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Disney goes back to it's roots... about time..


Toadofsky
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Okay, so I've never really been into musical numbers in animated films, with a few exceptions, The Sword in the Stone, Aladdin, Robin Hood, you get the idea.

But after every film company saw the money Pixar was making from their early films, they all ditched hand drawn films. That's not to say that hand drawn films were bad (a good deal of them weren't that good), but where the money flows, people follow.

I was actually saddened when I heard that Disney was ditching hand drawn animation (especially when they though Pixar would be independent from them), in favor of CG.

Well, I don't know if this is old news or not, but check it out...

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/princessandthefrog/

There's bound to be songs in this film from the description, and tough I still cringe at that cliché, I'm actually glad to see them doing this.

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Nice! Hopefully the quality of the animation is matched by the writing.

About the music however, think of the music that has come out of Disney in the past---"Some Day My Prince Will COme" comes to mind. Sadly the people who wrote that stuff don't write for Disney any more...

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See, I miss the music perhaps MORE than I miss the hand-drawn animation, though I suppose I miss both. Count me in the apparently rare minority of folks who think the Lion King was poop, because in my opinion Alan Menken and Howard Ashman/Tim Rice were the absolute shit - Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and especially Aladdin all had epic soundtracks with great lyrics. THAT's what I miss, and it's been gone for quite awhile.

No one shoots like Gaston.

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See, I miss the music perhaps MORE than I miss the hand-drawn animation, though I suppose I miss both. Count me in the apparently rare minority of folks who think the Lion King was poop, because in my opinion Alan Menken and Howard Ashman/Tim Rice were the absolute shit - Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and especially Aladdin all had epic soundtracks with great lyrics. THAT's what I miss, and it's been gone for quite awhile.

No one shoots like Gaston.

I feel the same. When i was at Disney World last, 16 years or so ago, my parents bought me this 1" thick hardback music book I wanted. Cost like $80 (I think, memory is hazy), but it had almost every classic Disney music piece, with the lyrics and sheet music (piano if I recall). I Loved it for years. I wonder where it is now....

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All of my sisters and their girly friends started sobbing and blubbering with tears pouring profusely from their eyes when Mufasa got killed.

My brother and I were staring at them completely dumbfounded with a look of: *blink---blink---blink* on our faces.

Like djp said though, the really good ones like Beauty and The Beast and Aladdin had incredible soundtracks to go with the art. I'm going to go ahead and throw Mulan on the list as well. Actually, when I think about, I don't even critic the art work unless the soundtrack sucks. It gets and instant pass if the songs are good Disney or not. Take Spirit for example

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As much as I like the Pixar stuff, NOTHING tops the hand-drawn Disney animation of old. Nothing at all. Period.

It's also a glimmer of hope for those of us who still hold out hope to be illustrators and traditional animators someday. O.o

Even the CG projects usually start with basic sketches.

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See, I miss the music perhaps MORE than I miss the hand-drawn animation, though I suppose I miss both. Count me in the apparently rare minority of folks who think the Lion King was poop, because in my opinion Alan Menken and Howard Ashman/Tim Rice were the absolute shit - Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and especially Aladdin all had epic soundtracks with great lyrics. THAT's what I miss, and it's been gone for quite awhile.

No one shoots like Gaston.

Never went to see Enchanted?

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This probably will be pretty good. I wouldn't mind some songs if they are generally catchy and enjoyable. I think the thing Disney really needs to be careful about is the writing. They're catering to an audience of "everyone," which is extremely difficult to pull off. Pre-K kids up to grandparents are probably going to see this movie, and it's very hard to write a movie that appeals to (as an example) the college age group at the same time as it appeals to kids. I think the big thing is to not dumb it down with immature humor. And, since we're on a music site, an epic score. Gotta have that epic score.

So does anyone here think that this will get other companies to create hand-drawn animation as well?

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See, I miss the music perhaps MORE than I miss the hand-drawn animation, though I suppose I miss both. Count me in the apparently rare minority of folks who think the Lion King was poop, because in my opinion Alan Menken and Howard Ashman/Tim Rice were the absolute shit - Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and especially Aladdin all had epic soundtracks with great lyrics. THAT's what I miss, and it's been gone for quite awhile.

No one shoots like Gaston.

I don't think I could possibly agree more with this post.

Beauty & the Beast is still my very very favorite movie, followed closely by Aladdin. I listened to those soundtracks constantly through my childhood and I still love them today. I hope the new movie lives up to the expectation.

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This movie looks really cliche. It's good to see more traditional animation but I've never been a big fan of Disney. The last film I liked from them that was made just by them was Lilo and Stich. And my favorite animated film from them is Fantasia. I'm also not too keen on musicals so another strike against them.

Speaking of which, can I expect to see that come out of the FUCKING DISNEY VAULT any time soon?

EDIT: I Answered my own question.

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/comingsoon.html

March 2010: New Platinum Edition DVDs and Blu-ray

details, extras to be announced

...Assholes...

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See, I miss the music perhaps MORE than I miss the hand-drawn animation, though I suppose I miss both. Count me in the apparently rare minority of folks who think the Lion King was poop, because in my opinion Alan Menken and Howard Ashman/Tim Rice were the absolute shit - Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and especially Aladdin all had epic soundtracks with great lyrics. THAT's what I miss, and it's been gone for quite awhile.

I guess I sound like I'm against animated films with songs in them, I'm not, and since Disney hasn't really released a hand drawn film in quite sometime, it's a welcome breath of fresh air. I'm getting tired of CG films, or animes that are completely done in CG (I hated Appleseed Ex Machina, just my opinion, sorry). I don't hate them, but so many companies try to bank on doing it, thinking that as long as it involves CG, it'll sell. Some of those said films tanked, and rightfully so. Funny, I recall Brad Bird's interview before The Incredibles came out (he directed The Incredibles, and helped finish Ratatouille, he also made the great film The Iron Giant), and firmly believed that that would happen.

The only companies that have done CG right, at least for me, is Pixar, like two Dreamworks films, Blue Sky (Robots, Ice Age 1,2,3), and the company that did Surf's Up (I've heard Disney's Bolt was good, but I haven't seen it, yet). Dreamworks did perfect with the first Shrek, no question, but fell flat in my opinion on the two sequels. And most of the other films they've done, I could care less about, not to mention taking Pixar's idea's (Sharktale, Antz, anyone?).

In regards to Disney, the last good film I saw that was hand drawn of theirs was The Emperor's New Groove. Sure, it didn't have the Disney song and dance staple, but it had the classic humor of the old films, ala stupid evil sidekick. I certainly hope they have those kind of staples in this new movie.

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