Back at the feature building on Riverside Drive, morale is better. Said a Diz Co. artist on the second floor:
"... They screened the King of the Elves story reels for us, and they look really good. John [Lasseter] has been down since last week reviewing projects, and I think we're going to be doing one film a year for the next three years. Wrec It Ralph, then King of the Elves, and then whatever's ready. There's a couple other projects in work. And Ron [Clements] and John [Musker] are going to be pitching to John ..."
There's also animated shorts being done, and the atmosphere just seems ... I donno ... lighter. It never hurts when the next feature being cued up grabs itself some positive buzz.
If the opening four and a half minutes of Wreck It Ralph is any indication, Disney has another big time hit on their hands. Scheduled for release November 2, 2012, Wreck It Ralph is an old school, 8-bit video game bad guy ... who is tired of being bad. One night, he sneaks out of his game console in the arcade and travels to different games hoping to find one where he can be a good guy. Featuring cameos from famous video game characters, homages to newer games and more, the footage shown at the D23 Expo was very crude animation cut with storyboards. Even in that rough state, it looked and sounded like something special. ...
So if WIR is a hit, that would make Walt Disney Animation Studios two-for-two in the well-performing features department, and pull the division out of the B-team doldrums, wouldn't you say?
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31 comments:
2 for 3 since Winnie the Pooh didn't perform sadly
I'm glad they canned Snow Queen.
"2 for 3 since Winnie the Pooh didn't perform sadly"
^
It looks pretty sad from where I sit. How do you spin it differently?
A reported $35 million production budget on 'Winnie the Pooh' and the worldwide theatrical box-office has pretty much topped out now at $32,186,481. That's not so good if they were depending on the theatrical run to make back the money. By contrast the last theatrically released Pooh movie , "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" had a reported production budget of $20 million and had a worldwide box-office total of $52,858,433. (and is actually a better movie overall , imo)
Of course, the real money in Winnie the Pooh will be in the DVD/BluRay release and in the ongoing merchandise based on the Pooh characters.
I don't think the Disney Co. ever intended to make back it's money on the theatrical release. The tepid theatrical release of Pooh felt like the company was just going through the motions , doing the bare minimum theatrical release to fulfill some contractual obligation to release Pooh as a "real" movie in theaters, so the WDAS staff did not have to feel like they had been reduced to the level of working on direct-to-video features. But that's where it will actually turn a profit , in home video sales.
I know a lot of people who were not even aware there was a new "Winnie the Pooh" movie out.
r.
... the real money in Winnie the Pooh will be in the DVD/BluRay release and in the ongoing merchandise based on the Pooh characters.
The picture was produced with the DVD/Blu Ray market in mind.
OTOH, it doesn't help the cause of hand-drawn.
Good for Disney. I have friends on both Wreck it Ralph and Elves and am glad to hear their going well.
My family saw Pooh at the 2 buck theater in Pasadena yesterday afternoon and said it was packed...
I'm sure there could be multiple ways to read something into that.
My kids loved it by the way.
Steve, how is "Snow Queen" going? Is it coming along?
The've thankfully moved beyond Snow Queen. John and Ron's new CG feature ideas are being prepped to pitch.
Dear Steve, what's about Snow Queen?
Are Ron&John working on a CG feature? I read their new movie will be hand drawn...
Thanks.
Snow Queen has been set aside for the time being. John and Ron's new film will be CG with some minor hand drawn elements.
^
nobody here knows anything going on there.
Ah, don't you just love some trolls here that are trying so hard to freak out the fanboys/girls?
Snow Queen's dev budget must be crazy if you were to tally all the lives and incarnations, it has been kicking on and off since Walt. Perhaps some other studio should do it and just be done with it. It is a public domain property. Or at least put out the art of book because there has been some beautiful pieces produced over the many years.
Ron & John are working on a CG/trad hybrid version of "Rumpelstiltskin," set in post-apocolypse Korea, with a cyborg villain. Vis-dev on the walls looks really fun, and Lasseter loves it. Eric Goldberg set to be the animation supervisor.
What Diz OUGHT to do is a 2D/CG film based on Epic Mickey. And bring the Mouse and his "big brother" Oswald back in style.
No epic Mickey. Looks like crap, and would appeal only to the very youngest of children.
Several marvel animated features in the works, though.
@In the hat building
Source?
"In The Hat Building" stole his moniker from me, the original "Inside The Hat," and has no fuggin idea what he's talking about.
He's probably the same troll who constantly talks about Astro Boy, and erroneously says Tangled merchandising didnt make any money.
Idiot.
Sure, "Inside the Hat," go on pretending that Ron & John aren't making "Rumpelstiltskin", and that the vis-dev artwork isn't all over the walls where we can all see it. Whatever.
If you want to play along with Lassiter's 'Cone of Silence' you can do what you want. I'm tired of that game, and I'll happily say what we're working on, if I think it's a really cool idea.
Based on what I see on the walls, "Rumpelstiltskin" is going to blow some minds in a big way, it's the most original take on a story we've seen from this studio in a long time, and Disney should be proud to let the news out.
I don't think Ron & John movie will be another fairy tale...
I'm curious to know something about Snow Queen and Ron & John movie... dear Steve, do you know something about Snow Queen? is it in development? is Chris Buck the director or Snow Queen will be Don Hall's movie?
@ in the hat building
Yeah, and Glen Keane is working on an animated romantic comedy concerning a trio of teenage sperm cells floating around the folds of Paris Hilton's vulva.
Is Glen Keane still at Disney? Did he renew his contract there afterall?
Steve Hulett said... [re: Winnie the Pooh]
"The picture was produced with the DVD/Blu Ray market in mind.
OTOH, it doesn't help the cause of hand-drawn."
Wait , so you're saying it's the medium's fault that Pooh failed ? The backward looking approach to Story and the lackluster (almost non-existent) marketing campaign had nothing to do with it ?
Wait , so you're saying it's the medium's fault that Pooh failed ? The backward looking approach to Story and the lackluster (almost non-existent) marketing campaign had nothing to do with it ?
I know this is difficult, but let me be as specific and transparent as I can. What I am saying is:
When a hand-drawn animated picture under-performs at the box office, that tends to incentivize executives to greenlight more c.g. animation and less hand-drawn animation.
That clear enough?
Glen keane is still at Disney, snow queen is being made in CG, and rob and johns project is way cooler than rumpelstilskin.
Lol. Rob. I meant Ron.
So if Glen renewed, that has to be some good news for the mouse house.
He never left. Dont believe everything "reported" on the internet.
**No epic Mickey. Looks like crap, and would appeal only to the very youngest of children.**
Like hell it would. More adults have played and loved the game than children.
**Several marvel animated features in the works, though.**
This totally says troll.
And the only people who'd care about animated Marvel are losers stuck on adolescent male power fantasies.
I heard that Disney bought the rights to Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and are planning a sequel.
It's the least Diz could do after ripping off Tezuka's "Kimba the White Lion" for "The Lion King".
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