Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2022 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
As the COVID pandemic waned, the animation industry, like the entertainment industry in general, faced uncertain releasing strategies and box office earnings. Which films were released and how and when and what they earned was, to say the least, a puzzlement. After reporting revenue problems, Netflix cancelled some its most promising and prestigious animation projects. Other major studios saw their features go down in flames.
Looking over a year that see-sawed between Light and Darkness, I’m presenting the 10th annual awards for the year’s best and worst, named for the ultimate animation APM, Mikiko “Kuromi” Oguro.
SEASON OF LIGHT
Wabbit Season/Duck Season/Awards Season
The Mitchells vs the Machines won eight Annies for feature animation, while Arcane took home nine for TV/Media. Netflix dominated the Annies with 20 wins in 31 categories.
Flee became the first film to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary and Foreign Language Film, as well as Animated Feature.
After winning best feature win at Annecy, Little Nicolas – Happy as Can Be by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre won the grand jury prize at the fifth Animation Is Film festival in October. Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon won the special jury prize, Aurora’s Sunrise won the audience award; Joao Gonzalez’s Ice Merchants took the shorts prize.
Masaki Yuaasa’s Inu-Oh became the second Japanese feature to receive a Golden Globe nomination (the first was Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai).
All the Way to the Bank
Continuing the pattern of corporate acquisitions of anime distributors, AMC Networks announced in January it had completed the purchase of Sentai Holdings, LLC, a Houston-based supplier of anime and official merchandise.
Minions: The Rise of Gru opened to a record-breaking $125.1 million domestically over the July 4th weekend, and more than $93 overseas.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
The Japanese site Eiga (Movies) reported that the three highest-grossing features there in 2021 were all animated: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (¥10.28 billion, USD$89.3 million); Case Closed: Scarlet Bullet (¥7.65 billion, USD $66 million; Belle (¥6.53 billion yen, USD $57 million). However, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, which was released at the very end of December, later beat Evangelion for the top spot—making animated films the top four.
Luffy D. Monkey vs. Tom Cruise
In 2022, One Piece Red outdrew Top Gun: Maverick to become the #1 box office hit in Japan with with tickets sales of more than ¥16.2 billion (about USD $111.7 million). The film opened in America in early November at $9.48 million, coming in second to Black Adam.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero took the August 19th weekend with $20.1 million in 3,230 theaters in North America.
Just before Christmas, the reboot of Takahiko Inoue’s landmark basketball manga, The First Slam Dunk outgrossed Avatar: The Way of Water at the Japanese box office, ¥547 million ($4 million) on 365,000 admissions vs ¥477 million ($3.48 million) on 259,000 admissions. Avatar had a higher gross but fewer admissions than Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume, which had debuted in early November. At this writing, Suzume is the #3 film in Japan for 2022, behind One Piece Film: Red and Top Gun: Maverick.
Under the Hammer
The boom in prices for animation artwork continued in Heritage Auctions’ $3.4 million “All Things Disney” sale in February. A black-and-white cel and background of Micky Mouse from Shanghaied brought $84,000, more than triple its pre-sale estimate. A cel of Ariel examining her newly acquired feet from The Little Mermaid fetched $36,000, while a cel of Roger and Jessica from Who Framed Roger Rabbit sold for $19,200.
At another Heritage Auctions sale in September, a production cel and animation drawing from Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service sold for $40,800. Other artwork from Miyazaki’s films included a production cel from Castle in the Sky, which realized $30,000; and a cel of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, which sold for $26,400. Among the 49 lots from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, a cel of Kaneda on his bike sold for $33,600. A stop-motion puppet of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas also went for $33,600.
Pika-Pika
Global sales of the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet passed 10 million units in the first three days of their release November 18, breaking the record previously set by Animal Crossing.
After 25 years of competing, Ash Ketchum became the top trainer in the Pokémon world when he won the Masters Eight Tournament of the Pokémon World Coronation Series in Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series in November. No US date has been announced for the US broadcast; The series streams exclusively on Netflix here.
Buy Tickets Now
Nick Park announced plans for a new Wallace and Gromit feature to debut in 2024.
In February, Skydance announced it would produce Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn. No release date has been set, but it’s worth getting a place at the head of the line.
