Pixar's 13th full-length blockbuster feature “BRAVE” has many firsts!

Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. From Disney and Pixar, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition and challenges destiny to change her fate.

“Brave” follows the heroic journey of Merida, a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the unruly and uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric Witch (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to harness all of her skills and resources—including her clever and mischievous triplet brothers—to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late, and discover the meaning of true bravery.

“Brave” represents Pixar’s most daring, sophisticated and complex feature film to date. It also establishes numerous firsts for a Pixar film. It is the studio’s first film to feature a female protagonist, its first period piece in which historical references intersect with a fantasy world, and its first epic adventure set in a natural human world.

“The film is about a teenager’s struggle with finding herself, with creating her own destiny,” says director Mark Andrews of Disney•Pixar’s 13th full-length feature. “More specifically, it’s about Merida’s struggle in reconciling how the world sees her versus how she sees herself. True courage must be found on the inside.”

Directed by Andrews and Brenda Chapman, and produced by Katherine Sarafian, “Brave” is a grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and signature Pixar humor that audiences of all ages around the world have come to expect. Based on an original story by Chapman, “Brave” was written by Andrews, Steve Purcell and Chapman & Irene Mecchi.

Infusing drama, authenticity and spirit in “Brave” is a phenomenal vocal ensemble comprised largely of actors with Scottish roots. Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2”) brings heart to the tempestuous teenager Merida. Acclaimed Oscar®-winning actress Emma Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility”) gives a transformative performance as the regal and proper Queen Elinor. Renowned Scottish comedian/actor Billy Connolly voices King Fergus, the jovial patriarch of the kingdom and a heroic warrior who longs for a rematch with the demon bear Mor’du that took his leg. Voicing the strapping Lord MacGuffin and his son, Young MacGuffin, is Scottish actor Kevin McKidd (“Made of Honor,” “Grey’s Anatomy”). Popular late-night talk-show host/actor Craig Ferguson (“Winnie the Pooh”), also a Scottish native, voices the boisterous, battle-ready Lord Macintosh. Glasgow native Robbie Coltrane (“Harry Potter” films) adds plenty of pluck to scrappy Lord Dingwall, and acclaimed British actress Julie Walters (“Harry Potter” films) conjures up some vocal magic as the mysterious Witch.

“I am so proud of this film for its beauty, its story, its drama, its humor and its action,” says John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and an executive producer of “Brave.” “It’s a beautifully balanced film that just sweeps you away in this incredibly gorgeous world with these really entertaining characters. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. That’s what we love to do at Pixar. We love to go to new worlds and present stories that you’ve never seen before. It’s a tour de force of technology and artistry. There’s great storytelling, humor and vocal performances.”

Concludes Lasseter, “Brave” is notably groundbreaking in every way. “It raises the bar for the art form on every level—human animation, hair and clothing; animation of animals, including bears and horses; believability of organic, natural environments and historical settings. It’s an incredible blend of action and humor, with magic, mystery, sorcery and real adventure—a genuine edge-of-your-seat experience. You can’t wait to see what happens next.”

Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International, “Brave” takes aim at Philippine theaters on August 01, and will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™ in select theaters.

Brave (Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, 2012)

Brave is at once the most visually distinctive project Pixar has yet made and their most derivative work. Slightly dimmed as if filmed by natural light, the Celtic realm of stone and forest achieve a new level of realism for the studio's animation; even by their standards, I can think of no other Pixar film that invites such pure pleasure merely in scanning the frame for all its absurdly fine detail. Yet with this new peak of visual sophistication comes a story that mines Disney princess tales and blends it with the style and thematic content of Japanese animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki. But if this setup is less fundamentally "original" than, say, Ratatouille or Up, it nonetheless offers an important opportunity to alter and update a classic form of storytelling. After all, from old elements can come wonderful, new things.

