Don’t be late for Disney’s Feast!

Don’t be late for Disney’s Feast!

By Mindy Marzec

Big Hero 6If you’re planning on seeing  Disney’s Big Hero 6” in theaters this weekend, make sure you’re not running late! You won’t want to miss the adorable short film that runs before the main feature, called “Feast!” It’s only a few minutes long, but it tells a pretty emotional and savory story, through the eyes of its main star, a Boston Terrier pup named Winston.

Last month I had a chance to talk with producer Kristina Reed during a press roundtable about making “Feast.” Kristina told us, “The idea (for ‘Feast’) came from something that Patrick (Osborne, the director) had been doing, which was using a one-second-a-day app and filming his dinners, and you watch the film now and it’s just plates of food. He sat down and watched all of these meals in one sitting, it was about six minutes, and he realized he could see what was happening in his life through these meals. He could see when he was in a production crunch; he could see when his fiancé moved in with him, he could see how his feelings were changing, how his life was changing, just by looking at his food. And he started to wonder if it was possible to tell a broader story, one that the audience could figure out. And that was the genesis of ‘Feast.’”

FEAST

“One of the things (Patrick) did to make it broader, was he realized dogs are creatures of pattern, so if something changes for them, they notice. So he realized that would help the audience see the changes more quickly in the story beat, so that was how he realized he needed to tell the story with a dog. Then it became an issue of finding the right dog. The first thing we did was look through all the Disney films and say, well, we want a new dog, we want a fresh dog, we want to pick a breed that’s never been done before, which is … Disney has had quite a lot of dogs. We wanted a small dog, because we wanted to show the meals are moving from the floor, to the couch, and to the table. Then when the girlfriend comes it’s back down to the floor. So you sort of see this promotion and demotion happening. And then because Patrick knew he wanted a flat rendering style, when the dog turns you wouldn’t necessarily be aware of that unless the dog had some kind of markings on their face. So that led us to Boston (Terriers) because they have that really distinctive pattern.”

Continue reading »

A Day at the Races: The Breeders’ Cup Classic 2014

A Day at the Races: The Breeders Cup Classic 2014

By Erin

This past weekend, was a pretty exciting one with the Breeders’ Cup in town. The gates swung open for the start of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic late Saturday afternoon at Santa Anita Park, in sunny California. Bayern, bolted out of the seven spot in the gate, took a hard left and bumped into the favorite, Shared Belief, and the 14-horse field quickly became a scene that has caused much chaos and discussion over whether or not Bayern should have been disqualified or not. I personally don’t think he should be DQ’d as these are animals, not machines, one cannot control their first few strides out of the gate. Here are just a few exciting photos from the afternoon at Santa Anita!

Breeders Cup Bayern

Bayern, at 6-1 odds, warming up before the big race.

For Bayern, it was of the upmost importance to break to the front, where he was able to use his speed from the start. When he is able to break to the front, that is when he wins his races.

Breeders Cup California Chrome

California Chrome, getting ready for the race.

California Chrome ran his heart out, but it just wasn’t quiet enough. He finished third, by two heads. Bayern’s and Toast of New York’s.

Breeders Cup Classic 2014

How they ultimately ended up placing, Bayern (red), Toast of New York (blue), & California Chrome (black/purple).

Bayern was able to hold California Chrome and Toast of New York off as they ran down the stretch to give the Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert his first Classic victory. The winning time from Bayern was 1 minute 59.88 seconds.

Breeders Cup Race  2014

Bayern, Toast of New York, & California Chrome

Continue reading »

Big Hero 6: Thoughts From the Cast & Creators

Big Hero 6: Thoughts From the Cast & Creators

By Mindy Marzec

Last month I had the great privilege to see a screening of “Big Hero 6” and attend a press junket with some of the film’s creators and voice actors. It was a fun afternoon at the Disney studios in Burbank, CA, and I want to thank Erin at Horsing Around in L.A. for the experience! My review of the film is coming up, but first I wanted to introduce you to some of the creative geniuses behind “Big Hero 6,” then be on the look out for the scoop on the short film that runs before it, called “Feast,” tomorrow!

bigHero6539609bbe6af9 

First we got a little background about how the film was made from Don Hall (Director), Chris Williams (Director), and Roy Conli (Producer). They were asked about how the project came to be and how similar it is to the original Marvel comic of “Big Hero 6.”

Don: “The project came from my love of comic books. It was a dream project to take these things (Disney and comics) and combine them. We inquired about the project because I liked the title, found out it was a Japanese super hero team and then became more intrigued, then actually read the comics and got really intrigued. And so when we met with Marvel and said, ‘We want to do Big Hero 6,’ they loved it, they loved the idea we were going to do, and they said ‘don’t worry about setting it in the Marvel universe. Do your own thing. Use your own creative and create your own world.” So then we created San Fransokyo, because that’s what we do first, right off the bat, what’s the world we’re dealing with here? We love fantasy and we do fantasy very well, and so we wanted to create a fantasy world. That’s what led to this mash up of San Fransokyo. We wanted this world to not be super powered beings walking around, there’s a reality to this world. And then super technology became everybody’s super power. So a lot of these little decisions took us farther away from the comic book.”

big-hero-6-press-junket-17

What about criticism from Marvel fans?

Don: “One thing about our process is, no matter what story you think you’re going to tell when you start out, it is going to be something else by the end. That’s just the way it is. (Changing the story) was always going to be that way. I will say that Duncan Rouleau, who is one of the co-creators of the original comic, just saw (the film) and loved it.” 

Continue reading »