Set the TiVo Now
In June, Genndy Tartakovsky signed an exclusive, multi-year, cross-studio deal with Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation to develop, create, and produce original animated content at CNS and WBA for a range of audiences. The deal also gives Tartakovsky access to the character libraries at each studio.
So Do I!
Audiences around the world were charmed to see Paddington Bear share a marmalade sandwich with Queen Elizabeth II to help inaugurate her Platinum Jubilee.
The Museum of the Moving Image in New York opened “Laika: Life in Stop Motion” on September 1. The exhibit, which runs through August 2023, includes puppets, sets, and clips from their features from Coraline (2009) to Missing Link (2019). A second exhibit “Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio” featuring puppets, set maquettes, and videos, opened in December and will run through April 2023.
November 1st marked the opening of Ghibli Park in the Aichi Earth Expo Memorial Park, near Nagoya, Japan. This phase includes walking paths, indoor attractions, sculptures, gardens, dioramas and a theater screening short films Hayao Miyazaki made for the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Designed to complement the surrounding forest, Ghibli Park is intended to offer a calmer alternative to the mega-rides and scary attractions in most amusement parks.
It’s a Start…
Three animated features made it to Variety’s “100 Greatest movies” list: #63 Bambi, #74 My Neighbor Totoro and #95 Toy Story.
#63 – Bambi
MORE THAN ANIMATION
More than 700 members of the Russian and Ukrainian animation communities condemned the Russia military incursion into Ukraine in an open letter that read in part, “The animation community of Ukrainian and Russian animation filmmakers is united and inseparable; we have been working together, watching each other’s films for many years. The art of animation is also an art that helps people to feel human. Not to kill, not to destroy. To unite.”
Subsequently, over 100 Russian animators joined together to create a series of anti-war anijams. Their joint statement read, “We urge to stop all the military action against Ukraine immediately! We demand Peace! We demand respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine! We demand respect for human life in every country of the world!”
Days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Walt Disney Company announced it would withhold Pixar’s Turning Red from release there. The same day, Warner Bros. and Sony announced they would halt the Russian releases of The Batman and Morbius.
SEASON OF DARKNESS
Wabbit Season/Duck Season/Awards Season (2)
The Art Directors Guild Awards, Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Awards, Producers Guild Awards, Cinema Audio Society Awards, and American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Awards all nominated the same five animated features: Encanto, Luca, Raya and the Last Dragon, Sing 2 and The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Apparently foreign films fall beyond the members’ visions—even when they’re as good as Belle, Flee and Summit of the Gods.
A similarly parochial mindset marked the Oscar nominations for Animated Feature: Encanto, Luca, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Mitchells vs. the Machines — and Flee.
In February, AMPAS announced that the winners in eight categories would be pre-taped and inserted into the show—including all the three short film categories and Best Score. Academy President David Rubin said the year’s 94th Oscars ceremony aimed for a ‘tighter and more electric’ three-hour viewing experience on March 27. The broadcast failed to deliver on that promise.
Animators and animation fans were infuriated when the three presenters for Animated Feature—all (coincidentally?) voices from live-action remakes of Disney films—dismissed animated features as something kids watch and adults have to endure.
All the Way to the Bank—in Tears
No animated film cracked the top ten at the domestic box office in 2021: The highest-grossing animated feature was Encanto at #15 with $92 million. Just before Christmas, only one film had made it in 2022: Minions: The Rise of Gru at #5. In 2019, The Lion King, Toy Story 4 and Frozen II held the #2, #3 and #4 spots, respectively.
Lightyear, the first Pixar film released theatrically since the onset of the pandemic, opened to an unimpressive $51 million at the box office, when it had been projected to do $70-85 million. The reason(s) for the low number is the subject of speculation and debate.
Disney’s Strange World did even worse, opening at $18.6 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. Encanto had earned $40.3 in same slot in 2021, despite COVID restrictions. Although Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 74% score Cinemascore gave it only a B—the worst rating for a Disney animated film since the audience tracking service began scoring the Disney features in 1991.
In July, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank bombed at the box office, bringing in only $6.25 million in 3,475 theaters nationwide—less than Paw Patrol ($13.1 million) or Clifford ($16.6 million). It also garnered an unimpressive 55% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Why did anyone think an animated “funny animal” remake of Blazing Saddles was a good idea?
“Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank”
In August, Skydance’s first feature Luck opened to an even less impressive 49% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Many critics complained about the derivative nature of the story, its needless plot complications and lack of emotional power.
In September, Pinocchio, Robert Zemeckis’ latest attempt to remake a classic Disney animated featured received a devastating 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Variety revealed that Steve Carrell was paid $12.5 million, or about 15% of the film’s estimated $80 million budget for his by-the-numbers vocal performance as Gru in Minions: The Rise of Gru. Needless to say, the artists who actually made the film were paid considerably less.
Pika-Pika (2)
In March, Vinath Oudomsine, a 31-year-old Georgia man, was convicted of using COVID-19 relief money to buy a rare Pokémon card. After receiving an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for $85,000 for a small business with 10 employees, he spent $57,789 of the money to buy a first-edition, shadowless, holographic Charizard card. Oudomsine was sentenced to pay $10,000 (in addition to the $85,000 in restitution) and serve three years in prison. He agreed to turn the Charizard card over to prosecutors.
In March, Toei Animation announced the eagerly awaited Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero would not debut as scheduled on April 22 due to a ransomware hack of the company’s network. A company announcement said that an unauthorized third party had accessed the company’s network, leading to a partial shutdown. Can’t Goku defend his home studio?
In April, Sony announced that the release of the eagerly awaited sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse would be postponed until June, 2023.
In June, Amy Friedman, Warner Bros. head of kids and family programming (which includes Cartoon Network) infuriated animators, animation fans and viewers when she said, “Girls often graduate out of animation. Some of our most incredible competitors have been at the live-action game for a long time. We know that’s what girls want. With live action, we’re excited to reflect the world as it is, inviting girls in without alienating the boys.” Many industry figures responded that Western animation was short-changing girls, who were watching the more interesting heroines in anime.
There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner
Paramount announced plans for a live action remake of Makoto Shinkai’s brilliant Your Name in November. In December, Netflix revealed plans for a live-action adaptation of My Hero Academia.
GRUesome reports
Hordes of (mostly) teenage boys began filming themselves at movie theaters showing Minions wearing suits, dress shirts and ties. The #gentleminions hashtag recorded more than 65 million views in a few days. But complaints arose about the “gentleminions” disrupting the film for others. Theaters in Britain began banning formal attire, and the only theater in Guernsey cancelled screening because of “stunningly bad behaviour.”
In August, Chinese censors changed the ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru. Instead of Gru riding off with fellow criminal Wild Knuckles, the “special edition” ending says Gru abandoned his life of crime and that his biggest achievement was being “a father to his three daughters.” It’s the latest example of Chinese officials twisting a Hollywood film to give it a more acceptable social message.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru”
At the Mouse House
Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill exploded in March. Employees and their allies dismissed his internal memo that asserted “Our Unwavering Commitment to the LGBTQ+ Community.” His mishandling of the problems led to a confrontation with governor Rick DeSantis, who later signed bills from the Republican-dominated legislature to penalize Disney.
Despite his mishandling of the situation in Florida, the Disney Board extended Bob Chapek’s contract another three years in June. On Nov. 8. Disney reported losses of $1.5 billion for its fledgling streaming division, more than double the $630 million a year earlier, and a 40% drop in the value of Disney stock during 2022. On November 21, they announced Chapek was stepping down and Bob Iger would resume leadership of the company.
The Bigotry Agenda
In May, Republican senators Roger Marshall (Kansas), Mike Lee (Utah), Mike Braun (Indiana), Steve Daines (Montana), and Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) sent an open letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Advisory Board asking them to update its ratings system to include content related to sexual orientation or gender identity.
More than a dozen Middle Eastern and Asian countries including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Kuwait banned Lightyear because it included a same-sex kiss.
Disney announced it would not release Strange World theatrically in countries that would likely ban it or demand edits for its LGBTQ content, including China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Maldives, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
In September, the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar demanded Netflix eliminate all content deemed “offensive to Islamic and societal values. The complaint was reported as being sparked by a same-sex kiss in an episode of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
And…
Finally, to this writer for being curmudgeonly above and beyond the call of duty at times.
Internationally known animation historian and critic, Charles Solomon has written over 15 books books including Enchanted Drawings: The History Of Animation, The Art of Disney's Frozen,The Making of Peanuts Animation, and Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Disney Beauty and the Beast .
