Now that production of "Brother Bear" has concluded, Disney is celebrating by laying off 50 animators. Unfortunately for those animators, in more ways than one, "Brother Bear" may be the last animated feature many of them ever work on.
Sure, "BB" may be a hit... if they name a character Pixar and mention his name a few thousand times in the commercials. Frankly, I see no way this movie will make money. The trailer made earlier Disney efforts, like "The Fox and the Hound" and "The Black Cauldron," look like pinnacles of the artform. And don't get me started on the dumbass plot. Or why they decided to play the trailer before the excellent "Finding Nemo" and with the hilarious trailer of Pixar's upcoming "The Incredibles." Or the dimwitted selection of November as the release date. You thought Simba's dad got trampled? Wait until November!
After the dud that was "Treasure Planet" and the expected-to-be-duds of "Brother Bear" and "Sinbad," I think hand-drawn animation (or at least animation that LOOKS hand-drawn) will go into hibernation. Disney's next effort will be even cheaper than "BB," which I guess means pre-schoolers with crayons, which should be the final nail. So those with a craving for "old school" animation will have to get their fix with Nickelodeon's feature films.
COMING SOON TO A THEME PARK NEAR YOU... FOR SURE
Screamscape - WDW
All is not dire in the Disney world, since Disney World is getting closer and closer to its opening date for Mission: Space. Fantastic reviews were spreading like wildfire when Imagineering held a little event for the ride, but the true test came last week when Epcot CMs were allowed on the thing. The early word from them? Mission: Space will NOT be the ride to beat in the future. (Spider-Man breathes a sigh of relief.) But they are apparently saying it is a very fun ride, which actually IS a big deal for Disney lately.
A new rumor around WDW has Disney draining the Magic Kingdom's Submarine Lagoon to build a theater in that space. So the next logical step in this rumor involves the previous rumor about Aladdin making its way to the Orlando parks. WHY? The other three parks ALL need something worse than MK does. Yes, Disney/MGM doesn't really need another show since they are building the Auto Stunt Show right now. And the Aladdin theme would mesh horribly with the animal theme at AK. But there is still Epcot, and the ancient rumor about a Hyperion-style theater being built in World Showcase. Aladdin would be PERFECT there. Grrrrrrr!
COMING SOON TO A THEME PARK NEAR YOU... A THEME PARK!
Orlando Sentinel - Jun 7
A Florida committee has unanimously decided that it would be in the state's interest to buy Cypress Gardens. So now it's up to Brother Bush (see how I tied it all up to my brother theme?) and cronies to decide whether to acquire the land with Florida Forever funds.
The bad news is that if the park does get bought by the state, it apparently can't be run by neighbor and time-share magnate (sigh) David Siegel wouldn't be able to lease it. His ideas of adding exhibits and museums is a good one, though, and shouldn't be ignored. The good news is that it apparently also can't be bought by Kent Buescher, who for some reason isn't called theme-park magnate or somesuch, who wanted to sully the park with Spin 'n' Barfs and the like. Let's all hope Brother Bush runs this environment better than Baby Bush runs the rest of it!
They both just need to stop what they are doing and take a break for about 2 years and start hashing out fresh stories.
I mean, did someone really think "Spirit" was a GOOD idea? It's a movie about a horse featuring music by Bryan Adams. I don't know who that's supposed to be appealing to. Canadian horse enthusiasts (I know, the Canadian government has already issued a formal apology for Bryan Adams)?
I think Disney needs to reign itself in and limit itself to just one traditional feature for theaters, 2-3 features for video, and one computer animated feature per year. Ever since Disney expanded their releases they've been having problems. They need to relearn that it's quality, not quantity that people want.
As for telling good stories, "Emperor's New Groove" did fairly well also, but not up to expectations. I don't think stories are enough right now. Hand-drawn is fine, but when hugely popular Nick characters can't bring in $100M, then there is something wrong in Dodge.
It's kind of like popcorn movies. Some seem interesting, like "The Italian Job" but others just have the buzz, like "2 Fast 2 Furious." And there are only so many movies someone will see in a year. So lesser movies like "TIJ" are put off until they hit the rental stores. That's what's happening to hand-drawn animation. With the Shreks and Nemos out in theaters, families are just deciding to save the $30 they would have spent in the theaters to just wait and buy the DVDs of the "lesser" movies. Hand-drawn animation is just going to have to go away for a while so when it comes back it will have a touch of nostalgia and won't seem so tired.
But to my great surprise, the trailer I saw was actually appealing. The movie looks beautiful. So maybe I'm just out of touch with the rest of you, or maybe they wizened up and changed the trailer.
For me, this was a more appealing trailer than I've seen in a while for a Disney movie. So I'm more optimistic now that Brother Bear might actually be good.
But I agree that a November release sounds really stupid. Release it in August, when the kids are still on summer vacation but have all seen Nemo 10 times already.
- Joy
November has historically always been a big month for family oriented movies.
Did you mean Atlantis? Your argument is still sound if that's the case...
The reason hand drawn is failing is the same reason other studios' cartoons fail - a bad story is a bad story (the notable exception to this rule is Iron Giant - at the time of its release, Warner Bros couldn't market their way out of a paper sack).
And that trailer isn't helping. Some people may be interested in that trailer, but we saw it with the trailers for "The Incredibles," "Sinbad," "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," "Freaky Friday" and "Radio" (don't ask me why an adult-oriented movie was mixed in with that group!) The theater was almost packed and the crowd reacted enthusiastically to "The Incredibles" the most. Followed closely by "Looney Tunes" and "Freaky Friday." No one made a sound during the other two kiddie trailers. Well, right when everyone thought the "BB" trailer was over there were groans and sighs, but then the moose twins came back on and people laughed at that. If they can focus more on the humor, like they did for "Lilo and Stitch," and stay away from the schmaltz, they MIGHT get people into the theater.
Still, it opens the same week as "Matrix Revolutions" which may have a different audience, but could make parents stay away that weekend. The following week brings "Looney Tunes" with "The Cat in the Hat" the week after that (I rhymed!) Once the Cat hits town, "BB" will be a memory since those three will be fighting it out for Thanksgiving crowds. There's no doubt the Cat will rule, but who gets the leftovers? If I had to guess, I would think parents, who do make the movie-going decisions, will choose to see Bugs and Taz over "some bear movie."
As for "Treasure Island" being computer-animated? Yeah, I DO think it would have done much better. Horrible reviews didn't keep people away from "Dinosaur." And many people probably went to see "Ice Age" because it was computer-animated. Does anyone think it would have done as well if it were hand-drawn? I sure don't. I just think there is a subconscious perception out there that since more work is being done creating computer animation, that more work is going into the other areas too.
"Monsters, Inc" is a perfect example of this. Here we have a sitcommy script that suddenly turns into a heartwarming comedy with the appearance of Boo and then turns into an action-adventure. Had it been animated the old-fashioned way, would people be making such a fuss over it? Wouldn't it be great if we could release all these movies in parallel worlds, with one world getting only hand-drawn and the other getting the computer versions?
My favorite segment from Fantasia 2000 was Rhaposdy in Blue, in part because of the Al Hirschfeld look. Yes, you need a great story for a successful animated film. But you also need a fresh look. Right now, computer animation provides that. So does anime, which is part of the reason why so many people adored Spirited Away. (Of course, Disney's decision not to release or market the film aggressively doomed it to modest B.O. in the U.S.)
Still... I predict that the audience someday will tire of the glossy look of computer animation, and those animators will, too, need to vary their films' looks in order to retain the audience.
