DreamWorks Discussion

[GeorgeC]

Droo,

That's something I never understood about Touchstone Pictures.

It was originally established as the "adult" Disney (PG- to R-rating) label during the time of Ron Milller and they actually produced the movie "Splash" prior to his ouster.

That was actually one of the GOOD initiatives put into place before Eisner came in.

(Of course, for 10 years, Big E got away with taking a bunch of credit for everything that went right and it was only after the people were gone that could do damage control for Big E that everybody began to see what an out-of-control egotistical control freak the guy was.)

If I remember correctly, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" was originally released theatrically through the Touchstone division. Disney kind of let the label lapse within the past decade or so and even said to the point that they were discontinuing it just like they did Hollywood Picture.

Why, with all the complains about the story limitations of American theatrical animation -- everything's got to be a fairy tale, princess this-or-that, "universal," etc., etc. -- why didn't they take a chance and try to do something DIFFERENT on home video through the Touchstone label?

With all the Walt-this and Walt-that and people trying to second-guess "what Walt would have done" why not be braver on home video with lower budgets ($5 million or less) INSTEAD of wrecking established perennial money-making films with sequels that were never intended to be made or wasting $140 million on an untried market for a space pirate fantasy film (Treasure Planet)?

The way show business is run, top-to-bottom, is just not that smart. The CEOs by and large are not that smart in the way they run their businesses but gosh do they know how to steal like nobody else and engineer golden parachutes for being such mediocre "leaders". "Leader" has replaced the word "loser" and "louse" in business.

Greed has just overcome any kind of common sense in the world we live in today...

[Ben]

Heh heh...George just copied me...


Yep...Who Framed Roger Rabbit (no question mark due to Hollywood superstition) was a Touchstone (still is), The Nightmare Before <I>was</I> a Touchstone before the recent reissue. Strangely, both Dick Tracy and The Rocketeer were issued in the States as Walt Disney Pictures releases, but they were Touchstone Pictures films here in the UK and internationally.

There was no "as and how" as to whether a title was a Disney or a Touchstone release...I remember Roy Disney saying how they would watch a final cut of each film and decide on which label to market it as. Roger Rabbit was famously nearly a Disney film but Baby Herman's 50 year old dinky pushed it to Touchstone (interestingly, Spielberg also preferred the Touchstone banner on that one).

Hollywood Pictures was an odd one and was essentially set up to handle productions in which Disney either didn't have a full stake or for films that they might handle in the States but were released by other companies around the world. Eventually that entity basically became what we know over here as Buena Vista International, although that too has become one with Iger's overall renaming of BV as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

[GeorgeC]

Actually,

the thing is Ben that your response hadn't been posted to the website while I was composing mine.

Sheer coincidence. We were just thinking along the same lines.

Isn't telepathy great?

[eddievalient]

Strangely, both Dick Tracy and The Rocketeer were issued in the States as Walt Disney Pictures releases, but they were Touchstone Pictures films here in the UK and internationally.

I'm not sure about the Rocketeer, but my dvd of Dick Tracy has the Touchstone name on the package and the Touchstone logo at the end of the movie. Then again, part of the packaging is in french, so maybe it's a Canadian dvd?

[James]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchstone_Pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fi ... e_Pictures

[Ben]

I have to take that list with a pinch of salt (NB4X wasn't a "co-production with WDP" for example) and they haven't counted the ones as mentioned that had banners swapped internationally or some others that were pick-ups released under the Touchstone name.

Your Dick Tracy DVD is interesting Eddie...could be that it also went out under Touchstone in Canada. I do know that it came out here in the UK and Europe under Touchstone, but that it carried the Disney Pictures logo (a white on black if I remember right) in the States, according to a VHS I have.

On The Rocketeer, the official VHS tape I bought over here in the UK has Touchstone all over it (on the cover, on the front of the film) but the US LaserDisc I have of the same title is Walt Disney Pictures, which swaps out the Touchstone labeling on the sleeve and the front of the film.

The thinking was, probably, that when the film sadly didn't fly in the States a change in presentation was in order. Like Roger Rabbit and Dick Tracy, it was probably felt that the "Disney" name wasn't quite right for a film in which people get bumped off by Nazis, comic book or not. Rocketeer came out here under Touchstone instead and did indeed do a neat pile of business, albeit not enough to spark the intended trilogy.