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Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2022
Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2022 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”
As the COVID pandemic waned, the animation industry, like the entertainment industry in general, faced uncertain releasing strategies and box office earnings. Which films were released and how and when and what they earned was, to say the least, a puzzlement. After reporting revenue problems, Netflix cancelled some its most promising and prestigious animation projects. Other major studios saw their features go down in flames.
Looking over a year that see-sawed between Light and Darkness, I’m presenting the 10th annual awards for the year’s best and worst, named for the ultimate animation APM, Mikiko “Kuromi” Oguro.
SEASON OF LIGHT
Wabbit Season/Duck Season/Awards Season
The Mitchells vs the Machines won eight Annies for feature animation, while Arcane took home nine for TV/Media. Netflix dominated the Annies with 20 wins in 31 categories.
Flee became the first film to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary and Foreign Language Film, as well as Animated Feature.
After winning best feature win at Annecy, Little Nicolas – Happy as Can Be by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre won the grand jury prize at the fifth Animation Is Film festival in October. Nora Twomey’s My Father’s Dragon won the special jury prize, Aurora’s Sunrise won the audience award; Joao Gonzalez’s Ice Merchants took the shorts prize.
Masaki Yuaasa’s Inu-Oh became the second Japanese feature to receive a Golden Globe nomination (the first was Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai).
All the Way to the Bank
Continuing the pattern of corporate acquisitions of anime distributors, AMC Networks announced in January it had completed the purchase of Sentai Holdings, LLC, a Houston-based supplier of anime and official merchandise.
Minions: The Rise of Gru opened to a record-breaking $125.1 million domestically over the July 4th weekend, and more than $93 overseas.
Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
The Japanese site Eiga (Movies) reported that the three highest-grossing features there in 2021 were all animated: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time (¥10.28 billion, USD$89.3 million); Case Closed: Scarlet Bullet (¥7.65 billion, USD $66 million; Belle (¥6.53 billion yen, USD $57 million). However, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, which was released at the very end of December, later beat Evangelion for the top spot—making animated films the top four.
Luffy D. Monkey vs. Tom Cruise
In 2022, One Piece Red outdrew Top Gun: Maverick to become the #1 box office hit in Japan with with tickets sales of more than ¥16.2 billion (about USD $111.7 million). The film opened in America in early November at $9.48 million, coming in second to Black Adam.
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero took the August 19th weekend with $20.1 million in 3,230 theaters in North America.
Just before Christmas, the reboot of Takahiko Inoue’s landmark basketball manga, The First Slam Dunk outgrossed Avatar: The Way of Water at the Japanese box office, ¥547 million ($4 million) on 365,000 admissions vs ¥477 million ($3.48 million) on 259,000 admissions. Avatar had a higher gross but fewer admissions than Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume, which had debuted in early November. At this writing, Suzume is the #3 film in Japan for 2022, behind One Piece Film: Red and Top Gun: Maverick.
Under the Hammer
The boom in prices for animation artwork continued in Heritage Auctions’ $3.4 million “All Things Disney” sale in February. A black-and-white cel and background of Micky Mouse from Shanghaied brought $84,000, more than triple its pre-sale estimate. A cel of Ariel examining her newly acquired feet from The Little Mermaid fetched $36,000, while a cel of Roger and Jessica from Who Framed Roger Rabbit sold for $19,200.
At another Heritage Auctions sale in September, a production cel and animation drawing from Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service sold for $40,800. Other artwork from Miyazaki’s films included a production cel from Castle in the Sky, which realized $30,000; and a cel of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro, which sold for $26,400. Among the 49 lots from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, a cel of Kaneda on his bike sold for $33,600. A stop-motion puppet of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas also went for $33,600.
Pika-Pika
Global sales of the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet passed 10 million units in the first three days of their release November 18, breaking the record previously set by Animal Crossing.
After 25 years of competing, Ash Ketchum became the top trainer in the Pokémon world when he won the Masters Eight Tournament of the Pokémon World Coronation Series in Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series in November. No US date has been announced for the US broadcast; The series streams exclusively on Netflix here.
Buy Tickets Now
Nick Park announced plans for a new Wallace and Gromit feature to debut in 2024.
In February, Skydance announced it would produce Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn. No release date has been set, but it’s worth getting a place at the head of the line.
