"Disasters" That Weren't, 1

"You're freaking script is no freaking good..." This has been said, I'm sure, thousands of times in movieland. The above refers to a specific director in a specific time and place, which I'll get back to. But right now I'd like to expand on an earlier post and recount some animated opuses that supposedly had "big troubles"... "Snow White" was widely thought to be the production that would finish Disney. Huge cost overruns. Sequences thrown out. Crew had to work long hours for no money. "SW" ended up breaking box office records. "Bambi" was the first feature in work after "Snow White," but didn't get released until five years later. Long, painful story development. Barely enough money to finish it. Didn't make much in its first release. Sixty-three years later its STILL generating big bucks, with a sequel that has sold millions of DVDs. "Lion King" changed directors, reworked story, was generally considered to be "in trouble" by lots of the staff. "King" went on to break box office records, spawn a musical, DVD sequels, etc., etc. "Shrek." Ooh boy. Big problems, the board artists told me early on. The story didn't gel. Gags in, gags out, gags in again. Chris Farley, voice of Shrek, up and dies. So what happens? The picture is a triumph, and now one of DreamWorks' major tent poles. Ooh boy. Are we detecting a trend here? However "troubled" a production might be, the end result is often not troubled at all, but a major box office smasheroonie. Which leads us back to the quote up above...