I can honestly say I’ve only seen Bambi once.  It was years ago when Disney released it, or re-released it on VHS, so you can imagine my memory of the film is somewhat fuzzy.  I’m not sure why I never watched it more, other than it’s a rather sad film, and it doesn’t have a princess in it.  (Sorry, I like the princess movies).  I always had a fondness for Thumper, though, and I found the tune “Little April Shower” very catchy.

I didn’t really know what to expect from Bambi II Special Edition.  At first, I thought this would be a sequel and follow the adventures of an older Bambi, but rather like Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas, this film takes place in the middle of the original.

The movie begins immediately after that Really Sad Moment in the original film, and Bambi’s father, the Great Prince of the Forest, explains that things are very different now.  The Prince tries to find a doe to look after the young fawn, but he eventually realizes that he must take responsibility for his son.  The regal Prince (voiced superbly by Patrick Stewart) tries to teach Bambi to look after the other deer and find food.

Bambi tries hard to please his father, but he’s young and wants to play with his friends, and he has trouble navigating some of the rockier terrain in the forest.  His father’s patience is tested time and again, but a relationship slowly develops between them as the ice of winter melts and the flowers of spring begin to bloom.

The animation in this film is beautiful.  Much better quality than I ever would have expected from a direct-to-video release.  Let me say it again:  the animation in this film is beautiful.  I know that Walt Disney had the animators study live animals during the production of the original Bambi, and this new film maintains that same level of quality.  Though perhaps not so true to life, the animals’ eyes are huge and expressive, providing emotion without dialogue, and though the story is simple and straightforward, I was still drawn in and entertained.

Unfortunately, the music isn’t very memorable, but it’s subtle and neither adds nor takes anything away from the film.  Overall, I think it’s a sweet film that will mostly appeal to young children and fans of the original Bambi who want to see more of Thumper, Flower, and Faline.  I also think fans of animated movies in general will appreciate its artistic quality.

Bonus features include a deleted song entitled “Sing the Day,” interactive learning games, a tutorial on how to draw Thumper, a featurette about the history behind Bambi II, and pop-up text that reveals fun facts about the movie.

I recommend watching it at least once.

Disney’s D23 expo was the site of Marvel’s unveiling of the Avengers (much to the dismay of the Comic-Con audience) and they brought out most of the principle cast and showed some footage. We managed to get video of the presentation and thought we’d offer it here to you.

The Hollywood Reporter got some interviews afterward and they offered some great tidbits.

Here’s Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey, Jr.:

Tom Hiddleston discussing his part as Loki:

And Jeremy Renner and Scarlett Johansson talking about fight scenes and injuries on set:

The Avengers hits screens next year. You can read about the footage shown in this report from earlier today.

The Marvel Movies facebook page (which you should all join) was on hand at D23 and they posted a description of the Avengers footage shown. I know a lot of people were upset that they were showing the footage at D23 instead of Comic-Con, but it was no less effective in getting the word out instantly.

You can read the full description on the Marvel Movies facebook page, but my favorite part?

The ending:

Loki sees the camera and knows that the Avengers are watching him.
Lord, Thor’s arms are MASSIVE.
“You talk about peace and you kill cuz it’s fun.” – Fury to Loki
Loki looks even more menacing than he did in Thor…wow!
Loki’s hair looks longer. Maybe that’s just me.
We got to see Hawkeye loose an arrow. LOOKED GREAT.
Big explosion!
Renner also using guns. But he has a full quiver of arrows on his back.
Tony Stark is doing a headcount of the Avengers: A couple of master assassins, a demigod, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend
Iron Man and somone battling. Maybe Thor?
And the last scene of Tony Stark talking? It was to Loki!
To Loki: “And you, big fella, managed to piss off every one of them.” Loki: “I have an army.” Stark: “We have a Hulk!”

I’m still having a hard time believing that we get to see this movie in our lifetime. This sounds like everything we’ve wanted, everything we’ve asked for, everything our heart desires.

