Who's going to see Disney's the Princess and the Frog

[Drtooth]

Me neither and me too. To both counts. Pixar is an amazing animation company, and the odd thing is, while they're responsible for the CGI boom, they care more about traditional animation than any other company. Disney put their animation studio in good hands here. Pixar's movies never fail to impress... even weaker fare like "Cars" was breathtaking.

And it really is the other companies who see Pixar's success (and Dreamworks) as an excuse to cash in and make celebrity voiced CGI kid flicks without an iota of soul and substance. look at Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or Open Season. Heck, look at Sony animation period. They have NO BUSINESS in the business.

What I think everyone else is forgetting was even before CGI we had a lot of wanna be Disney studio pictures. I'm sure anyone can name any 5 Disney 2-D films that came out in the past 20 years.... now... can anyone name any other films from other studios besides American tale and Land Before Time? Dreamworks made that Sinbad 2-D movie that flopped... there's We're Back (which I've never seen and only heard of)... and the sad, sad case of Iron Giant. Now that movie sadly sunk because it didn't have the Disney logo slapped on it. Face it, people denied themselves a classic.

 

[muppets2]

That's interesting. I'm not tired of Pixar at all. They haven't put out one single movie that that wasn't good to me.

What I'm tired is it the whole 3d trend in general and how quickly people were to jump on it and the quantity of it all. There's just so muhc bad 3D out there and it's tiring. But there needs to be a balance.

But I love Pixar!

i agree im tired of the 3-D trend too
im not saying they wernt good (toy story 2 one of my fav movies)
im just saying that im glad that we can take a break from computer generated movies for a bit

 

[muppets2]

i just saw preview of the movie and i really liked the animation im now 100% sure im going to see it

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I saw the first five minute of it and it looks very trite and more Disney than any Disney movie I've ever seen before. It was over preachy and dream come true and wish upon a star-y. It was overly Disney smarmy like Disney can be! *sigh*

You can't even give people ten seconds. Can't they relax?...

By the way, there's no way the father isn't going to die.


Sorry Disney, better luck next time.

 

[Drtooth]

But that stuff WORKS. Treasure Planet didn't really do that, Atlantis didn't quite do that (and tried to be Titan A.E.) and they both failed to click. I liked Atlantis, though...

Plus, you can hardly tell from a 5 minute clip. It could be better or worse as the film progresses. You take the wrong 5 minutes out of any movie, and you wind up with something terrible. it's like watching a bad episode of a TV show and never watching that show again, even if it was uncharacteristically bad episode.

 

[theprawncracker]

I saw the first five minute of it and it looks very trite and more Disney than any Disney movie I've ever seen before. It was over preachy and dream come true and wish upon a star-y. It was overly Disney smarmy like Disney can be! *sigh*

How is that a bad thing? It's been said numerous times that The Princess and the Frog is Disney's attempt to get back to their roots--hand-drawn animation with a good, heart-warming story. I saw these first five minutes as well and I thought they looked very good, very Disney, very classic. If you don't want Disney to be Disney... what do you want them to be?

 

[frogboy4]

But that stuff WORKS. Treasure Planet didn't really do that, Atlantis didn't quite do that (and tried to be Titan A.E.) and they both failed to click. I liked Atlantis, though...

Plus, you can hardly tell from a 5 minute clip. It could be better or worse as the film progresses. You take the wrong 5 minutes out of any movie, and you wind up with something terrible. it's like watching a bad episode of a TV show and never watching that show again, even if it was uncharacteristically bad episode.

I loved Treasure Planet. It's sad that didn't click. Atlantis just didn't get off the ground for me. But everything for this new Princess & Frog move looks fantastic. It looks like Disney *is* stretching a little out of their range for this one, but we'll see. It's hard to tell right now.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, here's the deal with Atlantis... Apparently it has so many striking similarities to a Japanese movie called Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, and it came under so much fire for that one. Even after the producers and everyone else who worked on that movie denied ever hearing of it. Of course, that would be the second time. They came after even MORE fire earlier for the Lion King which had more similarities to the old Tezuka series "Kimba the White Lion." The worst part is, Kimba was this close to being internationally known as Simba.

So, yeah, coincidence stealing of a film kinda bit them on the butt with Atlantis, but not as hard as venturing out of Princess films.

I have to say I liked that one, but mainly due to Don Novello's character. Never bothered watching the entire Treasure Planet... saw some of it on TV and didn't get into it. For that matter I wasn't too big on their Tarzan, either.

 

[Baby Gonzo]

Disney just doesn't seem to do well with the high fantasy (Dungeons and Dragons type fantasy) or science fiction genres. It's a crying shame too, I think. Because films like Atlantis and Treasure Planet (I enjoyed both of them) didn't do well, that's probably not a genre we'll be likely to see Disney explore any time soon.

Unfortunately, it seems as though most traditionally animated sci fi films don't seem to go over well with American audiences.

 

[yetiman]

I'm looking forward to the new film, probably more for what it represents for the future of animation than for the story itself (which looks pretty good, too; I'm one of those people who likes a dose of classic Disney smarminess). Whenever my family would go to Disney World when I was a kid, I would stand and watch the animators for hours. I remember my dad there with his hands on my shoulders as I stood entranced by one of them drawing a scene with young Simba. To this day, thinking of how cool that was gives me goosebumps. I was mortified when Disney basically scrapped their traditional animation department a few years ago.

I'm really pleased, however, that John Lasseter has been made Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation. I think that he has a real passion for good stories and a love for classic animation. He's someone who wants to quash the silly notion that 3D animation will kill off 2D (ironic, given his role in founding Pixar, which, until recently, Disney seemed to view as the harbinger of doom for traditional animation). Good for him on that. I think a lot of the more recent animated films seemed to be really lacking in story power. The animation continued to be stunning, but the films couldn't really hold my attention in the same way as the classic ones and the Disney Renaissance pieces do. Hopefully The Princess and the Frog will change that.