D23: Day 1- Inside the Disney Animation Studios Today

This session was guarded diligently by the Disney folk as they shared the latest offerings from the Studios, from feature animation to shorts this presentation gave us an opportunity to hear from the film-makers and animators about their latest projects. So, no photos from this event, just some related images found online.

Cept for this one, I took this one of the ballroom prior to the presentations

Disney animator, Darrin Butters was the presenter for this session and it began with a showing of Tangled Ever After and a discussion regarding the way in which this short really harnessed the old vaudeville slapstick roots of the gag films popular in the early animated shorts. A traditional comedy of errors this short features the wedding of Rapunzel to Flynn with ring bearers Pascal the chameleon and Maximus the head horse of the royal guards.

Someone has uploaded the short to Youtube: 

After my second viewing of Paperman, discussed in previous posts here. The animated feature film, Wreck-It Ralph was next and there was an extended preview of the film. I have no footage of that, but here's the released trailer so that we all know what film I'm talking about. Wreck-It Ralph is due for release in November. 

 

The really exciting thing about Wreck-It is that it combines 2 different animation styles (2D pixel and CGI) across 4 distinct aesthetically diverse environments. The initial phase of the film is a traditional CGI created world similar to that of Tangled- this includes the video arcade and the video game grand central station (or power board- looove this concept, so clever): 

www.articlewn.com Central station inside the power board

www.cinema.theiapolis.com The 'real world' of the arcade

www.column10.com Bad guy support group

The second aesthetic is that of the retro 8bit world where Ralph performs his job in a Donkey Kong-esque arcade game. 

www.epdaily.com 

The premise of the film is that after 20 years doing the same thing and always being the bad guy in a 1980s video game, Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly) has had enough and in an effort to become the good guy decides to game jump in search of his destiny. This process of game jumping takes the character into the 2 other aesthetically different environments of a 90s Mario Kart style game called Sugar Rush and a FPS game called Hero's Duty. 

Sugar Rush www.hollywoodreporter.com

Hero's Duty www.allmoviephoto.com

Not only does this film promise to push the limits of combining diverse animation styles but it also traces the development of arcade games from the 80s right through the to present day. In keeping with this concept there are stacks of old favourites from the gaming world that provide that nostalgic pull into the gaming world of the 80s, 90s and today. Classics such as Sonic, Pac-Man, Street Fighter and Frogger all make appearances and it's this authenticity that makes the film really interesting cos if there's one thing we love in a post modern world its a great mash-up or inter-textual pop culture reference. 

segabits.com

The final portion of this session was dedicated to the upcoming feature animation, Frozen- due for release in 2013. We were treated to new concept art and a reveal of final character designs and even music from the film. In a word. Awesome. The narrative is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story of the Snow Queen and signifies another move towards a female led animated cast. Frozen has apparently been in the sights of the Studio since the earliest days of Disney Animation. From what I've seen of the new concept art released, the film will venture into a darker psychological definition of evil that is different to the simplistic dichotomy traditional in Disney fairytale adaptations. 

www.blog.zap2it.com Menzel and Bell

With a cast that includes Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel in strong female roles and combined with the new concept art I've seen at the D23 conference; this is a film I will be looking forward to in 2013 for sure.