Originally Posted By leemac <<How is "Frozen" looking? Fairy-tale musical, if I remember correctly, but there's been almost nothing out there about it.>> Frozen has been locked in for Thanksgiving 2013. It is behind schedule at the moment but Chris Buck is working hard to turn it around. I've seen a couple of scenes and this feature will live and die on the relationship between the two leads (a mountaineer and a girl). The Snow Queen wasn't in any of the material I've seen. The dialog was a little clunky. The music is by the Lopezes and will be their first serious feature at Disney (having done Winnie the Pooh and Finding Nemo The Musical). I've heard a couple of songs and they stuck with me. I never thought that The Snow Queen was filmic material - the source material is pretty thin and depressing - we tried hard to make it work of the proposed musical at Tokyo DisneySea but it just didn't work. It is funny that we had 8 songs written by Menken for that production and now WDAS has hired a brand new songwriting team.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I was underwhelmed by Brave and felt it was Brother Bear meets Mulan.>> The original feature would have been amazing - Lasseter let his current favorite boy Mark Andrews completely rewrite the second and third act to the movie's detriment IMHO. Hence why it has topped out at $530m and hasn't made a penny for the studio. It will be interesting to see if Brave becomes like A Bug's Life in a few years and the characters virtually disappear from view.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Wreck it Ralph, Winnie the Pooh, Tangled, The Princess and the Frog... all outstanding movies that show that Disney has returned to making quality movies again. Quite honesty they are doing a better job at it then Pixar has lately.>> Each to their own I guess but I would say all 4 of those were outstanding. Each of the three excluding Wreck-it had some elements that were poorly conceived and executed - but all three had some excellent scenes too. I don't get the love for PatF as I thought it was the weakest of the bunch by far. Wreck-it is the best of the current bunch but it isn't ground-breaking or anything new. <<Lilo & Stitch which you claim 'was a huge gamble' with an 'unusual stories' was just the typical 'family bonds overcome everything' story with aliens... the same thing you complain that Wreck it Ralph did.>> Your opinion. L&S had a design aesthetic unlike anything else we have seen from Disney. Very stylized characters (both human and alien) and watercolor backgrounds. If you want to boil it down to just that single element then you fall into Booker's Seven Basic Plots for all movies. L&S had a lot more to offer than that.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Each to their own I guess but I would say all 4 of those were outstanding.>> UGH. I wouldn't say all 4 of those were outstanding.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>the relationship between the two leads (a mountaineer and a girl)<< The whaaaaa~~??? Oh dear ..... >>I never thought that The Snow Queen was filmic material<< <a href="http://archive.org/details/the_snow_queen_1959_animation" target="_blank">http://archive.org/details/the...nimation</a> (a dark transfer, but what can you do?) Very filmic, albeit not very Disney, and a BIG influence on (and source of blatant rip-off material for) one Mr. Hayao Miyazaki. There are no mountaineers in it. The Disney Version is clearly not going to be your father's Snow Queen. >>UGH. I wouldn't say all 4 of those were outstanding.<< LOL! I was wondering about that.
Originally Posted By leemac <<>>the relationship between the two leads (a mountaineer and a girl)<< The whaaaaa~~??? Oh dear .....>> That was the head scratcher for me too. I think Kai and Gerda have become Anna and Kristoff. Obviously they aren't the young kids from the novel. The scenes I've been shown have a lot of comedy which seems out of place IMHO. The Snow Queen is a very dark tale and I'm not really sure why it is being repositioned as an action adventure / comedy. The CGI wasn't the best I've seen either - rather generic characters. Happy to be proven wrong of course.
