Disney's "The Snow Queen" in 2013?

[robster16]

Oh, so there's news of another previously cancelled project apart from the Snow Queen being revived?

And people wanting Don Quixote, they've tried that too.

Here's a question for you all. If said stories couldn't be made into "Disney films" in the past, what makes you think they'll be ideal "Disney films" now?

Don't you think Disney would be better off selecting new stories to film, rather than go back to stories they couldn't make work before? Sometimes after years of development? After all, you can't mould a round peg to fit a square hole.

You are forgetting that Disney is now under new creative management. The previous creative managers seemed more obsessed with selling as many character merchandise as humanly possible and exploiting Disney's own heritage to make money, with all the cheapquels! Now that new people are in charge they can focus on telling stories and making creative and wonderfull movies instead of worrying if a Don Quixote doll would actually sell well with their target audience and the opinions of focus groups...

[2099net]

You are forgetting that Disney is now under new creative management. The previous creative managers seemed more obsessed with selling as many character merchandise as humanly possible and exploiting Disney's own heritage to make money, with all the cheapquels!

Now that new people are in charge they can focus on telling stories and making creative and wonderfull movies instead of worrying if a Don Quixote doll would actually sell well with their target audience and the opinions of focus groups...

But taking Don Quixote for an example, its been in and out of development for decades. Not exactly limited to the DTV sequel era or worrying about dolls. Didn't Disney himself once flirt with a Don Quixote freaturette/feature?

Regardless of the talent involved, wouldn't said talent perhaps work better developing films they want to make, rather then digging up abandoned concepts from the past?

And talking of focus groups and "selling dolls", have you seen the movies Disney animation did make recently? Warner Bros style slapstick, a space adventure updates of classic novel, a broken family with a "pet" evil alien, a musical concert and a pulp hero (at a time when pulp heroes were out-of-favour). Hardly stuff built around focus groups I feel - not stuff built around s"elling dolls". Yes, merchandise no doubt (look how popular Stitch became as a mascot) but I refute Stitch was created especially to sell plush toys, or Emperor's New Grove to sell... er? To sell what exactly? And why would Disney green-light another "action adventure" appealing mainly to boys film (Atlantis) after Tarzan's merchandise sales failed to sizzle (and I believe Hercules' merchandise sales were poor) - and then do another with Treasure Planet? Is that choices made when simply looking at the potential spin-off sales?

Oh and one last thought: today's management is the same management which took control of Sanders' American Dog for being "too weird". So don't talk about focus groups. To me, going back to fairy-tales is more about pandering to the public than any of the Disney films of the past decade pandered to focus groups!

And continuing about pandering to the public, if "selling Dolls" were so important to Disney management, how come its taken so long for Disney animation to return to Princess movies? And more importantly, why do you consider the Princess and the Frog (or Snow Queen or whatever may come up in the future) as NOT a doll selling movie? Regardless of the creative talent, the fact that each film will "sell dolls" will not be missed by Disney management when green-lighting the film. There's obviously some financial consideration in returning to fairytale movies - it can't be denied.

There seems to be this myth that all the animated moves of the past decade were based on nothing but financial gain. Where as, in reality, Disney has probably released the more most risk taking movies than they ever released in a similar period before.

[Margos]

Personally, I really do like the quirky variety that came out of this past decade, and I don't see why some of the movies did so poorly and sank into obscurity. "Treasure Planet" and "Brother Bear" are both among my top ten favorite Disney movies last time I seriously thought about a list.

But, really, I do think that Sanders' "American Dog" would have been a little much..... It was not only an unusual concept, but not really an appealing one.

[KubrickFan]

The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were also projects that Walt Disney himself wanted to do but never worked then. Those projects worked out pretty well, I think. So sometimes you just need some time and the project might work after all. And if it doesn't, well, it doesn't. At least you know for sure

[estefan]

Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan were also put on hold. You can even see the books in the opening scene for Pinocchio (something I only noticed when I watched the Platinum Edition).

[Super Aurora]

The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast were also projects that Walt Disney himself wanted to do but never worked then. Those projects worked out pretty well, I think. So sometimes you just need some time and the project might work after all. And if it doesn't, well, it doesn't. At least you know for sure

This.

Seriously why would you even complain about projects coming back? This doesn't mean Don Quoixte or others won't come back just because Snow Queen and Ramayama got chosen first to do before Don. And disney not going anywhere so there is much time to come to see more interesting stories as time goes on.

[Someday...]

Looks a little like the White Witch from Narnia.

that picture is in my Walt Disney Imagineering book, I forget what it was a design for- it wasn't used anyway.
But it's definitly a WDI concept, not an animation concept.

[Cordy_Biddle]

Looks a little like the White Witch from Narnia.

that picture is in my Walt Disney Imagineering book, I forget what it was a design for- it wasn't used anyway.
But it's definitly a WDI concept, not an animation concept.

It's a very fascinating concept art piece... I'd love to know for what attraction (if any) that she would have been designed for.

[2099net]

Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan were also put on hold. You can even see the books in the opening scene for Pinocchio (something I only noticed when I watched the Platinum Edition).

