James Cameron's Avatar world wide box office has reached $760 Million in only two weeks, which is simply phenomenal. If you have not seen Avatar yet, go to see it as the movie is fantastic, really. Some complains that the story has nothing special, but that's not the point. You must watch Avatar with the heart, not only with the mind, then you will enter the world of Pandora and the movie will look like a dream...
However, if you live in the U.S where Princess and the Frog is already released, go to watch it too! So many people went to Avatar that Princess and the Frog is not doing that well at U.S box-office... It would not be that dramatic if the movie was not 2D animation. And you know how executives are, they believe only in numbers... so, if "Princess and the Frog" box office don't reach their expectations they may think that it's the 2D animation which is responsible. Of course it will be absurd but if you want Disney traditional animation to survive give it a little help, just go to see Princess and the Frog, which, by the way, is a wonderful movie.
Let's come back to Avatar now or more precisely to the Mattel toys inspired by the movie - as they introduce for the first time "augmented reality" in merchandise products. Each box of the Mattel toy line include "iTags" to use with your computer and webcam to deliver hi-tech features. How does it works? It couldn't be more simple, all what you have to do is to place the iTags in front of your webcam to see Avatar's creatures or machines appearing on your computer screen. It's pretty cool, and the best is that you have a look at the videos below which will show you more about this in details.
Isn't it cool? Now, all this leads me to this question: what the hell Disney is waiting for to introduce augmented reality in their toys line? All the kids, even the younger one, are now playing with their computer and all computer now have webcams, the only thing that you really need for augmented reality.
Frankly, do you imagine the potential of this with any Disney/Pixar animated movie? Augmented reality, finally, is also animation... All "Princess and the Frog" toys should include an iTag so the kids could see and interact with their favorite character on their computer screen. They will love it! It's time to wake-up at Disney's merchandise section! We're in 2010 and some great technology awaits you!
8 comments:
The release date of TPATF in Israel is only in the middle of february... that's too much time to wait.
Je suis d'accord avec ce sujet, qu'est-ce que Disney attend pour lancer ce genre de jouets ? Mais en meme temps, est-ce que Disney est encore capable d'innover comme il y a plusieurs décennies ? Je me demande si Disney n'est finalement pas une société du 20 siecle qui n'arrive pas a passer le cap du 21e. Leurs films n'innovent plus, les dessins animés 2D et 3D (hors Pixar) sont sans intérêt, ils loupent le retour à la 2D et se plantent avec "Princess and the frog" (un film typiquement années 90 sans innovation) et depuis quand n'ont-ils pas lancé une attraction vraiment innovante ? Des années (a mon avis Tower OF terror en 1994) ! Idem pour les parcs, tous les derniers sont des ratages sauf Disney Sea mais est qui n'est pas un parc appartenant à la compagnie. Aujourd'hui, mon impression est que les films, les dessins animés, les jeux video, les attractions, les jouets et les parcs de l'an 2000 ne sont plus chez Disney mais chez la concurrence.
Disney did use this technology online. It was for the Fantasmic summer promotion. I would imagine the issue is making 3D versions of their characters that are pleasing to look at and fast enough to render live.
Je me joint à l'effort collectif (sans y être forcé, je dois dire lol) pour donner un coup de pouce à "La Princesse et la Grenouille" en allant à une avant première sur Bordeaux, aujourd'hui même! Et j'y retournerai certainement à la sortie du film!
Bravo pour le site que je suis assiduement depuis pas mal de temps désormais.
Some complains that the story has nothing special, but that's not the point. You must watch Avatar with the heart, not only with the mind, then you will enter the world of Pandora and the movie will look like a dream...
Well, I've seen Avatar twice and twice in Dolby 3D. The first time because I wanted, the second time because of social commitments ;).
I must say that story is important for me, and the second time, it became quite a boring experience, since the *wow effect* wears out quite fast.
I respect James Cameron for his drive to perfection, no special effect in the movie looked fake.
Unfortunately for Cameron, his mindblowing setting seems to rely on a bit of plagiarism. Maybe you should have a look right here. If you've seen the movie, it will be hard to deny any resemblance.
Back to the "augmented reality" stuff; rather than building some half baked video-game-alike stuff, I rather want them to focus on putting that technology to use in the next groundbreaking attractions. :)
And The Princess and the Frog thing. I suppose it is a marketing problem in the first place, almost nobody I spoke to even knew the movie was going to be released. It also coincides with "A Chrismas Carol", which is roughly targeted at the same demographic. (Although it is yet another stale Zemeckis movie, this guy stopped being interesting about 10 years ago...)
I also object to calling it "2D", it is an animated feature made to look like an old-skool hand-animated feature, but most of it is created using modern 3D tools with cell shading applied. (The same technique sometimes used in videogames to make 3D scenes look like traditional animated movies.)
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo3nZV7HbRk
This was added back in June.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but I thought that this is exactly what the imagination of children is supposed to be doing with simpler toys ! Are we now using technology kill our kids creativity and inner life ? More and more entertainment is taking the place of our own personal inventiveness until we end up all being dull, stupid and all with a uniform dependence on an ever more advanced 'dream machines', in the process padding the pockets of toy manufacturer...
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