Thursday, April 22, 2010

Future Mouse Tales...


So Rich Ross presented his vision of what the future of Walt Disney Pictures/Studios will be...

And it's a lot like what we've seen in the past. Very much so. Ross is definitely the showman that Cook was from what I'm hearing. Here are the cliff notes:

- As we've already stated, he announced that "Monsters Inc. 2" will be released on Nov. 16, 2012. Pete Docter is back on board as well as the actors playing Mike and Sully, but I forget their names.

- Andrew Stanton's live-action debut, "John Carter of Mars" is supposed to be out in 2012 but hasn't been slotted with a release date yet.

- Jason Segel will have a Muppet film that is loaded with cameos of celebrities just like previous films in the series.

- The trailer for "Tangled" was shown and is very similar to the one that was leaked online, but not exactly like it. There is a clear emphasis to try to play up the adventure for boys, and the name Tangled certainly does that. Uh hum...

- Strangely, or not I guess, Disney did some cross promotion for Paramount Pictures, "Captain America," "Thor" and "Avengers." I guess since all those sequels will be under the Mouse it's ok to mention the competition, huh?

- Johnny Depp and crew start shooting POTC 4 in late May/early June.

- Ross says he deep sixed the 20K prequel because it was "too dark," but didn't rule out bring it back at another time. I would have canned it because of any involvement with Will Smith personally. Dark doesn't bother me.

- Tim Burton's "
Frankenweenie" was talked about. I wonder if Johnny Depp will be involved?

- Pixar's "The Bear and the Bow" is now titled: "Brave" and will be released
June 15, 2012. I guess that title was changed for the boys too, eh?

- They showed more of "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" at the event. A clip, yada, yada.

- Then there was a clip of "
Secretariat" the horse opera, no I mean, the drama about horse racing. That's it, yeah. Again, another project of Dick's.

- The "Tron Legacy" trailer was shown, but again, nothing new. Ross, are you playing reruns or what?

Really it seems like here I am to show you all the stuff by the guy we fired. My question to Ross is what are you going to do? Because judging by this event, you are still on the coattails of Dick Cook.

I'll be back later to finish up any loose ends and add some commentary, maybe...

18 comments:

Bob said...

I'm wondering if Ross had a point to this presentation. Just seems like he said a lot of stuff everyone already knows.

Anonymous said...

yawn...

almost nothing new mentioned that wasn't already announced or speculated.

Anonymous said...

me thinks mr. ross will be in sinking waters sooner then we originally thought.

Anonymous said...

oh, and d23 website has it listed that Pixar's Brave is the new title of Bear & the Bow.

Anonymous said...

Apparantly I completely read over where you wrote about bear and the bow now being titled brave.

parden moi

Anonymous said...

"I'm wondering if Ross had a point to this presentation. Just seems like he said a lot of stuff everyone already knows."

Lets be fair here. There are plenty of people that make up the general public who do not keep abreast of Internet rumors. Honestly, you cannot claim that "everyone" already knew this information. :)

"There is a clear emphasis to try to play up the adventure for boys, and the name Tangled certainly does that. Uh hum..."

Wow Honor, in the few years that I've been following your blog, I've never known you to hold such a grudge before. We all know that Rapunzel would have been a better title, but what's done is done. And after all, isn't it ultimately the story that matters? :)

Honor Hunter said...

Oh I'm not holding a grudge...

I expect to enjoy the film like any other and I look forward to seeing it since what I have seen looks incredible. The movie I hope, will do gangbusters. And I naturally hope that is is good. Under Lasseter I think it will be far better than most would expect, but I hate fiddling from Suits. If you've read the blog the last few years then you'll notice my feelings toward Suits and their moves. I think Lasseter and Catmull agreed to this, but I know that many people in marketing were talking about how little "boy" appeal it had. They seemed to think that the word tangled is masculine enough to draw them in. Ridiculous. I hope that this film is great and makes a biggillion dollars, but if it does so, it will be because of the story and great animation. Not because of a name change.

Suits seem to not get that...

Bob said...

