Out into the world…

So here comes Ice Age 3 – produced by an insanely talented group of artists at Blue Sky Studios! It’s a strange feeling working on something so intensely, day in and day out, and then suddenly it’s out there for the world to see. Kind of like putting your kid on a school bus for the first time, watching it drive away – beyond your control. It’s exciting, nerve-wracking and scary all at the same time. We set out to make a fun adventure movie with laughs, and hopefully we succeeded.
Good luck, Blue Sky. You did a great job (once again) and I think the public will reward you!

Done!!!!

Crazy – I can’t believe we made it! The movie is done, and it’s awesome!!! Definitely one of the most rewarding creative experiences I’ve had as an animator/director. Doing the short film was fun, but it was no where near as intense as working with Carlos on this film, and I mean that in the best possible way. I got a serious education in filmmaking and had a blast along the way – now I just sit back, cross my fingers and hope the world likes it. No pressure.

Here are some clips that are available online. Enjoy!

The Big News!

This isn’t really news to anyone who knows me, but I thought I should officially post that I’m currently Co-Directing the soon-to-be-released Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs!

I’ve been waiting patiently for Fox to put out some official press release that includes my involvement, but with only three months until the film comes out it seems as though that’s not going to happen! I’m in good company, though –  the studio has also neglected to announce one of the new stars of our film: SIMON PEGG!!!!! I guess Simon got tired of waiting, ’cause he’s been doing some press for Star Trek and mentioned his role in Ice Age (Check out his blog HERE). Simon is the best, and I think everyone is going to love his character, Buck.

Check out the new trailer HERE. We just wrapped up Animation, and now we’re in the home stretch to get this thing done! It’s been an awesome experience, and I’m really psyched about how the film is coming together – Blue Sky has really out done itself! It’s always amazing to see such talented people throw their heart into something and create such beautiful imagery. Best Ever!

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Trailer

If you didn’t catch the trailer on Horton Hears a Who, it’s found it’s way online! Check it out here! The T-Rex looks cool, but trust me – that was just a taste of how awesome the movie is going to look; especially in digital 3-D (or “Ultimate” 3-D as Dreamworks has dubbed it).

Horton Hears a Who! Opened this weekend!

Horton opened this weekend, and if you didn’t see it – do me a favor and go right now! We had a great opening; not crazy by Ice Age 2 standards, but pretty damn good! Hopefully there’s good word of mouth and the film holds strong for a few weeks to help us pull in a decent box office.

Ironically, we had our best opening weekend ever with the critics at a whopping 82% on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics pretty much hate everything unless it’s from Pixar (except “Cars” – which got an unusual low score for them at 77%).

If you did see the film, hopefully you also saw the new teaser for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs! It looked great up on screen and I can’t wait to see the finished film in fabulous digital 3D!

Horton Trailer

In keeping with my policy of hardly every updating my blog, here’s some old news! The new Horton trailer has been up for a month. Enjoy….

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/hortonhearsawho/

Long Time No Post

So I’m not great at this blogging thing. The last post was about five months ago. Since then things have really kicked up on Horton. We’re DEEP into animation, with only a few months left to go, the trailer came out (sometime later I’ll write some thoughts on it – Fox probably doesn’t want their employees talking about it until after the movie releases…), and my daughter had her second birthday.

But the real reason I’m writing the post is because I have to tell the world I just beat Guitar Hero 2 on Expert. Somehow I made it through “Free Bird”; don’t ask me how. I had a dream last night that I beat the game, and this morning I came downstairs and ripped through the song. You’re probably wondering why a grown man would dream about Guitar Hero – it’s lame, I know, but my brother Tim has been in town for the past two weeks and we’ve been playing it like crazy (thanks to Pete Paquette for lending us his Guitar controller). So it’s been on my mind since I was trying to beat the game before he left.

So yea – that’s the big news. I’ll try and have something more meaningful the next time I post – like some news on Horton or something.

Things slow down…

Here’s a picture from the red carpet! Left to right is: Lauren (Chris’s wife), Chris, Me and my brother, Tim.

It was a crazy month between the Oscars, the Annies and the new baby girl – and now things are getting a little quieter around here. The Academy Awards were an amazing experience; I got to meet Steven Speilberg, John Lassetter, George Miller, Andrew Stanton among others. Although we didn’t win, Chris and I both really liked the film that did, so the sting wasn’t so bad. I have to say, after doing the whole Oscar thing once – I’d really like to do it again! Hopefully I’ll get the chance, but I’m not holding my breath.

But for now it’s back to Horton Hears a Who. I’m the Senior Supervising Animator, so I’ve got a lot on my plate, but I’m *really* hoping to do some actual animation on this film. It’s a great project with some amazing characters; an animators dream project, I think.

Katelyn Ivy Thurmeier is here!

Well, after a crazy week of going from the Annie Awards (where we won Best Animated Short!), to San Francisco for the AWN Oscar Showcase tour, and back to NY on the friday night red-eye into JFK, Heather gave birth sunday afternoon to our new baby girl! Katie was 8lbs 10oz’s and very healthy. The family is relaxing at home this week, until I fly out to LA for the Academy Awards. I wish Heather could come with me, but five days after giving birth just isn’t enough recovery time!

Nominee’s Class of 2007 Photo!

This past monday was the Oscar Nominee’s Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton in LA, and Chris and I attended! It was amazing – Leonardo Dicaprio and Mark Wahlberg were at my table. My guest, Lori Forte, was practically drooling. They were pretty cool. Check out the photo here.

Chris and I are the two guys on the far left side in the first row standing behind the people seated. I’m right next to Randy Newman. Awesome.