Thursday, November 15, 2007

At Disney, the Studio of Animation

A fully packed day, with office work, a large "new member" lunch for Imagi Studio employees (where I detailed the wonders of the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan), and finally an afternoon walking tour of Disney Animation Studios.

There were no WGA picketers on Riverside Drive, but near the gate to the main lot stood two honey-wagons. A Disney executive told me a few days ago: "We thought portable toilets were better than having picketers running over to St. Joseph Hospital to use the restrooms there."

Nice. Back in '82 during TAG's last strike, I just gritted my teeth and held it.

Upstairs in the hat building, I spent a fun-filled twenty minutes trying to locate a four-digit room number. The numbering system for cubicles and other spaces is eccentric. More often than not 2824 follows 2822, but 2826 is absent. (Half the time it's around the corner, down some other hallway.)

After a lot of tramping around I discovered what the problem was. The number I looked for was covered up with a poster. But it turned out not to matter. There was nobody inside anyway.

Three or four different artists told me that Bolt's story development is in good shape, and that Rapunzel and Princess and the Frog "look like they're going to be big deal, box office pictures." Said one artist:

"Rapunzel has really, really come together. Before it was a series of really nice moments, some really funny sequences. But now it has a real epic sweep to it. To me it has the feel of those early Disney features from the forties..."

Since I haven't seen much of the work for any of these features, we'll consider the above hearsay. Encouraging hearsay.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

In your last article mentioning Princess and the Frog, you said it was slated for release early next year. So can we look forward to a March-ish 2008 release? Or do you mean sometime early in the summer?

Anonymous said...

dchall, I'm not Steve, but I'm sure you're mistaken--"Princess" just started story--they're a couple of years away from release.

Steve Hulett said...

Don't think I ever said '08.

My understanding is, the picture is set for an '09 release.

Anonymous said...

That's what I figured, but I couldn't help but wonder. You're right, you didn't say "'08" but "next year":

"...Disney Animation Studios will be hiring crew to work on The Princess and the Frog sometime in the first half of next year..."

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/animation-biz-over-next-eight-months.html

Just an FYI to prevent confusion. First half of '09 makes more sense to me also. So I'm guessing Rapunzel will be DAS's animation release in '10?

Anonymous said...

Edit: >>> you didn't say "'08" but "next year" <<<

I meant "you didn't say "'08" but I got confused by "next year." My fault on that.

David Gilson said...

Whatever!! This sounds like great news for these both upcoming Princess' movies. Really can't wait to see what will look like Princess frog and Rapunzel !! It's so rare and hard to catch news about these two future disney features,but what about Bolt !! We still don't see any real and official news or photos or teaser for this one, even i know that Bolt's team have a big-big lot of work to finish until the 2008's release, but hey, we had yet see yet a lot of htis next Pixar movie Wall-E, why not Bolt...?
By the way is Joe Jump is an official future 3D Disney movie?
And have you heard about the second 2D one? Rumors are around Snow Queen or Ramanaya...?
Last, is an Enchanted sequel really on the way?
Whatever you get answers, clues, or not, thanks Steve to share this here today at least... ;)

Anonymous said...

David, you really should check your comments before posting. Some of what you said comes across as extremely bad grammar.

That being done, I too look forward to Rapunzel and Princess. Although I don't like the new name, I'd have preferred The Frog Princess. I'm really looking forward to Bolt since it's Lasseter's first true hands on test of the Pixar magic.

David Gilson said...

I apologise for my "extremely bad grammar" in english ; i guess i could made better in french!
Sorry too for not used the right title "The Princess and the Frog"...

Anonymous said...

David, don't pay attention to those attacking your grammar. My guess is if Fineaus were forced to write in French, his head would explode:)

Great post! By the way...you write/speak English as well as most people in the states!

Au revoir

Site Meter