Set the TiVo Now
In June, Genndy Tartakovsky signed an exclusive, multi-year, cross-studio deal with Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation to develop, create, and produce original animated content at CNS and WBA for a range of audiences. The deal also gives Tartakovsky access to the character libraries at each studio.
So Do I!
Audiences around the world were charmed to see Paddington Bear share a marmalade sandwich with Queen Elizabeth II to help inaugurate her Platinum Jubilee.
The Museum of the Moving Image in New York opened “Laika: Life in Stop Motion” on September 1. The exhibit, which runs through August 2023, includes puppets, sets, and clips from their features from Coraline (2009) to Missing Link (2019). A second exhibit “Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio” featuring puppets, set maquettes, and videos, opened in December and will run through April 2023.
November 1st marked the opening of Ghibli Park in the Aichi Earth Expo Memorial Park, near Nagoya, Japan. This phase includes walking paths, indoor attractions, sculptures, gardens, dioramas and a theater screening short films Hayao Miyazaki made for the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. Designed to complement the surrounding forest, Ghibli Park is intended to offer a calmer alternative to the mega-rides and scary attractions in most amusement parks.
It’s a Start…
Three animated features made it to Variety’s “100 Greatest movies” list: #63 Bambi, #74 My Neighbor Totoro and #95 Toy Story.
#63 – Bambi
MORE THAN ANIMATION
More than 700 members of the Russian and Ukrainian animation communities condemned the Russia military incursion into Ukraine in an open letter that read in part, “The animation community of Ukrainian and Russian animation filmmakers is united and inseparable; we have been working together, watching each other’s films for many years. The art of animation is also an art that helps people to feel human. Not to kill, not to destroy. To unite.”
Subsequently, over 100 Russian animators joined together to create a series of anti-war anijams. Their joint statement read, “We urge to stop all the military action against Ukraine immediately! We demand Peace! We demand respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine! We demand respect for human life in every country of the world!”
Days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, The Walt Disney Company announced it would withhold Pixar’s Turning Red from release there. The same day, Warner Bros. and Sony announced they would halt the Russian releases of The Batman and Morbius.
SEASON OF DARKNESS
Wabbit Season/Duck Season/Awards Season (2)
The Art Directors Guild Awards, Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Awards, Producers Guild Awards, Cinema Audio Society Awards, and American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Awards all nominated the same five animated features: Encanto, Luca, Raya and the Last Dragon, Sing 2 and The Mitchells vs. the Machines. Apparently foreign films fall beyond the members’ visions—even when they’re as good as Belle, Flee and Summit of the Gods.
A similarly parochial mindset marked the Oscar nominations for Animated Feature: Encanto, Luca, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Mitchells vs. the Machines — and Flee.
In February, AMPAS announced that the winners in eight categories would be pre-taped and inserted into the show—including all the three short film categories and Best Score. Academy President David Rubin said the year’s 94th Oscars ceremony aimed for a ‘tighter and more electric’ three-hour viewing experience on March 27. The broadcast failed to deliver on that promise.
Animators and animation fans were infuriated when the three presenters for Animated Feature—all (coincidentally?) voices from live-action remakes of Disney films—dismissed animated features as something kids watch and adults have to endure.
All the Way to the Bank—in Tears
No animated film cracked the top ten at the domestic box office in 2021: The highest-grossing animated feature was Encanto at #15 with $92 million. Just before Christmas, only one film had made it in 2022: Minions: The Rise of Gru at #5. In 2019, The Lion King, Toy Story 4 and Frozen II held the #2, #3 and #4 spots, respectively.
Lightyear, the first Pixar film released theatrically since the onset of the pandemic, opened to an unimpressive $51 million at the box office, when it had been projected to do $70-85 million. The reason(s) for the low number is the subject of speculation and debate.
Disney’s Strange World did even worse, opening at $18.6 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. Encanto had earned $40.3 in same slot in 2021, despite COVID restrictions. Although Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 74% score Cinemascore gave it only a B—the worst rating for a Disney animated film since the audience tracking service began scoring the Disney features in 1991.
In July, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank bombed at the box office, bringing in only $6.25 million in 3,475 theaters nationwide—less than Paw Patrol ($13.1 million) or Clifford ($16.6 million). It also garnered an unimpressive 55% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Why did anyone think an animated “funny animal” remake of Blazing Saddles was a good idea?
