Xixax Film Forum

:cry:

Where the hell is this world heading? :( (http://www.mouseplanet.com/david/dk030814.htm)

QuoteIt all points to Disney's next two animated features (this fall's Brother Bear and next spring's Home on the Range) being their last.

I know their last few "efforts" have been nothing short of crap, but come on? Totally abandon 2D?? Morons. It's all in the STORY! You can shove those show-off exploding pixels right up your arse if you haven't got a decent script.

So, after Eisner decided it was wise to start re-making classics in 3D, he's now cutting off all bonds to the past? Fuck him, I'm watching Snow White.  :x

Bullshit is all I have to say to that.

I hope Pixar are laughing at them.

Just reading some of the remaining animators resumes makes this even more tragic.

I think that's great news. If only Pixar would follow suit. I can't stand kids cartoons.

Burn in hell, Disney.

I've never been a fan.

More to the point: burn in hell, Eisner.

Yea, I spent a ton more time with the Ghostbusters, the Ninja Turtles, Beetlejuice, and Bill & Ted as a kid then I ever did with any of the disney movies, I don't care that much. I guess a couple of the old movies have a small place in my memory but they don't compare to all the aformentioned non-disney stuff....I don't care at all. I wouldn't ever introduce my kids to any movie akin to their recent shit anyway.

I dont necessarily find it disturbing to me that disney is going away from
2-d, because if you notice that a bigger disney problem is that none of their last few movies had any music numbers. If you look at tarzan it only had music by phil collins not a character being voiced by him to get a kid to brush his teeth or something. Because music was at one time a big money maker for disney it now has to be replaced by ticket sales which their 3-d films seem to make. Its just that everyone today is acting a little older at heart, and want to have animation incorperating adult humor, much like how pixar takes a look at its plots.

I hear they made a great short written by salvador dali and walt himself. I heard it's fucking awesome buut I don't know if it's 3d

I guess Disney is still holding onto their final ace. They STILL haven't released Aladdin on DVD. Once they do that, it's over for them.

They have a handful of 2D movies in development, including a Don Quixote project (hey, I wonder if they'll avoid the curse), so there'll probably still be 2D stuff from them for a handful years to come.

But man, does Brother Bear look like the worst Disney film ever or what.

Quote from: Winston WolfI dont necessarily find it disturbing to me that disney is going away from
2-d, because if you notice that a bigger disney problem is that none of their last few movies had any music numbers. If you look at tarzan it only had music by phil collins not a character being voiced by him to get a kid to brush his teeth or something. Because music was at one time a big money maker for disney it now has to be replaced by ticket sales which their 3-d films seem to make. Its just that everyone today is acting a little older at heart, and want to have animation incorperating adult humor, much like how pixar takes a look at its plots.

well, the high point of the most recent era of disney was definitely the late 80s/early 90s.  where they had the incredible streak of The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty And The Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994).  which all had the proven formula of love story, wacky sidekicks, and musical numbers.  however,  in keeping with this formula with their next few efforts, the bland Pocahantas, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan, were far less successfull than their predecesors.  so the formula was atleast temporarily abandoned for their next few movies Hercules, Tarzan, Emperors New Groove, Atlantis, Lilo And Stitch,  and Treasure Planet.  unfortunately,  with the exception of Lilo And Stitch none of these were the wild successes that disney had hoped for.  so it wasnt the publics tiring of musicals as they had thought.  because they dont want more adult stories either.   i thought the Emperors New Groove and Lilo And Stitch were as good as any of Disneys older classics.   so now with Brother Bear is an attempt to return to the glory of The Lion King, by basically doing a movie that is supposed to resemble it.  for a much younger crowd than Atlantis (PG!).

Quote from: mutinycoI think that's great news. If only Pixar would follow suit. I can't stand kids cartoons.

perhaps you would prefer them if they were subtitled?

Oh man did atlantis bite the swollen one, also what the hell is up with all the 2-d crap animation straight to video movies disney keeps churnin out like grandmas brownies?

Quote from: ebeamanYea, I spent a ton more time with the Ghostbusters, the Ninja Turtles, Beetlejuice, and Bill & Ted as a kid then I ever did with any of the disney movies, I don't care that much. I guess a couple of the old movies have a small place in my memory but they don't compare to all the aformentioned non-disney stuff....I don't care at all. I wouldn't ever introduce my kids to any movie akin to their recent shit anyway.

Same here.  I was into Ninja Turtles, Beetlejice, Bill & Ted (aah, the CBS cartoon brings back memories).  I wasn't that into Ghostbusters, though.  I also liked Batman, Tom and Jerry (the good years) and the old WB cartoons.  The only Disney films I watched a lot as a kid were Aladdin and Homeward Bound.

Quote from: GhostboyBut man, does Brother Bear look like the worst Disney film ever or what.

It definitely looks bad, but it has to compete with Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jungle Book 2, and the Winnie The Pooh films for the title of Worst Disney Film Ever.  I saw the trailer with a friend before Finding Nemo and we rolled our eyes when the Phil Collins came on.  When will Disney learn that bear movies don't work?

Wasn't The Emperor's New Groove rather cheap to produce?  It must have made some money, or they would not have released that 2-disc DVD set.  It was a very funny movie.  Anything with Patrick Warburton usually is.

the abandoning of 2d animation is like the abandoning of film to digital, hasn't happened it, but lucas is forcing it down our throats. it's how pt anderson put it from the change in the porn industry, with boogie nights, with the change from 16mm to vhs. takes the joy and spirit out of the word film

Quote from: Ravi

It definitely looks bad, but it has to compete with Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jungle Book 2, and the Winnie The Pooh films for the title of Worst Disney Film Ever.  I saw the trailer with a friend before Finding Nemo and we rolled our eyes when the Phil Collins came on.  When will Disney learn that bear movies don't work?

Wasn't The Emperor's New Groove rather cheap to produce?  It must have made some money, or they would not have released that 2-disc DVD set.  It was a very funny movie.  Anything with Patrick Warburton usually is.

I assume you're not knocking the original Winnie The Pooh -- that rocks. I also thought Hunchback was okay. But man, those sequels they've been coming up with...those are all just pathetic.

I think Emperor's New Groove might have actually been pretty expensive, because it changed so much during production. It was originally called Kingdom Of The Sun and was more dramatic, less comedic. It did a complete 180 several times before it was released.

Home on the Range: What's expected to be Disney's final animated feature film (at least for the immediate future) hits cinemas next Spring and is a throwback to both an older style design and a more quirky over the top comic tone last used in the likes of "The Emperor's New Groove". Its an unlikely swan song for the biggest player in the beleaguered genre of traditional animation but it'll hopefully be a fun last ride. A first glimpse of it can be found exclusively on the upcoming DVD release of "Finding Nemo" and Animated Movies has posted some nice screen caps from said trailer.

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i loved Emperors New Groove, so if this is in that vein, i'm excited.  its such a shame that this is their last traditionally animated movie (for now).  it has to be better than Dinosaur.

they look like the fairies from sleeping beauty, kinda.

saw a bunch of 30 sec trailers for Home On The Range yesterday.  the animation style seems really cool and vintage.  however "Roseanne Barr" (as the surveys listed) being the lead voice is more than a little worrisome.  the movie comes out APRIL 2nd.  which also shows that disney the mighty beheamoth has clearly taken a fall.  november and april are not exactly the big movie seasons.  but after a string of flops i guess they arent willing to take any chances with summer.

interesting article about the future of 2D animation...