I still feel like I’m living in a dream and the other shoe is going to drop and we won’t REALLY have an Avengers movies.

It comes out next year, and the word on twitter from producer Kevin Feige at D23 is that they have only 2 weeks of filming left.

I can’t wait.

Until then, we’ll be on the lookout for the footage if it ever comes out for you to look at.

There was some speculation that since The Avengers was noticeably lacking at this years Comic-Con that we would see something instead at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. It turns out that this speculation was right!

Disney will be showcasing the film at the Anaheim Convention Center during their D23 Expo taking place on Saturday, August 20. Little details about exactly what will occur involving the film hasn’t been released, but you can be sure whatever news comes from this we here at BSR will be sure to bring it to you like the giddy geeks we are! You can check out the full press release on the D23 Expo below!

Exclusively at Disney’s D23 Expo August 19-21 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Disney film fans will go behind the scenes to explore the exciting roster of projects on the horizon at The Walt Disney Studios, with a variety of panel discussions, sneak peeks, and exhibits.

On Saturday, August 20, Rich Ross, chairman, The Walt Disney Studios; Sean Bailey, president, Production, The Walt Disney Studios; John Lasseter, chief creative officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios; and Kevin Feige, producer and president, Marvel Studios, will present a not-to-be-missed look at The Walt Disney Studios’ upcoming film slate, which includes Disney’s The Muppets, John Carter, Disney-Pixar’s Brave, Marvel’s The Avengers, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, Oz: The Great and Powerful, and more.

With projects from Disney, Pixar Animation Studios, and Marvel Studios, this special presentation will feature never-before-seen footage and all-star appearances by Jason Segel, Kermit, and Miss Piggy (Disney’s The Muppets), Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, and Willem Dafoe (John Carter), Kelly Macdonald and Kevin McKidd (Brave), Jennifer Garner (The Odd Life of Timothy Green), Jack McBrayer and Sarah Silverman (Wreck-It Ralph), cast members from Marvel’s The Avengers, and other surprise guests.

In celebration of 25 years of moviemaking magic, five sessions will be devoted to the artistry and technical wizardry of Pixar:

* A Conversation with the Pixar Creative Team – Enjoy a rare opportunity to spend some time with the key figures responsible for Pixar’s unprecedented success, including John Lasseter (chief creative officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios), Jim Morris (general manager, Pixar Animation Studios), Pete Docter (director, Monsters, Inc., Up), Andrew Stanton (director, Finding Nemo, WALL-E), Bob Peterson (co-director, Up), Lee Unkrich (director, Toy Story 3), Mark Andrews (director, Brave), and Dan Scanlon (director, Monsters University).

* The Characters of Monsters University – Director Dan Scanlon and Production Designer Ricky Nierva discuss how they combine hair, horns, and a lot of heart to bring the wonderful Monsters University characters to life.

* Michael Giacchino’s Music of Pixar – In this musical presentation, award-winning composer Michael Giacchino explores his early influences through the creation of modern-day classic scores from Ratatouille, Up and Cars 2.

* The Art of Brave – Production Designer Steve Pilcher and Shading Art Director Tia Kratter show how they and their team put paint to canvas and fingers to computer keys to create the stunning visuals of Scotland for Disney•Pixar’s upcoming film Brave.

* Pixar Shorts – This retrospective screening of the animation studio’s legendary short films will be followed by a panel discussion with several of the filmmakers, including Ralph Eggleston (director, For the Birds), Andy Jimenez (director, One Man Band), Angus MacLane (director, BURN-E), Pete Sohn (director, Partly Cloudy), Teddy Newton (director, Day & Night), and Enrico Casarosa (director, La Luna).

