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

[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.