The Disney that never was....

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Super Aurora
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Post by Super Aurora »

I forgot but who is David Stainton again? What was his role in Disney company?
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DisneyAnimation88
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

Super Aurora wrote:I forgot but who is David Stainton again? What was his role in Disney company?
From what I've read of him, and a lot of it isn't favourable, Einser put him in charge of WDAS to cut costs and jobs and ensure that films were produced on as small a budget as possible. To give you an idea of how Disney employees felt about him, this an email sent by an unnamed director at WDAS upon Stainton's "resignation" when Eisner was ousted in favour of Bob Iger.
I LOVE the idea of Lasseter taking over Disney Feature! The only thing that would be better is if David Stainton is tazered, maced, and peppersprayed, and then frogmarched out of the building, stuffed into a burlap bag and thrown into the LA river. Oh, and a video of the above in an easily downloadable format for my iPod
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Super Aurora
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Post by Super Aurora »

DisneyAnimation88 wrote:
Super Aurora wrote:I forgot but who is David Stainton again? What was his role in Disney company?
From what I've read of him, and a lot of it isn't favourable, Einser put him in charge of WDAS to cut costs and jobs and ensure that films were produced on as small a budget as possible. To give you an idea of how Disney employees felt about him, this an email sent by an unnamed director at WDAS upon Stainton's "resignation" when Eisner was ousted in favour of Bob Iger.
I LOVE the idea of Lasseter taking over Disney Feature! The only thing that would be better is if David Stainton is tazered, maced, and peppersprayed, and then frogmarched out of the building, stuffed into a burlap bag and thrown into the LA river. Oh, and a video of the above in an easily downloadable format for my iPod


AHAHAHAHAHHAHA OH WOW.

Seems like he's a Paul Pressler(Disney theme park CEO/Disney merchandise marketer CEO) level douchebag.
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DisneyAnimation88
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

I came across a book last week that detailed the history of the Walt Disney Company up until the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in the 1980's. It listed some animated films that Disney had planned to make after the Second World War that I haven't seen mentioned in the thread when I've looked back over it. Along with the planned animated films that we know of (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Don Quixote and The Wind in the Willows), the book mentions:

- Adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Fir Tree.

- An adaptation of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle.

- An adaptation of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

- An adaptation of Don Marquis' newspaper column series Archy and Mehitabel, a satirical social commentary told through the adventures of a journalistic cockroach Archy and his best friend, an alley cat called Mehitabel.

There were also several original stories written by the team of Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Bill Cottrell and Otto Englander. Among these were:

- The Camel Camellie, a story about a camel that wants to make the desert bloom but his attempts are constantly thwarted by the Sandman.

- Hootsie the Owl, a story about an owl who is hypnotized by a snake and forced to steal owl eggs to feed the snake.

- Inspector Bones, a story about a dog detective who investigates the mysterious disappearance of a missing flea circus.
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Sotiris
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Post by Sotiris »

An amazing article! A must-read for every animation enthusiast.
jpanimation wrote:This movie went through a crazy amount of title changes before settling on A Few Good Ghosts. I like My Peoples the most
I prefer "Once in a Blue Moon".
jpanimation wrote:The last demo reel in the article features final animation from the film. The 2D and 3D meshes much better then I ever thought it would
It looked really great especially considering the time it was produced. It would have looked even more incredible if it was produced now.
For us, it came down basically to Mark Dindal’s Chicken Little or My Peoples. One was going to get made, but not both


I can't believe the gave us "Chicken Little" instead of "My Peoples" :x
Gnome Story told of a garden gnome, tired of being stuck in the dirt, and his quest to woo a female figurine, eager to break free from her sheltered life in a china cabinet. Scheduled for a 2006 release, Gnome Story – soon retitled Gnomeo & Juliet – would feature computer animated characters interacting in a live-action world.
I never heard about this before. I wonder if "Gnomeo & Juliet" would have worked better as a CG/live-action hybrid.
Already, preliminary work had begun on the traditionally animated "Selkies", in which a fairy learns to love a lord after he steals the enchanted seal skin she uses to disguise herself from humans.
This sound very promising! Of course, the seal skin would have to be substituted with something else for environmental reasons.
DisneyAnimation88 wrote:I came across a book last week that detailed the history of the Walt Disney Company up until the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in the 1980's.
Do you recall the name of the book?
DisneyAnimation88 wrote:- An adaptation of Don Marquis' newspaper column series Archy and Mehitabel, a satirical social commentary told through the adventures of a journalistic cockroach Archy and his best friend, an alley cat called Mehitabel.

