"Cartoon Wars!"

Author(s): Conrado Falco
Location: Peru

"Cartoon Wars!"

Directed by Bennet Miller (Capote)
Written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing)
Cinematography by Adam Kimmel (Capote)
Music by Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Ratatouille)

Main Cast

Alec Baldwin...... Donald Fooley
Alan Alda......... Marvin Bray
TR Knight......... Noah Bloom
Scarlet Johanson.. Mary Bray
Steve Buscemi..... Frank Connelly
Jeff Daniels...... Michael
Gwen Stefani...... Betty/Lucy Loop's voice
Malcolm McDowell.. Mr. Rogers
David Strathairn.. Walt Disney (Cameo)

Tagline: "Whoever said cartoons were for children?"

Synopsis: "Cartoon Wars!" is a movie loosely based on the story of the Fleischer Animation studios, Disney's biggest competition back in the 1930s. The story begins when Donald Fooley, the president of Fooley Studio, is feeling victorious after managing to successfully make sound cartoons. One of his employees, Noah Bloom, creates a character named Lucy Loop (parody of Betty Boop) and becomes his right hand, Lucy a sexy woman who dances and sings to Swing music, but Donald is not happy with the voice they're giving her.

As he finally finds the voice in a young girl named Betty during a party, and Lucy Loop becomes the biggest animated star, Just in that moment appears a little character called Mickey Mouse. Donald enters into a crisis, as he starts having a relationship with Marvin's daughter, Mary. He's desperate to find a character as charming to shadow Disney's Mickey Mouse.

Donald has to face the members of the board of censor who think Lucy is inappropriate for the audience. Donald is doing anything he can to keep Lucy as the star of the studio but Marvin Bray, chief of Polopeak studios (the studios that finance Donald's cartoons) decides to cancel the Lucy series after so much controversy. That puts Donald in a much more stressful situation, for he has no other cartoon character. Then Noah saves the day again creating a character called Bernie the Beaver. Even if Bernie is popular enough, Donald infiltrates spies on Disney's studios to steal his ideas. And it's then when he finds out of Disney's big plan, a feature-length animated movie.

At first he doesn't care, thinking a feature-length animated film wouldn't work for the audience. He even tells this to Disney when they meet at the Academy Awards, where Disney beats Donald again for the animated short trophy, Disney also confesses to Donald that he was kind of an inspiration for Donald Duck.

But after Disney premieres "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", Donald learns that if he wants to stay in the business he must make a feature film too. There begins the production of "The Three Musketeers" which is only accepted by Marvin after a long talk with Donald to convince him of making future-length films. When "The Three Musketeers" opens, it doesn't become the hit everyone was expecting and Marvin decides to only produce animated shorts from ther on. But Donald won't surrender to Walt Disney and decides to make a new film, "Tom Sawyer".

Donald decides to make "Tom Sawyer" the best animated film ever, creating new techniques and a better quality for animation. But he soon runs out of money and starts begging Marvin to keep financing his film, Marvin is starting to get sick of Donald and his animated film that need more and more money every single day. But he starts to believe "Tom Sawyer" could really be a hit when he sees the first cut of the film. But right after Marvin has seen the film, Donald's animators go on strike just as Marvin discovers he is dating his daughter.

Marvin is angry at Donald, but Donald's art of conversation make him decide to finish the film before taking any decision and giving him even more money for the animators on strike.

"Tom Sawyer" is finally released, but the day after the release, a float of Japanese combat plains attacks Pearl Harbor, making Donald's ambitious project a complete flop and putting him in bankrupt.

What the Press would say:

"Cartoon Wars!" is Bennet Miller's latest work, and even if we thought it was going to be a long epic film like The Aviator, Bennet gives us a quick, smart written, movie that is so fresh it feels just like fun even when the lead character is dealing with an endless list of stressful problems. Aaron Sorkin's script is as smart as any of the great episodes of The West Wing, and Alec Baldwin's lead performance is flawless.

Of course you could not deny Alan Alda's supporting role as the responsible of Baldwin's constant dilemmas, and the great cameo of David Strathairn as Walt Disney.

With a delightful jazz and swing score, "Cartoon Wars!" will take you right to the time were cartoons were only shown on theatres and the competitive world of, in Donald Fooley's words, show Disney's who's the real big child.

Possible Oscar Nominations:

Best Picture
Best Director: Bennet Miller
Best Lead Actor: Alec Baldwin
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Alda
Best Original Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin
Best Cinematography: Adam Kimmel
Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino
Best Art Direction
Best Costume Deisgn