For the first act, at least, Brave demonstrates this in spades. Merida (Kelly Macdonald) instantly establishes herself as an entrancing heroine; the daughter of a king who presides over a group of allied Celtic clans (Billy Connolly), Merida is groomed by her mother, Elinor, (Emma Thompson) to behave like a proper lady but above all cherishes a bow given to her by her father. The precocious child grows up to be an adventurous teenager, strong-willed enough to climb a sheer cliff just because it's there and so skilled in archery that various targets she erects around the castle woods might as well be quivers for how many arrows they hold in their bullseyes. When Elinor announces that the day has finally come for Merida to choose a suitor, the young woman's outrage burns so hotly that the flippant faux-independence of some recent Disney princesses looks even more laughable. When she says she doesn't want to marry right now, she damn well means it, and she goes to unexpectedly drastic lengths to defy her mother's wishes.

Amusingly, Brave portrays its men as brutish, immature fools. King Fergus' hall echoes with the drunken roars of loutish, bragging oafs, none louder than Fergus himself, affable as he is. The sons of clan leaders compete for Merida's hand, but they are all so dim-witted that whomever wins, it's clear that Merida loses. Their broad inanity relentlessly spoofs the idea of winning a lady's hand like a trophy, an idea I would say is self-evidently ridiculous at its most basic level were it not for an Entertainment Weekly article asking whether Merida might be a lesbian for such gender-role-bucking behavior. No, seriously.

Because the men are so shallow and as unworthy of the audience's attention as Merida's, the film devotes most of its time to the conflict between Merida's headstrong behavior and Elinor's adherence to tradition. It is in this generational rift, more so even than Merida's uncompromising behavior, that ties Brave to the best work of Miyazaki. Brave has the intelligence and depth to sympathize with Merida, even to clearly side with her in the issue of betrothal. But that does not preclude the possibility, even the certainty, of her mother being right about many things and, if nothing else, the absolute, unshakeable love a mother has for her child. The delicacy of such a mature evaluation also carries over to the characterization of the disobedient child, and how fine a line can separate righteous indignation from bratty selfishness.

This being a fantasy film, though, this moral is sold less through the striking energy exchanged between Macdonald's and Thompson's animated selves than a magical twist. Such an approach hardly breaks with centuries of fairy tale storytelling, but the plot upheaval here is played more for comedy than pathos. It's not so much a surreal outgrowth of the story so much as a sudden shift that develops the ideas of the first act with only intermittent success. The narrative curveball shatters everyone's arcs: Merida's emotional journey is instantly sidelined into a plot-driven quest, but one that makes irrelevant her foundation of self-sufficiency and strength. Those much-shown archery skills don't even play a role in the climax, or really any moment in the entire second half. Elinor is completely changed, preventing any serious engagement with her character. I wanted to get a sense of whether she walked into her own destined marriage happily or if she sacrificed her own dreams to follow the way of things. An offhand allusion to doubt is dropped at one point, but only as a quick joke that raises frustratingly unanswered questions.

Brave, then, may be most engaging solely as a visual treat, but my God what a treat it is. I've not always warmed to Pixar's quest for realistic animation, feeling that somewhat missed the point of the entire artform. (As beautiful as Ratatouille's Parisian background is, I wish it tried to visualize the city's soul rather than recreate its appearance on Google Earth.) But the detail of Brave's druidic highlands is pristine to the point of tangibility: Scottish fog rolls in so thick it chills the theater with its mist, while the gorgeous but utilitarian stonemasonry of the castle genuinely gives the impression of having been handmade rather than programmed on a computer. Every Pixar builds technically on some specific aspect of a previous film: the reflective sheen of the Cars movies beget the sophistication, astonishing brightness of blazing fires in Toy Story 3 and Wall•E, for example. Here, the animation of Lotso the Bear's fur in Toy Story 3 appears to be the grounding technical element, for the hair and fur of Brave's characters and animals is so tactile I could often focus on nothing else. Whether it's the salt-'n-pepper grain flecking Fergus' steel wool hair and beard or the bristling fur of real, not toy, bears, the animation is breathtaking for its microscopic, almost incidental perfection. Then, of course, there's the case of Merida's curly locks, a feat of virtual gravity-defying the details of which read like NASA-level physical calculations. Yet it also seems indicative of the film's larger issues that I was often so entranced by the female protagonist's hair that I didn't immediately notice how quickly Brave ceases to develop the woman to whom those follicles are attached.

