Disney won't be doing fairy tales anymore

Specialty Other Disney
#1

Source: latimes.com/news/local/la-et … ory?page=1

As much as I’m a little bit sad over this, I’m kind of glad Disney is finally taking the initiative to break out of the fairy tale loop and try something completely new and fresh. This IS the 21st century after all. Things that may have worked for audiences in the 90’s won’t work for audiences today, and it looks like that Disney is acknowledging this.

Tangled is pretty much their last attempt at a Disney Princess fairy tale movie.

That being said, the only thing I’m completely crushed about is Snow Queen. It was originally shelved, but now since Disney won’t be doing fairy tales anymore, it seems like this project has been completely scrapped for good. :cry: And I was really looking forward to that too.

#2

I’m kind of torn between being sad and being excited for a new era of Disney.

#3

I’m angry that people are going to think that just because Disney isn’t doing fairy tales anymore means they’re “cold and soulless corporate.” Because, you know, trying something new means they’re soulless. Hey, I’m sad too, but this will probably change eventually. They pulled the plug on these before, and they came back. And besides, not all of their great Renaissance films were fairy tales–The Lion King, Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, The Emperor’s New Groove, Treasure Planet? All excellent, heartfelt Disney films, and none of them fairy tales (3 of them not even musicals).

Being a video game geek, I’m excited for Reboot Ralph. And personally, I’d much rather them go with the artist’s muses than their own formula all the time. Going on the obvious metaphor of Gusteau’s being Disney, to quote Collete:

“It was [Gusteau/Walt Disney’s] job to be unexpected. It is our job to follow the recipe.”

That’s basically what they have been doing. People make the mistake of thinking Disney is and always has been nothing but fluffy animated fairy tale princess films. No, it wasn’t. Disney has been making movies based on original stories since the beginning. Walt Disney was a very risk-taking, innovative man. He loved trying new things and testing his limits. Heck, Fantasia, a very famous, iconic and gorgeous Disney film that does not fit the “fluffy fairy tale musical” archetype, was a test in animation. That’s the reason he’d be more glad that Tangled is in innovative CGI instead of traditional, and the reason I expect he would not want his future employees following his old formula.

It annoys me when people act like Walt would agree with their opinions when he just wouldn’t. Its just pretentious, elitist and obnoxious.

What I wonder, though, is if the fact that I think Disney is just not seeing their real demographic with animated musicals: teenage girls. I saw PATF with my friends on opening night, and I’m not the only one. I had a friend who, after seeing the movie a gazilion times with her little sister, bought the entire soundtrack, something her sister couldn’t do. While its true that after 5 or 6 little girls will forget about Cinderella and want to be Hannah Montana (somebody get me a barf bag, please) once they hit 13 our eyes switch back to loving animation again because we’re old enough to blame it on nostalgia, I guess. My sisters see all new animated Disney and Pixar movies in theaters, more than they see any live action film. We watched PATF and Up in English class last year, and even the boys were entertained. Teenagers, at least where I live, love animated movies we can “aww!” at.

#4

I’ll have to agree with you here, as mush as how I’m attached to Disney fairy tales, I have little or no problem with this piece of news. Truth is truth, not many people interested in fairy tales like before. Can Disney control that? Not much. So why worry about things like that when what you need to worry about is making good movies? They need to move on. Walt Disney said it himself: “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Memories can weigh you down. Sharks have to continue to move forward, or they’ll drown. :sunglasses: Though I think they can bring back Disney music somehow, eh, because obviously Hannah Montana isn’t music.

Besides, who says something has to be a fairy tale to have heart and a little nostalgic feeling? As long as they are good. Example: Pixar movies themselves. Talking about Pixar, isn’t Brave a fairy tale? Disney is closing its fairy tales book, Pixar will open a new one. (I have a funny vision of Disney making their fresh new movies and Pixar producing original fairy tale hits). Not to mention there are many other studios out there too.

This case can be sum up in another line from Ratatouille:

“The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends.”

So let’s be the friends they need.

#5

I’m glad the article said for the foreseeable future, because we’ve been down that “never again” road with Disney before. I hope they will do some really great original stories, branch out and be creative, but I also hope they won’t “focus group” themselves to death, trying to figure out how to sell to tweens. And I think the big “box office poison” for modern kids isn’t just fairy tales, it’s period pieces and genuine musical theatre (non-pop-song) scores, which is what really makes me sad, because I love those things.

Oh, and I still don’t think of Pixar’s “Brave” as a fairy tale - I think of it as a medieval epic with a female lead and magic/fantasy elements.