I think, to some extent the advent of World War II put both those films on hold rather than "unsolvable" story issues. But yes, some re-work was done on both when they were taken out of hiatus (Alice more re-work than Peter Pan I think - I think from reading about Alice Disney was always somewhat struggling to make it work on screen - but that's probably to be expected given its dream-like atmosphere).

But...

But isn't it well documented that Walt wasn't happy with how Alice in Wonderland turned out? And it never got a re-release in cinemas unlike Walt's other films for years and years (appearing on TV before it was re-released).

And by the sounds of Ward Kimbell's post-mortem it appears ultimately there was no coherent and definitive creator - everyone just did their own thing.

Though not an outright disaster, the film was never re-released theatrically in Walt Disney's lifetime, airing instead every so often on network television (in fact, Disney's Alice in Wonderland aired as the 2nd episode of Walt Disney's Disneyland TV series on ABC in 1954), although in a severely edited version cut down to less than an hour. Walt surmised that the film failed because Alice lacked "heart" and was a difficult character for audiences to get behind and root for.[2] In The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin relates animator Ward Kimball felt the film failed because, "it suffered from too many cooks - directors. Here was a case of five directors each trying to top the other guy and make his sequence the biggest and craziest in the show. This had a self-canceling effect on the final product."[3]

Maybe, if the film makers were constantly struggling with Alice, and as a result they decided not to take the development off hiatus, a different and better received film could have been made?

[Someday...]

that picture is in my Walt Disney Imagineering book, I forget what it was a design for- it wasn't used anyway.
But it's definitly a WDI concept, not an animation concept.

It's a very fascinating concept art piece... I'd love to know for what attraction (if any) that she would have been designed for.

took me ruddy ages to find, it's in the WDI book.
"The Snow Queen comes to life in this concept sketch by Marc Davis, inspiration for the Walt Disney World Resort. This sketch was one of the last drawn by Marc Davis before his retirement from Imagineering in 1978"

- not only is it a cool piece of art, it's drawn by Grandaddy Marc Davis himself xD
it's in the page "Windows to the Future"- how cool would it be if it influences things?

[IagoZazu]

Looks a little like the White Witch from Narnia.

I think The Snow Queen will end up being a chip off The White Witch block. If Disney's going to make her the next Disney villain (even though she was hardly villainous in the story in my opinion) they will probably go with something like the concept arts. If it came to that, she would become the first Disney Villain with her name as the title.

But it's unlikely that something like that will be used for the concept art, as cool as it looks. It wasn't meant to be used for animation.

[robster16]

Ladies and Gents, we have confirmation from the horses mouth himself, Peter Del Vecho (Producer of The Princess and the Frog), the next handdrawn animated feature film in production at Disney now is "Snow Queen" and Ron and John are starting production on another 2D project in the spring of 2010. Don't believe me, read on and watch the video with Peter Del Vecho. This info comes from Brendon Connelly, who wrote a piece for movie website /Film:



On Friday December 4th, I was lucky enough to spend the whole day at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank. My mission was to film footage for a /Film Exclusive documentary about the return of hand-drawn animation, focusing on Disney’s superlative new picture, The Princess and the Frog.

During the day I carried out filmed interviews with the film’s directors John Musker and Ron Clements, leading lady Anika Noni Rose, producer Peter del Vecho and a whole host of animation, storyboarding and design talent. I think I pushed deeper than you’d typically see on a behind-the-scenes piece for DVD, for example, and I’m sure I managed to get an awful lot of good footage and interesting discussion, as well as some genuine revelations about the current state of hand-drawn animation and the creative qualities of The Princess and the Frog.

That documentary will be some time coming, however - I’ve got hours and hours of footage to sculpt - but, in the meantime, I’ll be able to show you a few little glimpses of what went down on the day. To start off with, there’s a very brief and essentially unedited clip after the break, one in which Peter del Vecho makes very clear the next few hand-drawn projects from Walt Disney Animation.

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The last we heard about an animated The Snow Queen, I believe, was when Disney were last trying to develop it - perhaps as late as around March 2008. That appeared to be when it was last frozen (if you pardon the pun), following a few earlier dead ends, such as when Glen Keane infamously quit the project in 2003. Now, though, all signs are that the film is progressing nicely - though, at the moment, there’s no mention of it on the official Walt Disney Animation Studios site. I asked around - not actually at WDAS, but through the grapevine - and it seems that Alan Menken is working on the music for the film, possibly based on music he was developing for a stage production of the story. Nice.

If you’re wondering why Peter mentioned neither Rapunzel nor The King of the Elves in the clip, it’s because those two are CG animated pictures and we were discussing hand-drawn movies only. Of course, they wouldn’t let me take pictures of any of it but I did see a great deal of Rapunzel and Elves concept art and, as expected, it all looks quite promising, to say the least. Rapunzel probably has the edge at this stage but it is some way further forward in development. Some of the Elves close ups had a vague Avatar vibe, which was unexpected.