The future of 2D Animation? Apparently not Disney or Dreamworks... then where?
Source: AICN

Hey folks, Harry here... I've had a lot of folks asking me to comment on this whole Roy Disney & Stanley Gold exodus from Eisner's Mouse of Ill Repute, and frankly... it's sad. I look in Roy's face and I see the entire history of DISNEY behind his eyes. I look into Eisner's face and I see the face of a man that seems to not represent those same ideals. DISNEY wasn't meant to be an evil corporation. It has just been drawn that way by current management.
One can only imagine the disgust that Roy must feel as he has seen Disney's animation division laid waste by micro-management, gestapo-esque security measures, test marketing of every minutae and the cut backs that force the very heart and soul of what made DISNEY such a great company... those folks that draw love & soul at 24 frames per second. The Ink & Paint departments. And what's the next Animated Classic to carry Disney's name? TEACHER'S PET! Joy.
Personally, right now I'm hoping that PIXAR just walks away... the same way that Roy and Stanley just walked away. Sometimes if you love something, you have to let it crash and burn on it's own accord, but then return to it when it's ready to be reborn, not based on spreadsheets, but based on ideas, soul and innovation. The very things that made the Disney Animation and the Disney Company so wonderful, for so many years.
Ok, sorry about the soap box... I know, you're curious about the headline... The Future of 2D Animated Film? Well, the odd thing is... the future for this seemingly "dying" form is nestled firmly in the alleged stake that has been so publicly thrust through its chest... PIXAR.
The word is that PIXAR is starting their own 2D Animation Division. A company that will use the PIXAR brand... that name which stands for supreme excellence, innovation and soul in animation today... and putting it behind the form that everyone there loves. 2D Animation.
The first film? Well, Brad Bird, who is wrapping up work on THE INCREDIBLES for Pixar is apparently going to be the goto guy on this to kick it all off. RAY GUNN!!! What is RAY GUNN? Here's what Moriarty gleamed from Brad Bird - 5 Years Ago!

MORIARTY What can you tell me about RAY GUNN, and is there any chance we'll ever see it?

BRAD Well, uh, I hope so. I think it could be a really great film. Essentially, for a long time I've believed that there is an audience for animation that Hollywood has been very slow in recognizing is there. The success of SIMPSONS and KING OF THE HILL say that there is an older audience for animation, but Hollywood tends to be very myopic, and it's change is slow. You can make the arguments for more distinctive, more adult animated projects on TV now, but you've still got all these preconceived notions to overcome trying to get it to features. IRON GIANT basically represents a halfway step for me between what Hollywood can understand about feature length character animation and where I think animation can go. It has enough of the stuff that Hollywood traditionally recognizes as being in a children's film, but hopefully we've been able to kind of squeeze some adult stuff in there in a way that doesn't put kids off. There was so much misinformation about RAY GUNN...

MORIARTY It was one of those projects that I kept hearing the name of over the years, so it's sort of taken on a life of its own if you know the animation community.

BRAD Well, it's two things that are hard to sell in Hollywood. Part of it is sort of film noir, even though to me it's only that in the surface details. Really, it's more of an action movie, and it had a substantial amount of comedy in it. I see it as being very mainstream, but Hollywood saw it as being almost experimental, like, "Whoa, what the heck is this?" In animation, you're always fighting against, "Well, that might upset a 5-year-old." My feeling is, "Well, then, the 5-year-old shouldn't go. Come on, can't we make some other things?" RAY GUNN was not it was PG, you know? Maybe PG-13.

This has been one of Brad's Passion Projects for quite some time and now... At the company that is most held responsible for the pronounced "DEATH OF TRADITIONAL ANIMATION" it is looking like it is getting a new lease on life... Odd, given 5 years ago, Steve Jobs apparently told Brad that 2D animation was "basically going the way of the Buggy Whip." Well, things change... PIXAR to me has always been about story, ideas and soul. If RAY GUNN has that, it's gold whether it is rendered, drawn or acted out with sock puppets. DISNEY may not have the spirit, heart or vision to see that, but thankfully everything that was once best about Disney pulses a healthy beat in the chests of everyone at PIXAR! Thanks goes out to "Kirby" for the heads up!

trailer for (final?) 2D disney animated movie....

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/homeontherange/

Good News for traditional animation....

Ex Disney Animators Form Own Studio in Florida
Source: imdb

A number of animators fired by Disney when it closed its Florida animation studios last year have formed their own company, Legacy Animation Studios, and announced Thursday that they plan to set up shop in Winter Garden, Florida later this month. "We believe that traditionally animated films are still a viable form of entertainment," Legacy's directing manager, Eddie Pittman, said in a statement. "Our goal is to create quality animated films with compelling stories and strong characters and to continue Walt Disney's legacy of hand drawn animation."

That sounds great.

Down with Eisner!

In an episode of Family Guy called "Brian Goes to Holywood"  , Brian decides to go to Holywood in search of a carrer as a filmmaker and in the meantime ,he works at a carwash. He gets to clean Eisner's car and offers him his  script .  Eisner  asks "What's your name?"  and Brian answers "Brian", then Eisner looks for a Mickey Mouse hat in his  pocket that has the name Brian and gives it to him.    Eisner gets in his car and says "See you at Disneyland! BRING MONEY!"

Quote from: themodernage02Good News for traditional animation....

Ex Disney Animators Form Own Studio in Florida
Source: imdb

A number of animators fired by Disney when it closed its Florida animation studios last year have formed their own company, Legacy Animation Studios, and announced Thursday that they plan to set up shop in Winter Garden, Florida later this month. "We believe that traditionally animated films are still a viable form of entertainment," Legacy's directing manager, Eddie Pittman, said in a statement. "Our goal is to create quality animated films with compelling stories and strong characters and to continue Walt Disney's legacy of hand drawn animation."

Yes!

Disney Set to Close Animation Studio Monday
Source: Reuters

Disney is expected to close its feature-animation studio in Orlando, Florida, on Monday, jeopardizing the jobs of nearly 260 animators. Some artists will be transferred to Burbank, California, where Disney's corporate headquarters is located, but most of the employees, whose credits include the films Brother Bear and Lilo & Stitch, are expected to lose their jobs.

Disney was a pioneer in hand-drawn animation, producing classic movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Fantasia. In recent years, however, computer-generated animation has become increasingly popular as evidenced by movies like 2003's Finding Nemo, made by Pixar Animation Studios.

Quote from: Find Your MacGuffaliDisney Set to Close Animation Studio Monday
Source: Reuters

Disney is expected to close its feature-animation studio in Orlando, Florida, on Monday, jeopardizing the jobs of nearly 260 animators. Some artists will be transferred to Burbank, California, where Disney's corporate headquarters is located, but most of the employees, whose credits include the films Brother Bear and Lilo & Stitch, are expected to lose their jobs.

Disney was a pioneer in hand-drawn animation, producing classic movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Fantasia. In recent years, however, computer-generated animation has become increasingly popular as evidenced by movies like 2003's Finding Nemo, made by Pixar Animation Studios.

No!

Some things are just told better in 2D. Can you imagine the Simpsons being shown in 3D?

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Yeah, I knew someone would come up with that, but my point remains.

Quote from: DerekYeah, I knew someone would come up with that, but my point remains.

I knew too, and someone had to do it.

imagine this, if pixar did one episode of the simpons then? think about it...

Nemo would have three eyes, that's for sure.

Note to Disney:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0245429/

'nuff said.

Quote from: Withnail:cry:

Where the hell is this world heading? :( (http://www.mouseplanet.com/david/dk030814.htm)

QuoteIt all points to Disney's next two animated features (this fall's Brother Bear and next spring's Home on the Range) being their last.

I know their last few "efforts" have been nothing short of crap, but come on? Totally abandon 2D?? Morons. It's all in the STORY! You can shove those show-off exploding pixels right up your arse if you haven't got a decent script.

So, after Eisner decided it was wise to start re-making classics in 3D, he's now cutting off all bonds to the past? Fuck him, I'm watching Snow White.  :x

well it was John Lasseter from Pixar, who pretty much spearheaded getting them to distribute that in America and supervised all the dubbing and such.

Was is Lasseter's idea to dub it in the first place?

I mean, how much was he collaborating with Disney, because he wants to split from them too, right?

not sure, macguffin might have to help me out on the details but i thought he pretty much convinced them to distribute the film here in the US.

my childhood died with the "Star Wars" Special edition butchering.  but then again it was reborn when i finally saw "The Goonies" 2.35:1 on dvd, it was like a whole new experience.

-sl-

Walt Disney to Study Comcast Merger Offer  

NEW YORK - In a stunning move, cable TV giant Comcast Corp. proposed Wednesday to buy Walt Disney Co. for stock valued at about $54 billion. The Disney board said it would study the offer, which would create the world's largest communications company.

Comcast, the nation's biggest cable systems operator, said Disney chief Michael Eisner had rebuffed its request to talk earlier this week.

Comcast's proposal was made as Eisner is fending off criticism from former board members Roy E. Disney, nephew of founder Walt Disney, and Stanley E. Gold about his performance and lack of a succession plan as Disney's chief executive. Michael Citrick, spokesman for Disney and Gold, declined to comment on Comcast's proposal.

