Let me start this by saying that I am a massive Disney fan. I usually give them much more benefit of the doubt than any other studio because I love so much of what they have produced. I am totally pumped about the return of classic animation and the classic Disney movie format. I also have been clamoring for a new princess movie for a really long time.

Let me also remind you that I am a huge Jim Cummings fan. I know that this role is important for him both because it is a pretty large, new role for him in a time when he’s mostly been sitting back and only playing his standard characters (Pooh, Tigger, etc) and we already know that he said this role is his favorite in his career. There are both big things for him and big news for us fans.

The official trailer was released a few days ago (as I tweeted when it came out) and I immediately popped over to Apple to watch it in High Definition. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend visiting http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/princessandthefrog/ to do so. My pumped level for this movie was high as heck.

So, taking all of that into account, what I am about to say is going to be total blasphemy but here we go.

I didn’t think it looked very good. This has got to be the first Disney animated trailer I have ever seen that I didn’t think looked good. Mind you, their trailer department is really good. They have made many a terrible movie look good in the trailer. But my reaction after seeing this trailer was just disappointment. It just looks…dumb.

Now, I am willing to reserve judgment until I see the film. Maybe they just did a terrible job with the trailer and the movie is really awesome. But I must say, after seeing this trailer, instead of getting me more excited, my spirits are a little dampened. The frog prince was so smarmy. I hope he’s not like that all movie, I will smack him. And the “funny” parts were…not funny. I actually rolled my eyes twice. That is never a good sign. I laugh at paint drying. Well, I do if it’s a funny color.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but this is just my honest opinion. Am I alone in this? Did you think the movie looked awesome?

Let me know below.

Here is a fun little tidbit that I, for one, didn’t know.

In the original Disney movie, The Jungle Book, King Louie was a Disney invention as he was not in the original book. He was played by jazz singer Louis Prima.

After Prima’s death, the character of Louie, as we fans know, was taken over by Jim Cummings who played him in TaleSpin and other projects.

But here is the part that I didn’t know until recently. Jim Cummings’ performance and impression of Louis Prima’s voice was good, so good in fact that Louis Prima’s widow sued Disney for unauthorized use of her husband’s voice. Now, of course, Disney wasn’t using her husband’s voice but rather Jim Cummings’ voice and the matter was settled out of court. But in deference to this, King Louie has not appeared in any future projects including The Jungle Book 2 or House of Mouse(where a King Larry appeared instead).

So King Louie fans won’t get any new content from that character because, darn him, Jim Cummings was just too good!

As we covered on Twitter earlier, there is a great interview with Jim Cummings on StarWars.com for his involvement in The Clone Wars animated movie. You can read the full interview here.

If you visit the Cult of Cummings website (for those of you reading in a feed reader), the random quote sidebar spot has been updated to include some of the great quotes from this interview.

One part of the interview I wanted to specifically call your attention to, though, is this part. When asked if he had a favorite character, Jim replied:

I have a brand new favorite for a Disney animated feature coming out next Christmas called The Princess and the Frog. I’m Ray the singing Cajun firefly. New Orleans is my second hometown. I was a deckhand on a riverboat there when I was 18, so I have that Cajun accent down pat. Ray is a lovesick firefly who’s near-sighted and falls in love with the Evening Star. Of course, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger will always be favorites of mine too.

So I think its interesting to note that however large the controversy about The Princess and the Frog‘s firefly may be, Jim Cummings himself is either unaware of it or doesn’t care and still cites the character as a favorite. I think its interesting as well that he says he has the accent down pat when that is what most people were focusing on as being racist. Just confirms my idea that it’s not racist if the name grew up there!

There are also some great little tidbits on how Jim creates a character and about meeting Mark Hamill and working on Comic Book the movie which is worth a look. Overall a great interview, better than most so thanks goes out to the Star Wars team for it!

This category is hard because I don’t watch any of these shows regularly (though I have in the past) so I cannot speak to the quality of them this season in particular.

Best Animated Television Production

* King of the Hill – 20th Century Fox TV
* Moral Orel – ShadowMachine
* Phineas and Ferb – Disney Television Animation
* Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II – ShadowMachine
* The Simpsons – Gracie Films/Fox TV

There is a lot of really good stuff up there. I am going to have to give this crown to King of the Hill, though. It’s the last year for that show AND Mike Judge is up for a special award that night so I think this might be a lock for Hank Hill and crew.

Or you with me on this? Or am I totally off base?

Trying to pick Annie Award winners, Day 3.

Best Animated Short Subject

* Glago’s Guest – Walt Disney Animation Studios
* Hot Dog – Bill Plympton Studio
* Presto – Pixar Animation Studios
* Sebastian’s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin
* Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death – Aardman Animations Ltd.

Presto was one of the funniest things I have ever seen but I am going to go against my own advice and pick against Pixar this time. I just don’t think that Presto is up to their usual caliber though I think the silliness of it really balanced out the heavy Wall-E well. I am thinking that clay will win the day for Wallace & Gromit here.

If you are just joining us, we are trying to throw our guesses into the ring for our picks for Annie Award winners.

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production

* Batman: Gotham Knight – Warner Bros. Animation
* Christmas Is Here Again – Easy To Dream Entertainment
* Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
* Justice League: The New Frontier – Warner Bros. Animation
* The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning – DisneyToon Studios

I am really picking blind on this category so I am going to need some help from you guys on this. I think its safe to say, with all apologies to Jim Cummings, that The Little Mermaid doesn’t have a chance in heck. Batman is solid gold this year but that doesn’t mean it will translate into the animated realm. I’m going to pick Futurama. I didn’t watch this special but I was told by friends it was the best of these.

What do you think is going to win it? Or, better yet, what else doesn’t have a chance in heck of winning?

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children

* A Miser Brothers Christmas – Warner Bros. Animation
* Avatar: The Last Airbender – Nickelodeon
* Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Destination Imagination” – Cartoon Network Studios
* The Mighty B! – Nickelodeon
* Underfist: Halloween Bash – Cartoon Network Studios

This list makes me feel really old. I have only ever even heard of 2 of these and only actually watched an episode of one of them (Foster’s). I’m going to go with Avatar because all the hip kids like it these days.

Best Animated Video Game

* Dead Space – Electronic Arts
* Kung Fu Panda – Activision
* Wall•E – Heavy Iron Studios, a division of THQ, Inc.

This one is really easy. This goes to Dead Space. As the only video game actually designed to be a video game int he first place, it has a big advantage over the cheesy movie-tie in games.

Not to get off topic but remember how awesome movie-tie in games used to me? Aladdin for Sega Gensis or Super Nintendo was money! ABABABABABA I say to you and if you don’t heard me, you aren’t a level skipper. (I only skip levels on re-plays, naturally)