward Lee were stalwarts of the art department. Colour styling was by future CNN design director Dewey Reid, and John Pomeroy animated the title sequence! 

After years of living & working in countries where I struggled to learn the language, it was great to finally be in a city where I could actually socialise. I was very lucky to be working with utterly inspiring artists. We often worked late, as we were all excited to be working together.

The pre-pro team was enthusiastic and worked hard, with high hopes for the show. However, by this point in my career I had a pretty good idea of how the Saturday Morning sausage was made. Having worked in the bowels of the sausage factory myself for 10 years by that point. I was hopeful, but also knew that it was anybody’s guess if the show would get the same care at the other end..

A show about a kooky scientist, his young buddy and a time machine had the potential to be absolutely great. The best of Doctor Who and a (family friendly) Rick & Morty. But stories that went to a new time zone each week needed a lot of design. I kept hoping that the scripts would contain less characters & locations. So that we could really refine the model packets. But every script contained tons of NEW characters & locations. Plus new outfits/gear for the main characters too. SIGH..

We'd been promised the 'top floor' animators at Taiwan's Cuckoo's Nest studio, but "Uh oh.." early footage made it clear that we'd gotten the basement crew instead.. "DOH!" Back when I'd supervised outsourcing myself, I learned that if the good artists are already assigned to another project there wasn’t much you could do. So, despite an absolutely stellar design & storyboard team, and early optimism, the show itself came out merely 'OK'. It ran for two seasons on CBS.

It has been one of the counter intuitive aspects of my career that sometimes the fave projects are NOT the best projects.. Despite being merely a footnote in animation history, this was absolutely a linchpin project in my own career, and I have fond memories of it to this day. Many great opportunities that came later were thanks to this show. I met many wonderful artists, who became lifelong friends, who I still work with and/or socialise with, decades later. On this project, I fell in love with San Francisco. And, after living out of a backpack for years, made this kooky town my home. I’d later go on staff at Colossal Pictures, which became my favourite studio I ever worked at. Where I finally escaped from Saturday Morning cartoons, into TV commercials and other more challenging projects.

[90smovies]

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: A Bug's Life

Rating: G

Director: John Lasseter

Cast: Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hayden Panettiere, Phyllis Diller, Richard Kind, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Denis Leary, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Michael McShane, John Ratzenberger, Brad Garrett, Roddy McDowall

Release year: 1998

Genres: adventure, comedy

Blurb: On behalf of oppressed bugs everywhere, an inventive ant named Flik hires a troupe of warrior bugs to defend his bustling colony from a horde of freeloading grasshoppers led by the evil-minded Hopper...except these "warrior bugs" are actually circus performers.

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Toy Story (1995, John Lasseter)

21/10/2024

[mikheleworld]

[mikyapixie]

29 years ago today Toy Story released in theaters!!!

AWWW!!!

This movie made me way too overly conscience of my toys!!!🤣😅🤣