Some films - especially the early ones - also had name changes: Adventures In Babysitting became the neutral "A Night On The Town", while Shoot To Kill became the (better, I think) "Deadly Pursuit". D.O.A. got extended to "DOA: Dead On Arrival" (to better explain the term to non-US audiences). The Good Mother was "The Price Of Passion" elsewhere, and Gross Anatomy was "A Cut Above" in the UK/Europe. There were others (Life With Mikey/"Give Me A Break", The Ref/"Hostile Hostages", Encino Man/"California Man") but mostly in the 2000s the titles have remained the same.


George...thanks for stating the obvious...I knew my post just pipped yours...hence the wink when I said you were "copying" me. Telepathy is great.

[Neal]

Well, taken from /Film, here it is:

DreamWorks Animation has announced plans to release five feature films every two years, up from their previous two films a year schedule. The company cites their “three very successful franchises” as one of the reasons to produce an extra film every other year. Apparently the plan is to release one or two sequels a year, as well as an original project, all of which will be produced in digital 3D. Check out the full schedule after the jump.

March 26th 2010: How To Train Your Dragon - “Meet Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, heir of the Viking chiefdom, but a boy with one very big problem: a hero he is not. “How to Train Your Dragon’ is the riotous story of Hiccup’s quest to hunt down the fiercest dragon, bring it into submission, and—hopefully—pass his initiation. Instead, he ends up with the smallest, most ornery dragon—it’s even toothless! Thus begins the hijinx of the world’s most lovable, unlikely hero and a most reluctant “beast.” Packed with energetic drawings and plenty of action, this boisterous tale is just right for fantasy fans or anyone with a spirit of adventure. Based on the book by Cressida Cowell.” Directed by Chris Sanders, and featuring the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

May 21st 2010: Shrek Forever After (retitled from Shrek Goes Fourth) — Directed by Mike Mitchell (Duce Bigelow, Surviving Christmas, Sky High).

November 5th 2010: Oobermind (formerly titled Master Mind) - Written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, Oobermind is a satirical take on superhero movies (think The Incredibles), in which a notorious villain (Robert Downey Jr) who finds life a little bit boring after he accidentally kills his nemesis, good guy superhero Metro Man. Ben Stiller and Tina Fey are also proving voices.

June 3rd 2011: Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom (formerly titled Kung Fu Panda 2) — Longtime story exec Jennifer Yuh Nelson makes her feature directorial debut, in a story following continuing adventures of Po, the Kung Fu panda.

November 4th 2011: The Guardians — Based on an upcoming book series by William Joyce, whose work inspired Disney’s Meet The Robinsons. Described as “a contemporary fairytale based on existing fairytale characters,” Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman team up to defend the world from a Bogeyman-like villain. Of course, the characters have been “somewhat renamed and massively reimagined”. The first book has a tenative release of Christmas 2010. Visual effects artist and animator Jeff Lynch makes his feature directorial debut.

March 20th 2012: Puss in Boots — Shrek the Third director Chris Smith directs this prequel spin-off to Shrek 2, telling the story of Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). Salma Hayek will voice the female love interest named Kitty.

May 27th 2012: Madagascar 3 — Directed by Eric Darnell (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa), the new story will follow the animals as they travel to Europe as part of a traveling circus. Tom McGrath previously said that the would like to see the characters return to their home, the Central Park Zoo, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen any time soon..

November 12th 2012: A Yet-to-be-chosen Original Feature from the following three options –

Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco’s caveman comedy The Croods (formerly titled Crood Awakenings) which was once set up with Aardman Animation. Set in the prehistoric era, a man’s position as Leader of the Hunt is threatened by the arrival of a prehistoric genius who comes up with revolutionary new inventions … like fire. Sanders has described the project as: “The idea of having all the modern conveniences and social structures that we’re familiar with gone and being left with just a pure form of people was really fun to imagine working with.”

Truckers — based on the first of the thee books in Terry Pratchett’s best-selling The Bromeliad Trilogy, which tells the story of the Nomes, a race of tiny people from another world who now struggle to survive in the world hidden among humans. They find an artifact known as “The Thing” which teaches them about their secret history and make plans to return home. Screenplay is being written by Slumdog scribe Simon Beaufoy. The film has been in development at the studio since at least 2001, originally with Shrek director Andrew Adamson attached to write and direct, but went on to helm Shrek 2 instead before moving on to the Chronicles of Narnia films.

