Disney and Swan Lake?

[Super Aurora]

I read in articles like this one: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,312562_3,00.html

in that Disney was going to make a Swan Lake movie. In the article it said that John Musker and Ron Clements had choice to direct either Aladdin, King of the Jungle(which is the Lion King), or Swan Lake. They chose Aladdin and The Lion King later became a movie.

But why wasn't Swan Lake worked on, if Aladdin and Lion King was able to become a movie? Did it has to do with fact that Nest Entertainment Made an animated Swan Lake aka Swan Princess?

[Elladorine]

I read years ago that they felt that Swan Lake was somehow too similar to Little Mermaid, and when The Swan Princess was produced it was sort of the nail in the coffin.

[blackcauldron85]

Some info I found (I'm not finding too much; unfortunately, the Internet wasn't as popular back then as it is now!):

http://www.mouseplanet.com/8967/Forgott ... ey_History

More recent unmade projects appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News of July 26, 1992:

“At a press preview for Disney’s Aladdin, Disney studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg announced several animated feature projects in development (besides King of the Jungle due next year with songs by Elton John and Tim Rice). Those projects include Homer’s Odyssey, Sinbad the Sailor, Pocahontas, Swan Lake (which Katzenberg described as ‘an original story dealing with the mythology of dragons’), Song of the Sea (about whales) and ‘a more lighthearted projected called Silly Hillbillies on Mars. These are in addition to Fantasia Continues (due in 1995).”

http://ifindkarma.com/attic/USENET/disney.faq

2) What are some of the upcoming movie and video releases from the
Walt Disney studios?

Pinocchio is going to be re-released into theaters this summer.
The currently anticipated new film for 1992 is Aladdin, to debut
in late November of this year. There is a preview of this on the 101
Dalmatians video.
The film for 1993 is tentatively titled King of the Jungle. It
features a story about a lion whose power is usurped by his evil
brother.
In the far future, Disney is considering a project based on
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. There is reportedly a full length feature
film using strictly computer generated animation that Disney is
working on with Pixar, although I first heard about this about two
years ago and haven't heard anything substantial since. In 1996,
Disney will release Fantasia Continued, which will feature new
segments mixed in with some of the old segments. It is not yet known
what will remain and what will be taken out, but it is the studio's
intent to release the film every seven years with modifications.
The Great Mouse Detective, which was released in the theaters
this past January, is being released onto video in the U.S. on July
17.
The Rescuers is going to be released onto video in the U.S. in
September.
Beauty and the Beast is being released onto video in the U.S. on
October 30.

I will definitely be looking more into this later, when I have more time, since I'm very interested in Disney movies that never were! Thanks for bringing this subject up, Super Aurora!

[Super Aurora]

Interesting. They were planing to do Homer's Odyssey, Sinbad, Song of the Sea as well as Swan Lake (what's with that dragon talk?).

Those are some awesome choices for movies. I'm surprise none of these got forwarded. It would of been awesome seeing these in 2-D animation.

I guess Kazzy took Sinbad idea when he moved to Dreamwork. I would of been pretty cool if Disney made the movie and some time afterward have a special with Aladdin and Sinbad together. lol

I wonder how Disney would create Odette. I love the design and character of one from Swan Princess a lot.

I don't get how Swan Lake is similar to Little Mermaid??? Plus Lion King is similar to Bambi and that didn't get canceled.

[Elladorine]

I wonder how Disney would create Odette. I love the design and character of one from Swan Princess a lot.

I don't get how Swan Lake is similar to Little Mermaid??? Plus Lion King is similar to Bambi and that didn't get canceled.

I like the character a lot myself.

If I remember right, it was something I read from an animation magazine, unfortunately I don't have my collection of them anymore. I don't think the article went into detail, but I was under the impression that they didn't want to produce one "princess" film so close to another.

[robster16]

They also worked on Aida, after the Lion King. A project that later got abandoned but did result into the musical version with the music by Elton John and Tim Rice.

[blackcauldron85]

http://www.laughingplace.com/News-PID210260-210266.asp

So then Jeffrey came back and offered us three films, and we were to pick one of the three. One was SWAN LAKE - which was ultimately made outside of Disney - and at any rate we thought that was just too close to MERMAID. Another one was then called KING OF THE JUNGLE, which of course turned into LION KING. And the other one was ALADDIN, so we didn't actually turn down LION KING, it's that we picked ALADDIN. We felt that ALADDIN was more up our alley than LION KING. We think of ourselves as fantasy guys, and ALADDIN had fantasy.

