The Little Mermaid

[Ben]

Right, got'cha on that LMIII thing now.

Well, remember that "DisneyToon" was a unit of executives and some creative people in Burbank, at WDTVA's building.

The actual animation was handled between Japan and Australia (and at first in Canada but that studio shuttered during Return To Never-Land). Canada and Australia could handle the good stuff and Australia got progressively better. Japan was usually handed the action sequences and things that didn't need subtlety. Japan <I>could</I> do good work...most of 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure was handled by them.

So when that poster said DisneyToon had enough time to make her look good, they didn't take into account that there are no <I>animators</I> in Burbank...no-one that could really guide them very well. So, to the sometimes clueless execs, Ariel looked "fine", what was there to touch? Just shows why animators and artists should be in charge of these things.

Japan was never out of the picture altogether. Once Disney sold off their interest the studios kept going themselves, often being outsourced by Disney for other projects. I think everything in the Lilo And Stitch franchise, apart from 2: Stitch Gets A Glitch, was animated in Japan.

This did leave Australia to just get better and better though. I lament that they never got to grips with their own in-house feature. There was certainly enough talent there to turn out something pretty special on a fraction of a Feature Animation budget.

I think they did good work from Enchanted Christmas (the "Stories" sequence) and Lion King II onwards, but the Australian crew <I>really</I> hit their stride with Lion King 1.5. On par with the first films also were Tarzan II, Stitch Gets A Glitch, Bambi II and Cinderella III.

[Dusterian]

I see. Thank you for all the information! Yea, the Disney exces don't always know about what Disney makes/made, even what their characters look like.

So I guess work was being done in a lot of studios until Australia's DisneyToon was doing it all? So Canada closed after Neverland, but Japan was still open, just not getting very much work? And then Australia was doing all the big stuff, even their own action sequences (like a demented pumpkin ride)? And now they're kaput. I don't see why if LMIII was going to be the very, very last, they couldn't have just kept Australia open for this one last thing. And maybe Australia could have come up with a better story, since I believe they always came up with the story themselves, the way Frank Nissen talked about CIII. Do you think or know they didcome up with the story for this, but Japan's animating it?

Sorry I'm asking so much. It's all so interesting, I will always remember DisneyToon Australia's efforts.

[Ben]

I think most of the ideas for stories came from DisneyToon in Burbank. Then they would get passed on to whoever was directing and animating. I think a lot of development work was carried out "down under", true, even on the Japanese animated films. I don't think LMIII was "destined" to be the last one - it just turned out that way when Lasseter shut the division down.

As I said, they seemed to alternate between a Japanese one and an Australian one. Since Australia ended with CIII, that only left the next chronological release to be a Japanese one. I'm guessing that LMIII would have been scrapped if it had not had so much work done on it.

I'd bet that the Aussie crew just didn't have their next project far enough down the line to be saved, and thus they were let go first. We've all heard about more AristoCats, Pete's Dragons, etc...none of which must have been past the planning stages.

So, it's not been planned that the last one would be non-Australian...just the way it turned out. I would wager that had LMIII not been as done as it was that it would have been canned too, awarding the "last" status to CIII.

Hope that makes a bit of sense.

[Dusterian]

Everything you said made perfect sense, Ben, and I believe I understood. So does that mean DisneyToon did their own stories but Japan's studio did their own, too? Or maybe Disney decided that when they went to them for the out-sorucing. I could also ask that person who ems to know a lot of what went on in DisneyToon.

[Once Upon A Dream]

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!! new sneak peek with ARIEL'S MOM and MARINA DEL RAY on the webiste!!!!!!!!!:
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/anima ... emermaid3/#
This is amazing! Ariel's mom looks exactly like her so she was killed by humans!.
and Marina Del Ray looks wonderful! she reminds me of Ursula (she's her mermaid version) and Madusa! .
I loved how Ariel told Triton that "Maybe you should just locked us in jail?",i"m so exited it's not another episode from the series anymore! it's going to be even better then Cinderella III!!!!!!! ,pictures:





I looked exactly like Ariel when i saw the trailer XD:





.

[Ben]

No, not better than Cinders III. They don't have the room to stretch the story out.

The use of CG really stands out - I hate when they can't make the style of the film fit anything that's come before.

