Monday, July 24, 2006

The Monday Disney Walk-Through

(c) Walt Disney Co. Burbank in late July is no place for anybody who claims a grip on sanity to be walking around outside. Saturday, the burg registered 112 degrees. Today the city was a frigid 94. Happily, I only had to walk a block to get to the entrance of the Disney Feature Animation Building. (The guards now give visitors a choice; they can either park on the main lot in the "Zorro" parking garage, or find a couple of square yards of shade on Riverside Drive and put their cars under it. Either way, they have to walk the length of a midday Phoenix football field to get to Feature Animation.) Inside the building, tech directors and animators on the first floor were bitching about how the air conditioning wasn't cooling things off much (and it wasn't. But this is one of the joys of DFA's Riverside Building -- comfortable air flow is not one of its strong suits.) The word around the studio is that the First Act of "Rapunzel" found favor at its unspooling up in Emeryville. John Lasseter, I was told, gave plenty of notes to director Glen Keane but overall liked what he saw. John's suggestions were about how to make good things better, rather than eliminating elements that didn't work. Here's hoping your summer days are cooler than mine are.

14 comments:

David Germain said...

When's Rapunzel Unbraided due for release?

Anonymous said...

My understanding is that it's now the classic "Rapunzel". The Shrek-ish "Unbraided" concept apparently departed with Eisner and Stainton. No word on a release date.

Anonymous said...

Ooh! It's no longer Shrekified? That's an incredible relief if true...

Anonymous said...

One can only hope. The news coming out of Disney these days does seem a little too good to be true...

Anonymous said...

I heard that John Lasetter offered Glen Keene to mak e the movie in 2d again, and Glen refused. Any truth to that rumor? That image looks 2d to me.

Anonymous said...

that's a 3D image.

Anonymous said...

My information is:

1) It's a 3-D film (Glen declined to make it 2-D).

2) The storyline has returned to its classic fairy tale roots.

3) The release date is some little ways out, but I don't know what it is (don't think it HAS a release date, but I haven't really asked.

ChristianZ said...

"I heard that John Lasetter offered Glen Keene to mak e the movie in 2d again, and Glen refused. Any truth to that rumor? That image looks 2d to me."

I believe he refused because he had already put a lot of time into developing Rapunzel's unique look, which, even though it is CG, is still supposed to have a rather classic, painterly style to it.

hans bacher said...

it looks like the film might brake a new record. if it will be
released in 2009 some artists spend about 8 or 9 years on
it, glen even more. his first sketches were done in the late
nineties as far as I remember.

Anonymous said...

Then...my prayers have been answered? No more 'unbraided?' Yes! Now it truly is a must-see for me!

Anonymous said...

> I believe he refused because he had already put a lot of time
> into developing Rapunzel's unique look

Well... from what I heard through the grapevine, Glen's not sticking with 3D because of the "time put in", but because he's genuinely excited about the results that they are starting to get from the computer. There's a new CG test that is supposedly "phenomenal", but apparently only a few people close to Glen have actually seen it.

ChristianZ said...

"but because he's genuinely excited about the results that they are starting to get from the computer."

Yeah, that too. That was sort of hinted at in my prior post.

Anonymous said...

Hello!
I know that the plot of the movie "Rapunzel" changed so I'd like to know if the new one will be a classical and traditional Disney fairy tale or just remain the story of a modern age boy and girl sticked in to this fantasy world.
Thank you and congratulation for your job!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info, though if you think that's hot, try performing Block Party Bash at DCA in 98 degree heat. That's Disney heat. :)

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