Thursday, February 02, 2012

Around Disney Toon Studios

I spent part of the afternoon in Glendale, next door to Disney Television Animation (Sonora Ave.) at DisneyToon Studios (Sonora Ave.) ...

One staffer, working on one of the Tinkerbell features, said:

"We've been working on Tinkerbell #4, and we're going to be making Tinkerbell #5. Words out there that will be a #6.

"I'm happy with that. I'd be happy if they do a Tinkerbell #21. It's good to have steady work." ..."

I can remember when word was out and about that eight or nine Tinkerbells were planned. The first feature sold 3.3 million copies, and the second did almost as well.

But at some point the idea of doing ten or twelve Tinkerbell features fell on hard times. I was informed that Rich Ross had gone through DisneyToons and the edict was passed down:

"We're making fewer of these."

Guess now they're maybe making more. (Or maybe the exact number was always hazy.)

I had an interesting with conversation with some other staffers about Mr. Lasseter and his management techniques:

"John was a breath of fresh air coming in here. He's an artist. He's a director. He knows the process, and how it works. When he looks at our early development boards, he gives simple, broad notes about possibilities for the story, things that could make it better. He doesn't get into nuance and detail because he knows we're not there yet."

"He doesn't get ahead of where you are in story development, and he makes positive suggestions. He doesn't hem you in. He doesn't insist that you follow everything in the notes he gives."

"This is a lot different than other executives we've worked with at Disney."

I asked if this was a reference to Mr. Lasseter's predecessors at Toons and Features.

Smiles all around. And no answers.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Steve,

I have a question: Why are you such an arrogant, magnificent asshole?

You once said 'nobody gives a shit if the Snow Queen is made or not', I suppose Disney cares because they are making it!

Oh and now that Frozen has been announced, which means it will probably be made, I suppose you can eat your words about it not mattering if it gets made or not. Sorry genius, fairy tales have always been Disney's bread and butter. Next time, try not to be so arrogant. Snow Queen is ripe for the picking in terms of story. Let's see which one is more successful: Wreck-It Ralph or Snow Queen? Hmmm...I think even someone as ignorant as you could figure that out.

Anonymous said...

So, they'll be making Tinkerbell movies forever?

Four movies made sense as they were correlated to the four seasons. But six and more? It's way too much. They're gonna burn their franchise to the ground.

Do you know what changed the exces' mind and they decided on doing more Tink movies afterall?

Anonymous said...

"Sorry genius, fairy tales have always been Disney's bread and butter."

You know that Disney only made eight animated classics which are based on fairy tales, do you? Out of 51! Walt Disney himself only made three- Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.
After the boring period, called 'Disney Renaissance' they finally tried some new and fresh things in the last decade. True- some films they made, were really bad, but now with Lasseter on the top, I hope they'll continue doing NEW things, instead of only copying their fairy-tale-musical-formula again and again. I hope 'Wreck-it-Ralph' will not only be succesful but actually more succesful than 'Frozen'. Period.

Floyd Norman said...

Speaking of DisneyToon's predecessors, the only thing they'd be good at running is a used car dealership.

Anonymous said...

Disney Toons has nothing to do with Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Why are we talking about Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph?

Dan Siciliano said...

My thought for the FINAL Tinker Bell movie is...how did Tinker Bell hook up with Peter Pan?!?

My storyline: Tinker Bell discovers Peter Pan by accident and looks after him. Meanwhile, the fairy elder has died and a new elder, a more pompous and arrogant ruler, forces Tinker Bell to make a decision: between a life with the pixies or a life with the Lost Boys.

How's that?

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