I have disappointing news everyone. According to some comments on the TAG blog, Mort is dead.
Steve Hulett wrote:One staffer informed me that management acknowledges that story development is thin. As another staffer said:
"Yeah, there's not much in work. Lots of people are developing shorts ideas, but there's not much feature development. They should have a whole bunch of stuff going, with small crews, so they can pick and choose from the best of it. ..."
— No offense Steve, but who do you talk to when you come in? Only 2D people? Because yeah, they don't have anything to do.
— So "Mort" got canned?
— As of last week, yes.
— Well, no more working on Mort. Mort is dead, excuse the pun. They couldn't get someone to cough up the rights.
— Regarding "Mort": If you don't secure the rights, you can't make the movie adaptation. And Diz Co. didn't secure the rights.
— Does anyone know how come Disney couldn't secure the movie right to "Mort"? Was it a money issue or was it just that the copyright owners didn't want Disney adapting their story?
— I think it was related to Disney wanting to just commit to doing Mort, and not have to option more of the Discworld series unless it was a hit, and the rightholders wanted Disney to make a larger commitment up front.
Well, we'll know how this thread will continue from here on: page after page of people screaming "oh noes!!!1!1", based on unconfirmed rumors on a second-rate hobbyist's website.
If they had more projects right now, the possibility of Mort getting canned wouldn't be such a big thing -or it would, your mileage may vary on that- if they were working with more projects, which they ain't.
Goliath wrote:Well, we'll know how this thread will continue from here on: page after page of people screaming "oh noes!!!1!1", based on unconfirmed rumors on a second-rate hobbyist's website.
Not to mention using that irritating "red angry face" smilie a million times (you know who I'm talking about).
I won't consider this an official announcement until one of the actual directors or producers or the actual studio itself announces it.
"There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed." - Casey Newton, Tomorrowland
Goliath wrote:Well, we'll know how this thread will continue from here on: page after page of people screaming "oh noes!!!1!1"
Well, at least it's better than having the same endless "debate" with Disney Duster for the 12324th time.
Goliath wrote:based on unconfirmed rumors
Unconfirmed rumors is as good as it gets. Disney is not going to announce the cancellation of a project that wasn't even officially announced to be in development to begin with.
Goliath wrote:on a second-rate hobbyist's website.
I beg to differ. I find it to be a very entertaining and credible blog despite the "anonymous" comments. Besides, lots of "scoops" were revealed there in the past. The cancellation of "Newt" and "The Snow Queen" was a recent example. I don't get how this blog differs from many others that you consider it a "second-rate hobbyist website".
Last edited by Sotiris on Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Goliath wrote:Well, we'll know how this thread will continue from here on: page after page of people screaming "oh noes!!!1!1"
Well, at least it's better than having the same endless "debate" with Disney Duster for the 12324th time.
Goliath wrote:based on unconfirmed rumors
Unconfirmed rumours is as good as it gets. Disney is not going to announce the cancellation of a project that wasn't even officially announced to be in development to begin with.
Goliath wrote:on a second-rate hobbyist's website.
I beg to differ. I find it to be a very entertaining and credible blog despite the "anonymous" comments. Besides, lots of "scoops" were revealed there in the past. The cancellation of "Newt" and "The Snow Queen" was a recent example. I don't get how this blog differs from many others that you consider it a "second-rate hobbyist website". It's your opinion and it's respected of course but I'm curious why you have formed this impression.
That site could have much more credibility if the anonymous posters revealed themselves. Otherwise, they look like cowards afraid of losing their jobs for telling the truth.
I am extremely happy and relieved by this news, if it is indeed true. I did not like the idea of Mort and its storyline, not because I do not think Disney could do it justice, but for completely selfish reasons. Mort is just personally not my kind of story, seeming a lot like The Black Cauldron in theory to me. I just hope this clears the way to more "traditional" types of stories to be hand drawn by Disney, like Snow Queen. One can dream...
I think I can stand all the 's. If I see the nostalgia critic's "No!" clip (which will most likely invite it now that I've mentioned it), I'll probably scream.
Semaj wrote:That site could have much more credibility if the anonymous posters revealed themselves. Otherwise, they look like cowards afraid of losing their jobs for telling the truth.
The blog itself is great, but of course the anonymous comments have to be taken with a grain of salt. And it's easy to call them "cowards," but really . . . would getting the "truth" out there be worth losing a job over? And at the same time how many of those posters aren't just angry, bitter people trying to take a jab at someone in the guise of telling the "truth" to begin with?
Once again, anonymous posts have to be taken with a grain of salt.
singerguy04 wrote:I think I can stand all the 's. If I see the nostalgia critic's "No!" clip (which will most likely invite it now that I've mentioned it), I'll probably scream.
I've learned to scroll right past those. But wait, here's a few dancing cows to make up for them.
Disney Duster wrote:First, since when does Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a film which melded Disney with Warner Brothers, which is un-Disney, fair game? It's not, because it's not a Disney animated classic which is what we are talking about.
I didn't know a film had to be a DAC in order to be considered "Disney." Feel free to exclude it for that reason but it is a film produced and released by Disney, and by definition that makes it Disney. You can call it "un-Disney" all you like and point out that it has characters from other studios, but that doesn't change what the film is. In fact they were going for "Disney heart" within the film, which may not be far off from that elusive Disney Essence term you're so quick to toss around.
Goliath wrote:Anyway, talk about Disney-fied sex: why do you think Jock and/or Trusty were going to propose to Lady? (That reference was cut from the Dutch dub, by the way.) Because Tramp knocked her up during their night together.
I wanted to use that as an example too but it's not as blatant. But yeah, Jock and Trusty wanted to defend her honor . . . good little ladies don't go sleeping around when they're single. I remember totally not getting that part when I was a kid.
I didnt really even get that til Goliath mentioned it.
BelleGirl wrote:
Pocahontas and John Rolfe married in 1614, so she was about 18 and not a kid of 12 at the time. Yes, John Rolfe was older than she and he was married before, but 10 times her age is somewhat of an exaggeration.
I heard she was married at 14 to someone who was older but most likely in his 20s.
Michael Crawford wrote:Not much to report yet but word has come to me that Mort, the animated feature which Ron Clements and John Musker had planned to adapt from Terry Pratchett’s 1987 fantasy/comedy novel, has been abandoned. I've been given no explanation yet for why this happened, but it’s yet another promising project down the drain at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The known animation slate at Disney remains remarkably bare; no wonder some animators might be looking to other studios, where they actually make movies.
Michael Crawford wrote:UPDATE: I’ve just now come across this post and comment thread at the Animation Guild blog, which echoes these rumors, while also pointing out how bare Disney’s development slate is these days. According to the anonymous nabobs on the Guild site, the issue with Mort came down to rights. Apparently Disney couldn’t secure them, which is naturally a problem when you’re trying to make a film based on a book. I haven’t heard this personally from my sources, but I guess it’s as good a reason as any to abandon another interesting premise for an animated film. Hey, maybe they’ll greenlight and cancel Snow Queen again just to keep things interesting…
