Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Up Through the Hat

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?

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

2 for 3 since Winnie the Pooh didn't perform sadly

Anonymous said...

I'm glad they canned Snow Queen.

Anonymous said...

"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.

rufus said...

I know a lot of people who were not even aware there was a new "Winnie the Pooh" movie out.

r.

Steve Hulett said...

... 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.

Anonymous said...

Good for Disney. I have friends on both Wreck it Ralph and Elves and am glad to hear their going well.

Anonymous said...

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.

Anonymous said...

Steve, how is "Snow Queen" going? Is it coming along?

Anonymous said...

The've thankfully moved beyond Snow Queen. John and Ron's new CG feature ideas are being prepped to pitch.

Emperor said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.

Anonymous said...

^

nobody here knows anything going on there.

Anonymous said...

Ah, don't you just love some trolls here that are trying so hard to freak out the fanboys/girls?

Anonymous said...

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.

In the hat building said...

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.

Anonymous said...

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.

Anonymous said...

No epic Mickey. Looks like crap, and would appeal only to the very youngest of children.

Several marvel animated features in the works, though.

Anonymous said...

@In the hat building
Source?

Inside the Hat said...

"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.

In the hat building said...

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.

kiara said...

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?

Anonymous said...

@ 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.

Anonymous said...

Is Glen Keane still at Disney? Did he renew his contract there afterall?

I haven't got a Hat said...

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 ?

Steve Hulett said...

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?

Anonymous said...

Glen keane is still at Disney, snow queen is being made in CG, and rob and johns project is way cooler than rumpelstilskin.

Anonymous said...

Lol. Rob. I meant Ron.

Anonymous said...

So if Glen renewed, that has to be some good news for the mouse house.

Anonymous said...

He never left. Dont believe everything "reported" on the internet.

Anonymous said...

**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.

Anonymous said...

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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