- The Camel Camellie, a story about a camel that wants to make the desert bloom but his attempts are constantly thwarted by the Sandman.

- Hootsie the Owl, a story about an owl who is hypnotized by a snake and forced to steal owl eggs to feed the snake.

- Inspector Bones, a story about a dog detective who investigates the mysterious disappearance of a missing flea circus.
Were these supposed to be features or shorts? 'Cause they sound ridiculous.
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Semaj
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Post by Semaj »

DisneyAnimation88 wrote:I came across a book last week that detailed the history of the Walt Disney Company up until the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in the 1980's.
I seem to recall a few interesting details from that book. "The Emperor's New Clothes" segment was intended for a Fantasia follow-up called "Musicana" proposed in the early 1980's.

Probably the best material includes sketches for a proposed "Chanticleer" film. It was rejected by Disney for the last time in 1961 in favor of The Sword and the Stone, but would re-emerge as Don Bluth's "Rock-a-Doodle" years later. :P
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Post by Wonderlicious »

DisneyAnimation88 wrote:I came across a book last week that detailed the history of the Walt Disney Company up until the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in the 1980's. It listed some animated films that Disney had planned to make after the Second World War that I haven't seen mentioned in the thread when I've looked back over it.

<snip>

- Adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes and The Little Fir Tree.
As far as I'm aware, a lot of Andersen stories were put into development during the late 30s/early 40s, mainly as potential material for the planned live-action/animation Hans Christian Andersen biopic. With "The Emperor's New Clothes", though, an earlier Silly Symphony was planned. In addition to that, there were plans for a short or featurette similar in tone to "Brave Little Tailor" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk", which would have placed Mickey, Donald and Goofy as the royal tailors.
DisneyAnimation88 wrote:- An adaptation of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Interesting that they mentioned that one. There are some nice TV specials from the 90s that faithfully adapt the style of Potter's illustrations. I always imagined another good outlet for Potter's stories would be an animated/live-action biopic; I suppose that Miss Potter did kind of fill that quota. I can't imagine any American version for that matter, sticking closely to Potter's illustrations, which is obviously where a lot of the charm lies. In any case, here's what Wade Sampson (aka Jim Korkis) found:
Wade Sampson (aka Jim Korkis) wrote:Beatrix Potter was well known for her delightful and popular children's books, especially her first The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

In 1936, Walt wanted to animate her characters, but Potter was reluctant and wrote to a friend: "There is a scheme to film Peter Rabbit. I am not very hopeful about the result. They propose to use cartoons; it seems that a succession of figures can be joggled together to give an impression of motion. I don't think the pictures would be satisfactory without the landscape backgrounds, and I doubt if the backgrounds would be satisfactory on a larger scale and without colour. I think children with masks, acting the stories against a natural background would give more satisfaction."
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9152/More_Fo ... ey_History
Sotiris wrote:
DisneyAnimation88 wrote:- An adaptation of Don Marquis' newspaper column series Archy and Mehitabel, a satirical social commentary told through the adventures of a journalistic cockroach Archy and his best friend, an alley cat called Mehitabel.

- The Camel Camellie, a story about a camel that wants to make the desert bloom but his attempts are constantly thwarted by the Sandman.

- Hootsie the Owl, a story about an owl who is hypnotized by a snake and forced to steal owl eggs to feed the snake.

- Inspector Bones, a story about a dog detective who investigates the mysterious disappearance of a missing flea circus.
Were these supposed to be features or shorts? 'Cause they sound ridiculous.
I have the book The Disney That Never Was by Charles Solomon, and both "Hootsie" and "Inspector Bones" are mentioned in some significant detail (I don't think that "Archie and Mehitabel" and "Camel Camille" are listed, though). As far as I'm aware, Inspector Bones was supposed to be a feature, though Solomon notes that it seems like it would have relied a bit too much on gags for a feature (especially compared to the other animated films that were being made in the early 40s at Disney). What was strangely coincidental was that The Great Mouse Detective ended up sharing a lot of common features with "Inspector Bones", even though nobody working on the production knew it existed. What was different, though, was that "Inspector Bones" was supposed to have been set in a weird parallel universe inhabited completely by humanoid dogs (think something along the lines of a Victorian Robin Hood).

