The Princess and the Frog Concept Art Alert!

[tealin]

---> CHECK IT OUT <---

Preeeettyyyyy.

Also check out the interviews! May I draw your attention specifically to Bruce Smith who is ... A ... GENIUS. I mean, not that the others aren't too, but ... dude. GENIUS. (bonus feature: look behind him ... !!)

Aaargh, I can't wait till there's a proper trailer out so I can show you why, and you can see the awesome. SO AWESOME. I hope it gets attached to Up...

Comments

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Oh my! That looks gorgeous :)

[martes.livejournal.com]

Disney features always have impeccible designs, animation and art direction. Unfortunately, while the art is a 10, the stories are usually a 3 or 4. There's so, so many fabulous books and stories that would make kick-ass animated films, but they keep doing 'classics' and fairy tales. It's very frustrating.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I could probably go on for hours about this (and might someday) but it basically boils down to this: Disney makes Disney movies. If they made anything else their audience would feel betrayed and stop paying for tickets. Other companies don't have this baggage, but neither do they have the money (or, sometimes, talent) to pull of anything of quality. Very, very occasionally, something slips out the gate that defies this pattern, but this is how the world works, unfortunately.

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really beautiful. It's been awhile since I've gone to see a Disney movie--last one I saw in the theater? Uh...I can't remember. Probably...yeah, Hercules, probably (and as a classics minor, can I venture to ask what they were smoking when they wrote that story?).

Anywho, I might actually have to go see this one.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They were smoking this:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!

Yrs. sincerely,

Tealin

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

Ah, of course!

I mean, I don't have anything against the movie on its own merits--for instance, I like how the animation style mirrors ancient Greek art--but it has about as much in common with the original story as it does with fruit salad.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Fruit salad: colourful, wholesome, tasty, a little heavy on the bananas .... yup, I'd say you've hit it head-on.

[bevinbaka.livejournal.com]

I have to ask when Disney's ever made a completely faithful adaptation of a fairy tale or piece of folklore. I see "Hercules" get ragged on a lot, but I guess most people are more familiar with the original story than they are with the originals of Sleeping Beauty or Aladdin. Is that it, os is it something else specifically about Hercules that draws such sharp criticism for its deviations? I'm honestly curious. =)

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

I think it's because a lot of the non-Disney takes on the European fairy tales are just as softened and prettied up as Disney's are/would be, while most Greek mythology adaptations- even for kids- preserve the original nastiness.

(Though I managed to write a Disney-friendly treatment of the original myth that merely softened a few edges, not bulldozed over them.)

[bevinbaka.livejournal.com]

I can see instances of softening with some, like Snow White or the Little Mermaid, but others are very, very different from their original stories. Aladdin is pretty different from its original story; the extremely bare-bones basics are still there, but the story's structured pretty differently. I guess I'm failing to see how combining Hercules's story with that of Perseus (with the pegasus) (edit: whoops, I meant Bellepheron, not Perseus) or his relationship with Hera, or the attitude toward Hades, is so much different than changing Aladdin's home life, or the entire story of how he gets into the cave with the lamp, or the existence of the flying carpet, or combining the roles of the vizier and the wicked African sorcerer, or even the entire ending of the story.

I'm a huge Greek mythology nut and I didn't watch the movie expecting to see the exact story because that isn't what Disney does. Could they have been more faithful to the source material? Possibly, but that isn't what making a movie is about for them, it's about telling an entertaining story that promotes certain values and doesn't tick off the parents. Sure you can argue they shouldn't have done the story at all if they couldn't tell it accurately, but by that account they shouldn't have done most of their other fairy tales, either.

All in favor of preserving the nastiness?

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone for a Disney adaptation of Oedipus Rex? I would KILL to see what they did with that. Although I guess we'd end up with a completely different story . . . and maybe a helpful dog or something. (The only way to salvage that would be if the dog were Gaspode)

[ardys-the-ghoul.livejournal.com]

Generally, I don't hate on Hercules specifically, it just happens to be the only Greek myth Disney has done, and I'm studying Greek myth at the moment--like I said, I'm a classics minor. Generally, I prefer books to movies anyway, and thus I think I'm better at giving books a fair critique.

I only mentioned it to begin with because I was trying to remember the last Disney movie I saw in the theater--although now that I think about it, I think I saw Atlantis in the theater, too.

Gosh, now this makes me wonder what my classics professor would think about it.

[beckychan.livejournal.com]

So very COOL! And we were just talking about this the other day!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but ... you've actually SEEN what's behind him, more or less.

:D!!!

[beckychan.livejournal.com]

Please see icon for proper reaction.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

lol, TOTALLY SECONDED.

[uberklutz.livejournal.com]

so, I know that... secretly-ish...you've been working on that film. Are you contracted just for this job or do you think you'll be working at Disney a lot in the future or perhaps, permanently? As a musician, I have no idea how animation studios hire out and I'm kinda curious.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Everything's just project-to-project. Unless you work at Dreamworks. :)

[fani.livejournal.com]

BRUCE SMITH!!! (I like the designs for Proud Family and and the Kerchak and he did Dr Sweet too yes?)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I think it was Ron Husband who did Sweet; I don't know what he's up to these days. But Bruce did Pacha!

I'd never seen Proud Family until just this last Thanksgiving. It was weird, it was like ... ok, tv show, tv show, WHOA BRUCE SMITH!, tv show, tv show ... It was cool cos it's a really different style than what he's working in for Frog, but it both of them have his fingerprints all over them.

[kairii1989.livejournal.com]

Argh, my computer won't let me watch any of the interviews. But I do love all the stuff I was able to see. I'm really looking forward to seeing this in theaters. The last traditionally animated movie I've seen on the big screen was probably Brother Bear.

[missuscarroll.livejournal.com]

This is so weird--when I first heard about this movie a couple years ago it seemed so far off, and now 2009 is just a couple months away. I'm super excited!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well, it's right at the end of 2009, so don't hold your breath...

[missuscarroll.livejournal.com]

Okay okay. But it definitely isn't 2007 anymore.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__lys_fleurx__/]

I'm so excited to see it!
will you be in the credits?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Yup. But you have to guess which name is mine. >: )

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Ohhh OOOHHHH!!!! I KNOW!

[mariahgem.livejournal.com]

OMGOMGOMG, thanks for these links! The interviews were short, but awesome! And those concept art pages... GAAHHH! *drools*

I WANT ALL THESE TO COME OUT NOW!! PLZZZ!

[alexandra-stone.livejournal.com]

that looks sooo awesome!!!

[stevie-roch.livejournal.com]

I am so bloody excited about this. Hand drawn animation has been abandoned by the wayside for too long.

[mildlyconfused.livejournal.com]

*tweeeep*

Words cannot express how much I'm looking forward to this movie!

And that concept art .. *sigh* I love it so much, I want to marry it.

And it crushingly reminds me of the fact that I don't have a snowball's chance in hell to make it into VisDev. Ever.

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

I *love* the art!

The interviews won't play for me, so please tell what's behind Bruce Smith?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Artwork.

:D!!!

(It's actually kind of cruel for me to point it out because I don't know how well anyone can see what it is without already knowing what it is, but ... so excited, can't help it.)

Here, a screencap for the Quicktime-impaired:

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

You're right, I don't know what it is, but I'm excited that you're excited!!!

[azvolrien.livejournal.com]

Ooh, pretty! I especially like the one with the boat in the tree.