“Paws Of Fury: The Legend Of Hank”
In August, Skydance’s first feature Luck opened to an even less impressive 49% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. Many critics complained about the derivative nature of the story, its needless plot complications and lack of emotional power.
In September, Pinocchio, Robert Zemeckis’ latest attempt to remake a classic Disney animated featured received a devastating 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Variety revealed that Steve Carrell was paid $12.5 million, or about 15% of the film’s estimated $80 million budget for his by-the-numbers vocal performance as Gru in Minions: The Rise of Gru. Needless to say, the artists who actually made the film were paid considerably less.
Pika-Pika (2)
In March, Vinath Oudomsine, a 31-year-old Georgia man, was convicted of using COVID-19 relief money to buy a rare Pokémon card. After receiving an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for $85,000 for a small business with 10 employees, he spent $57,789 of the money to buy a first-edition, shadowless, holographic Charizard card. Oudomsine was sentenced to pay $10,000 (in addition to the $85,000 in restitution) and serve three years in prison. He agreed to turn the Charizard card over to prosecutors.
In March, Toei Animation announced the eagerly awaited Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero would not debut as scheduled on April 22 due to a ransomware hack of the company’s network. A company announcement said that an unauthorized third party had accessed the company’s network, leading to a partial shutdown. Can’t Goku defend his home studio?
In April, Sony announced that the release of the eagerly awaited sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse would be postponed until June, 2023.
In June, Amy Friedman, Warner Bros. head of kids and family programming (which includes Cartoon Network) infuriated animators, animation fans and viewers when she said, “Girls often graduate out of animation. Some of our most incredible competitors have been at the live-action game for a long time. We know that’s what girls want. With live action, we’re excited to reflect the world as it is, inviting girls in without alienating the boys.” Many industry figures responded that Western animation was short-changing girls, who were watching the more interesting heroines in anime.
There Are Bad Times Just Around the Corner
Paramount announced plans for a live action remake of Makoto Shinkai’s brilliant Your Name in November. In December, Netflix revealed plans for a live-action adaptation of My Hero Academia.
GRUesome reports
Hordes of (mostly) teenage boys began filming themselves at movie theaters showing Minions wearing suits, dress shirts and ties. The #gentleminions hashtag recorded more than 65 million views in a few days. But complaints arose about the “gentleminions” disrupting the film for others. Theaters in Britain began banning formal attire, and the only theater in Guernsey cancelled screening because of “stunningly bad behaviour.”
In August, Chinese censors changed the ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru. Instead of Gru riding off with fellow criminal Wild Knuckles, the “special edition” ending says Gru abandoned his life of crime and that his biggest achievement was being “a father to his three daughters.” It’s the latest example of Chinese officials twisting a Hollywood film to give it a more acceptable social message.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru”
At the Mouse House
Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill exploded in March. Employees and their allies dismissed his internal memo that asserted “Our Unwavering Commitment to the LGBTQ+ Community.” His mishandling of the problems led to a confrontation with governor Rick DeSantis, who later signed bills from the Republican-dominated legislature to penalize Disney.
Despite his mishandling of the situation in Florida, the Disney Board extended Bob Chapek’s contract another three years in June. On Nov. 8. Disney reported losses of $1.5 billion for its fledgling streaming division, more than double the $630 million a year earlier, and a 40% drop in the value of Disney stock during 2022. On November 21, they announced Chapek was stepping down and Bob Iger would resume leadership of the company.
The Bigotry Agenda
In May, Republican senators Roger Marshall (Kansas), Mike Lee (Utah), Mike Braun (Indiana), Steve Daines (Montana), and Kevin Cramer (North Dakota) sent an open letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Advisory Board asking them to update its ratings system to include content related to sexual orientation or gender identity.
More than a dozen Middle Eastern and Asian countries including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Kuwait banned Lightyear because it included a same-sex kiss.
Disney announced it would not release Strange World theatrically in countries that would likely ban it or demand edits for its LGBTQ content, including China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Maldives, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
In September, the Gulf Cooperation Council, a group which includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar demanded Netflix eliminate all content deemed “offensive to Islamic and societal values. The complaint was reported as being sparked by a same-sex kiss in an episode of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
And…
Finally, to this writer for being curmudgeonly above and beyond the call of duty at times.