Expo attendees will also have access to advance screenings of an all-new 3D version of The Lion King, presented by RealD 3D, coming to theaters and homes this fall, and the upcoming ABC holiday special Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Out on the Expo floor, fans can explore the world of The Walt Disney Studios at their leisure with comprehensive exhibits, including:

* Walt Disney Studios Animation Pavilion – Experience the art, technology, culture, and legacy of Walt Disney Animation Studios with filmmaker demonstrations, drawing classes, book signings, meet-and-greets, and art exhibits.

* Walt Disney Studios In-Home Entertainment Pavilion – Dive into cutting-edge home entertainment technology and learn what the future holds for Disney movie fans, with sneak peeks of upcoming films in breathtaking high-definition Blu-ray 3D™ and more.

* Inside Tides: Pirates of the Caribbean Film Prop Collection – Get an up-close look at an exclusive collection of detailed set pieces, props, and costumes from the billion-dollar blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Tickets to D23 Expo 2011 are available at D23Expo.com. Admission includes access to all experiences and entertainment at the D23 Expo and can be purchased for single days or for three full days of festivities. Admission is $42 for a one-day adult ticket and $32 for children 3-12. Three-day passes are $121 for adults and $91 for children. Members of D23: The Official Community for Disney Fans will receive a discount on admission as well as early entry to each day of the D23 Expo for themselves and their guests. More details about D23 Expo entertainment, events and special guests will be announced in the coming weeks. Fans can keep up with all the news by visiting D23Expo.com, as well as by following “Disney D23” on Twitter and Facebook.

About D23 Expo 2011

The D23 Expo—The Ultimate Disney Fan Event—brings the entire world of Disney under one roof, providing attendees with unprecedented access to Disney films, television and theme parks. For schedules, live updates, interactive features and tools, polls and much more, check out the D23 Expo mobile app at www.D23mobile.com! To be part of the D23 Expo conversation, make sure to follow @DisneyD23 and tag your tweets with #D23Expo. For questions during the D23 Expo, get answers by sending tweets to @D23Expo.

On Friday, July 22^nd, the Disney Store is launching its exclusive Vinylmation Robots series at Disney Store locations and at DisneyStore.com.  These robots were designed by Disney Store artists inspired by the vintage wind-up robot toys of the 1950s.

You can view them in a never-before-seen video on DisneyStore.com/vinylmation , www.youtube.com/disneyliving and on the 2,000 square-foot digital billboard above Disney Store in Times Square.

To continue the vinyl craze, Disney Store also revealed its first limited edition Disney POP! Vinyl by Funko at San Diego’s Comic-Con. The POP! Vinyls are Funko’s creative take on Disney characters and the limited edition designs are on sale through July 24 only at Comic-Con.

According to John Balen, the director of toys for Disney Store North America, “Disney vinyls are the hottest collectible right now and we’re pleased to offer two different styles in one great week . . . Comic-Con is all about exclusives and Disney POP! Vinyls are a great way to give the fans something unique.”

No doubt that Disney fans will be crazy about the Comic-Con exclusives.  The convention began today (with our very own Swank-mo-tron covering the event from the trenches), and I’ve already heard complaints from those trying to snag the various exclusives.  Maybe you’re reading this from some mile-long line now in the vain hope that quantities are still available by the time you reach the front.  If so, may the Force be with you!

The Vinylmation Robots collection includes 12 three-inch vinyl figures priced at $9.95 each.  Each represents a different robot persona, and they have names like Radio-Bot, Tesla-Bot, and Love-Bot.  (sadly, Swank-mo-tron and Scarlett RoBotica are strangely absent!)   There are also 3 nine-inch limited edition characters:  Silly-Bot, Salvage-Bot and Reflector-Bot ($39.95 each).  Sounds like these characters would be great additions to our Big Shiny Robot! Family.

The POP! vinyls come with metallic finishing and glow-in-the-dark features. The series includes nine-inch Metallic Buzz Lightyear, nine-inch Metallic Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (both Buzz and Maleficent are priced at $50), three-inch Flocked Sully ($15), three-inch Glow in the dark Mike Wazowski ($15), three-inch Metallic Mickey Mouse ($15), and a three-inch Blue Mr. Incredible ($15).