"This is a very exciting moment," Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts said in a conference call with investors and analysts. Roberts said the combination "would create one of the world's premier entertainment and communications companies, and, we believe, restore the Disney brand to prominence and the company to growth."

"The ball's in Disney's court," Roberts said.

Disney's board of directors released a statement later Wednesday saying it had received Comcast's offer and would "carefully evaluate" it. "In the meantime, there is no action for shareholders to take," the directors said.

Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, and Comcast, whose businesses include the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team, together had $45 billion in revenues last year. Time Warner Inc.'s $39.6 billion in revenues last year made it the world's largest media and communications company.

In a news conference in New York, Roberts said he hoped to make the deal "as friendly and amicable as possible, as fast as possible," but he also noted that he was ready to abandon the proposed merger if need be. "We've walked away from big things before. Life goes on," Roberts said.

Paul Kim, senior media analyst at Tradition Asiel Securities, said that while Roberts' bid for Disney was not surprising, the timing was.

"It's going for the jugular," he said. "He is using this vulnerable time to force Disney's hand."

Kim also said Comcast is basically a cable company, and might be biting off more than it can chew. "I think they underestimate the complexity of being a broad-based media company," he said.

Comcast released a letter sent to Eisner indicating that Eisner had personally rejected Roberts' offer to enter into merger discussions earlier in the week. Roberts' letter called Eisner's refusal "unfortunate."

"Given this, the only way for us to proceed is to make a public proposal directly to you and your board," the letter stated.

On Comcast's conference call, Steve Burke, head of the company's cable division, told investors that Comcast believed it could greatly improve the performance of several of Disney's key businesses, including ABC, the ABC Family channel, animation and theme parks.

"We think job one is restoring the company to its previous levels of profitability," said Burke, who had worked at Disney for 12 years.

Under the merger, Comcast said it would issue 0.78 of a share of its Class A stock for each Disney share, and Disney shareholders would retain 42 percent of the combined company.

The deal values each Disney share at $26.49, a 10 percent premium over their closing price Tuesday.

In a sign that investors expect a nasty fight, Disney's shares shot up $3.36, or 14 percent, to $27.44 in heavy midmorning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, well above Comcast's current offer. Comcast's Class A shares tumbled $3.14, or 9 percent, to $30.79 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Philadelphia-based Comcast merged with AT&T Broadband in November 2002, making it the nation's largest cable TV company with 21 million subscribers. The company noted that merger in its sales pitch Wednesday.

"Our management team has a proven track record of successful integration of our merger partners," Roberts said.

Comcast also has extensive holdings in media content providers, with majority stakes in Comcast-Spectacor, the owner of the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers; Comcast SportsNet; E! Entertainment Television; the Style Network; Golf Channel; Outdoor Life Network; and G4.

Separately, Comcast reported Wednesday that it swung to a profit of $383 million, or 17 cents per share, for the quarter ending Dec. 31 thanks to continued strong demand for its digital cable and high-speed Internet services. Revenues jumped 58 percent to $4.74 billion.

Last year, Roy Disney, the last Disney family member active in the company that his father and uncle founded in the 1920s, and Gold had called on Eisner to resign, saying he was to blame for a tumbling stock price, embarrassing management missteps and a focus on short-term profits over the company's core mission.

But others credit Eisner with turning a sleepy theme park company and also-ran movie studio into a major media conglomerate.

Comcast not on Eisner's agenda

ORLANDO -- On the morning after what had to be one of the more trying days of his career, embattled Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Michael Eisner greeted financial analysts, colleagues and the media at his company's investor conference here with a brave face.

But discussion of Wednesday's unsolicited $66 billion bid by the Comcast Corp. for Disney was clearly not on his agenda.

"What are you gonna say today?" a reporter called out as Eisner made his way into the Fantasia Ballroom at the Contemporary hotel just outside the Magic Kingdom.

"I don't know," Eisner said. "I haven't written it yet."

If Eisner was making any last-minute alterations to the company message for Wall Street decision-makers during this two-day conference, it wasn't obvious. Although the timing of Comcast's announcement of its takeover bid was clearly designed to overwhelm the executives and analysts gathering here, the presentations from Eisner and other top Disney/ABC brass were business as usual.

During a quick, informal chat with reporters after the conference, Eisner said his mood was good and outlook positive but added that he could not discuss the Comcast bid.

"I can't talk about the process except to say, we will be meeting to completely analyze what has been offered to us, and we will respond."

During the presentations, Eisner and other division heads touted the company's future plans for feature films, ABC, ESPN and other cable outlets, syndicated radio shows, local broadcast stations, new technology, theme parks, retail operations, new consumer products and the Internet -- playing up the good, spinning the bad and generally ignoring the elephant in the room.

"I've been doing this 13 years, and I've never seen anything like it," Sanford Bernstein analyst Tom Wolzien said. "Yesterday was like a political campaign, and Eisner was running for re-election. This is his 're-elect me' speech."

The message from Disney was consistent throughout: The company's 19% earnings rise for its fiscal first quarter is just the beginning of a new age. Disney will continue to do more with less, cutting capital investments to concentrate on cross-promotion, repurposing of material and continuing brand extensions in ways that other less-diverse companies cannot.

Saying this was "an opportunity to shed bad habits," ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne laid out ABC's continuing turnaround plans citing such upcoming series as "Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital," "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and the return of Regis Philbin to primetime later this month with an updated "Super Millionaire" version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Earlier in the day Jay Rasulo, president of Disney Parks and Resorts, touted new attractions like Mission Space, which he said is driving traffic not just into Epcot, but into all the parks. He also said the "lead up" to the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, will "be one of the greatest marketing opportunities of all time."

During a keynote luncheon address, former Sen. George Mitchell, presiding director of Disney's board, urged analysts to "examine the facts and evaluate the reality, as opposed to the perception."

While some observers have been blunt about Eisner's future -- "He's gone," analyst David Faber declared on CNBC -- opinion here among the 125 invited financiers and small media group appeared split, though just about everyone agreed that Disney is worth far more than the price Comcast has offered.

"It's not all that obvious that this is going to be that quick or that simple," Hal Vogel of Vogel Capital Management said, adding that he sensed little anxiety among the execs. "It's a business-as-usual mood."

"Disney has responded well," said Jack Liebau of Liebau Asset Management Co. in Pasadena, Calif. "The reality is Disney could well survive as an independent company with its management intact."

To do so, Eisner will have to convince shareholders that the decision to not strike a new distribution deal with computer animation pioneers at Pixar was the right one.

"We passed on a deal that would not have been in the best interest of our shareholders," Eisner said during his brief remarks at day's end. "You'd be killing me today if you read the deal that we even offered them."

Eisner stressed that animation in all forms will remain a priority at Disney and that it will be stories, not technology, that drive the form. "Nobody goes to a Cinemascope movie or a Panavision movie," he said of live-action technology.

"Look, there was Walt Disney, and Walt Disney passed away, and we were still able to do animation without Walt Disney."

The tightly controlled event featured boat rides, park tours, fireworks displays and gourmet meals for the analysts. A phalanx of Disney public relations executives and security employees manned all corners of the ballroom, keeping the company executives mostly out of the line of fire and away from the media.

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A real coup for anti-Eisners:

http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/03/news/companies/disney/index.htm

'Range' animation might be put out to pasture
Los Angeles Daily News

If indeed Home on the Range is the last traditionally animated feature we're going to see from Disney in a while, then you can say the form is going out with a laugh and not a whimper. A high-spirited romp about three cows, a horse and assorted other critters looking to capture an ornery cattle rustler, the movie is notable for what it omits. There are no dead parents to grieve, no characters desperately looking to find their place in the world, no Important Life Lessons to be learned.

"We've made a big cartoon," says John Sanford, who co-directed the film with Will Finn. "And we don't apologize for it."

Trends in animation are cyclical and tend to peter out after about a decade. Obviously, the big thing right now is computer-generated 3-D animation, the art form honed by Pixar (Finding Nemo, Toy Story), Blue Sky (Ice Age) and Pacific Data Images (the Shrek movies). Outside of the sci-fi misfire Final Fantasy, which was aimed at fan boys, not families, there hasn't been a 3-D dud. Or as Finn puts it: "You don't have the Ed Wood of 3-D yet."

