Of King & Kingdom...

A whole new world...










It's amazing what a couple of years and a blockbuster can do to a studio...

The Hat Building is flying on all cylinders and things are a buzzing. But not everything is going well in the Happiest Studio in Burbank.

Later this year, "Wreck-It Ralph" will debut and show audiences that "Tangled" wasn't a fluke. From the stories I've gotten, it sounds like they really have a heart filled tale that will have everyone seeing this film over and over again. What "Toy Story" did for toys, this does for video games. And the nostalgia for those that grew up on 8-bit games as well as those that love the 90's games are going to be in love with this film. And boys, will eat this up. Get that? "Boys," the marketing demo that the Suits seem to be worried about.

After that, next year we go back to classic fairy tales. Minus the names that tell you they're royalty, of course. But one tale that won't be happening anytime soon is about Elves. That's right, "King of the Elves" was racing with "Frozen" to be the 2013 release and it still has too many story structure problems to make it across the finish line. So many in fact, that Chris Williams is now off the project and going back to work on other projects (not as a director, but story boarder). It seems the script for Snow Queen aka: "Frozen" is in much better shape and it got the release date for next year, while KOTE got put on the shelve. Again.

Ron & John's new project is going through story development and could wind up being the 2014/15 slot, but it's still deep in the early stage so time will tell what happens. A lot of people have commented that this will be the duo's first computer animated film. As of now, there are development test going on for traditional, hybrid and computer examples, and no decision has been made. This decision won't be made for quite a while. Just like Pixar, the focus is on story, story, story. Not, the medium it's presented in.

The projects competing for 2014/2015 are the uber-secret film from Don Hall, which will be a marvelously unexpected project if it ever gets the green light, and Nathan Greno and Byron Howard's films which are deep in development. These are projects that are busy working out the story elements so that the films live up to John Lasseter's high Pixar standards. The one that gets the release slot will be the one whose story is deemed ready to actually animate. Not a bad concept, right?

There are a couple other projects in concept form and many more animators are lining up for pitch sessions with John for a chance to develop their ideas. Slowly the culture has changed over the past half-decade to the point where many animators and artist actually are having fun again. And many are hoping that they will be part of the Third Golden Age of Disney Animation. That is a very good thing.

Those of you that are fans of "Prep & Landing" will be interested in knowing that the ratings for last Christmas' "Naughty Versus Nice" special weren't where ABC/Disney wanted them to go, and any plans for a third special have been put into a holding pattern as the Suits figure out what/where or even when/if it should go forward. It's possible that the advertising schedule didn't exactly set the mark for giving people the information for when it would be broadcast. So Burbank is factoring in merchandise, ratings and other elements to see if there is any viability in creating another special. I certainly hope so, because there was talk of taking all of them and combining the into a film with original footage along the lines of "Winnie the Pooh."

And when talking about animation, if you follow WDAS then you know there was talk of moving down toward Glendale a while ago to be next to WDI. Those plans were canned and plans moved to trying to find a place on the lot to build a new animation building. Well, now the goal is to take the existing animation building and rework it, kind of the way Disney California Adventure had an extreme makeover done to it. And just like DCA was kept open as guests went about their way, so would be the same for artists in the Hat Building. It's nice to know that in addition to screwing up Disneyland's Second Gate, Eisner was capable of screwing up the animation building as well. But thankfully, it's all getting fixed.

But it's great to see the majority of news coming out of the Hat Building to be positive...

Canine Howlings, Doggie Minutes...

Lots and lots of stories about dogs lately for Disney, eh?

The Mouse has put up small interviews with "Bolt" Directors Chris Williams and Byron Howard and Head of Story, Nathan Greno.

Enjoy...

Williams' Guest 2...

The Animation World Magazine has an interesting article talking about Chris Williams' new short "Glago's Guest" and a brief scene from the actual short.

Click over and take a look at what the future holds...

Hat Tip to Animated News.

Williams' Guest...

The guys over at Animated News have got a nice article about the new Disney short, "Glago's Guest" with some very intriguing artwork from it. I've been hearing really good vibes about this one. It is after all, what got Chris Williams the co-directing gig in the first place. Lasseter trusted this guy to help him bring out the first "John Lasseter" produced film, so he must have saw something in him...

"Glago's Guest" will play in front of Walt Disney's next animated feature, "Bolt". We'll have to wait until November to see them both, but soon we'll get our first trailer for Walt Disney Animation Studios new regime. Although, it seems like the time it's taking to see this film is in dog years...

How Long Before More Shorts?

All right...

By now, everyone knows that the new Goofy short will premiere before "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" next month, but the real question is what is next? And when?

Well, from what my sources tell me, there are at least five shorts in active development. Three of which are well into production. The next one we will see after Goofy, may not be until next summer, but right now it looks as though the debut of "Bolt" a year from now will yield the next one. There has been talk of having a summer release of the next one, but as of right now there is no definite decision as to place one before next summers offerings.

So what will come in front of "Bolt"?

Well, that movie is being directed by Chris Williams and the short that will play in front of it will be one directed by...

Chris Williams?

Yup. Chris Williams got the job taking over the directing chores on "American Dog", now known as "Bolt" when John Lasseter saw the story reels for his new short, "Glago's Guest". So he not only has the pressure of being the first film released under The Mousetro's reign, but he also has a short that he directed attached to the front of his directorial debut. Not much pressure, eh?

From what I'm told "Glago's Guest" will be a very beautiful, artsy tale about a Russian guard out in the in the middle of nowhere that is visited by an extraterrestrial. It was good enough for Lasseter to trust him with a major animated feature. And before you ask... yes, it is CG.

So what else can we expect?

Well, as well as the short from Goofy's "How To", "Glago's Guest", we have "The Ballad of Nessie" and "Prep And Landing". There are another couple that are in preliminary stages. Yes, Disney's classic characters will be in some of these... in fact one short that is being planned will be directed by Disney Legend Eric Goldberg involving the classic trio themselves. There is a chance that the "Nessie" one could be ready by fall next year, but I don't think we'll see it before "Glago"... just my own intuition, schedules could change. The "Nessie" short(about the Loch Ness Monster, of course) should be interesting, it's being done by the directors of the Goofy short, it's hand drawn like the "Goofy" short and is very much in the style of Mary Blair's drawings. The story of "Prep" is about some very inept elves that prepare Santa's sleigh for Christmas Eve to disastrous results... do you think Disney will plan on releasing this one during a certain holiday season? There are many, many shorts being prepared for pitches, not all will make it into production, of course. The goal will be to have at least two a year by the end of next year... if things go well, they may try for three a year, but we'll have to see how they go and play for the audience.

But come December 21st, we'll get to see a new Disney short, and trust me...

It won't be the last.

About Time To Name "American Dog"...

It appears Chris Williams' American Dog is in the process of getting a name. A new name, other than "American Dog" that is. The movie is up on reels and gets screened soon by the Big Wigs in Pixar and WDAS. Chris is probably biting his nails right now waiting to see how John, Brad, Andrew, Pete, Glene and several others feel about what he's done since taking over from Chris Sanders.

American Dog Gets A New Master...

It appears that American Dog is not going to die a slow death.

Everyone was thinking that after Chris Sanders was fired the project might get shelved.

Yesterday John Lasseter announced that Chris Williams a veteran Disney story artist will be the new director.

It also appears that the rumor about Lasseter turning Disney back into a 2D only studio is not true. Ed and John said that they plan to turn Disney into a director's studio just like Pixar. The directors will decide what medium they want their films done in.

So anyway... it appears that American Dog is still on schedule to be the Disney's major 2008 animation release.