News from WDW: Brother Bear songs/traditional animation

[Michael Zielski]

Everyone may know this already(as I subsequently found it on the net), but after speaking to one of the Disney animators after the animation tour at MGM Studios, I learned that the upcoming Fall animated release, Brother Bear, was going to feature songs by Phil Collins, which I thought was some exciting news--he was also quite hopeful about the film itself. He felt that the Treasure Planet debacle was one more of poor timing of its release. When I asked him about the traditonal vs. computer animation debate, he assured me that traditional animation was not going away--Disney simply would not let artists like Glen Keane and Andreas Deja go. He also told me that Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois had not left Disney after their Lilo and Stitch success(as I had thought), and that they were currently working on a few very promising concepts. All in all, possibly some good news on the music and animation front....for a change. Mike.

 

[SharonKurland]

Someone I know is married to someone who works for Disney Design Group. Roy Disney was having a meeting with them (I don't know how long ago, but for arguements' sake, I'll say it's within the past year, though I could be off by a few months) and someone asked if they were every going to go back to fairytales and musicals in their animated features. He promised they were, as soon as the things on the front burners were done. So...we'll see.

-Sharon-

 

[X-S Tech]

While I hope that 2D comes back, let's keep in mind that the stars of traditional animation (Glen Keane and Andreas Deja, etc...) have been given intensive computer training (it's like taking a concert pianist and making them learn another instrument). Anyway apparently Glen has been working on a 3D film based upon The Snow Queen for quite some time. Hopefully these people will be able to go back to what they do best. Animation finally had that big change of Management that we were all hoping for so maybe that will do some good.