Conversely, after peaking with The Lion King, hand-drawn animated epics began to fall out of favor with audiences. Disney still had hits -- Pocahontas, Hercules, Mulan and The Hunchback of Notre Dame -- while other studios tried to emulate the formula (Anastasia and Titan A.E. for Fox, Quest for Camelot for Warner Bros.) without the success.

"Those were the years where the 'animated feature' was created," Sanford says. "You wouldn't hear the word 'cartoon' except in the pejorative sense. Everyone was trying to be serious and important. It was an interesting experiment, but people kept wondering, 'Where is the cartoon?' "

Adds Finn: "The Lion King changed everything. Don't get me wrong. It's a great movie and has a lot of cartoony stuff. But it also has a big important theme and an epic feel. And after its success, everybody said, 'That's what animation is: big, important lessons.' "

And don't forget the songs. Tossing out the 1990 sequel The Rescuers Down Under, Disney made eight consecutive animated musicals starting with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and running through Mulan in 1998. It was a phenomenal decade-long run, but by its end, studio executives noted the diminishing returns and figured the genre had run its course.

Composer Alan Menken, who racked up eight Oscars for his work on several of those musicals, thinks it might have been a hasty decision, based on the returns of the films that followed.

"The Little Mermaid certainly put the animated musical back on the map, and it remained pretty strong all the way through Hercules," Menken says. "But there was some feeling that audiences were tired of seeing it. People thought they were becoming predictable. I don't think so. Each movie was enormously different. But they decided to go off in a different direction."

And now after outright failures (Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet), middling successes (Brother Bear, Lilo & Stitch) and huge layoffs in its animated division, Disney is charting yet another new course. The studio has no traditionally drawn animated features currently in development, aside from a long-planned segmented sequel, Fantasia 2006. Disney's next major projects include the computer-generated comedy Chicken Little (2005) and an adaptation of William Joyce's comic fantasy-adventure A Day With Wilbur Robinson (2006).

Even famed animator Glen Keane has put aside pencil and paper to work on a CG version of the Rapunzel fairy tale, Rapunzel Upbraided, due in 2007.

If Disney's current direction makes Home on the Range feel like something from the antiquated past, that may be a good reason to celebrate and appreciate the charms of Finn and Sanford's "cartoon." It may not change your life, and the morals are sweet and understated. But as Sanford puts it, "I got tired of animated movies teaching me lessons a long time ago."

The movie, which began life five years ago under the title Sweatin' Bullets, has gone through a number of changes over the years after settling on its initial story line of having the cows be the heroes instead of the cowboys. In fact, Menken, working with a new lyricist, Glenn Slater, wrote the first of the film's six original songs back in 1999. Singer k.d. lang recorded Patch of Heaven, a sunny Western swing tune that you could imagine Gene Autry singing, before Finn and Sanford came on board as directors.

Other songs -- the manic Yodel-Adle-Eedle-Idle-Oo, which incorporates the William Tell Overture, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the 1812 Overture in a yodeling break, and the plaintive Bonnie Raitt number Will the Sun Ever Shine Again -- were added after the story shifted in direction numerous times.

"It was an unorthodox process," says Menken, who has won Oscars for his score and songs from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas. "But that's always the case with original stories. They're the toughest. But I'm really happy with the outcome."

Says Home on the Range producer Alice Dewey Goldstone: "Alan was a little nervous when we made the title change to Home on the Range. He said, 'I think there's already a song with that title.' His genius, though, is to come up with something that will have kids today thinking that his song is THE Home on the Range."

Menken, 54, calls Home on the Range a "musical hybrid" in that it features musical numbers sung by the movie's characters as well as songs that are used to comment on what's happening on screen.

"Break-into-song moments are problematic these days -- not for me, of course, but for people running things," Menken says. "The trend is to have the songs underneath the action, like in the Pixar movies, or what Phil Collins did with Tarzan and Brother Bear. I love those films, but what I write is musicals, and I hope that we get back to doing musicals someday. But Home on the Range used enough of my musical-theater chops to keep me happy."

Given how the studio is using Menken's name and songs to market the film, it might surprise audiences to know that he hasn't worked on a Disney feature since Hercules in 1997. And while there are a number of projects sitting in various levels of development, Menken has no current assignment from the studio.

"I hope things change," Menken says, adding quickly with a laugh, "and you know what? They always do."

So basically, Disney is setting out to make the Ed Wood Plan 9 From Outer Space or rather Heaven's Gate of 3-D animation.  Bully for them!

Iger Said to Be Eisner's Choice at Disney

Michael Eisner has told Walt Disney Co. directors that company president Robert Iger is his "preferred choice" to succeed him as chief executive of the media giant, according to a newspaper report published Sunday.

Eisner told board members Iger "would be an excellent guardian of the Disney assets," he said in an interview last week with the Los Angeles Times. "There's nobody," Eisner said, "who has a better education and training to do that job."

The question of who would succeed Eisner has grown more critical during an ongoing campaign against his leadership by former directors Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold. At the company's annual meeting in March, shareholders withheld 45 percent of their votes for Eisner.

But despite the infighting, which stripped Eisner of his chairman title, it's unclear when he would leave the company. Eisner's contract expires in 2006, but it could be extended.

Iger, whose contract expires in September 2005, has recently met with investors and executives and told the Times he would like the top job.

"I have a right to be taken seriously. I feel I know the company well. I have the knowledge," he said. "There comes a time when it's appropriate to say, 'Hey, this is a job I'm interested in.'"

Eisner has not always supported Iger so strongly, but the two have been working more closely after Iger defended Eisner and the company following criticism at the March meeting.

"We are clearly now much more partners than in the past," Eisner said.

Eisner Will Step Down

Disney chief informs shareholders he will ankle his position when his contract expires in September 2006. Source: FilmStew.com

Most people give two weeks notice. Disney CEO Michael Eisner has given two years notice. In a letter to the board released Friday, Eisner said he plans to step down as the Walt Disney Co.'s chief executive when his contract expires in September 2006.

The 62-year-old Eisner has been in charge of the entertainment conglomerate for more than two-decades. His decision comes six months after he, who became chief executive in 1984, barely survived a controversial battle led by retired board members and major shareholders Stanley Gold and Roy Disney, a nephew of founder Walt Disney. The result of that was Eisner stepping down from his position of Disney chairman but keeping his power as CEO.

Most analysts believe two years is plenty of time to find a successor. Eisner has made it clear that he believes Disney President Robert Iger would be the best choice for his successor. Iger has noted that he would accept the job if offered.

Other contenders for Eisner's position could include News Corp. CEO Peter Chernin; former Viacom Inc. president Mel Karmazin; Jeff Bewkes, who chairs Time Warner Inc.'s entertainment and networks group; Tom Freston, co-president of Viacom; Yahoo Inc. chairman and chief executive Terry Semel; and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios Inc. and Apple Computer, as a long shot

Sony Consortium Agrees to Acquire MGM[/b]

A consortium led by Sony Corporation of America and its equity partners, Providence Equity Partners, Inc., Texas Pacific Group, and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, today confirmed it has agreed in principle to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. for $12 in cash per MGM share, plus the assumption of MGM's debt.

At the same time, Sony Corporation of America and Comcast Corporation announced that Comcast, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the equity partners in the MGM transaction have reached agreement on a broad programming and distribution arrangement. It will allow for the distribution of Sony Pictures' and MGM content on Comcast's video on demand platform, and for the creation of a joint venture, to be managed by Comcast, establishing new cable channels featuring Sony and MGM content. While this agreement contemplates consummation of the acquisition of MGM, the parties will proceed with Sony content on a stand alone basis for VOD under any circumstances.

In addition Comcast is considering becoming a minority equity investor in the proposed MGM acquisition.

JP Morgan is acting as lead arranger for all of the debt financing and CSFB is a co-underwriter. CSFB in addition to JP Morgan and Citigroup are acting as advisors to the consortium.

MGM owns a library of more than 4,000 films, which includes the "James Bond," "Pink Panther" and "Rocky" film series. Sony Pictures Entertainment already owns Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, and Sony Pictures Classics.

