The Frogs are Escaping Early!

[tealin]

Okay, it's been officially announced so I can pass it on:

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
Limited release NY & LA 25 Nov 2009
Nationwide* release 11 Dec 2009

That's a month earlier than the original schedule, in case you didn't know. It's very smart business-wise but at the same time AAAAAAH. Did I mention I'm busy? :)

*and presumably Canadian

Comments

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

Saw some of the teaser shots for Princess and the Frog while checking out part of "The View" on Disney today that you mentioned...love how it was lumped in as "3D" animation with the rest of the Pixar films and Bolt :P...but, actually, I was really impressed by what I saw. Must be quite an amazing project to be part of ;) If the overall quality of it turns out anything like "The Little Matchgirl," "One by One," or "Lorenzo"...I'll be quite a happy camper.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

In my opinion it's well above 'Little Match Girl,' but then my main impression of that one is that nobody looked genuinely cold ... it's not 'Lorenzo' but it's hard to get that consistent of quality in a long movie with a large crew. I still haven't seen 'One By One,' argh.

And yes it is AWESOME to be here.

Now I must turn away from the internet and do my job. :D

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

One of the things I really liked about those particularly shorts is that none of them felt as though they were catering to anyone (i.e. small children and their overprotective parents...). I love the soft, watercolor illustration style of Matchgirl (though the next time I watch it I suppose now I'll have to look out for your comments regarding temperature) And Lorenzo was just...all-around amazing XD I saw them at a screening of rare/rarely-shown Disney shorts at a film festival last year, and remember thinking...my gosh, I haven't felt this satisfied seeing new Disney animation in a long, long time, and maybe there's hope for the Disney Studio after all. Which is why I brought them up in comparison to Princess and the Frog (whose first teaser trailer frankly made me go :/ )

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, if you're talking stylistically, Frog is squarely set in about 1993. But the animation's really good (some of it is REALLY good ... like, REALLY) and the characters are fun, and the art direction is rich and elegant if not particularly stylized. I think there was a real effort to play it safe with this one, visually, because it's the first 2D feature in a long time, to be as 'old-school Disney' as possible and pull in people who would be turned off by anything that looked new or daring. There were people who didn't like (or didn't even go see) Hercules because it looked too freaky ... artistic folks who want something more interesting will just have to take one for the team this time around. :)

Deleted that last paragraph because I don't want to jinx the test screening and make them change Seq 27. Hopefully it's in your email.

[ledygrey.livejournal.com]

i loved hercules for that reason. it was like disney animation + ancient greek art = hercules. i didnt like some of the characters' designs, but the fact that herc's knees and fingernails were a disneyfied version of the greek fret made me very, very happy.

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

Re: Deleted Last Paragraph
YES. lol, Well in that case, I'm really looking forward to this film. ;) That's very cool to hear.

--

Oh, btw.
Someone posted high-quality clips of the teaser animation from View here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUQ32HluSZ8
And screenshots here:
http://www.animated-news.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1843&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=630

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links!

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

Ah. It also occurs to me to wonder. At work do you typically refer to your scenes by number? (Like Seq 27)

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I do, it's faster than saying 'That bit where Frog Naveen does a song and dance for a puzzled construction worker'* but it only works when speaking with other people in a department that's worked on the sequence already and so knows what it is ... or when speaking in CODE. :D

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

That bit where Frog Naveen does a song and dance for a puzzled construction worker
I honestly burst out laughing at this comment, and had to explain myself to my friend who was sitting next to me.

Ah, so if you don't mind me asking, what does a "sequence" (I'm assuming that's what Seq stands for) usually entail?
Is it like a complete scene, or only a clip of complete action with one character, or a complete conversation/dialogue (etc.)?

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It's kind of what would be called a 'scene' in live action or on stage ... a series of shots unified by characters, location, and/or theme. So in Beauty and the Beast, for example, you'd have the West Wing sequence, the Belle Escapes the Castle sequence, the Ballroom sequence, etc. They get numbered for clarity. Each individual shot in animation is called a 'scene.' I don't know where the discrepancy with live action terminology comes from, but there you go.

I'm glad you got the joke ... I never know when a reference I make is actually as universal as I think it is. :)

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

Huh. That's really interesting. Because after your made mention of "Seq 27," it occurred to me that perhaps I wasn't having my characters think and refer to their assignments in a way that wasn't correct to actual animators...and when I checked further on another website (http://afilmla.blogspot.com/search/label/Pinocchio) and looked more closely at the way that these drafts were labeled, I found that I was right. Thanks so much for the info! :D

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

I am willing to suck it up and volunteer to attend such a screening. I will even pay for travel should it come to that. Such is my commitment to the art.