I think that maybe the connection between The Little Mermaid and Swan Lake is that the main female/heroine/princess turns from a human into an animal, or vice versa (well, half animal, in Ariel's case); they probably didn't want two stories of girls turning into humans and animals so close together (in a 5, 6, 7 year timespan, or however long it would've taken Swan Lake to come out).

I know that you can't always trust IMDB, but for the trivia page for The Swan Princess, it says:

Richard Rich originally pitched the idea at the Walt Disney studio while he is working there, but the idea was rejected.

and another site I stumbled upon (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/dvd/Swan- ... PNmOPk4%3d) says:

The production, which took 4 1/2 years to complete

Does anyone know when the Katzenberg/Musker/Clements meeting was when Musker & Clements chose to make Aladdin took place? I'm asking, because The Swan Princess came out in 1994; how long had Richard Rich had the rights for? I mean, does The Swan Princess = Swan Lake? Or did Disney think of it on its own...or had Rich proposed it to Disney at that point?

As far as Disney's version, maybe it was just an idea- "Hey, we could make a Swan Lake movie!" Maybe there was never any development done on it. Or maybe there was, I'm not sure. But there's a chance that the information we've found is really the only information out there, since there isn't much to know, since it was just an idea and not much work at all was put into the idea. But, at the same time, there's what Katzenberg said:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/240425/

Also in the works are "Swan Lake," which Katzenberg described as "an original story dealing with the mythology of dragons"

Maybe more information will surface...surely it would've surfaced had the Internet been more popular back then. I'm going to continue searching...I'll be going to bed shortly, but tomorrow I'll continue! I'm very interested.

[Cordy_Biddle]

Wouldn't surprise me if Richard Rich had indeed originally tried to green-light the project at Disney, but later decided to go solo. I actually love "The Swan Princess" (though the two sequels suffer from being average Saturday morning-quality cartoon affairs). The soundtrack is really fun, too.

[Super Aurora]

Wouldn't surprise me if Richard Rich had indeed originally tried to green-light the project at Disney, but later decided to go solo. I actually love "The Swan Princess" (though the two sequels suffer from being average Saturday morning-quality cartoon affairs). The soundtrack is really fun, too.

Yea it would of been cool to see Swan Princess' Odette along side with the other Disney Princesses. lol

[Disney Duster]

I don't get how Swan Lake is similar to Little Mermaid??? Plus Lion King is similar to Bambi and that didn't get canceled.

But Pinocchio wasn't made nearly as recently as The Little Mermaid where people would feel they had too recently seen the same thing!

Though I agree, it was not to similar. I feel Aladdin is a princess movie amyway, or rather a fairy tale movie as I never like to think Disney makes princess movies, just fairy tale films.

I would have loved to have seen Disney do Swan Lake like they did Sleeping Beauty, both Tchaikovsky works.

By the way, that one article mentioned Beauty and the Beast coming out October 30. This is off-topic, but how soon would a movie's video release come after it's theatrical release back then? Because I think they release them too closely these days...it's not so special waiting for the video these days. It cheapens it I think.

[Super Aurora]

I would have loved to have seen Disney do Swan Lake like they did Sleeping Beauty, both Tchaikovsky works.

Yeah, agree. Though I would love if they kept Odette's design that was in the Swan Princess one as I like it a lot and is very fond of it.

By the way, that one article mentioned Beauty and the Beast coming out October 30. This is off-topic, but how soon would a movie's video release come after it's theatrical release back then? Because I think they release them too closely these days...it's not so special waiting for the video these days. It cheapens it I think.

back then, waiting for videos took almost a year. At least the Disney ones as far as i remember. I remember buying Aladdin on VHS about a year after it was in theaters which i brought it around September 1993. So yea, it did take longer to release vhs back then than it does with dvd/blu ray.

[rb_canadian181]

It makes me sad to hear the production was canned! It's a beautiful story, and Tchaikovsky's music for it is indescribable!

[Racer_prince]

I'd love to see this done by Disney someday. The Swan Princess is almost 20 years old, and if there can be multiple Cinderellas and Rapunzels, why not multiple Swan Lakes? I'd also like to see the Oddessy make a comeback.

[Sotiris]

Some new info about the project by Brenda Chapman.

After Beauty and the Beast, I went into development for a long time. That’s when I actually worked on Fantasia 2000. Then I was also developing Swan Lake with Mike Gabriel. I was really enjoying working on that with Mike and Chris Sanders and Kelly Asbury; we were all working on it. So I went to Tom Schumacher and said “I’d really like to try Head of Story if you really think I’m up for it. I’d love to have that opportunity.” I just put it out there and I was aiming for Swan Lake. But then that got canned because of The Swan Princess; another studio was doing that.