This Time It's for Real: Farewell to MGM
Source: Anne Thompson, Hollywood Reporter

It's very sad. MGM is gone. So is United Artists.

The deal, expected to close on Friday, for a consortium of companies (including Sony Corp (SNE.N).) to purchase the MGM assets for some $4.8 billion reminds us that in today's entertainment universe, it's all about selling DVDs.

Ted Turner was right: It's the library, stupid. All 4,000 titles.

Truth is, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer -- the once-star-studded Tiffany studio that produced "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" in 1939, and its United Artists studio, the great lotless indie founded in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith -- were long ago reduced to financial transactions. They had been dying little deaths for years.

So much history. So much talent.

We all have our fave MGM moments: Elizabeth Taylor racing her Pie in "National Velvet," Charlton Heston racing his chariot in "Ben-Hur," Judy Garland singing the trolley song in "Meet Me in St. Louis," Omar Sharif kissing Julie Christie in "Dr. Zhivago," the space shuttle twirling in "2001: A Space Odyssey," or Peter Finch exhorting New Yorkers to open their windows and yell, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

MGM produced "Network" during the hard-luck '70s after billionaire Kirk Kerkorian had squeezed its assets to buy a series of hotels, slap them with the MGM brand and then sell them again.

He had shrunk MGM into a small production company whose pictures were released by the powerful United Artists.

Remember UA? Back then you could walk the halls at 729 Seventh Ave. in Manhattan and see posters for Billy Wilder's "The Apartment," Milos Forman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Woody Allen's "Annie Hall," Hal Ashby's "Coming Home," Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull" and Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky."

These were once mighty studios, packed with talented executives who knew how to nurture talent and release a full slate of movies every year, some of them bound for Oscar glory.

It takes years to grow a global production and distribution machine, which then thrives on forward momentum: Hits yield more hits; Oscars attract more Oscar-hungry stars and directors.

But it doesn't take much to bring these monoliths down. MGM's slide began when Kerkorian outbid Edgar Bronfman for the studio in 1969, cannily recognizing the value of the MGM brand.

Over the years, the library was packaged and repackaged, sold and resold. In the mid-'80s, Turner shrewdly bought MGM, then almost as quickly sold it, keeping MGM's pre-'86 library for himself, using it as a building block for Turner Network Television.

Over the years, the famed Leo the Lion MGM logo was plastered on hotels, airplanes and an ill-fated Las Vegas theme park.

At UA, troubles began when longtime chairman Arthur Krim and president Eric Pleskow sold their studio to Transamerica in 1979 after an unprecedented four-year run at both the box office and the Oscars.

But all it took was the megaflop "Heaven's Gate" for Transamerica to push them out (they went on to found Orion Pictures). As soon as hapless Transamerica insurance executive Andy Albrecht took over UA, the studio lost its best executives and floundered.

In 1981, Kerkorian grabbed the struggling UA for a song and merged it with MGM; nine years later, he sold the MGM/UA combined for $1.4 billion to shady Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, who eventually wound up in jail.

In 1996, Kerkorian reacquired the studio for $1.3 billion and brought in business executives Alex Yemenidjian and Chris McGurk to build the value of his MGM and UA assets. This they did.

Their cinematic legacy includes the execrable remakes of "Rollerball" and "The Mod Squad" but also the hits "Barbershop," "Legally Blonde" and the Bond films "The World Is Not Enough" and "Die Another Day."

As Kerkorian finally closes his latest deal to sell MGM Inc. to the Sony consortium -- including Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Banking Partners -- for almost $5 billion, he will make billions; Yemenidjian and McGurk make millions.

Nobody knows quite what will become of MGM and UA. About 250 out of 1,400 employees will stay on, mostly at the home video company, while the rest cash their severance checks, switch to their home e-mail addresses and join their Miramax brethren sending out resumes.

The CD press kit for the upcoming "Amityville Horror" remake, complete with MGM mailing label, is starting to feel like a collector's item.

Sony will divvy up the outstanding MGM and UA titles for release through its divisions including Columbia, TriStar, Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics. If MGM continues to co-produce films with Sony, it's mainly to keep the library refreshed, insiders say.

The MGM and UA labels will still show up on surviving franchises like "The Pink Panther" whose latest incarnation starring Steve Martin arrives in September. (The "Pink Panther," James Bond and "Rocky" franchises originated at UA.)

But after 20 films and New Line's smash "Austin Powers" spoofs, it's hard to see much life left in creaky old James Bond, even if sexy, broken-nosed Brit Daniel Craig ("Enduring Love"), the press-anointed candidate of the moment, does don the famous tuxedo for Martin Campbell's "Casino Royale."

New Sony corporate chief Sir Howard Stringer originally wanted to acquire the MGM/UA library outright but was forced by his Sony bosses to seek partners.

Now that he heads the company, Stringer might eventually want to buy out the consortium to gain control over MGM/UA, which he could then spin off into a separate public company. MGM and UA already have had many lives.

Sir Howard could even decide to do the right thing. He could remove the Sony logo from atop the studio on West Washington Boulevard that many Hollywood insiders still consider the MGM lot -- with its Cary Grant Theater and Irving Thalberg, Katharine Hepburn, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland buildings -- and let the MGM logo fly high again.

Anything is possible.

they're talking about it like MGM was never a big corporation trying to make a lot of money.

Quote from: Jeremy BlackmanMGM owns a library of more than 4,000 films, which includes the "James Bond," "Pink Panther" and "Rocky" film series.

MGM sold the rights to all their old musicals, right?

I'm pretty sure I remember someone telling me they did.

I may be wrong. It's a shame they didn't even mention that they were the musical portion of Hollywood through the 50's.

Quote from: deathnotronicMGM sold the rights to all their old musicals, right?

If they did, it was probably to Time Warner

Disney Reviving Hand-Drawn Animation

The Walt Disney Co. is planning to revive traditional hand-drawn animation next year with its live-action/animated Enchanted, Disney watcher Jim Hill reported on his website today (Wednesday). A traditionally animated test sequence has already been created for the film by veteran Disney animator James Baxter, best known for his supervision of the character Belle in Beauty and the Beast, according to Hill. "And those who have seen this particular piece of rough animation say that it is 'simply stunning. A wonderful throwback to the sort of films that Disney used to make.'" Baxter, Hill said, has been secretly working on the sequence with a small crew at his own studio in Pasadena, and, he added, his work is likely to be displayed by Pixar's John Lasseter and Ed Catmull as they make their well-known case for reviving hand-drawn animation to Disney chief Robert Iger. Said Hill: "They're going to tell Iger: 'Doesn't that look terrific? People are really going to eat this picture up. They've been waiting for Disney to do a new film that features traditional animation. Which is why this movie is going to do HUGE box office next year.'"

my childhood lives again!

Modage's Childhood™ is a registered trademark of The Walt Disney Company. 

Quote from: Ravi on March 04, 2006, 05:21:52 PM
Modage's Childhood™ is a registered trademark of The Walt Disney Company. 

:)


-------

i see where he's coming from, though. i think this is really great news.

McDonald's and Disney Split

Presumably concerned about being linked with the supersizing of American kids, the Walt Disney Co. and McDonald's have ended their longtime promotional partnership, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. The newspaper said that the studio's relationship with the fast-food chain will end following the summer releases of Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. While the move was welcomed by critics of the fast-food industry, industry analyst Lowell Singer of S.G. Cowen told the newspaper: "Fast food has been a very important promotional partner in promoting films to children. ... As the animated marketplace gets more competition over the next few years, Disney will need to be much more aggressive and creative in reaching children though other promotional outlets."

Free toy with every purchase of wheatgrass juice at Whole Foods?

mickey D's is in trouble, man. super-size me, fast food nation, and now disney wants nothing to do w/ them.

wtf is the big deal. i would never eat a salad or anything remotely healthy from mcdonalds. the whole point of eating there is to get your grease fix. why can't americans learn to consume that crap in moderation, like sugar or heroin.

Disney Said to Be Considering Cost Cuts That Include Layoffs
By LAURA M. HOLSON, NY Times

LOS ANGELES, May 26 — Walt Disney Studios is expecting a big summer with the release of the highly anticipated animated film "Cars" and the next installment in the popular "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.

