Monday, June 07, 2010

At the Mouse House (Feature Division)

So I spent part of my morning at the hat building, and either there is new (unfinished) animation for Tangled up in the long entry hall or I haven't been paying attention ...

The stuff looks good, but since there is no sound nor final texturing or lighting, it is difficult to tell much of anything.

(Or maybe my imagination has grown dull from age and overuse.)

Upstairs the animators are putting in looong days. "It's been a grind. And we've got six more weeks of it ..." (Sixty-plus hour weeks, if my sources are correct.) I have found artists in the building who aren't totally enthusiastic about Tangled story and arcs, but one animator told me today:

"I'm pretty hyper-critical, but I think Tangled's story really works. I didn't always think that, but they've gone on tweaking and refining it, and yeah. It's good."

(Note that I have no opinion myself, since beyond the gorgeous images on various computer screens -- and everyone is pretty unanimous about those -- I know next to nothing about T's plot and characters. The only detail I'll point out (yet again) is that Flynn Rider's costume is close to Geoffrey Thorpe's outfit in The Sea Hawk. Intentional? You be the judge.)

And for the first time I saw some color images of Winnie the Pooh. The background and color styling are solid. A staffer who's working on it thinks the feature is beautiful, charming and that the story works well. Since I've heard no dissenting opinions, I'll go with it here.

Lastly, some Disney employees wondered aloud to me what's next in the production pipeline, since there seems to be a gap in the work-flow after Tangled and Pooh get completed.

"John and Ron are supposedly developing something, but nothing's greenlit. So we don't know what happens next ..."

28 comments:

Omar said...

What about reboot ralph?
http://hyrumosmondanimation.blogspot.com/2010/06/next-movie-announced.html

Floyd Norman said...

Both Pictures are looking good, and I'm really impressed by what I've seen so far.

Anonymous said...

The trailer comes out with Toy Story 3, so you'll all get to see final color images then, though 75% (or so) of what is in the trailer is "trailer footage only" and not in the film. (some of it was just test animation)

The tone of the trailer is quite pop-culture and even has a pop song in it. But dont worry, thats nothing like how the film really is, it's just marketing being...well, marketing.

The story itself is very good. Just watch the trailer with the volume off and play some Alan Menken score in the background and you'll get a better sense of what the film will be like.

Anonymous said...

Floyd or Steve (or I suppose anyone else for that matter..):

Any news on the short Tick Tock Tale? It will apparently be screened tomorrow at the Annecy Film Fest. Any idea as to when the rest of us will get to see it?

And while we're on the subject, what the HECK ever happened to Glago's Guest? It's been done like two years now and it still hasn't been shown to the general public.

I was so excited when Disney started doing shorts again... but so far I've only seen one. (Although that one was really fantastic.)

Anonymous said...

I saw Glago's Guest at SIGGRAPH a couple of years ago, and I have it somewhere on DVD. It's not very good. It's stiff, ugly, and kind of boring. You're not missing much.

Anonymous said...

Marketing most always can make or break a films success.

Anonymous said...

Disagree with Anon 11:40. Glago was an interesting concept, if a bit one-note as a story, and the design was appealing. It toured a couple years ago in Ron Diamond's Animation Show of Shows.

Floyd Norman said...

Producing short films at Disney has always been weird. Once completed, the studio seldom knows what to do with them.

I've even worked on some pretty cool shorts over the years. More often than not they're put on the shelf and forgotten.

Ismael Hernández said...

For the first time ever (at least recalled by me) you mention some lack of confidence about the story.

Gosh, I hope they haven't erased at all the fairy tale in this just to make the story more MANLY.

Anonymous said...

You're always going to find people who dont like ANY movie.

Especially the disgruntled ones.

Anonymous said...

I HATE disgruntled movies!

Anonymous said...

I sure hope Disney doesn't put that HORRIBLE loch ness short cartoon they made with Tangled (I think it's called "nessie?"). Wow, what a shameless mess that thing is. REALLY bad.

Anonymous said...

We need a shorts collection like the Pixar one.

And Nessie is no good? Anyone else that's seen it have any opinions on it? That's a bummer to hear, I was most excited about that one...

Anonymous said...

It seems the Shorts program is going no where. I'd rather Disney pool their recourses and focus on their Feature Films. Outside of Goofy's How to, and Prep and Landing (If you consider that a short), We have yet to see any Short Film released to the General Public.

Anonymous said...

I saw nessie. It's almost watchable---but completely forgettable.

Anonymous said...

I hope "some Disney employees" are preparing for "what's next" by dusting off the old reel and portfolio.

Anonymous said...

Not much in the production pipeline after "Pooh" wraps.

This probably means lots of production layoffs.

Anonymous said...

Disney will keep all traditional animators on after Pooh. They have more plans.

Anonymous said...

The animation in this clip looks so... typical. So what ever became of the beautiful, painterly look? Isn't Glen Keane supposed to be behind this? The background in the final clip (with the tree) looks remarkably like Shrek... the original one. And am I the only one who finds it odd that Rapunzel was hardly in the clip at all?

Anonymous said...

"Disney will keep all traditional animators on after Pooh. They have more plans."
-solid evidence, or educated guess? I find it hard to beleive "all" will be kept on.

Anonymous said...

Theres only like 12 animators on Pooh.

Anonymous said...

Knowing some of those traditional animators on Pooh, I can say that they don't seem quite as certain of their future as the anonymous from 5:41 pm.

Anonymous said...

I would think 12 animators with no project to work on for the forseeable future are 12 animators too many.

Anonymous said...

You dont lay off that level of talent. You find something for them to do...and quick. And thats what Disney is doing

Anonymous said...

"You dont lay off that level of talent. You find something for them to do...and quick. And thats what Disney is doing"

hahahahahahahaha....I'm out of breath...I needed a good laugh...

Anonymous said...

Why is so hard to believe that Disney has plans for the 2D guys? They do and they will be kept.

Anonymous said...

I hope you're right. The problem in believing you is two-fold. First, Disney has already hemorrhaged a tremendous amount of talent. The new regime talks one game (about stability, about being director-run, about running things like they do at Pixar), and plays another.

Second, some of the key artists at Disney are personally not at all confident about their futures. The new regime has made no bones about their comfort level with motivating people through fear. Fearful people aren't creative people.

Animators at Disney aren't thinking about how to make a great film, they're thinking about how to please certain people, and how to guarantee a hit. You can't be creative when most of your energy goes into second-guessing.

Wobble The Witch Cat said...

I wonder what the Witch character in Tangled will look like? Will they go for old hag or ( as Maleficent )a beautiful enchantress look?

In a way I think old hag would be better what do other posters think?

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