Thursday, November 27, 2014

TANGLED


2010

Tangled is Disney animated features' 50th film. Loosely based on the Brothers Grimm tale of Rapunzel, the film marked the return of a couple of great Disney veterans like Glen Keane and Alan Menken. In fact Keane was the original director of the film and was in charge of its development since 2002 (this movie took a heck of a long time to be made and went through a lot of changes).
Originally called Rapunzel Unbraided, the film was going to be a more Shrek-esque version of the tale, but Keane wasn't happy with the story (thank God!) and the plot was scrapped and reworked.

In 2008 Keane had to step down as director and was replaced by Byron Howard and Nathan Greno who had recently done an incredible job bringing Disney back to life with Bolt in 2008.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

PRINCESS AND THE FROG


2009

Princess and the Frog is Disney's 49th animated feature, and the first release done in 2D in 5 years. When John Lasetter was named Creative Director at Disney, he immediately reopened the hand drawn animation department, and Princess and the Frog was the studio's return to this media. And it did so in the best way possible.

Going back not only to traditional animation, but musicals and princess tales, the studio brought back a bunch of big animation names that had worked at the studio on the classics.
First of all, the directing duo John Musker and Ron Clements (Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules). They where there when Disney started it renaissance in the late 80's, and they where back again in 2009 for the studio's comeback.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

BOLT


2008

Bolt is Disney Animation Studio's 48th feature and what I would consider to be Disney's return to the right path. During the 90's the studio had gone through an amazing period putting pout a series of what could be their best films ever, but when 3D started to get more popular, Disney got into a dilema and had a pretty rough time figuring out what to do next.

And so, after producing their worst 4 movies in just over 8 years, they hired John Lasseter as Chief creative officer and finally came to what could be called Disney's new Renaissance.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

MEET THE ROBINSONS



2007

Meet the Robinsons is Disney's second feature film completely made in 3D animation, and the first one done after the studio's acquisition of Pixar, and so John Lasseter became a producer and an important part of the show's development. 

Based on the book "A day with Wilbur Robinson" by William Joyce, the movie was originally intended to be a live action film, but after a while it was passed on to the animation department where Stephen Anderson took it as a very personal project and directed it. 

The movie was actually presented in Disney Digital 3D in some theatres, after having done the same with Chicken Little. But the first Disney animated movie released in 3D was Adventures in Music: Melody in 1953! 

Sunday, November 9, 2014

CHICKEN LITTLE


2005

Chicken Little is Disney's 46th animated feature film and the first one in the studio's history to be done entirely by computer animation.
The movie marked a new era in Disney, which in the beginning didn't seem like it would be a good one. After the ALGO of Disney's previous movies Brother Bear and Home on the Range, and the success that other studios were having with 3D animation, the studio decided to shut down the 2D animation department and focus only on CG features.

Although Disney had already used CG to enhance some scenes since the late 80's and had even released Dinosaur, a movie done with 3D characters over live action environments, this was the first time the studio produced a movie done entirely in 3D. And I think that they struggled a lot in the beginning to create nice characters and environments and get to the 2D animation's level that Disney was known for.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

HOME ON THE RANGE



2004

Home on the Range is Disney's 45th movie and the last 2D animated film made by the studio before shutting down the 2D department to focus only on 3D features. The 2D department would later be reopened by John Lasseter when he was named head of the animation department. Since then, two more 2D movies have been made: Princes and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh.

But instead of ending 2D with a bang, Disney produced one of it's worst films to date. Visually, its great. Story-wise, its not very entertaining.