Super Secret Ghost Project (tenative working title) — A story which asks what ghosts think about humans. I imagine this will be DreamWorks’ attempt at copying Pixar’s Monsters, Inc.

So, not to just unnecessarily knock DreamWorks, but seriously, only The Guardians has my current interest. I enjoyed "Meet the Robinsons". Even if it strayed from Joyce's book, I think a new adventure from him could be great. I also enjoy stories that tie together 'holiday mascots' - such as The Nightmare before Christmas, a select number of Rankin/Bass films, etc.

Otherwise, I'm not too interested.

[EricJ]

March 26th 2010: How To Train Your Dragon
Directed by Chris Sanders

(A unique, stylized director often described by Jeffrey Katzenberg as "Hahaha!!! We got him, we got him--Take that, Disney!!")

May 21st 2010: Shrek Forever After (retitled from Shrek Goes Fourth)

...From back when they thought there was going to be a Fifth one.

November 12th 2012: A Yet-to-be-chosen Original Feature from the following three options –
Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco’s caveman comedy The Croods (formerly titled Crood Awakenings)
Truckers — based on the first of the thee books in Terry Pratchett’s best-selling The Bromeliad Trilogy,
Super Secret Ghost Project (tenative working title) — A story which asks what ghosts think about humans. I imagine this will be DreamWorks’ attempt at copying Pixar’s Monsters, Inc.

Asked which project he thought might particularly attract Sanders' interest for quirky stories and sympathetically off-center characterization on a less studio-regulated level, Katzenberg replied "Who cares??--We got him, we got him! Take that, Disney, HAHAHAHA!!!"

November 4th 2011: The Guardians — Based on an upcoming book series by William Joyce, whose work inspired Disney’s Meet The Robinsons. Described as “a contemporary fairytale based on existing fairytale characters,” Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman team up to defend the world from a Bogeyman-like villain. Of course, the characters have been “somewhat renamed and massively reimagined”.

So, not to just unnecessarily knock DreamWorks

(There's no such thing: It's ALWAYS necessary.)

but seriously, only The Guardians has my current interest. I enjoyed "Meet the Robinsons".

Yeah, and I enjoyed "Monsters vs. Aliens".
But not so much that I want to KEEP seeing it for the next five years.

[American_dog_2008]

I can't wait for Dragon, Shrek and Puss!

[Once Upon A Dream]

Shrek Forever After is a better title,but about this:

based on existing fairytale characters,” Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Jack Frost and the Sandman

They think that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy are fairytales? Three Little Pigs,Snow White,Little Red Riding Hood,those are fairytales,not Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny,they reminds me of those people who think that Lord Of The Ring and Harry Potter are fairytale.

[PatrickvD]

March 20th 2012: Puss in Boots — Shrek the Third director Chris Smith directs this prequel spin-off to Shrek 2, telling the story of Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). Salma Hayek will voice the female love interest named Kitty.

... kitty? that was really the best they could come up with? This sounds DTV-ish to me.

None of these projects excite me all that much. I like the Madagascar films, so the third one could be good.

[Phil]

I thought these were funny.

November 5th 2010: Oobermind (formerly titled Master Mind) - Written by Alan J. Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, Oobermind is a satirical take on superhero movies (think The Incredibles)...

November 4th 2011: The Guardians — Based on an upcoming book series by William Joyce, whose work inspired Disney’s Meet The Robinsons...

Super Secret Ghost Project (tenative working title) — A story which asks what ghosts think about humans. I imagine this will be DreamWorks’ attempt at copying Pixar’s Monsters, Inc.

At least when Disney rips people off they don't use it in their advertising.

[American_dog_2008]

Wait, Madagascar 3!?

Great!

[droosan]

They think that Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy are fairytales? Three Little Pigs,Snow White,Little Red Riding Hood,those are fairytales,not Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny,they reminds me of those people who think that Lord Of The Ring and Harry Potter are fairytale.

You've not read L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus ..? Fairies figure prominently in that story.

As for the Tooth Fairy .. well, 'fairy' is half of her name.

FWIW, I don't recall any fairies being involved with the stories of The Three Little Pigs, Snow White, or Little Red Riding Hood.

[estefan]

Why don't they just let the Shrek franchise die? Oh, right, $$$.

Due to DreamWorks' mixed success record, I'm not viewing these with the same amount of anticipation I do the Pixar films, but the Chris Sanders projects could be good.