Wheee!!! “BRAVE” premieres latest trailer!

The newest trailer of Disney/Pixar's upcoming animated feature “Brave” is here! 

Synopsis: Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In “Brave,” a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.

Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane).

Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Witch (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.

“Brave” is a grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and the signature Pixar humor enjoyed by audiences of all ages. The film takes aim at Philippine theaters on August 2012, and will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™ in select theaters.

MEN IN BLACK 3 | Grosses P68.73-M, opens at No. 1 in the Philippines

MANILA, May 28 – Alien-hunting black-suited secret agents have invaded the top of the box office.

Columbia Pictures' sci-fi action comedy “Men In Black 3” starring Will Smith opened at No. 1 in the Philippines, amassing a nationwide gross of an out-of-this-world P68.73-million for the five-day opening weekend May 23-27 frame. This was announced today by Victor R. Cabrera, managing director of Columbia Pictures Philippines.

“Men In Black 3's” first weekend haul in the Philippines is the second best opening of 2012 for a foreign movie, behind only “Marvel’s The Avengers” and beating the bows of “Wrath of the Titans” (P62.5-million), “The Hunger Games” (P62.3- million) and “Battleship” (P46.3-million).

In the U.S., the sequel which reunited Smith with co-star Tommy Lee Jones and director Barry Sonnenfeld, effectively wrestled away the box-office crown from “Marvel's The Avengers” which has dominated the North American tills for the past weeks. "Men in Black 3" debuted as the No. 1 movie over the Memorial Day holiday weekend with $55 million. Distributor Sony estimates that by the end of the four-day holiday weekend Monday, "Men in Black 3" will have pulled in $202 million worldwide.

Back in the Philippines, “MIB 3” rolled out on 260 screens, with SM Mall of Asia getting the lion's share of sales with P3.95-M, followed closely by SM North EDSA (P3.86-M) and Trinoma (P3.55-M).

Other top performing cinemas are Power Plant (P2.64-M), Greenbelt 3 (P2.41-M), SM Megamall (P2.40-M), Newport (P2.12-M), Glorietta 4 (P2.05-M), SM Cebu (P1.95-M) and Alabang Town Center (P1.93-M).

Rounding out the Top 20 cinemas are Eastwood (P1.79-M), Greenhills (P1.429-M), Gateway (P1.42-M), Robinsons Ermita (P1.36-M), Shang Cineplex (P1.33-M), Robinsons Galleria (P1.11-M), SM Southmall (P1.08-M), Ayala Cebu (P1.05-M), SM Fairview (P1.03-M) and Festival Mall (P978,423).

In “Men In Black 3,” Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him -- secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

Audiences who watch “Men in Black 3” in Digital 3D also get to screen an extended 6-minute sneak peek of Columbia Pictures’ next super-blockbuster “The Amazing Spider-Man” as an added attraction. 2D screenings of “MIB 3” will play a new trailer of “The Amazing Spider-Man,” opening in Philippine cinemas June 29.

“Men In Black 3” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. 

Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

“MEN IN BLACK 3” time-travels in IMAX 3D!

IMAX Corporation and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that the sci-fi, action comedy Men In Black 3 will be released to IMAX 3D theatres in the Philippines simultaneously with the film's grand opening in Digital 3D and regular theaters on May 23.

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Men In Black 3 is the first in the franchise to be released in IMAX. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reunite as the title chatracters. The film also stars Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, and Emma Thompson.