But not all is well in movieland — and changes are afoot. With a decline in DVD sales and the rising cost of making movies, Hollywood in general has been tightening its belt. And now Disney, as part of a long-term review, is contemplating layoffs, looking to rein in costs and rethinking the type of movies it wants to make at its live-action Disney Studios, according to people apprised of Disney's planning.

It is unclear how many positions will be cut and when. The studio has already pulled back from layoff plans twice. But now, some of those apprised of Disney's plans suggest layoffs could come in July.

Disney's review includes an overall repositioning of the Walt Disney Pictures brand as a home for somewhat daring (meaning PG-rated) family fare and ambitious franchises, including the "Pirates" trilogy and "The Chronicles of Narnia." Already Disney has scaled back production in the Miramax division and is expected to cut production at its sibling, Touchstone Pictures.

"They are going through a transition," said Frank Marshall, a producer who directed Disney's recent hit "Eight Below." "They are scaling back and looking at different genres of stories to do."

Disney's spokeswoman, Heidi Trotta, said studio executives declined to comment. "We are constantly evaluating our business to make it better and more efficient." she said.

Hollywood agents and producers have been expecting an overhaul since last fall when Disney's chief executive, Robert A. Iger, asked Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, to review the studio's production, home video, marketing and distribution divisions.

Disney had a humbling year in 2004 when it missed the mark on some of its adult-oriented live-action films, including "The Ladykillers," "The Alamo" and "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou." In 2005 Disney fell to No. 5 in domestic box-office market share bringing in $962 million, down from No. 1 in 2003, when it led with $1.5 billion in domestic ticket sales.

Some of the people apprised of Disney's plans, who requested anonymity because the review was continuing, estimate Disney could lay off 5 percent of the studio's staff, although that could climb to 10 percent. International distribution and home video are expected to be the divisions hit hardest, they said.

Mr. Cook said in a recent stock analyst meeting that Touchstone, which has released movies like the offbeat and quirky "Ladykillers," directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, and "The Life Aquatic" from Wes Anderson would release fewer movies.

With those films, Nina Jacobson, who oversees live-action movie production at the studio, sought to bring into the Disney family highly stylized filmmakers more commonly found at independent film studios, like Focus Features and Fox Searchlight.

Mr. Cook, speaking of coming Touchstone Films, told analysts, "We will be kind of picky on which ones we decide to make."

Mr. Marshall, who produced "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Color Purple," said such movies were hard for Disney to market. "They stretched too far out of their comfort zone, not for them, but for the audience," he said. "It's tough for them to sell those movies that are out of the box for them."

By contrast, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" from Walt Disney Pictures, which opened in December, was a certified hit. The tale of four young children battling an evil witch brought in $292 million at the domestic box office. It also gave the studio a much needed boost because it was one of the few bona fide blockbusters in recent years not produced by Pixar or Jerry Bruckheimer.

Since Disney first joined with Pixar on "Toy Story" in 1995, Pixar — recently acquired by Disney — has produced most of Disney's animated hits, including "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles."

Mr. Bruckheimer, has been a steady supplier of live-action popcorn films as well, including "Pearl Harbor," "National Treasure" and the "Pirates" trilogy. He recently renegotiated his contract with Disney, a process that took two years, a person involved in the negotiations said.

"Disney is doing far better than before," said Richard Greenfield, a research analyst at Pali Research who has followed the studio for years.

In the April conference call, Mr. Cook said the studio would continue to tinker with its mix of movies, picking projects that can be marketed across all Disney divisions. Since Mr. Iger took over at Disney, such cross-marketing has been a high priority.

Disney "is the name on the door and when we do a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' or a 'Narnia' or a 'National Treasure,' it just lifts the entire enterprise up," Mr. Cook said. "It helps what our parks are doing. It's creating new characters or new stories."

But just because Disney is dabbling in PG fare, does not mean the studio will stray far from its traditional sensibilities. There still will not be much swearing, Mr. Cook said of Walt Disney Pictures movies. "We're not going to deal with sexual issues. But we are not afraid to take on the intensity or the fun or whatever. We can have a Captain Jack Sparrow in a PG-13 movie, but he's not doing anything that we think is inappropriate to be in a traditional Disney movie." (Captain Jack Sparrow is Johnny Depp's character in "Pirates.")

Whatever the changes, the studio is not expected to overhaul management. Twice already — in December and this month — layoffs were expected, but they were called off after studio executives said they needed more time to figure out who would be reassigned, the people said. In December, executives were waiting to see if "Narnia" fared well enough to spawn a sequel, the people said.

Both Mr. Cook and Ms. Jacobson recently renegotiated their contracts, these people said. And Mr. Iger has sought to bring executives even closer into his fold. Mr. Cook, who kept his office on the second floor of Disney's Burbank headquarters to be near his staff, recently moved to the sixth floor, where Mr. Iger and other division leaders are.

Mr. Cook is not expected to trim the studio's movie production staff, the people said. Instead it is their focus that will change. Mr. Marshall said it was unlikely the studio would do more sports-themed movies in the near future after the middling showing of "Glory Road," the tale of a basketball coach who inspired his team. Disney had success in recent years with the genre, including "The Rookie" and "Remember the Titans."

The studio is trimming individual movie budgets, too, although Mr. Cook told the analysts that the overall studio budget remained the same. Mr. Marshall said the budget for "Eight Below" was reduced by 30 percent before Disney agreed to make it. Initially, the studio "pulled the plug on the movie" because the budget was too high, Mr. Marshall said. When he later joined the project, Mr. Marshall said he agreed to a budget of about $40 million.

"I think they are going to be a little bit safer," Mr. Marshall said of the studio.

Pixar's Lasseter Plans To Revive Hand-Drawn Animation

Hand-drawn animation may not be dead, after all. Pixar's creative chief, John Lasseter, has told Time magazine that he may restore Disney's traditional animation unit, which the studio dismantled in response to the success of computer-generated animation, like that employed by Pixar. "Of all studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney," Lasseter said in an interview with film critic Richard Corliss. "We haven't said anything publicly, but I can guarantee you that we're thinking about it. Because I believe in it."

Put some of the story people from Pixar to work on a hand-drawn film and it may be good.  The last few hand-drawn Disney films really weren't very memorable, were they?

Disney's Revamped Pirates Ride: Just Like in the Movies
The updated Disneyland attraction will look more like the films it inspired. But some fans feel it's taking marketing too far.
Source: Los Angeles Times

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Purist fans of Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride are wishing they could force company officials to walk the plank for doing the unthinkable.

The classic attraction, which turns 40 next year, is getting an overhaul timed to coincide with the movie premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," the second in a trilogy of films starring Johnny Depp. When the popular ride reopens June 26, it will look a lot more like the movie series that it inspired, complete with swashbuckler Jack Sparrow and his nemesis Capt. Barbossa.

Internet message boards have been in mutiny for months, with fans debating whether Disney is taking corporate synergy and marketing too far — and that's saying a lot for a company that capitalizes on just about every character tie-in imaginable.

"If it ain't broke, why fix it?" grumbled fan Candy Richter, 39, who grew up riding Pirates of the Caribbean. "I think it's really lamentable when society feels that they need to go back and adjust their pop culture icons to fit whatever new spawns out.... I don't think people are going in Haunted Mansion and wondering where the Eddie Murphy character is."

In a break from its ride-opening tradition, Disney is not giving any sneak peeks, not even to park employees, until after the movie's celebrity-studded premiere at the Anaheim theme park Saturday. The movie is set for wide release July 7.

Disney is banking that fans, even the die-hards, will not be disappointed.

"I cannot imagine how anybody can see this attraction and walk off and say, 'Boy, they did something they shouldn't have,' " said Disney Imagineer Kathy Rogers, who is overseeing the ride's creative changes at Disneyland and Walt Disney World in Florida. "It really has strengthened the classic."

Rogers said ride designers had tried to seamlessly add characters into the attraction in the same way that movie scriptwriters adopted elements of the ride. (Remember the dog holding the keys to the jail cells in the 2003 movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"?)

The ride's story line has been tweaked. Instead of pirates ransacking a Spanish seaport town in search of gold, they're now trying to capture Jack Sparrow and beat him to the treasure. The booty, incidentally, has a lot more bling, Disney said.