#6

Excellent.

I’m glad they’re switching gears. There’s nothing wrong with trying things different. I just hope they retain the same timeless quality as the Disney classics; that’s where Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons failed to an extent. I just hope they aren’t going to try to appeal to tweens who want to be “hot or cool” as they put it in the article. Reboot Ralph sounds a bit like it might go down that path, but who knows, it might be a classic. Unfortunately the general theme makes it seem like it will be a bit dated soon. I just hope Disney continues to focus on quality instead of marketability.

#7

I was baffled at first but hey, Disney must know what they’re doing so I trust them with this decision. But isn’t king of the Elves a fairy tale? Does that mean it will be scrapped too? I hope not.

#8

I suppose I’m fine with it as long as they don’t keep putting teen-based garbage.

#9

Who isn’t sick of that teeny bob bullcrap?

#10

I guess no one, except for Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana fangirls, obviously.

#11

You guys are referring to Disney Channel programming. Not fair, since the Disney Channel is programmed by ESPN, not Disney. Those shows still suck, though.

I have no opinion. If the ,ovies are good, great. If not, don’t blame the genre, blame the people.

#12

Incredigirl: Oh my God, thank you. People do realize that Disney is a HUGE company (the biggest entertainment corporation in the world) and every little section is run by a completely different group of people, right? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen comments on YouTube say stuff like “Why aren’t they making a movie for Epic Mickey instead of releasing more Hannah Montana crap?” I dunno, maybe because the people making the Hannah Montana crap are not involved with Epic Mickey in the slightest?

wheezes So…yeah.

#13

YOU GUYS!! Disney just posted this on their official facebook page!!

from Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Facebook page.

So all you classical Disney fans, you can all sigh with relief now. :slight_smile:

… I guess this taught us a big lesson to never believe things we read off the internet. >_>;;

#14

Oh yes! Thanks Danachii. That’s a relief, and at the same time it makes all our comments defending the new Disney above sound funny. :laughing:

#15

What about doing myths or classic literature? Surely Hercules and Mulan were not a Fairy Tale by any means, and the same goes for The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective (which were based off of book series).

EDIT: ^^Oops, just looked at their facebook page too, so I’m just confused now. Did LA Times make up that story- because it seems like they have direct quotes in there? Or is Ed Catmull just explaining why they’re not going to do Fairy Tales anymore.

#16

So, in a way, Brave will be the last fairytale to be distributed by Disney for a while.

And I say a while because I don’t think that ultimatum will last forever.

#17

Thanks for posting that up - I saw it reposted as a comment on the article from the LA Times, and was going to mention it. Besides, that makes more sense, since the article quoted Ed Catmull as saying “They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it … but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up.”

Just because they aren’t specifically lined up doesn’t really mean anything. Apparently, versions of how to do the Rapunzel story had been around for years, but it was only now that they actually figured out how to make it work. It was in a featurette or something, but I remember hearing someone say, the initial problem with the story, is that Rapunzel is in the tower - and the longer she stayed in there, the less the story worked. Their first goal was to give her a real reason to get out of the tower in the first place, and they went from there.

It’s like screenwriting books often say - start your story as late with your main characters as you can. We know she’s been locked in the tower for years. That’s established - we want to see what happens when her world changes.

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#18

So the fairytale trend won’t be ending? Thank Goodness.

#19

But wait, didn’t the article have like real quotes from Ed Catmull blasting Fair Tales?

“If you say to somebody, ‘You should be doing fairy tales,’ it’s like saying, ‘Don’t be risky,’” Catmull said. “We’re saying, ‘Tell us what’s driving you.’”

Does that mean that they made these all up? Or perhaps Ed Catmull was lying when he said this.

#20

After calming down and reading facebook and that article thoroughly, I have a feeling that whatever Disney may have done or said was greatly exaggerated in this article (judging by what Disney posted on their facebook account just now).

I think what Catmull is trying to say is that because Disney has started this entire genre of fairy tale musicals, then those are the ONLY types of films that people are always expecting them to make, which is untrue. He wasn’t technically blasting fairy tales by any means, only stating that they want to try and be more risky by coming up with new and fresh ideas for their animated films, which doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re giving up on fairy tales completely.

Besides, fairy tales and musicals were what made Disney famous in the first place. And people really love them too. Giving up on them completely would be really heartbreaking and it would drive a lot of their fans away.

(Although I still have to wholeheartedly agree with what Rac_Rules and a lot of other people have said a page back.)