Ben Butcher, Disney-Pixar designer will meet with Comic-Con attendees and sign autographs at the Funko Booth #4829 July 22 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Guests can also take a break from the madness of Comic-Con and head over to the Fashion Valley Mall Disney Store location, where they can meet their favorite Disney Store Vinylmation artists on July 22 and 23 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

I know everyone is more concerned about the other big release tomorrow, but Winnie the Pooh is also coming out and it deserves a lot of attention in its own right.

Before we talk about Winnie the Pooh, though, I want to talk about the short film before it. Nessie is an adorable 2D animated film about how the Loch Ness Monster gets to Loch Ness. It’s set to a Scotsman reciting a poem about the legend and was just beautiful to look at. I need more short cartoons attached to feature length fare. And since Winnie the Pooh was a very taut 69 minutes, this helped fill out the time so if I’d have paid for it, I wouldn’t have any chance of feeling cheated.

The film is a return to form for the Winnie the Pooh universe, in that it’s actually set inside the confines of a book narrated by none other than John Cleese. The characters once again interact with the letters and paragraphs and illustrations and the tone of it captures everything I loved about Winnie the Pooh as both a kid and a fan of animation.

The story is very, very straight forward. Eeyore (played here quite capably by Bud Luckey, from “Boundin'” fame) has lost his tail and there’s a contest to find him a new one. The prize? A pot of honey that Pooh just needs because he can’t even remember the last time he’s eaten. Owl (played hilariously by Craig Ferguson) steals every scene he’s in, at one point attaching a chalkboard to Eeyore’s backside as a replacement for his tail and then illustrating an entire story on it, still attached to Eeyore. The animation delves into the chalk and provides a great sequence in the old mold of “Heffalumps and Woozels” or “Pink Elephants on Parade.” It worked stupendously.

More than anything, this film is fun and funny for people of all ages. I saw it with my 8 and 9 year old and we three were all laughing hysterically throughout. They came up with a perfect mix of humour and charm that appealed to everyone in rapid fire succession.

Again, the animation was gorgeous, the film was funny and beautifully rendered, the voices were top notch, and it was just a great, easy way to spend an hour and a half in the theatre.

If you get Harry Potter fatigue and want to see an adorable movie that isn’t a waste of your money and will bring plenty of childhood memories flooding back, you can’t do much better than this.

Well done, Disney. Well done.

Holy crap.

Pixar released the first trailer for John Carter of Mars (They can drop the “of Mars” all they want, I’m not going to) and I really couldn’t be more excited for this movie. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels are some of the most incredible, fun, and adventerous books I’ve ever read and knowing that Pixar is the mind behind bringing it to the big screen is blowing my mind on a regular basis.

Go here to watch the trailer in Glorious Quicktime.

They’re definitely going the route of the classic story and everything looks different than I imagined, but somehow better. The glimpse of the denizens of Barsoom ran shivers down. There were two moments that got me more than that though: John Carters leap into the Barsoomian desert, and the voice of Tars Tarkas (Willem DeFoe). They teased so much, though… I am DYING to see what their Tars Tarkas looks like and they just gave me his voice.

My only concern is that does it seem as though they’re playing down (at least for the trailer) the color of Dejah Thoris? Anybody?

At the end of the day I’m so happy about everything about this (even though the guy playing John Carter did play Gambit, the stupidest mutant of all time, in the stupidest Wolverine movie of all time). They’ve nailed the look and the feel and it feels like the movie will embody the breathless action the book instills you with.

This trailer just rocketed this movie up to my number 2 spot for most excited, right behind Captain America, meaning it’ll move up to number 1 soon.

Wow.

Well done, Pixar. Well done.

UPDATE: I’m not an idiot. I know the logos on the trailer say Disney. But when it was announced, this was touted as being Pixar’s first live action film. It’s directed by Andrew Stanton. I don’t know why the Pixar logo isn’t on there, but they’re doing the effects and the film. So… stop giving me shit about it not being Pixar. This is a Pixar movie through and through.

