Friday, July 07, 2006

2d Resurgence Whets Producer's Appetites

Hi gang! Animazing here! Here's an annotated fairy tale for you:

Once apon a time the Magic Prince
(i.e.: Michael Einsner)
left the Magic Castle
(i.e. The Disney Company)
and the New Magic Prince came into the Same Magic Castle
(i.e.: Joe Lasseter came to work for Disney),
and the New Magic Prince declared that the Old Magic Prince had banished the Court Jester to the dungeon, although the people clamored for him, and this was wrong so it's time to free the Jester.
(Lasseter saw that Einsner had stopped making hand drawn cartoon films, even though people like them, and this was wrong so it's time to free the cartoon films.)
And the people rejoiced.
(people went to the movies).

And they lived happily ever after.

It's a great story, but how will it play out in real life?

I asked several studios what they think of the coming resurgence in hand-drawn feature animation.

First up, PixelStrike Animation head Joe Frankenbaum:

"Man we've been waiting for something like this. We have 2 scripts that have been collecting dust since the "Lion King" boom. One- "The Princess and the Poo". It's like "The Princess and the Pea", but with a contemporary spin. The princess meets a little alien called "The Poo", who speaks by farting! Good songs by Hamilton Baumbach- he did some Off-Broadway that was nicely reviewed. Hasn't done much since we recorded the songs back in '98, but we still own them, so they're good to go. Lots of sidekicks. I think we can get Dane Cook to play a stork, and there's a humming bird that's right for someone with a lot of energy- I'd like to say Dave Chappelle, but nobody has signed anything yet. "The Poo" is played by a four dollar fart machine.

Second, is "Sherlock!" a wacky musical take on the great public domain hero. Baumbach did some songs for that. We're looking at Ashlee Simpson as the love interest, and Tim Curry as Moriarty. Lots of sidekicks. We want Joe Rogan as Sherlock's magnifying glass, and Jim Gaffigan would kill as Sherlock's pipe- he could whisper asides to Sherlock, like "Is that really a good clue?!?"

I laugh when my wife goes "Enough with the sidekicks! Even the sidekicks have sidekicks!"- but you gotta have 'em.

We're just going to sit low and wait for the first few hand drawn features to come back, then we'll roll out the big guns and come out blazing!"

Next up: Kim Delazny from ToonMotion Pictures:

"I'm so glad the hand-drawns are coming back. I've been dying to get this one made:

"The Cowboy Princess". It's a musical about a russian princess who hides out in the old west and pretends to be a boy.
It's got everything: great musical numbers, funny sidekicks, and a climax that takes place on train tracks inside an abandoned mine.
There can't be any of that 'gun fighting' and 'whiskey drinking', and the Natives are college educated or pretty much non-existent in our version of the old west, but the musical numbers are to die for.
We have Bill Engvall and Ron White as horses.
And because it's animation, we had to get some magic in there, so we have Andrea Martin as the Water Witch of the Western Wood. She's 'spook'-tacular!
Girls like princesses, and boys like cowboys, so a princess acting like a cowboy will enchant both demographics!"

What can I say?
It looks like hand-drawn animation will pick up right where it left off!
Spook-tacular, indeed!

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, these all sound really super!!! But I hope they don't forget to add fart gags, you can't have a funny cartoon without fart gags.

11:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This parable will have a happy ending only if Celine Dijon can get a leave from her 25 year Las Vegas commitment so as to record the romantic ballads required for all of these great new musical cartoons. This, perhaps more so than any other factor, is of supreme importance!

Note to self: Go to Woolworths for more carbon paper. My resume will be getting quite a wide distribution in the coming months, if you catch my drift!

4:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I need to point out the logical phalluses in your little so-called fairy tale.

#1. Roy Disney has a big nose, lives in a big, Irish castle and is a slave-owner. Therefore...

#2. These sort of films are so popular that nobody likes them anymore. That is to say, if something is popular it is bad. So, in conclusion...

#3. Anyone who would stoop to work on such projects has no personal integrity, morals, scruples or basic understanding of personal hygene.

Ya See?

viper

7:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

whomever wrote the comment above mine sounds unintelligent and makes no sense

i'm ecstatic for the upcoming resurgence in 2-D animation, but these proposed projects from other studios "Princess and the Poo" etc that were talked about in this article sound horrendous...they might as well not even try...

but for Disney, i'm REALLY excited for a new disney 2-D feature with musical numbers and classic-in-the-making characters!

9:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's John Lasseter not Joe Lasseter.
I miss my pencil.

11:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HUahuahuahua! This really makes me sad...

=]

3:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Man we've been waiting for something like this."
"I'm so glad the hand-drawns are coming back."

Somehow, I get the impression that all these other studios don't dare to carry out their ideas for the 2D animated features unless Disney/Pixar starts it first. Much as I love Disney and Pixar, I find it rather sad that the others aren't daring to go into the "unknown" and seem to be just waiting for someone to take the first step... (Though I'm also glad that "Princess and the Poo" hadn't been made.)

But that's just my impression. :)

6:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, Well, Well! So the "anonny-mouse" cowers behind his anonymous annonimoity while brave, industry insiders like myself use a pseudonym and take their cowardly, ill-informed abuse! The logic-haters are ruling the roost!

That does it! I'm outta here! Exit stage left!

8:23 AM  
Blogger Animazing! said...

Folks folks folks!

Message boards like this are a chance for us to come together and say that animation is swell!

They weren't made for disagreement! Let's all shake hands and agree that cartoon imagination running by at 24 frames per second is POUND FOR POUND, your best entertainment value!

I slave away at this site for sometimes up to 25 minutes per month! That's almost long enough to watch an episode of "School School", but it's a sacrifice I make for the gooderment of animation kind.

So let's agree to agree.

8:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'd just like to take this opportunity to offer a richly-deserved public apology to both viper and animazing! for being rude earlier in this thread.

As an industry outsider, I realise now that my "opinion" (such as it is) should rightfully take a back seat to those "in the know!"

Please, viper, don't leave! I'll do anything to make it up to you! I have been rude and discourteous to someone who is so clearly superior to me in every way. Please, animazing!, make him stay and ban me instead!

1:10 PM  

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