Princess Mammy... Sorry Maddy... Sorry Tiara... Sorry Tiana - And The Frog

The Disney film previously known as The Frog Princess has undergone some changes. Now, it's The Princess and the Frog. And now, Princess Maddy is Princess Tiana. Apparently, some thought the name Maddy sounded too much like Mammy, or Addy which was, reportedly, a slave name...

And this kind of thinking is why Song of the South is still under lock and key.

Jim Hill had the scoop, as per all things Disney. Best bit: that the title change was due to some seeing the original name as a slur on French Royalty. French Royalty? They're hardly an ongoing concern, are they.

The villain is, at least currently, a "smooth sinister black man who practices voodoo" called Dr. Duvalier. Will this change to appease the hystericals? And will Randy Newman get booted from soundtrack duty because, to put it bluntly, he's white? I don't think so. I sincerely doubt John Lasseter would do anything so silly, so open to criticism, so reactionary.

Shifting Sands For American Bunny, Buttons

Thomas Haden Church has been telling Sci-Fi Wire about his role in American Dog, the Disney toon originated by Chris Sanders, now being directed by Chris Williams.

We had a session, they went away, I went to Pittsburgh to work, and then I didn't hear from anybody for quite a while. Then I talked to Clark, the producer, at the beginning of January and he told me that Lasseter had replaced the director and they were just starting to completely rewrite the movie. So I used to play a one-eyed rabbit named Buttons. I'm not really sure what I'm playing anymore. I'm kind of kidding. I think the characters are going to remain intact, but the story is shifting. So I'm waiting, waiting for a script to arrive at my ranch.

April Fooled

Upcoming Pixar hoodwinked just about everybody last night, issuing an April 1st post that was picked up as news and ran left right and centre:

Pixar will delve into the area of VFX and live action with Brad Bird creating his first live-action feature length film, from the John Carter of Mars series. Pixar will provide the visual effects for the film with Brad Bird directing and Mark Fergus will co-direct and write the script.

Of course, even before you get to that bit of the story, there's a dead giveaway. The post begins:

As the first news post after the aquisition of Upcoming Pixar by The Walt Disney Company, I have been given the green light to announce Pixar's 2009 project.

There is a lot of truth in there, which makes it quite a convincing trick, I suppose. Mark Fergus is working on the script, Lasseter is executive producing, but it seems that Andrew Stanton is the most likely eventual director when the film does go into production, not under the Pixar banner, some point in the next couple of years.

Sonoma So Good

This year's Sonomoa Film Festival is to host a special tribute to John Lasseter. Among the highlights are the premiere of The Pixar Story and a programme of Pixar shorts, including some not seen in decades and a new one, as yet secret and receiving it's world premiere.

Wish I was there.

Frog Princess Officially Announced

John Lasseter has unveiled the 2009 release from Walt Disney Feature Animation, The Frog Princess. As reported here in November of last year, the heroine of the film is to be Disney's first African American protagonist. Her name is Maddy and she's going to be a real money spinner for the company and their Disney Princess merchandising machine.

We also told you that Randy Newman was composing the music and Dr. John would be playing and singing on the songs, and at least the first half of that was repeated in the press release also.

Musker and Clements are directing and their previous Disney successes The Little Mermaid, Hercules and Aladdin seem to be the jumping off point for the approach here. I'm hopeful that this is going to come out rather wonderfully, and so, it seems is Lasseter.

Unbraided Uploaded

A clip has appeared on YouTube alleging to be a few seconds from Rapunzel Unbraided, the 2009 release from Walt Disney animation. It was screened at Siggraph and a cunning pirate had their camera at the ready.

Directed by Glen Keane, and infamously reoriented in early development when John Lasseter was given his Disney spurs, this looks to be quite a pioneering film. Most intriguingly, it combines tecnhiques from 2D cel animation and 3D CG in new ways that are just a bit too nerdy to go into here. Oh... okay... you want the overly basic version? The artists draw with pens onto computerised graphics tablets, the end result looks like CG.

This certainly does look like a test for that film. Download the clip now, before it's too late.

