Disney's Mort

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Sotiris
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Disney's Mort

Post by Sotiris »

Disney's new 2D-animated feature will be Mort!
Michael Crawford wrote:Animation gossips have claimed for a while now that directors Ron Clements and John Musker were at work preparing a new traditionally animated project to pitch. I’m started hearing rumors that are truly unexpected – that the project they’re boarding is an adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s 1987 novel Mort. The book is the fourth in Pratchett’s beloved Discworld series of comedic fantasies, and follows a young man looking for a job who gets an apprenticeship working for Death. Is this really what Ron & John are working on? We shall see. Consider it rumor for now. But if so I know a lot of people who will be pleasantly surprised.
Source: http://progresscityusa.com/2010/10/28/a ... n-updates/
Honor Hunter wrote:It’s not a rumor anymore, Michael… Thanks to you I can now say yes. Yes, it is happening.
Source: http://progresscityusa.com/2010/10/28/a ... ment-23251
Honor Hunter wrote:Over at Progress City, they've got a really big rumor...

We all know that after "Winnie the Pooh" next year, there is a hole in the schedule and then there is a mystery as to what will come out in 2013/2014. The site is reporting a rumor that Ron Clements and John Musker's next film will be an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's book "Mort." Blue Sky reported that the next hand drawn film from the Mouse would again be by the duo back earlier this year. At the time we knew it was a fantasy. I was told, but didn't reveal that it was based on a book by a famous fantasy author that was published in the 80's. This book fits the period when the book came out and the type of author that would provide this source material.

But is it true?

Yes, kinda. I will say that the film does take place in the Discworld series which is where the Mort book (fourth in the line of books, btw) takes place, but remember that this is an adaptation that won't necessarily be literal (no film adaptation really is). I got confirmation from the Bothans of this. The hero of the book shows that this is an entirely different kind of story than Walt Disney Animation Studio has told before, but it does have a princess in it. Remember that this is early in the process and things can change. It's at least three years before it will come out and the animation process is a long, bumpy and slow road. This project as well as "Reboot Ralph" and another to be announced "untitled project" give you a sense as to how the course will change in the Mouse's animation direction after that one year break. Interesting, no?

So now you know what the next hand drawn is, but you still don't know how different it really is...
Source: http://blueskydisney.blogspot.com/2010/ ... gress.html
Last edited by Sotiris on Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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TheSequelOfDisney
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Post by TheSequelOfDisney »

I've never heard of the series, but I'm glad to see that Ron and John are working on another project that will be released soon.

Besides the very brief description of the series, does anyone know what Mort is about?
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Post by Disney's Divinity »

I guess I'll have to bump the Discworld series up my reading list. I've been wanting to read it, but I haven't had too much spare time.
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Post by BelleGirl »

Sounds like an exiting idea: Disney venturing into 'horror' in the manner of Tim Burton?

But I still hope "The Snow Queen" will be made one day.
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Post by RyGuy »

Besides the very brief description of the series, does anyone know what Mort is about?
There's an article on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mort

Kinda sounds like the love child of Willow and the Back to the Future trilogy.
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Post by yukitora »

No Princess? But the original book has a princess character :?
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Post by DisneyJedi »

Hmm. Sounds interesting.

Hopefully, this'll succeed in doing what The Black Cauldron attempted to do, seeing as this is Disney's second shot at doing a movie based on a fantasy book series, their first being The Chronicles of Prydain. Of course, I could be wrong on that part.
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Post by skyler888 »

To be quite honest, I did some research on the original story and I think it's would be an awful thing for Disney to adapt. It's just far to 80's adventure-fantasy and I don't think it would have any real appeal in this day in age.

I am really hoping they take just the basics of the story, a boy who finds a job working for death, and scrap the rest and just build they're own story.

Hopefully the film will be better then I'm imagining, and will be much more simple then the book, keep the darker elements, but hold enough of Ron and Jon's humour. Maybe we will have Disney's first Black-Comedy on our hands.