In Men In Black 3, Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him -- secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

“Releasing a film in IMAX 3D signals an event release, and Men In Black 3 on Memorial Day weekend certainly qualifies in a big way. We couldn't be more excited about how MIB 3 will look and sound in IMAX theatres," said Rory Bruer, president of Worldwide Distribution for Sony Pictures Releasing.

"Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones and Barry Sonnenfeld have made the Men In Black franchise a fan favorite and we're excited to feature the return of this iconic title in IMAX," said Greg Foster, Chairman and President, IMAX Filmed Entertainment. "Men In Black 3 is another strong addition to our 2012 film slate and we're looking forward to continuing to work with the talented team at Sony Pictures."

The IMAX release of Men In Black 3 will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX 3D Experience(R) with proprietary IMAX DMR(R) (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

Men In Black 3 is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

MEN IN BLACK 3 director BARRY SONNENFELD talks about the 3rd MIB baby

Fifty-nine-year-old filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld returns this week with the eagerly anticipated third installment in the billion-dollar Men In Black franchise, bringing back the original tandem of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

In the film, Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him -- secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

Question: When did you settle on time travel as the backdrop for the movie?

Barry Sonnenfeld: It was Will Smith’s idea on the set of Men In Black 2. One night Will Smith came up to me and said – he calls me ‘Baz’ he said, ‘You know, Baz, I’ve got an idea for Men In Black 3. I think that I should go back in the past and do something that has to do with saving Agent K. And by doing that we learn secrets that we didn’t know and J learns secrets about K. It would be great to do a time travel version.’ And I said, ‘Let’s get through 2!’ Then we all went off and did our own thing for many, many years but when Sony decided to do Men In Black 3, we all decided it shouldn’t be another episode of some villain on the loose, so the idea of time travelling came up again. It is such an exciting idea. They called me to ask me what era we wanted, and 1969 seemed perfect, especially as that was the advent of space travel, the start of our own adventure visiting planets in our own solar system. Also the music was great and the era was great. What I personally did not want to do was a movie that took place in ’69 with hippies and drugs.

Q: Scripting a time travel movie must be very difficult…

Sonnenfeld: Yes, to begin with only the first act was really good. With the second and third acts, especially with a time travel movie, we were constantly thinking that we had it all done and then one of us would wake up in the middle of the night and go, ‘Wait a minute, if we kill this guy then that guy is dead’. We watched Back To The Future dozens of times because that was our Bible for how a movie set the rules of time travel and succeeded. Also, we all felt that it was really important that we had Will Smith’s next movie after him having several years off as a producer. He was circling a bunch of movies but we wanted the next Will Smith movie and I knew that we’d get there. Will and I always said that the only way we could screw up is if we didn’t, in the past, have someone that was so good that you didn’t miss watching Will and Tommy, because the movie is about that great relationship.

Q: You obviously work terrifically with Will Smith, but what’s it like directing Tommy Lee Jones?

Sonnenfeld: It is funny because it was a little bit difficult directing Tommy Lee Jones on the first movie. We had a difference of opinion about his performance but the second and third movies were joyful. Tommy was always happy. He loves working with Will. He totally trusts me. I have photos of Tommy Lee Jones and me laughing! Miracles can happen! It wasn’t fake, because Tommy won’t fake anything. He loves the role, because the reaction shot is always funnier than the action shot. I was the cinematographer on When Harry Met Sally and as funny as Meg Ryan is faking an orgasm, every time you cut to Billy Crystal doing nothing it becomes funnier.

Q: Was Tommy upset that he’s not in all of Men In Black 3?

Sonnenfeld: I think Tommy wished he was in the whole movie but I think a) Tommy respected the script, b) he respected Josh [Brolin] as an actor and c) he loves the final result, has seen the movie and thinks it is really good. He wishes he was in the whole movie but understands the plot did not allow for that. It worked great because I think the audience does not view it as Tommy or Josh. I think they just view Agent K and it’s not like ‘I didn’t like Tommy but I liked Josh’, or ‘I didn’t like Josh but did like Tommy’. We were saying that Josh might not get the praise he deserves because some people will think that they saw the one same guy play the whole movie!