"Lets be fair here. There are plenty of people that make up the general public who do not keep abreast of Internet rumors. Honestly, you cannot claim that "everyone" already knew this information. :)"

I think you took my post a little too literally, Anonymous. I'm sure EVERYONE didn't already know the news. But I think most of the people who care about this stuff did. After all, who is reporting the presentation? The same blogs that reported the news the first time around.

Matt DeWater said...

Honor, what kind of music is playing in the final Tangled trailer? Please tell me no more Pink.

Anonymous said...

There's no Pink, but what they went with kinda makes you wish they stuck with the Pink song: It has the remake of Elvis's "A little less conversation".

Sigh.

Anonymous said...

"If you've read the blog the last few years then you'll notice my feelings toward Suits and their moves."

Yes, that's true. Suits really don't seem to get it. Thanks for the response. :)

I guess we can only hope that in the future the suits don't spoil things too much.

And yes, I understand that there wasn't anything earth shattering in the presentation. Oh well... I guess not everything can be a shocker.
Perhaps they will surprise people at the next D23 Expo.

Jay R said...

20K too dark? Just release it under Touchstone... I don't see why too dark would be a big deal.

Wasn't it Ross's decision to get rid of Miramax? Maybe the guy wants Disney to make ONLY family friendly movies from now on. Not a good move IMO...

Jim Haley said...

- Strangely, or not I guess, Disney did some cross promotion for Paramount Pictures, "Captain America," "Thor" and "Avengers." I guess since all those sequels will be under the Mouse it's ok to mention the competition, huh?

Just one comment here - while Disney is not the distributor for these films (that would be Paramount) - Marvel Studios is the production company, and since Disney now owns Marvel Studios... I can see why they'd be promoting these films as well.

Anonymous said...

Brave was the internal project name for Bear/Bow. The decision to go with Brave is based on simplicity of title, not some kind of appeal to the male movie-going demographic.

How many Pixar titles so far have been as wordy as "The Bear and the Bow"? None. Between TS2 and TS3, all have been one-word or two-word titles, mostly one-word (Cars, Rat, WALL-E, UP). In fact, all Pixar films have been one-word or two-word titles except for A Bug's Life, TS2, and TS3.

Brave conforms to the Pixar short title tradition. I don't know what they were thinking with "The Bear and the Bow" in the first place. Doesn't really fit the Pixar mold at all.

Brian said...

I think the major problem is they dumped far too much information whatever it was, two years ago, about all their future plans up through 2012. Did you expect them to start talking about 2013? They would have been better spent keeping their cards a little closer instead of mentioning a movie like Bear and the Bow in 2008...

Anyone know if Newt has been dumped though?

Anonymous said...

Remember, folks. Rich Ross helped run Disney Channel into the ground. I expect nothing less from him than pure screw-ups.

jedited said...

To anonymous above, how EXACTLY did Rich Ross run the Disney Channel into the ground?!?
The Disney Channel is one of the MOST popular cable channels. Maybe YOU don't like their offerings, but ALOT of others do.
YOU might not like HSM or Camp Rock or Hannah Montana or the Jonas Bros, but those properties are VERY popular and VERY profitable.
And to Jay R, Disney does best when they focus on family friendly fare. Family friendly fare is Disney's bread and butter and it is what sets Disney apart from all the other studios. Plus AGAIN their family friendly fare is BY FAR their most profitable. Compare the grosses OR profits of the Disney branded movies to ANYTHING from Touchstone or (ESPECIALLY) Miramax. NOT EVEN CLOSE! And (before you say it) FEW people care about Oscars, ESPECIALLY not investors/stockholders.

Jay R said...

Jedited,
I don't disagree that Disney branded movies are more profitable. It would be foolish for me to think otherwise.

I'm just saying that it's not a bad thing to reach a variety of audiences. Most quality Miramax movies did make a profit, due to the fact that they are generally low budget. This profit is coming from an audience that Disney wouldn't otherwise reach... if it's profitable and reaches a different audience, I just don't see that as a bad thing. And the Oscars definitely don't hurt.