Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009
Get Animated
Walt Disney found honor and profit in feature-length cartoons, and so have his heirs. In 2008, four animated films finished in the top 10; this year there'll be at least three. Disney/Pixar's starless, near flawless Up is the third biggest domestic moneymaker of the season, and Blue Sky/Fox's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is sixth. (Monsters vs Aliens, from the other big animation studio, DreamWorks, was champ of the presummer box office, earning nearly $200 million in North America and another $180 million in foreign markets.) CGI rules in the big live-action films too. Whether drawing an old guy with balloons or making giant toys fight, computer-nerd wizards are the new Hollywood royalty.