Q: Was it difficult convincing Josh Brolin to take on Tommy’s character?

Sonnenfeld: It was easy to convince him to play the character. I always knew that I wanted Josh as soon as I read the script. I saw him in W and thought he was extraordinary. He played George Bush and he wasn’t doing an impersonation. He really created a version of George Bush. That wasn’t exactly his accent. He created this amazing tension by eating in every scene in W. If you see it again, there’s this tension of him eating French Fries and talking or eating a tuna sandwich. It was extraordinary. I said, please let’s hire Josh Brolin.

Q: Men In Black 3 has great emotional depth. Do you worry about where you might take the franchise afterwards?

Sonnenfeld: I don’t worry about where we are going afterwards. It does feel like the end of a trilogy and it is kind of fun to go back and watch the first movie with the knowledge of what we now know at the end of the third movie. In fact, it is kind of fun to watch this movie again with the knowledge of what is going to come! I think the second movie didn’t have enough emotional depth so maybe this one makes up for the previous one. And Brolin is pretty great.

Q: Is it true that shooting the first scene on Men In Black 3 made you cry?

Sonnenfeld: The truth is, I did break into tears, tears of joy when I watched the first scene of Will and Josh together, which is the scene where Will is being interrogated at HQ by Josh. I was weeping because it had worked. I was weeping saying, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve got a movie!’

(Opening across the Philippines on May 23 in 3D and regular theaters, Men in Black 3 is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.)

TOMMY LEE JONES harbors a deep secret in “MEN IN BLACK 3”

One of the most acclaimed and accomplished actors ever in Hollywood, Academy Award® winner Tommy Lee Jones brings a distinct character to his every film. Now, he returns to the big screen as the stern Agent K in Columbia Pictures' 3D sci-fi adventure comedy “Men In Black 3.”

In the film, Agents J (Will Smith) and K are back... in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him -- secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

“The relationship between J and K has been both contentious and affectionate at the same time throughout the movies,” says Tommy Lee Jones, who again dons the suit and shades.

Jones was enthusiastic about playing the gruff Agent K. He says, “Any time you go to work with Will Smith is going to be a happy day, and Will and director Barry Sonnenfeld together make it an even happier day. They are wonderful people to work with.”

The story of “Men In Black 3” takes the filmmakers back – back to the characters’ origins, back to the key moments of their relationship, to focus on the key elements that have kept them at arms’ length from each other for 15 years – and looked for ways to resolve the conflict. The answer came in sending Agent J back – back in time.

“At the beginning of the movie, J and K are still partners – but they haven’t learned much about each other in all their time together,” says producer Walter F. Parkes. “In fact, at the very beginning of the story, the character of Men In Black chief, Zed, has recently died and K gives a eulogy that provides no information whatsoever about him. This despite the fact that Zed was supposedly his best friend for 45 years. It makes J think, after all these years, what do I really know about the guy sitting next to me? That is the foundation for our story, and it coincides with the escape of an alien, Boris the Animal, that K put away 40 years earlier, in 1969 – and he’s coming back for some kind of payback on K.”

Some kind of payback, indeed: Boris jumps back in time to 1969 and kills K. No one in 2012 has any memory that K wasn’t murdered 40 years earlier – no one except J, who is wondering what happened to his partner. To save K, J follows Boris back into the past – and as he does, he sees an opportunity to learn more about his partner. “J sees saving K as a great opportunity to learn secrets about K – he thinks he’ll find out why K is so grumpy and reserved,” concludes Sonnenfeld.

Opening across the Philippines on May 23 in 3D and regular theaters, “Men in Black 3” will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

MEN IN BLACK 3 | A showcase of the coolest New & Retro alien characters!