Source: http://taughtbyapro.com/podcast-30-bren ... interview/


Also some info from the book Two Guys Named Joe.

Following the release of The Rescuers Down Under, director Mike Gabriel was eager to collaborate on a vastly different follow-up project with veteran Disney story artist and character designer Joe Grant. They first partnered on an adaptation of Swan Lake for four months with Grant typing up ideas, making small drawings, and then departing the studio with Gabriel staying behind to draw his visualizations. "We developed the story and plot for Swan Lake into written form, and Joe said this is exactly how Dick Huemer and he always worked," Gabriel stated. Once the two submitted their outline to be green-lit for approval, it was returned only to be remarked as "the most amateurish, worthless nothing. There is no movie here, no story."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas_(1995_film)


Concept Art by Vance Gerry.

Nice sketches that Vance did for THE SWAN PRINCESS, a project being developed by Roger Allers just before he was drafted to co-direct THE LION KING. The project went nowhere and the drawings ended up in the archives.

Source: http://vancegerry.blogspot.com/2009/07/ ... d-for.html


Source: http://vancegerry.blogspot.com/2009/07/ ... d-for.html


Source: http://vancegerry.blogspot.com/2009/07/ ... ncess.html


Source: http://vancegerry.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-again.html


Concept Art by Karen Keller.


Source: http://www.bauhauskellerstudio.com/?page_id=242


Source: http://www.bauhauskellerstudio.com/?page_id=121


Source: http://1artforpeace.blogspot.com/2013/05/swan-lake.html

[Tristy]

Those are absolutely beautiful! I wish it was greenlit. It looks like it would have been better (in my opinion) than the Swan Princess.

This is my own interpretation of what an animated Swan Lake would look like:

[disneyprincess11]

Disney can surely make a Swan Lake or Thumbelina now. Besides the creepy reboot , really only 90s kids remember the movie.

The concept art is gorgeous, but screams "Fantasia" in a bad way. Too similar to the Greek scene. The woman in the last 2 concept art is very creepy. Very interesting with the baby and the animals. I am curious now!

[Disney Duster]

Sotiris amazingly finding more info as always! How terrible Gabriel and Grant were treated!

Disney can surely make a Swan Lake or Thumbelina now. Besides the creepy reboot , really only 90s kids remember the movie.

What reboot?

The concept art is gorgeous, but screams "Fantasia" in a bad way. Too similar to the Greek scene. The woman in the last 2 concept art is very creepy. Very interesting with the baby and the animals. I am curious now!

I don't think it is a bad thing that it looks like Fantasia, it's beautiful. But I don't think that baby is a baby. I bet it's a doll.

[disneyprincess11]

Disney can surely make a Swan Lake or Thumbelina now. Besides the creepy reboot , really only 90s kids remember the movie.

What reboot?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTORV08v430[/youtube]

[Sotiris]

^That's not a reboot; that's a sequel.

[JeanGreyForever]

Looks like we would have gotten a bear and a fox as Odette's sidekicks. I'm also glad to see that there are other swans besides her considering how most versions (Swan Princess, Barbie of Swan Lake) omit the other swan maidens.

The little Greek gazebo seems interesting; perhaps this was set in Greece? Probably not though. The first picture of it seems far more upbeat and honestly almost like a tourist attraction with the boat behind it. The second one seems more like what I would expect from Rothbart's lair and his Swan Lake. That along with the two pictures of the woman (I'm presuming Odette) really gives this a creepy vibe. Is she holding a baby or a baby doll?

Disney can surely make a Swan Lake or Thumbelina now. Besides the creepy reboot , really only 90s kids remember the movie.

I agree, I think Disney could easily make their own version of Swan Lake. However, in their current era, I almost shudder to see how they would botch up the story (like with the Snow Queen). I can't imagine them including Tchaikovsky's music either, they'd probably replace it with pop songs, so perhaps it's best that Disney stay away for the time being.

Those are absolutely beautiful! I wish it was greenlit. It looks like it would have been better (in my opinion) than the Swan Princess.

This is my own interpretation of what an animated Swan Lake would look like:
http://pre14.deviantart.net/f71b/th/pre ... 59xblc.jpg

That's pretty! And thanks for portraying Odette with darker hair rather than the blonde they always seem to give her.