Chris Sanders Out At Disney, New Director - And Plot! - For American Dog

Jim Hill Media have a very intensive break down of the comings-and-goings at Disney over American Dog, their big release for next year. Many of the characters we've seen in test footage have now been axed, the lead character redesigned and the plot radically revamped. Curiously, the story (which you can read at Jim Hill Media) seems like a weird hybrid of Buzz Lightyear's arc in Toy Story and the direct-to-DVD 101 Dalmatians sequel Patch's London Adventure.

According to the report, John Lasseter was not a fan of Lilo and Stitch. I love the film, for the most part - it's the visual style and set-pieces, mainly - but it is obvious that the third act was severely lacking and depended on some dry, overlong dialogue scenes and a touch of deus ex machina to get the loose ends anything like tied up. That film's director Chris Sanders is an obvious talent however, and I think Disney might live to regret losing him.

American Dogs' new director is reported to be Chris Williams, a story artist on Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove. If he's had the nod from Lasseter, I'm sure he's a good guy but, for now, we can only cross our fingers and hope that he has the odd wit and idiosyncratic style of Sanders.

American Dog For 2008

Chris Sanders' American Dog will be the next Walt Disney Feature Animation film, due for release in 2008. Where's that champagne again?

Bloomberg confirmed it today, quoting John Lasseter. He's full of good news, that Lasseter.

Jim Hill Has The John Carter Dish

According to Jim Hill Media, Robert Zemeckis and John Lasseter are to produce John Carter of Mars as a motion capture film (reported here yesterday) to be directed by Andrew Stanton (reported here weeks ago). They also reveal that the Zemeckis and Disney deal was behind the Mouse House's pursuit of the John Carter project.

Zemeckis, Stanton and Lasseter: how could this get better? Perhaps by signing Neil Gaiman to write the screenplay...

Ratatouille Success In Question

Jim Hill Media have a new piece about Pixar's big summer release, Ratatouille and how - already, almost seven months before it's release - it is being pegged as something of a sad financial failure. The article also sheds some light ont he true success of Cars, often labelled a flop when it was anything but.

This summer is indeed crammed with big movies, and any number of them are going to suffer, get lost in the rush, fall behind the few that will shine brightest. Is Ratatouille really destined to be one of the lesser performers?

I would like to think not. I would like to think word of mouth for Ratatouille - which should be phenomenal - will create a Must See Movie, a genuine Event Film, launching another box office jubilee like that which surrounded Finding Nemo's almost hysterical reception a few years ago. Word of mouth should be the most convincing marketing a film can be blessed with (though sometimes unjustly of course, as it often proves to be only an after echo of contrived marketing campaigns and no more an honest reaction to the quality of the film than a Larry King pull quote on the poster).

The bottom line of course, shouldn't be the... er... bottom line. I have no doubt that Brad Bird and the Pixar army will make Ratatouille into something extraordinary, and any plausible order of failure will still result in enough revenue to keep the studio on track.

When Will Pixar Go Real D?

Hollywood Reporter are, er, Hollywood reporting that 200 more Real D equipped screens will be in place across the US by March, in time for Meet The Robinsons. Real D is an extremely impressive 3D system, employed in the last twelve months to bring both Chicken Little and Nightmare Before Christmas to extra-dimensional life. Disney have been solidly behind Real D, even calling it Disney 3D for the releases of their films - but the qurstion remains, when will Pixar movies start hitting the big screen with their third dimension intact?

Not as soon as I hoped, apparently. Ratatouille is set only for a 2D release, as is the 2008 Pixar film, W.A.L.L - E, Andrew Stanton's sci-fi follow up to Finding Nemo. Apparently, the first film that might be given a 3D theatrical run is the 2009 movie, which I hear is to be directed by Monsters Inc.'s Pete Docter and is, so far, being kept very secret indeed. And even that one might remain 2D if Lasseter and Docter aren't impressed by the 3D tests that they haven't even started yet.

So, to cut a long answer short: not yet. And not for some time.

[EDIT: And now I'm being told (by those anonymous guttersnipes that tell me things) that Toy Story 3 is a serious candidate for the Real D process. Toy Story 3D, anyone? No matter how many dimensions, they also suggest that there will be two Pixar films in 2009 - Pete Doctor's one, mentioned above, and John Lasseter's Toy Story 3, with the sequel first out of the gate, and making it Pixar's tenth feature length release. We'll see]