Also, I do appreciate them leaning towards a darker feature, I know a lot of us prefer when Disney goes to the dark side lol. So Perhaps if this is well received, we will finally get a wonderful, dark, HoND style film adaption of "The Snow Queen"!

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Post by Patrick »

Well this is interesting! I'm not familiar with the books but I've read a few summaries just now on this one. Seems as though the main character doesn't marry the princess at the end.. Who wants to bet that gets changed? :lol: Disney just may piss off a ton of fantasy fans! But it's really good to hear that another hand drawn film is potentially in the works. I picture this as a mix of Dr Facillier's dark magic, The Emperors New Groove's stylized animations and Hercules humor.
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Post by Animalia »

Eh, seems like Black Cauldron mixed with Hercules and Sword and the Stone. Maybe it could work out, but Death as a character never has had any appeal for me. I hope it is good though! :|
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Post by skyler888 »

Also, I would really prefer not to have another film with a princess in such a short time period.
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Post by milojthatch »

Wow, my wife is REALLY into this series. While I'm not, I do know a bit about it as a result and I think it is an interesting choice for the Mouse House. I'll be interested to see what they do with it.

I agree, I also want "Snow Queen" someday.
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Post by Super Aurora »

Interesting choice and I welcome that, but I have a feeling that adapting something from a book series is very hard to do.

Black cauldron kinda showed that. It's going to be hard to explain some stuff from the book with or without changes. And too much changes would kinda change the essence of the book.

Disceworld series seems like a very unusual concept to adapt for it to address to mainstream audience. Hopefully it'll work though.
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Post by Semaj »

Well, if the intent is to do something bolder, perhaps something Disney Animation isn't used, my hope is that they stick with it, and don't back out when things get tough.

Disney recently missed an opportunity to try something different when they fired Chris Sanders off of American Dog. The resulting Bolt film wasn't bad, but lacked something special. Sanders had already proved with Lilo & Stitch that Disney can try something bold without damaging their reputation.
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Post by Disney Duster »

yukitora wrote:No Princess? But the original book has a princess character :?
He said there is a princess in it.

You know, I want them to keep the Disney essence...but that also means they are still able to do some things that aren't about princesses or the times and places princesses would be...
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Post by Goliath »

I wonder if Clements and Musker are still able to make a good picture. After epic fails Treasure Planet and Princess and the Frog, it may not be a good idea to put them in charge again.
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Post by DisneyJedi »

Goliath wrote:I wonder if Clements and Musker are still able to make a good picture. After epic fails Treasure Planet and Princess and the Frog, it may not be a good idea to put them in charge again.
Well, I don't necessarily think TPatF or TP were epic fails. I thought they were good. It's just that they fell somewhat short of meeting some expectations. Sure, Treasure Planet and The Princess and the Frog were were good movies in their own right and didn't make back everything. But all that matters were that they were good movies. And Goliath, I don't want to start up another flame war like the last few times.

Anyways, what I'm more concerned about with this movie is that they'll actually pull off adapting a fantasy novel or whatever and succeed in doing what the guys that worked on The Black Cauldron failed to do.
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Post by Giygas »

Why are so many people making comparisons to the Black Cauldron? (not just here, I've been hearing it at several other boards, too) The Discworld books are all contained stories (except for the first two), and they're much more humorous than other fantasy novels.
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

An interesting and good choice in my opinion. There have been a few made-for-tv films here in Britain recently based on the Discworld series and they have all been very good so I like the source material. I love Terry Pratchett as an author as his work is so imaginative and original so hopefully Disney will get this right.
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Post by DisneyJedi »

Giygas wrote:Why are so many people making comparisons to the Black Cauldron? (not just here, I've been hearing it at several other boards, too) The Discworld books are all contained stories (except for the first two), and they're much more humorous than other fantasy novels.
Well, because The Black Cauldron is based on the five books in the series of the Chronicles of Prydain, a fantasy novel series. And when Disney tried their hand at adapting it, it didn't do very well.
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