I think that "Hootsie" was supposed to be a short or perhaps a featurette. In any case, some of the pre-production artwork made for it is truly charming.
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Post by DisneyAnimation88 »

Sotiris wrote:I can't believe the gave us "Chicken Little" instead of "My Peoples" Mad
I will never forgive Michael Eisner and David Stainton for this amazingly bad decision :lol: . It is their and other executives' supposed 'creative input' that turned Chicken Little into the mess that it became and deviated from Mark Dindal's original ideas for the film.
Sotiris wrote:Do you recall the name of the book?
Yes, it's The Disney Studio Story and it's written by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley.
Were these supposed to be features or shorts? 'Cause they sound ridiculous.
The book says that they were planned as features but some of them do sound like they would work better as a Silly Symphony or a short subject. The same passage talks about Disney's plan to produce Destino as a full-length feature with Salvador Dali and mentions that the two talked about collaborating on Don Quixote.
Semaj wrote:I seem to recall a few interesting details from that book. "The Emperor's New Clothes" segment was intended for a Fantasia follow-up called "Musicana" proposed in the early 1980's.
The book does talk a little about a follow-up to Fantasia. It mentions that there was development of segments involving Ravel's 'Bolero', Saint-Saens' 'Carnival of the Animals' and Wagner's 'Ring' which would have apparently starred Grumpy and Dopey.
Wonderlicious wrote:With "The Emperor's New Clothes", though, an earlier Silly Symphony was planned.
I'd read about The Emperor's New Clothes but I couldn't remember seeing anything about The Little Fir Tree before.
Wonderlicious wrote:Interesting that they mentioned that one. There are some nice TV specials from the 90s that faithfully adapt the style of Potter's illustrations. I always imagined another good outlet for Potter's stories would be an animated/live-action biopic; I suppose that Miss Potter did kind of fill that quota. I can't imagine any American version for that matter, sticking closely to Potter's illustrations, which is obviously where a lot of the charm lies.
The book mentions that at that time in the late 1930's/early 1940's, Walt was of the opinion that classic English literature was an ideal source for potential animated features which is why he was determined to make Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan while Roy was doubtful whether those films would have enough earning potential. When those films were released though, they were pretty much slaughtered by British film critics who felt that Disney had ruined the source material so that might have led Walt to abandon some of his ideas for future features based on similar classic, beloved novels.
Wonderlicious wrote:I have the book The Disney That Never Was by Charles Solomon, and both "Hootsie" and "Inspector Bones" are mentioned in some significant detail (I don't think that "Archie and Mehitabel" and "Camel Camille" are listed, though). As far as I'm aware, Inspector Bones was supposed to be a feature, though Solomon notes that it seems like it would have relied a bit too much on gags for a feature (especially compared to the other animated films that were being made in the early 40s at Disney). What was strangely coincidental was that The Great Mouse Detective ended up sharing a lot of common features with "Inspector Bones", even though nobody working on the production knew it existed. What was different, though, was that "Inspector Bones" was supposed to have been set in a weird parallel universe inhabited completely by humanoid dogs (think something along the lines of a Victorian Robin Hood).
You're lucky, I've been trying to track down a copy of that book for a while but now that it's out of print, it's price has rocketed and I can't really afford to pay into the hundreds for a book. Solomon's 'Disney Lost and Found' is a great book but it only really focuses on Wild Life and My Peoples.

The concepts for those films do sound strange and are a complete contrast to the features that Disney would eventually release in the 1950's and 1960's. Inspector Bones does sound like an interesting concept but I'm not sure how Hootsie the Owl would have turned out; the book lists it as a planned feature but the concept does seem one that would be difficult to stretch to feature-length. I can't find anything on the internet to do with The Camel Camellia so it can't be a film that got very far into development. Makes me wish I could spend a few days wondering around Disney's Animation Research Library, it would be amazing to investigate some of the abandoned concepts and artwork stored there.
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jpanimation
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Post by jpanimation »

Super Aurora wrote:AHAHAHAHAHHAHA OH WOW.

Seems like he's a Paul Pressler(Disney theme park CEO/Disney merchandise marketer CEO) level douchebag.
http://davidstainton.com/bio.html

This mans greatest accomplishments are destroying hand-drawn animation, shutting down the profitable Florida studio (or as he puts it, "he cut overhead, production costs, and operating losses in half") and doubling up the DTVs. He used to outright say right on this page that Chicken Little is what he's most proud of but I see he's taken it down since I last linked to it. What a wiener
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