Originally Posted By leemac <<<a href="http://archive.org/details/the...nimation" target="_blank">http://archive.org/details/the...nimation</a> (a dark transfer, but what can you do?) Very filmic, albeit not very Disney, and a BIG influence on (and source of blatant rip-off material for) one Mr. Hayao Miyazaki.>> Wow - not seen that before. Will take a look. I'm falling out of love with Studio Ghibli - Arrietty and From Up On Poppy Hill were very average indeed. I have higher hopes for Taketori Monogatari though. They could make it up to me by releasing Spirited Away on blu-ray though.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Hotel Transylvania has somehow done $138m domestically.<< I enjoyed it. It would be a good Halloween slumber party movie for little kids. I'm not much of an Adam Sandler fan, and the story wasn't at all challenging for anyone who has seen a movie in the last 50 years, but still, I found it a charming little movie.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<The original feature would have been amazing - Lasseter let his current favorite boy Mark Andrews completely rewrite the second and third act to the movie's detriment IMHO. Hence why it has topped out at $530m and hasn't made a penny for the studio.>> Oh good golly... don't get me started on Andrews! I can't even tolerate to hear him talk! (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HT6hcWqejA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...6hcWqejA</a>) I really don't understand why Lasseter is so blinded by the guy. Maybe it's the void that Ranft left behind, and Andrews kinda sorta inserted himself into it? That for Lasseter, maybe having the void filled by someone with mediocre talent is better than leaving it empty? I dunno. But Pixar can certainly do better.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<It is funny that we had 8 songs written by Menken for that production and now WDAS has hired a brand new songwriting team.>> That's crazy talk! =8^0
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<I'm falling out of love with Studio Ghibli - Arrietty and From Up On Poppy Hill were very average indeed.>> Count me as a member of this club. I haven't really loved anything from Ghibli since Spirited Away. I'm in love with the old stuff. Still have Totoro at the top of my Ghibli list. I don't know if it's a lack of ideas or Miyazaki-san is ready for retirement... not a clue. But their glory days seem to be behind them. <<I have higher hopes for Taketori Monogatari though.>> I'm glad someone does. I'm still cautious.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I really don't understand why Lasseter is so blinded by the guy. Maybe it's the void that Ranft left behind, and Andrews kinda sorta inserted himself into it? That for Lasseter, maybe having the void filled by someone with mediocre talent is better than leaving it empty? I dunno. But Pixar can certainly do better.>> Andrews talks the talk when it comes to story so I'm sure that is part of it. He is a highly frenetic individual is the kindest thing I can say. I think a lot of us thought he would follow Brad out the door as those two were inseparable. Somehow he managed to keep his gig. I've no idea what he is working on now - I'm hoping nothing.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I have higher hopes for Taketori Monogatari though.>> I'm glad someone does. I'm still cautious.>> It is a great story and very well-known in Japan so it seems a slam-dunk in terms of box office (not that Ghibli ever seems to miss there). Ponyo is the only one of the recent features I've loved (and I've no idea why I like it as much as I do).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Your opinion. L&S had a design aesthetic unlike anything else we have seen from Disney. Very stylized characters (both human and alien) and watercolor backgrounds.<< I would argue that the stylizing on Lilo & Stitch really isn't that big of a reach for Disney, and certainly isn't any more extreme than the stylization in Sleeping Beauty, Pocahontas, or Atlantis (though done in a completely different way). Sadly, it seems that all of those films have their story issues (I can't watch L&S without falling alseep at least once during it, regardless of how well-rested I am) which prevent them from being as respected as perhaps they should, but I don't think that Lilo & Stitch was drastically different than anything else Disney's done. It's a cute film I guess, but I just don't get the mass appeal of it. I have the same issue with the Pooh franchise(s); there's not inherently wrong with it, but I just don't see how it could have spawned a multi-billion dollar empire.
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ I can understand that. L&S is one of my favorite in the entire canon - empathy is the key factor in my assessment of movies and there is something about the two leads that just resonate with me. IMHO Chris Sanders is one of the most talented animators out there and WDAS' failure to manage him properly after the American Dog debacle is their loss and DWA's gain. If I could only bring one person back to feature animation then it would be Chris.
Originally Posted By veu Leemac, could you tell me something about the sequence from Frozen you watched? could you tell me more about Anna & Kristoff look? are Anna and Kristoff a romantic couple? what happened in the scene? why is it too comedic? what sort of comedy Frozen will have? I hope there isn't potty humor because toilet humor will ruin movies... thank you by advance.
Originally Posted By DlandDug At the D23 event for DFA's 75th anniversary they offered several visuals, which we were not allowed to photograph. The most "comical" character that is being introduced is Olaf, a snowman/sidekick. The idea is that he is a first creation of the new Snow Queen, so he's kind of half-baked (or half-frozen). He is clearly intended to be so gosh darned cute and dopey that there is a real danger he will be this film's Jar Jar Binks. Leaked images here: <a href="http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/06/first-look-at-character-art-for-disneys-frozen/" target="_blank">http://www.bleedingcool.com/20...-frozen/</a>
Originally Posted By mawnck >>The idea is that he is a first creation of the new Snow Queen, so he's kind of half-baked (or half-frozen).<< Oh good Lord ... This sounds like it has nothing to do with the fairy-tale Snow Queen. NOTHING.
Originally Posted By Qindarka Disney has always taken creative liberties with their stories. Creating new characters is nothing new, really. Don't understand why there is so much outrage over unfaithfulness to the source material in this specific case when that has been the regular practice for over 40 years.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Don't understand why there is so much outrage over unfaithfulness to the source material in this specific case when that has been the regular practice for over 40 years.<< First of all, welcome to LP. I'm not outraged. They can call their movie "The Snow Queen" and do whatever they want to with it. And it might be just swell. Don't confuse me with the ultra-purists. Cause I ain't one. I just find it odd that they seem to have thrown out everything that has anything to do with the original fairy tale and completely started over from scratch, keeping only the nominal title character. That has most definitely NOT been regular practice for over 40 years (Chicken Little notwithstanding).