There wasn’t much Winnie the Pooh artwork on show in any of the areas I was permitted to explore, but I did see some Milt Kahl Tigger poses prominently displayed on the walls. What better inspiration could the animators look to?

Stay tuned for another (more substantial) clip from my footage at the end of the week, seeing as The Princess and the Frog is going wide across the US on Friday 11th.

source: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/07/exc ... now-queen/

[PatrickvD]

finally, confirmation. And I guess Disney really was waiting to see how TPATF would do financially before greenlighting more hand drawn films. Now that TPATF is making millions in merchandise sales I guess it's all good again.

[estefan]

Could this new Ron and John feature possibly be Fraidy Cat? With new management, I wouldn't be surprised if this project was re-greenlit.

[Neal]

Just re-greenlight "My Peoples" and I'll be in heaven (assuming "Fraidy Cat" is the new Ron and John feature)

I wonder if "Wild Life" could ever come back?

[PatrickvD]

Just re-greenlight "My Peoples" and I'll be in heaven (assuming "Fraidy Cat" is the new Ron and John feature)

I wonder if "Wild Life" could ever come back?

There was a reason why that was canceled. I hope it doesn't come back.

I also hope Ron and John can deliver something totally new. Not another project that's been laying on a shelf.

[Neal]

"Fraidy Cat" was sort of their dream project, though, from my understanding - so much so, it's initial cancellation is why they left Disney and had to be asked to come back for "The Princess and the Frog." It was originally canceled because it was too Hitchcockian, and suits convinced David Stainton that it would not be able to sell merchandise, and since money is god, he canceled it.

"Wild Life" was canceled because Roy Disney said it was too 'adult' - but that's a pervading problem I see with American animation - that companies are too afraid to do anything edgy. "9" and "Coraline" were some great anomalies but they were not trendsetters. I wish Disney would do a film that's not all glib and saccharine - why can't there be an animated film for adults from Disney?

What's the difference between new projects and reviving old ones? Either way, the final project is a new film to audiences. It's not like they're doing re-makes. If anything, "My Peoples" or "Fraidy Cat" are more original than "Snow Queen."

[PatrickvD]

I am fully aware of why they were shelved. Doesn't change my opinion.

As for edgy. You just can't expect Disney to do this. Other US studios should grow the balls for edgy films, Disney on the other hand has an image an a reputation. And Wild Life was just crossing a line.

Fraidy Cat, if they wanna do that one, fine. As long as it is hand drawn. I'd rather see them tackle something new. There are so many great stories and books out there. And Fraidy Cat just never interested me at all.

[2099net]

"Fraidy Cat" was sort of their dream project, though, from my understanding - so much so, it's initial cancellation is why they left Disney and had to be asked to come back for "The Princess and the Frog." It was originally canceled because it was too Hitchcockian, and suits convinced David Stainton that it would not be able to sell merchandise, and since money is god, he canceled it.

I'm sorry, but I flat out don't believe this. As I said before, have you seen the films that have been green-lit from WDFA in the past decade or so. Three "boys adventure" movies after Hercules (despite Hercules merchandise not selling as well), a movie about a broken family with a destructive alien, two all out slapstick comedies (with little chance of merchandise sales - really, who wasn't plushy fat farmers, spoilt emperors or cows. Do you want a plush cow?) and of course Fantasia 2000. Even Brother Bear had little opportunity for selling merchandise considering it was an animal film - it really only showcased bears and moose.

I think its a total myth money ruled the filmmaking decisions at Disney Animated Features - as I said before, the last decade as been varied, risk-taking and (above all else) ORIGINAL.

"Wild Life" was canceled because Roy Disney said it was too 'adult' - but that's a pervading problem I see with American animation - that companies are too afraid to do anything edgy. "9" and "Coraline" were some great anomalies but they were not trendsetters. I wish Disney would do a film that's not all glib and saccharine - why can't there be an animated film for adults from Disney?

Because people won't accept it. They had films that were different. They had Atlantis. They had Treasure Planet. All the fuss about The Princess and the Frog and The Snow Queen shows what most people want and expect from Disney. Sadly. People never accepted The Nightmare Before Christmas originally - it only survived as a cult movie and like lots of cult movies, it's status has grown over time (as people get used to the idea and concept). Being a seasonal film helped TNBC too - who knows how popular it would have ended up had it not been shown/re-released most Christmases?

What's the difference between new projects and reviving old ones? Either way, the final project is a new film to audiences. It's not like they're doing re-makes. If anything, "My Peoples" or "Fraidy Cat" are more original than "Snow Queen."

Well, as you know, I'm not jumping for joy about the Snow Queen being revived. (Isn't it odd people claim marketing considerations ruled the roost in the past, but the fact Disney are making two fairy tale/princess movies isn't seen as a marketing consideration today?). On the whole, projects that are rested are rested for a reason - I doubt lack of merchandise sales affected My Peoples - it already had time, effort and money and several storylines behind it before it was finally cancelled.

[Super Aurora]

good to hear about Snow Queen. Now only wish to hear confirm news on Ramayama. I know Lasesteer wrote about it in that book but love to hear more definite confirmation on it.