Fans of the movie will see familiar elements, including animatronic characters depicting Jack Sparrow and Capt. Barbossa. In the ride's cannon scene, in which a pirate ship appears to shoot cannonballs over the riders' heads, music from the movie will be playing. Special effects also have been upgraded to make the cannon blasts more realistic.

A waterfall scene has been added with the ghostly image of Davy Jones, the evil spirit of the seas and a character in the second movie, Rogers said. In the ride's town and treasure scenes, Jack Sparrow has been dropped into the mix.

"They look like they've always been there," Rogers said. "You're not saying, 'Oh, they put that movie thing there.' "

In fact, Disney tried not to tinker too much with the classic sets. Old characters are still up to their marauding ways, including the auctioneer, the pooped pirate and the wenches for sale. The burning town was tweaked to make the fire more realistic. The ride remains 14 1/2-minutes long.

"There's nothing changing about the fundamental character of the attraction," said Jay Rasulo, chairman of Disney's theme park division.

The makeover is in the spirit of what Walt Disney would have wanted, Rasulo said. According to one of Disney's most famous quotes, Disneyland will never be complete "as long as there is imagination left in the world."

"I think true purists will know that Walt was a man of innovation," Rasulo said. "Walt was a futurist. He thought nothing of embracing new technology and making new magic."

Jeff Baham, founder of the website tellnotales.com, said fans seemed split about the changes, though many were reserving judgment until after they experienced the renovated ride.

In the most extreme cases, some fans contend that the ride should remain untouched because it is the last attraction Disney worked on before his death, Baham said.

Given the park's track record, some aren't sure what to expect.

The last time Disney made changes to the ride in 1997, it became the butt of jokes after its drunken, looting buccaneers were made a bit more politically correct. The company "rehabilitated" the ride to make the pirates in the chase scene pursue food rather than scared maidens. It became a sin of gluttony rather than of lust, officials said at the time.

Perhaps in a nod to the purists, that theme is being ditched to "make the story consistent," Rogers said, which means that the pirates will go back to their pillaging, misbehaving ways.

Jamie O'Boyle, a Philadelphia-based cultural analyst who has studied Disneyland and theme parks, said he was not surprised that fans were leery.

"Suspicion of Disney's motives is legitimate," O'Boyle said. "The company earned that suspicion over the past couple of decades with a series of bad decisions."

He cited such actions as Disney's replacement of the Swiss Family Robinson treetop abode with Tarzan's Treehouse and yanking guns from the Jungle Cruise skippers. The cruise captains recently got their faux firepower back but the Robinsons are still homeless.

Disney leadership, O'Boyle said, is still on probation.

Despite those concerns, he said the additions to the ride made sense. "This is one of those changes that Walt would have done in a heartbeat. If they put Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh in the attraction, it would be a destructive element."

Adding Jack Sparrow is a natural story evolution and doesn't contradict the original show, O'Boyle said.

Jennifer Figler, 29, a Southern California native who lives in Orlando, Fla., said she was not surprised by the overhaul.

"You hate to see a classic get changed, but they really struck it rich this time around so it's only obvious that they were going to give this a try," Figler said. "I am a little bit of a purist, but I'm also an optimist. I'm maintaining some positive hope."

Pirates points

• Ride opened at Disneyland on March 18, 1967
• Cost of original construction: $8 million
• Audio-animatronics cast: 68 people, 54 animals
• Length of canal: 1,838 feet
• The three-level ride is housed in two buildings totaling 112,826 square feet.
• More than 400 Disney Imagineers have worked in California and Florida over the last three years to update the ride.
• More than 270 speakers have been replaced throughout the attraction.
• It took three days to empty and refill the "bayou's" 750,000 gallons of water.
• The enhanced "Treasure Cache" scene includes more than 400,000 new gold coins and set pieces.Source: Disneyland

I should've majored in Imagineering.

ILM parts with prod'n unit
Lucasfilm in talks to put up sale sign
Source: Variety

It's the end of an era in special effects.

Seeking to shed the last vestiges of its origins as a models-and-miniatures special effects house, Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic is in talks to sell its physical production unit.

Purchaser is Mark Anderson, a model maker who has worked at ILM for more than 15 years.

Unit will be remonikered Kerner Optical, for its location in ILM's former digs on Kerner Avenue in San Rafael, Calif., and will focus on all physical production, including models, miniatures and stage work.

Once spun off, Kerner Optical will aim to pick up the slack by seeking work that ILM would not get. Kerner will become a preferred subcontractor for ILM.

ILM's physical production unit never made the move to Lucasfilm's new HQHQ at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco's Presidio.

With the shift to digital effects, Lucasfilm has found it difficult to keep that portion of the company fully employed.

At one time, however, the unit defined ILM. The company grew from the team that created the space battles and other movie magic for George Lucas' 1977 megahit "Star Wars."

The goal, says a Lucasfilm spokesman, is for everything to remain business as usual for employees.

Company informed its employees of the move Tuesday, saying it hoped the deal would be finalized within 60 days. Lucasfilm cautioned, however, that the announcement was made early in deference to the unit's heritage and the longevity of its workers, and the deal has not closed.

Tinker Bell Talks -- Shame on Disney!

Last fall Disney unveiled a line of merchandise called Fairies, which follows the company's successful Princesses franchise. As part of the series of products and licensing deals, Disney will release straight-to-video animated films featuring Tinker Bell (since when is her name two words?), the tiny pixie duster from Peter Pan, and her fairy friends. As if J.M. Barrie isn't rolling around in his grave enough after the video sequel Return to Neverland or from the fact that Disney has created a clique of friends for Tink (unlike with the Princesses line, Disney doesn't already have a bunch of fairy characters to mine from), Disney is further ruining the playwright's iconic characters by having Tinker Bell speak. And providing her voice is Brittany Murphy.

She already spoke in Hook, and even turned into a full human for a brief bizarre moment and admitted undying love for Robin Williams.  Don't they even kiss?  (I dunno, I haven't seen the movie in a long time).

This may ruin the Disney version of Tink, but not really the "playwright's iconic characters."  In any case, yeah boo Disney.

Old Disney magic in new animated logo
Source: Hollywood Reporter

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fhollywoodreporter%2Fphotos%2F2006%2F07%2Fdisney_logo170x225.jpg&hash=198592f26f439d4eb0adf0da92729a7a2fac88d1)

Moviegoers who saw Walt Disney Pictures' "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" over the weekend also discovered an unexpected bit of treasure.

Buried beneath the usual movie trailers, just as "Dead Man's Chest" started, Disney unveiled a new, computer-animated logo that the Burbank-based studio spent a year designing.

In just 30 seconds, Disney's digitally revamped curtain-raiser travels from a star high above the clouds to reveal a jewel-colored landscape at dusk. The animated camera glides over a glistening lake to arrive at a glowing Disney castle where the studio's classic logo is spelled out in a silvery new 3-D typeface.

Disney's revised film insignia is a departure from the studio's decades-old, two-tone blue-and-white logo centered on a spartan white castle, animated by traditional 2D methods. But the new logo also hearkens back to such timeless Disney iconography as pixie dust, Pinocchio's star, a bank of fluffy clouds that Mary Poppins would recognize, a pirate ship and a mythical castle topped with luminescent spires.

"The goal was to create the most elegant, beautiful, magical castle that would represent not only Disney past but also Disney present," said Oren Aviv, president, Buena Vista Pictures Marketing. "The new logo is filled with breathtaking visual sweep, charm, scale and grace that we believe best represents the movies the studio is making today, movies like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and 'National Treasure,' that have a bigger scope and scale."

Aviv and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, first discussed the idea of a computer-animated logo makeover during a marketing meeting a year ago.

The execs tapped Disney producer Baker Bloodworth and director Mike Gabriel, both Oscar nominated in 2004 for the animated short film "Lorenzo." Gabriel devised three different treatments, created animatic storyboards, showed Aviv and Cook the frames and re-worked the designs until everyone was on board. Academy Award-winning studio Weta Digital in New Zealand was chosen to animate the story and add visual effects. "We chose to go to the world's best (visual effects) studio, where they specialize in live action/real-life simulation," Aviv said.

Aviv also tapped John Sable and John Blas from within Disney's marketing division to design the logo's new 3-D typography. When the imagery was 80% complete, the studio enlisted composer Mark Mancina ("Tarzan") to write a new musical score that was recorded with a full orchestra. The score's production was overseen by Chris Montan, president of Walt Disney Music.