This movie looks incredible. The Muppets have always been one of my favorite things in the world and I will be first in line for this movie. It looks like a return to form for them. And the interiors of the old Muppet Theatre look sooooo good.

I really, really, really can’t wait for this.

As we wait, let’s talk about who your favorite Muppet is. I might have to go with Kermit… But there’s so many I love. Lew Zealand is pretty damned notable….

What about you?

Captain America is a rather ubiquitous figure these days, even though Captain America: The First Avenger doesn’t open in movie theaters until July 22.  Directed by Joe Johnston, the film stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers (a.k.a. Captain America) and Hugo Weaving as his nemesis The Red Skull.

Yesterday, Big Shiny Robot! shared the information that the classic Captain America costume appears in the film, and today Playbill brings us the news that composers Alan Menken and David Zippel have written a song for the highly anticipated Marvel film.

The composers have also written for Broadway, which may draw some vague comparisons between the song for Captain America and the music for another production based on a Marvel supehero:  Spider-Man:  Turn Off the Dark. However, this is just one song for a film as opposed to a train wreck of a bloated and controversial Broadway musical.

This is also not Captain America’s first brush with Broadway.  In 1985, a $4 million musical was announced but never actually materialized.  The plot focused on the hero’s mid-life crisis and the rescue of his girlfriend from terrorists. I’m not sure where his “very special friend” would have fit into the plot, but a casting call searching for girls aged 10-14 can be seen in the picture below:

The song Menken and Zippel penned for Captain America is called “The Star-Spangled Man (With a Plan)” and will be hear during a movie montage.  Ah, the movie montage.  These tend to either be long and boring or incredibly entertaining, so let’s just hope it’s the latter.

In the Playbill article, Zippel explains that the song takes place in the film before Steve Rogers becomes Captain America.  He appears at war bond presentations throughout the country.

Alan Menken is perhaps best known for his work on Disney films.  He and Zippel received an Academy Award for their song “Go the Distance” from Hercules.  Menken also won Academy Awards for Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Pocahontas.  His most recent projects include adapting the film Newsies for Broadway, composing the music for last year’s Tangled, and working on Broadway productions of Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  These follow a pattern of Disney animated films turned into musicals for the stage.

In addition to Hercules, David Zippel has worked on the Disney films Mulan and Tarzan and wrote the lyrics for the Tony Award-winning musical City of Angels. It was his first full-length musical and his most successful.

Captain America: The First Avenger opens in theaters next month.

The second teaser trailer for the new Muppet movie (entitled simply The Muppets) is out now, and it appears to be a parody of the Hangover 2 teaser.

While it doesn’t provide much in the way of story, you can see most of your favorite characters together at the end (and YES!  I do believe I spot the Swedish Chef, sans hat).  This trailer is called “The Fuzzy Pack.”

I’ve also included the Hangover 2 teaser for comparison:

When I first heard that a new Muppet movie was in the works, I admit I was rather skeptical.  The quality of Muppet projects has waxed and waned since their creator Jim Henson left this world, but I have hope that this new film will be a shot of adrenaline to the franchise.

The appeal of the Muppet movies is that they are funny while still having heart.  The wedding scene at the end of Muppets Take Manhattan makes me a little teary-eyed, but the playroom scene with Kermie and friends as babies is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  Okay, well, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  (I’ve seen a lot of cute things).

The first teaser, known as “Green with Envy” also debuted very recently, and at first glance it looks like a romantic comedy.  Amy Adams is as adorable as ever, looking perky and very much like she did in Enchanted, and I’ve heard over and over that Jason Segel is a huge fan of the Muppets and will likely be mindful of how much people need a GOOD Muppet movie after years of nothing.

And boy, how we hope this movie will be good.

The Muppets debuts in theaters on November 23, 2011.