Is it just me, or do you get a little Peed Off at the counter programming that Disney does to try and ambush rival animation departments? I really dislike it. Personally as an animation lover I want the different animation studios to push each other to the limit. Remember the classic era of animation, the 30's and 40's, where all the theatrical animation units were "one upping" each other. That's how Warner's developed it's style, Disney theirs and Fleischer's their's. Then as the studios stopped, one by one, producing animated shorts, the format died. The imagination and drive went away. I'm excited as hell about Dreamworks, Fox and Warners all starting up with big animated products. Well let's see, next we get LITTLE MERMAID opposite ANASTASIA. And what was Disney going to do against PRINCE OF EGYPT? Dreamworks' 900lb Animated Monkey. Well, I didn't know of anything till Betty Boop sung the truth, or at least the latest rumors:
Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida is taking a 2 year long sabbatical from feature-length films to work on shorts, Fantasia 2000 (which, techically is and isn't a feature-length film, ya know), and restoration.
First up for restoration is Beauty and the Beast, which will have about 8 minutes resored, including the song "Human Again", and Belle teaching the Beast how to read. B&tB did have a continuity problem, the result of this number being cut from the original film. It will be re-released a la the Star Wars films, and will go up against Prince of Egypt. Jeffrey Katzenburg's Disney Oscar-Nominated (Best Picture) masterpiece against Jeffrey Katzenberg's new baby. This should be fun to watch.
Next up for resoration is the classic, Snow White. Just about everyone has seen the rough animation for the bed-building and soup-eating scenes. These will be restored to the film.
Well this will be very interesting to watch... Who will win? Well personally I'm rooting for the new guys on the block. Alot of Disney's product of late, seems like animation by numbers, staying to the formula. These new guys are experimenting and straying from the path most traveled. I love Disney films, and the concept of adding the food scene back in Snow White fills me with fear and dread. Walt Disney cut those scenes for a reason, messing with Uncle Walt's original vision is... umm disturbing.