"There are updates and upgrades," Aviv said. "But the trick, for us, is to honor the past logo, Disney's past as a studio, and Walt Disney himself. At same time, we tried to make it stunning and relevant for moviegoers not just today but decades into the future."

According to studio insiders, repeat viewings of the new logo yield a number of winks to those in the know -- one of the castle's flags, for example, is said to bear Walt Disney's family crest.

The cast and crew of "Dead Man's Chest" was the first audience to view the new logo on the big screen.

"They just exploded," Aviv said. "At every screening I've attended since, it's gotten applause. It's visually so stunning and scored with a stirring piece of music, so it's easy to get excited. It also means a lot to be a Disney-branded movie, which represents quality, a high level of entertainment and what people have come to expect -- that you can bring the whole family. It has real meaning for people."

i think it looks good.  and i'm surprised it took them this long.

But now people are going to watch crappy Disney movies and say, "It wasn't as good as the logo."

Disney Celebrates "Pirates" By Firing a Bunch of People

You'd think that with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest smashing all sorts of box office records and Cars crossing the $200 million mark ... Disney-ville would be a pretty pleasant place to work at right now. Alas, no. Fresh off the cash cow arrival of Jack Sparrow's second adventure, Disney announced that they'd be cutting back on their cinematic output ... and they'd be firing a whole bunch of people.

According to Variety, Disney plans to cut back from about 18 movies a year to something more like 8, and all of their future releases will be "Disney-branded," which probably doesn't bode well for the folks at Touchstone and/or Miramax. Apparently this is some huge move intended to make the Mouse House more profitable in the long run, although to me it feels more like simple corporate greed. (Especially with the inevitably massive Pirates 3 waiting in the wings.)

Despite the stunning success of Pirates2 and the solid returns from Cars, the studio also spent/lost some solid coin on titles like Stick It, Annapolis, Stay Alive, The Wild, and Glory Road. What Variety neglected to mention is that Disney also unleashed Eight Below and The Shaggy Dog this year, both of which (amazingly) turned a profit. (Perhaps part of their new business plan should be to only make movies that deal with pirates and/or dogs.)

Disney gives traditional animation another shot

Walt Disney Studios has reunited with the directors of its box office disaster "Treasure Planet" as part of a plan to get back into the decidedly unfashionable business of traditional animation.

The new project, "Frog Princess," will put a female spin on the classic fairy tale, according to sources.

It will be overseen by John Musker and Ron Clements, who left the studio shortly after "Treasure Planet" bombed at the end of 2002, grossing just $38 million domestically.

In their heyday at Disney, they demonstrated their ability to spin a popular tale around a female protagonist with 1989's "The Little Mermaid" They also worked on such traditionally animated Disney musicals as "Aladdin" and "Hercules."

But traditional animation no longer draws the crowd, thanks in part the innovative computer-animation purveyed by Pixar Animation Studios, which Disney now owns. Pixar principals Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, who now run Disney's feature animation operations, are interested in exploring Disney's pioneering 2-D tradition.

One of Lasseter's first initiatives following Disney's acquisition of Pixar this year was to woo Musker and Clements back into the fold.

Dis puts 'Cruise' in high gear

Following the record-breaking success of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Walt Disney Pictures is giving high-priority status to another movie project based on a Disneyland ride. "Smallville" showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar are in negotiations to write "Jungle Cruise," an adventure movie and potential franchise that is being produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman through their Mandeville Films label. "Cruise" is based on the Disneyland ride in which parkgoers travel the jungle river guided by a riverboat skipper, encountering such wild creatures as pirhanas and gorillas during their tour. The ride was one of the 22 original attractions when the park opened in 1955.

Disney Animation Cutting 160
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
December 3, 2006

Five months after the Walt Disney Company slashed 20% of its work force at its live-action studio, the company has said that it will do likewise at its Burbank animation facility, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Walt Disney Animation -- which houses Disney Feature Animation, Disney Television Animation and Disney Toons -- will cut about 160 jobs from its staff of 800, with employees due to be notified of their employment status by midmonth.

Disney, which made the announcement Friday, will give the affected workers 60 days' notice, putting their last day of employment there roughly six weeks before the March 30 opening of Disney's next animated feature, Meet the Robinsons.

The Disney-owned Pixar -- operating in Emeryville, Calif., just as it did before its merger with Disney -- will retain its entire 800-person staff.

Disney has said it plans to release two animated movies a year, one produced in Burbank and one in Emeryville. Burbank animators are reportedly about two months from completing work on "Robinsons."

A Disney spokeswoman said the layoffs will not affect movies currently in production. After "Robinsons," the Pixar-Disney film Ratatouille is due June 29. Films that had been in development, the status of which are now unclear, include The Frog Princess, American Dog and Rapunzel Unbraided.

Quote from: modage on December 03, 2006, 11:10:20 AM
Walt Disney Animation -- which houses Disney Feature Animation, Disney Television Animation and Disney Toons -- will cut about 160 jobs from its staff of 800, with employees due to be notified of their employment status by midmonth.

It's as if Disney waited until the holidays to do this.  Wow, they are evil!

Walt Disney Studios To Stop Producing Direct-To-DVD Sequels

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Walt Disney Studios has decided to stop producing direct-to-DVD sequels of its animated features, according to the website JimHillMedia.com. Although the direct-to-DVD sequels - such as "Meet the Robinsons 2," "Chicken Little 2" and "The Aristocats 2" - have generally been very profitable, the new Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney, John Lasseter, has publicly said the sequels are inferior to the originals and erode the Disney brand.

JillHillMedia.com also reported that the president of DisneyToon Studios, Sharon Morrill, has been forced to step down as part of the decision.

Lasseter recommended that Disney drop a sequel to 1953's "Peter Pan" called "The Tinkerbell Movie," and Disney CEO Bob Iger decided to follow the recommendation, even though the project had already accrued $30 million in development costs.

Also scrapped was a series called "Disney Princess Enchanted Tales," which would have featured characters like Jasmine from "Aladdin" and Aurora from "Sleeping Beauty."

Two more DVDs will be released this fall - one "Enchanted Tales" installment and "Little Mermaid 3" - and that will be the end of Disney's direct-to-DVD sequels.

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Disney tosses Toons topper
Morrill sacked over 'Tinkerbell' problems
Source: Variety

Disney has ousted Sharon Morrill, long-time head of its DisneyToons direct-to-DVD operations.

Morrill was sacked on Monday from her post as president on returning from a vacation even though she has another year and a half on a five-year contract that she signed in late 2003.

A rep for the Mouse House said Morrill was being moved into another slot dealing with special projects, but would not elaborate.

The key problem apparently stemmed from costs that had ballooned to nearly $50 million on the "The Tinkerbell Movie" project.

"Tinkerbell" has seen close to two dozen versions of the script and a dozen different directors.

Multiple sources also said that Morrill, who had headed DisneyToons since its inception in 1994, has repeatedly clashed with Pixar Animation toppers John Lasseter and Ed Catmull over creative differences on "Tinkerbell" following Disney's puchase of Pixar early last year.

As part of that deal, Lasseter and Catmull were put on top of Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Though the two did not directly oversee DisneyToons, they are said to have gotten increasingly involved in the unit's operations.

DisneyToons had announced a year ago at the Licensing Fair in New York that it had lined up Brittany Murphy to voice the Tinkerbell character. Other voices cast include Kristin Chenoweth, Cameron Bowen, Emma Hunton, Zach Shada and America Young.

Morrill began the division in 1994 with the marching orders of extending Disney's animated franchises. The operation produced several features, including "Piglet's Big Movie," "Pooh's Heffalump Movie," "The Jungle Book 2" and "The Tigger Movie" along with homevideo titles such as "Bambi II," "Brother Bear 2," "Lion King 2: Simba's Pride," "Lady and the Tramp 2," "Pooh's Grand Adventure" and "Lion King 1 ½."

Sharon Morrill, there is a special place in hell for you next to Rick Sands.  MY CHILDHOOD LIVES!

Quote from: modage on June 22, 2007, 02:59:32 PM
Sharon Morrill, there is a special place in hell for you

She's on her way there:

QuoteMorrill was being moved into another slot dealing with special projects, but would not elaborate.

They obviously whacked her.