Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.o-meon.com/" target="_blank">http://www.o-meon.com/</a> >>Sources close to the Walt Disney Company tell o-meon.com that the popular feature animation production team of John Musker and Ron Clements will be returning to Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA). Musker and Clements, whose work as writers and director and producer includes The Little Mermaid, Hercules, and Treasure Planet, left WDFA last year after the studio refused to green light their latest feature animation project, Fraidy Cat. In meetings held earlier this week at Walt Disney Studios, Ed Catmull, currently President of Pixar animation and soon to be the executive in charge of the newly formed Disney-Pixar animation studio, told staffers that both he and John Lasseter, who will be the new studio's creative head, want to focus their attention on the creative process at WDFA. Part of that focus involves the return of, at least, some of Disney’s lost creative talent as Catmull singled out the return of Musker and Clements to illustrate his point.<<
Originally Posted By basil fan And for their work on my favorite film, The Great Mouse Detective!!! Welcome back, guys! Disney Glitches <a href="http://www.whatistsgalore.com/disney/dglitch.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatistsgalore.com/ disney/dglitch.html</a>
Originally Posted By TomSawyer They just signed Alan Menken to a new multipicture deal as well. <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002076606" target="_blank">http://www.hollywoodreporter.c om/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002076606</a> The future of Walt Disney Feature Animation under Disney CEO Robert Iger, Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook and Pixar Animation Studios' John Lasseter and Ed Catmull might lie in the future of CG, but the studio said Tuesday that as it moves forward, it also is returning to its past. Disney has signed composer Alan Menken, an eight-time Oscar winner and one of the driving forces behind "The Little Mermaid" -- which helped resuscitate Disney animation in the '80s -- to a nonexclusive, multipicture deal. Highly regarded feature animation directors John Musker and Ron Clements, the team behind such animated hits as "Mermaid" and "Aladdin," also are returning to the Disney fold. Menken, whose deal also involves live-action films, is developing the feature animated musical "The Frog Princess," based on the classic Grimm fairy tale. <snip> The directing team already has begun work on the lot in Burbank, discussing story ideas with Lasseter and Catmull on a daily basis while they also oversee the digital remastering of "The Little Mermaid," which Disney is preparing to release on DVD. Musker and Clements had been developing a project titled "Fraidy Cat" since late 2004 but departed Disney when it failed to win a green light. It is not among the projects the directing team is actively developing, according to executives close to the situation. For his first assignment under the new deal, Menken will score as well as write five original songs for Walt Disney Pictures' upcoming romantic musical fantasy, "Enchanted," a combination of live action and 2-D animation from animator James Baxter (HR 1/13). "Enchanted" is directed by Kevin Lima ("Tarzan"), and the project will see Menken reunite with Tony- and Oscar-winning lyricist Stephen Schwartz, his collaborator on "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
Originally Posted By TheRedhead Wow. Alan Menken is the hardest-working man in Disney show business. As a theatre geek, I was blown away by this: "For Disney Creative Entertainment, Menken is creating a stage musical of "The Snow Queen," set to debut at Tokyo DisneySea with Amon Miyamoto directing and John Weidman as the bookwriter and Glen Slater the lyricist. He also is writing music for a Sinbad attraction in Japan for Walt Disney Imagineering." So, in addition to writing new songs for a Broadway production of Little Mermaid, he's working on a theme park musical with the book writer of ASSASSINS and PACIFIC OVERTURES. That's crazy. AND he's scoring THE SHAGGY DOG. One thing I wonder about ENCHANTED - are there songs throughout, or is it just in the animated section. Five is a hefty number of songs, and Stephen Schwartz doesn't write a lot of -little- songs.