Master of make-up effects Rick Baker’s inventive (and Oscar®-winning) aliens are a vital part of previous Men In Black films, so it’s no surprise that the legendary artist returns for Columbia Pictures' new comedy adventure Men In Black 3. 

For Baker, working on the Men In Black movies is especially fulfilling because the films inevitably require him to design in so many different ways: “Some films are straight makeup – say, we’ll do age makeup. Others will call for fake bodies or heads. Others, we’ll make animatronic characters and puppets. The Men In Black movies involve all of those things – and I got to design for the computer-generated stuff as well. We ended up making about a hundred aliens for this movie, and you could have made a whole story about any one of them.”

Director Barry Sonnenfeld says that Baker’s sensibilities mesh perfectly with the “play it straight” tone he brings to the rest of the movie. “You don’t want to design weird, wacky aliens,” he says. “If the aliens are funny, you want it to come out of observational humor, or their attitude, or the audience thinking, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’”

For the 1969 sequence, Baker came up with the idea that the aliens would be “retro” – that is, inspired by the aliens seen in 60s-era sci-fi. “The challenge on the first Men In Black movie, and it’s stayed our challenge since then, is to do aliens that look unlike any aliens that we’ve seen before,” says Baker. This time around, Baker pitched the filmmakers on a unique solution: “Let’s intentionally do aliens that look like something we’ve seen before, only a better version of them. Let’s imagine that the guys who made monster movies back in the 50s and 60s really happened to see a real alien and based their monster design on that. And they liked that idea. That was where I really had fun on this movie – to do my version of those classic science fiction aliens as a lot of fun.” 

How does one design a retro alien? “Lots of brains and veins, stuff like that,” he says. “We have an alien based on a fish, definitely from an aquatic world. I have a cameo in the film, where I’m an alien with an exposed brain. By comparison, our 2012 aliens are much more sleek and polished.”

Of course, Baker also designed the lead alien: the bad guy, Boris the Animal, played by Jemaine Clement. Baker designed a very badass biker costume, complete with goggles that seem to be embedded deep in Boris’s eye sockets. “I got the chance to make Jemaine into something he really isn’t,” says Baker. “He’s really a very gentle man, but in the costume, he is much more menacing – and, the women on set have told me, sexy.”

“When I first came in, Rick Baker sat me down and asked, ‘Are you claustrophobic?’” Clement recalls, laughing. “He asked me all of these questions – I’m not sure if they were intended to scare me, and they did scare me a little. He also mentioned that a lot of people who do a makeup-effects character only do it once in their careers.” And with good reason: on his first day on set, Clement spent eight hours in the makeup chair (a total that was soon streamlined to three-to-four hours once they established a rhythm).

In the end, it seems that when Baker is working on the Men In Black films, he’s like a kid with his hands on a really great practical joke. “Castmember Emma Thompson said to me that one of the things she liked about the first two Men In Black films was that the aliens aren’t necessarily in your face all the time, but they’re there. You know, an alien might appear for only a few frames past somebody in the Men in Black headquarters, but it’s fun to do that. I think it’s cool to put in aliens that people won’t even see until their fourth or fifth time around. For example, in this movie, in the Coney Island sequence, there’s a crazy alien in the back playing pinball. You have to look for it.” 

Opening across the Philippines on May 23 in 3D and regular theaters, “Men in Black 3” will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Visit http://www.columbiapictures.com.ph for trailers, exclusive content and free downloads. Like us at www.Facebook.com/ColumbiaPicturesPH and join our fan contests.

 

Ooohhh... A new Disney/Pixar film!!! BRAVE - trailer and still!!!

The new trailer for Disney/Pixar's upcoming, Scotland-set animated feature “Brave” has just been revealed by the studio.

Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In “Brave,” a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.

Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane).

Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Witch (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.

“Brave” is a grand adventure full of heart, memorable characters and the signature Pixar humor enjoyed by audiences of all ages. The film takes aim at Philippine theaters on August 2012, and will be presented in Disney Digital 3D™ in select theaters.