Tangled (formerly Rapunzel)

[Ben]

Since Neal's news post came after CGIFanatic's, and the conversation was basically replicating this thread, I've merged 'em.


Shame...y'know watching Sleeping Beauty last night the thought struck me that Keane's Rapunzel could be this era's similar kind of project. I thought he'd be safe on that, but maybe Lasseter saw it going that way as well (remember that SB was prohibitively expensive and took an age to recoup its investment) and decided changes were needed.

Keane is still exec producer - which means he has a say - and no doubt he'll be credited for the work he has done on it, apart from the exec and directing animator tags. The only real issue may be for the Bolt guys - they won't want to get a reputation as being Disney's rescue guys that hijack others' projects.

[robster]

Don't forget that Lasseter and Keane have been friends and co-workers for ages and have both stood at the starting points of what later became Pixar and the integration of 2D animation with 3D animation ( "Where The Wild Things Are", directed by Lasseter and animated by Glen Keane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvIDRoO8KnM ). I'm sure they have a mutual understanding of what Glen Keane's best talents are. We all know he is character driven, and am also not affraid that his work on the movie will be overhauled and destroyed in favour of another treatment, after all these years working on this movie. Lasseter has also said in previous interviews that he thought Rapunzel's first act was the strongest he had seen in animation in years. The problem always seems to have been the last act. Which doesn't mean style, or design will be changed.

I think they will stay true to what Keane had in mind style and character wise and a lot of his boarded scenes and ideas will remain part of the movie. Keane often directed the most important emotional key sequences in all of his movies, as a story artist. But being a director is much different then being a story artist. I think he would be much happier being able to focus on story and character development and animation instead of being the big kahuna where ALL is involved.

I'm confident the movie will be awesome and still remain Keane's project! I know it will always be for me!

[James]

And don't forget that even though we were all disappointed with Jan Pinkava being removed from Ratatouille it does seem to have been exactly the right decision!

[EricJ]

Pinkava's version, IIRC, was going to be more Paris-"stylized", and have Chef Skinner as the main villain--
That's...nice, but it definitely wasn't the movie we got. The final movie practically owed its Oscar and mainstream hysteria to Peter O'Toole.

Like "Bolt", when I hear Lasseter's grabbed the reins, I at least know a movie's back in control again, even if it's going over familiar roads.

[Daniel]

My initial thoughts were "oh no, I hope Keane stays on board for something" and I'm happy he is, at the very least. Considering his health problems, which I wish him the best, I do think that was one of the factors that led to this change. Much more comforting than knowing he's out of the picture completely, like Chris Sanders and American Dog. But, I got that it's being taken over by the Bolt guys, but these aren't them right?

Still very much looking forward to Rapunzel and hope it still has the same look we saw in the test footage.

I dunno if anyone's noticed (or would even really care), but I don't post on Animation Nation or Cartoon Brew anymore

Hey, I've noticed.

[Ben]

Dan...yah.

Droo...thanks for being positively selective and sticking with us!

[robster]

posted by Mr. Fun on animationnation.com:

These things tend to get blown out of proportion, so let’s clear the air.

Glen is not leaving the production, but will be totally into it as animation director. The show will gain two new directors, Nathan Greno and Byron Howard.

Finally, these things happen all the time in film. For some reason, it seems to shock some people. Walt Disney shuffled his team around all the time. That’s the job of the person in charge.

[Daniel]

Very true, thanks for posting!

[andrewcg]

I'm kind of afraid they have been messing around with Rapunzel too much. I was really excited that Rapunzel was going to be a comeback for Disney animation artistry. I just hope the too many chefs won't spoil the soup here...
Do you guys know what Gray Trousdale and Kirk Wise are doing?

[Ben]

I think both are at DreamWorks.

Gary recently directed the Shrek special "Shrek The Halls", while Kirk's name popped up in the credits of "Open Season", though he doesn't seem to have anything on the cards right now.

[andrewcg]

Thanks Ben I really like their works.

[Once Upon A Dream]

I hope that everything will be alright with Rapunzel.

[Bill1978]

On one of my many 'Where will I end up on Wikipedia' journeys, I re-visited the Rapunzel page and found this piece of tidbit:

The Alan Menken bio on the Sister Act Musical website reveals that he and lyricist Glenn Slater are now providing songs for this musical

Has anybody else heard of this news. I'm not holding my breath that it's true, cause this is wikipedia. But if it is, than that will be great news for me. Menken + Fairytale = Gold in my books.

[PatrickvD]

Did I totally miss this or is this pretty BIG news?!??!

Animation World Network interviews the directors of Bolt, Kung Fu Panda and WALL-E about their nomination and the state of the animation industry. At the end they all talk about what they're currently doing. So lots of updates on what these guys are up to.

The most interesting thing was Byron Howard commentnig on Rapunzels progress. He mentioned they had Alan Menken write some songs.

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=page ... 914&page=4

*dies*

[eddievalient]

As long as the music is better than the stuff he did for Enchanted, it'll be good. That was the major flaw in that film.