Paperman

[reyquila]

Great short. I loved Wreck It Ralph but heck Paperman itself was worth the price of admission.

Ditto!!!

[Disney's Divinity]

I enjoyed the short for the most part. I’m not as excited about the animation as most other people, but it’s still better than nothing, I guess. Knowing about the paper planes ahead of time, it didn’t really bother me when they came alive. That part really made me smile, actually, because magic seems to be a huge part of Disney’s image, despite the fact that so many of their films don’t have it. And the scene when the guy was in the train was hilarious, and most of the theater laughed. I liked the guy’s design more than the girl’s though, tbh.

The weakest part of the whole thing, for me, was the music.

[Sotiris]

The weakest part of the whole thing, for me, was the music.

I didn't find the music bad by any means; it just wasn't as memorable as it could have been.

Here's the score in isolation, for anyone interested.

[Disney's Divinity]

It does sound better isolated like that. I really only noticed it in the final scenes of the short when I was first watching it, for I guess an urgent, climactic feel. It just sounds like something I'd hear in a commercial. It does what it needs to do, but I don't love it, personally.

[monorail91]

I'm surprised so many people are bothered by the living paper planes, I just saw it as magical realism as that was the only out-of-the-ordinary occurrence in the film. That allowed it to be more realistic, albeit with fantastical elements, rather than a straight up fantasy.

[SWillie!]

Just got back from the CTN Expo this weekend, and the Paperman crew had a fantastic presentation. They started by saying "we know most of you have probably been to one of our previous presentations, so we decided to switch it up this time." They went into far more detail about the process of the whole thing, and showed a TON of design work for it.

A highlight was Jeff Turley's color script for the film, which consisted simply of tones of grey. In the beginning of the film we have a bunch of shades of grey, then in the second act it gets into almost black, and then it strobes between black and white until the last several shots are completely white, giving the audience a feeling of tension between depression and hope. Awesome way to go about planning out the film early on.

The other highlight was when they literally went through the film shot by shot and discussed why the shot was set up the way it was in terms of staging, lighting, tone, and direction. For example, throughout the first and second act, George and Meg continually move farther screen left and screen right, respectively. Then when fate steps in, they begin to be brought back towards the center of the screen, with George moving screen right and Meg moving screen left. Awesome stuff.

They talked about how light represented hope and Meg and dark represented depression and George. For example, George's office building is in shadow while Meg's is in bright sunlight. There's an especially nice shot: when George runs across the street and stops on the other side, looking for Meg - he can't find her, and that's when he gives up hope. The composition of the shot is set up so that the shadow of the building ends just in front of George's feet - he is THAT close to coming into the light, but he gives up and angrily walks into the darkest part in the entire film - the alleyway. The alley is the darkest thing in the whole film, except the tiny sliver of light where the lead airplane lands - a tiny sliver of hope. When the planes take flight, they literally drag George back into the light. Just amazing design behind the entire thing.

Also, John Kahrs touched on the subject of the negative reactions towards the "twist". He said they were fairly shocked at the number of people who were taken out of the film by it, even if it is small compared to those who enjoy it, because they had never gotten that reaction until they showed it to the public. He said it was definitely a deliberate decision to surprise the audience there, and he confirmed that in his mind it was "fate" stepping in, as opposed to a more physical sort of magic bringing them "to life". He said that he intended to hint very subtly at it when the paper first flies out of George's hands and hits Meg in the face, and again when the paper tries to fly out the window before George starts making the planes. But he said feedback is of course always a good thing, and said that maybe it might have been better if they made those hints a little stronger.

All in all, a fantastic presentation.

Sotiris, thanks so much for posting the score!! I absolutely love it both in the film and in isolation. I think it kicks the film up so far on the emotional scale. It's fantastic. The little single notes when the plane is 'waking up' make me tear up every time I see it. And I've now seen it eight times

[Sotiris]

That sounds like an awesome presentation. I hope CTN will post it online for the world to see. They did so for the Tangled one, hopefully they'll do it for the Paperman presentation as well.

[ajmrowland]

Is there a link for the tangled one

[Sotiris]

Is there a link for the Tangled one?

Here you go.

[SWillie!]

They mentioned that they will be putting up Glen Keane's presentation, but I didn't hear anything about the Paperman one. That's not to say they won't though. Here's hoping.

[Disney Duster]

I don't understand. It just looked like cel shading. Like Sofia the First animation, which people say is horrible animation, even though I don't think so.

[PatrickvD]

I don't understand. It just looked like cel shading. Like Sofia the First animation.

[TheValentineBros]

Like Sofia the First animation, which people say is horrible animation, even though I don't think so.

And this is coming from a guy who couldn't handle a meme called, Dolan.

[Kyle]

I don't understand. It just looked like cel shading. Like Sofia the First animation, which people say is horrible animation, even though I don't think so.

[Sotiris]

'Paperman' looks nothing like 'Sofia the First' whose animation is indeed horrible.

[SWillie!]

Duster......

...

... you don't understand what you're looking at. No offense, but seriously... they're obviously not even in the same category. It looks nothing like cel shading.

[TheValentineBros]

Duster......

...

... you don't understand what you're looking at. No offense, but seriously... they're obviously not even in the same category. It looks nothing like cel shading.

Exactly the point I was about to say. There's a difference between animation done in cel and animation done in what looks like a combination between 2D and 3D in the product called, Meander.

So Duster, please do us all a favor and... DO YOUR RESEARCH! Your logic, Duster, and I'm gonna be honest and try to be less rude, is like a Republican's logic.

[Disney Duster]

I don't need to do research when I've heard Swillie continuously tell us all about how the new animation is done.

But it looks just like better done cel-shading. With more flowy movement.

There's this part where a door closes and I remember noticing the detail of the frame on the door just looked like flat black lines on a 3D white door.

If this is all Disney will do for hand-drawn in the future...I am aghast.

[DisneyAnimation88]

But it looks just like better done cel-shading. With more flowy movement.

That might be what it looked like to you but that isn't what it is. It's also worth bearing in mind that the animators are still tinkering with this new "meander" technique and trying to perfect it further; any slight issues can be put down to teething problems in a still-fledgling style.

If this is all Disney will do for hand-drawn in the future...I am aghast.

[PatrickvD]

There's this part where a door closes and I remember noticing the detail of the frame on the door just looked like flat black lines on a 3D white door.

Kind of like Ariel running up the stairs or uhm... I don't know, every flippin' thing in Treasure Planet.

Paperman is a major step in blending CGI and hand drawn animation and comparing it to Sofia the first is blasphemous. You're either messing with us or you need to have your eyes examined.

And who even said that the look in Paperman is the final destination of what they're doing right now??? In fact, I'd say they've been saying the exact opposite of that. Everyone involved continues to express how this is an experimental first step.

Compare Brave to Toy Story. Or The Lion King to Snow White for that matter. The techniques and visuals are always improving. You are so judgmental it's not even funny anymore.