The use of an old song ("Shake, Shake Sonora") feels cheap, as <I>well</I> as their own rip off from their own original film.

The trite plot (no music!?) doesn't hold much depth, while how come no-one except Triton looks younger...does this literally take place, like, five minute before she meets Eric? Seems music had been around - and traditional in fact - by the time of the original movie.

Where the heck is Ursula? She has a LOT more history with Triton than, again, turning up five minutes before the original movie starts...

Sorry...this has ALL the hallmarks of an extended TV episode. Sometime I have to wonder if some of you guys have <I>any</I> kind of quality threshold altogether?

And, gawd, I hope they sort out that awful, <I>awful</I> amateur synthesized scoring.

[Once Upon A Dream]

The plot isn't trite at all,i thought the opening showing why he banned music ,and Triton is young when Ariel is a baby.
Ursula dosn't really have a lot of story,Ariel's mom had a very intersting story,Ursula just did something that made her get vanished.
Anyone noticed how much they keep remind us that Ariel is a princess? ("The princess didn't played music..." "Princess Ariel!" "Those spoiled princesses" and etc.),i know why (the Disney Princess line) but do they mention that in the original movie more then once? .

[Dusterian]

The plot isn't trite at all,i thought the opening showing why he banned music ,and Triton is young when Ariel is a baby.
Ursula dosn't really have a lot of story,Ariel's mom had a very intersting story,Ursula just did something that made her get vanished.
Anyone noticed how much they keep remind us that Ariel is a princess? ("The princess didn't played music..." "Princess Ariel!" "Those spoiled princesses" and etc.),i know why (the Disney Princess line) but do they mention that in the original movie more then once? .

Thank you Ben, once again, for defending Cinders III. The only thing Mermaid III has on it is what happened to Ariel's mother. But the rest of the movie is not nearly as good as Cinderella III. That's that. My only hope is Ursula's backstory is also explained, and for that to happen we would have to hope there's a connection with Marina Del Ray.

Yea, Once, I wonder if Disney Consumer Products is thinking with Ariel's sisters being princesses, they can make even more Disney Princess merchandise. There's already that "Ariel and Her Sisters" collection.

The plot is trite because it's about music being banned, and just because his wife died. That rips off from The Sound of Music, so it's not even original. And it's more trite because in The Sound of Music, the Captain only banned music in his household, not an entire kingdom! The only thing not trite is knowing what happened to Ariel's mother and it having a big effect on Triton. So yea, that's good...but that's it.

Ursula's story is JUST as important as what happened to Ariel's mother. In fact, if they chose to, it could have been more important because they could have made Ursula get banished because she helped in Ariel's mom's death. But seriously, we didn't know what happened to Ariel's mother, and we don't know what happened to Ursula. Ursula's story's just as mysterious and special.

[Once Upon A Dream]

I think Marina is a sea with who cast a spell on Triton and made him hate music and is using the death of Ariel's mom as the reason,and made him more agrassive and Ariel breaks the spell,i think Marina planned the whole thing and even Athena's death.
Yeah,they do have plans for Ariel's sisters merchandise with her (Simba Toys for example will make Ariel and sisters dolls in the summer with the film).

[Ben]

And the great thing is...this all happens in real time!

[Dacey]

Seriously, this looks stupid beyond words!!

I can't even understand why this is an actual movie...

[Ben]

Sadly...money.

Sadly, people - like a good few here - will keep praising and buying them.

[GeorgeC]

Seriously, this looks stupid beyond words!!

I can't even understand why this is an actual movie...

Give the good lady a cigar!

Realizing this is the first step to understanding WHY these sequels devalue the worth of a company's name.

Some stories, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, demand multiple films. Most tell the story that has to be told in one or two films tops.

Then we have series like The Godfather Saga and Star Wars that go one and three films too long (respectively).

Moral of the lesson -- never trust businessmen who are only looking at the bottomline to know when to stop producing film series. This is why have umpteen million sequels to Friday the 13th, Halloween, and an eleventh Star Trek movie coming up!

[Meg]

Give the good lady a cigar!

Wendy's Jane ain't no lady.

[Dacey]

Aye, Meg's right. I'm actually a guy. But it's an easy mistake.

And, sorry, but I don't smoke.