Future 2D Animated Disney Movies?

[pineapplewhipaddict]

So...before The Princess and the Frog was released, Disney expressed that with the film they sought to revive their classic 2D animation (meaning, not relying on CGI to create an animated film).

I also heard a rumor that if the film didn't do so well, that Disney might give up on 2D animation all over again...

The Princess and the Frog, by no means, "bombed" at the Box Office, but it didn't do as well as the pencil boys at Disney had hoped for, either. But let's face it - their expectations were unrealistic here. They were hoping for Pixar's numbers (a more male-geared demographic with the power of a pretty great reputation), but this film was based on a fairy tale (albeit altered) and men are trained to distance themselves from anything they might find "girly" in a world where most other things cater to their male perspective...and Avatar also came out. And the economy was at an all-time low.

Luckily, The Princess and the Frog has done very well in merchandise sales, so it hasn't been shunned back into the Disney Vault.

But...with all of this having gone down...have we heard of any upcoming 2D Disney projects? I remember hearing that The Snow Queen got shelved again, along with NEWT (though I think that was Pixar?). Tangled is all based in CGI.

Did Disney kill 2D animation again? Or does anyone know about any upcoming films?

Thanks!

[Melonballer]

Newt was a Pixar based film. It was to be computer generated, at least from what I have read.

The new Winnie-the-Pooh movie is a 2d animated film and is on track for a release. The trailer just debuted in the last few days. As for other 2D Disney films, we will have to see.

[FigmentJedi]

A lot of rumors are pointing towards a Discworld movie coming after Pooh. Possibly based on Mort, about a teenager who becomes the Grim Reaper's apprentice.

[Mr Mask]

My problem with a discworld movie...well, maybe the source material or something. It's very much set in stone. Disney were able to put a spin on the likes of Pinocchio and make it very much their own, giving it something the original source material didn't have. The problem with Discworld is that there's a set expectation of how it would appear and who it would really belong too. For example, I don't look at the prince of egypt and go 'Oh, that's a dreamworks creation', I go 'that's an interesting take on the bible story.' I could be completely wrong, of course.

I just wish that money wasn't the core issue. Double Fine recently changed their marketing strategy to PSN games- because going into the big market meant that they lost their artistic integrity, making major changes due to publisher demands that would set them back weeks. Disney doesn't have much to loose for sticking it's neck out over artistic integrity- again, could be wrong, but the way I see it artistic integrity should be at the front of Disneys business plan. The worlds very different now- word of mouth and analysation of films and the way moviegoers think is far more open than it used to be, and setting demographics down like borders should never even come into conversation. I mean, it's like Ron Musker said about Aladdin, they weren't thinking about what would appeal, they just took what they found funny and liked and made it into a movie.

I think the Snow Queen would have worked nicely. It's not a love story but a story of siblings trying to help each other. You'd have a great villain in the hobgoblin and his mirror- and hey, maybe there's chemistry to be had with his relationship with the snow queen. Maybe there's a sibling story to parallel in there too. And then there's the journey made and the characters met throughout the story...and plenty of opportunity for doing something no-one else has done, and also something no Disney fairytale has done before.

I don't know what the answer is. I think maybe Disney needs to think not outside of the box but about how storytelling works again. Princess and the frog is a great movie, and probably one of my favourites, but there's a real feeling of going through the motions and twisting or playing with existing ideas without just telling a good original story without any excuses or apologies. 3D animation could do that, but it's very much lacking in a specific style that really makes 2D animation so much more unique.