Brenda Chapman Left Pixar

[REINIER]

In hearing her speak in several documentaries and upon reading this and many an article, I again come to the same conclusion. Brenda Chapman is a gifted storyteller who was silenced because she didn't fit the Lasseter mold. The guy keeps getting underneath my skin. What projects could have been, that due to him will never see the light of day. He stifles creativity. What I don't unserstand though is that Pete Doctor is considered to be the new messiah....I really really hated Inside Out with every fiber of my being. And altough Up was great storytelling I for one would have preferred a somewhat different approach.

[Semaj]

I really really hated Inside Out with every fiber of my being.

Wow, dude. .__.

[magicalwands]

I really really hated Inside Out with every fiber of my being. And altough Up was great storytelling I for one would have preferred a somewhat different approach.

Inside Out is not a repeat film for me. And for Up, their punchline and best scene was the married montage in the beginning. So, the rest of the film paled in comparison.

HOPEFULLY, Docter is open to ideas and new things. And I hope he just helps fix films versus taking full charge and make the film fit to HIS liking.

[D82]

Brenda Chapman shares her opinion of the trend of remaking Disney classics into live action and says what remake she would maybe accept to direct in this interview:

It was enough to make me ask her about the recent slate of Disney live-action remakes of their animated classics, including several that Chapman contributed to (The Little Mermaid is about to start shooting in London). “I understand why they’re doing it,” Chapman said of the recent remakes (Jordan Nash, who plays the son that dies in Come Away, appears in the Will Smith-led redo of Aladdin). “They’re trying to freshen up the franchise but they all feel like tracings of really good drawings.” Chapman’s sentiment makes perfect sense.

It also made me wonder: would she ever consider directing a live-action remake of one of the animated classics?

“Never say never,” Chapman said. Then paused. “Give me back Brave, then maybe.” Now that would be truly magical.

[Farerb]

I had heard that her version of Brave had been set in the snow; after she left the setting got a lot sunnier, supposedly at the behest of the Scottish Tourism Board. “The snow represented the relationship between the mother and daughter,” Chapman said. “At the end, when the mother returns to her state, you see the ice melting. It was pretty straightforward. I don’t think it was a huge loss to lose the snow.” Still, it was a key part of the story that was ultimately lost. “My goal was to have the mother/daughter relationship be as strong as it was. That still came through in the film,” Chapman said, who based the story of Brave around her relationship with her own daughter. “There are a lot of little things but for the most part, there may have been things that had more depth in my version, like the witch’s curse was less about bears and more about the wish Merida had – Make my mother more like my dad. Her dad is a big bear of a guy. There was more to that curse than what ended up in the film.” That’s right – if you ever wondered, why a bear? Now you know.

I always thought they removed the snow because of Frozen and that they were afraid that the two films will be too similar. The curse makes much more sense in her version but it still feels disconnected from Mor'du's story and why he turned into a bear. I always thought that the witch felt out of place and that Elinor should have turned into a bear by unknown mystical forces.

[Sotiris]

“Everybody says I was taken off halfway through [production] but I was taken off a year or so before release. I had been on it for 6 years,” Chapman told me.

Wow, that's cutting it short. Imagine working on a story for half a decade and being removed at the last minute. And on one that has a deep, personal significance to you, no less. No wonder she was devastated after being replaced.

“There are a lot of little things but for the most part, there may have been things that had more depth in my version, like the witch’s curse was less about bears and more about the wish Merida had – Make my mother more like my dad. Her dad is a big bear of a guy. There was more to that curse than what ended up in the film.” That’s right – if you ever wondered, why a bear? Now you know.

That makes much more sense than the reason we got in the final film and gives the relationship between Merida and her mom more complexity. It's a shame we lost it.

After Strange Magic, she briefly returned to DreamWorks, helping to develop Rumblewick, based on the book My Unwilling Witch by Hiawyn Oram, a project that Chapman left early on and was ultimately never made.

I never head of the book before, but judging by the synopsis it seems interesting and full of potential. I hope she gets the chance to direct an animated feature again.

It also made me wonder: would she ever consider directing a live-action remake of one of the animated classics? “Never say never,” Chapman said. Then paused. “Give me back Brave, then maybe.”

Is she saying here she wants to direct a live-action remake of Brave or that she wants the IP rights to Brave? 'Cause the latter is plain delusional.

[D82]

It also made me wonder: would she ever consider directing a live-action remake of one of the animated classics? “Never say never,” Chapman said. Then paused. “Give me back Brave, then maybe.”

Is she saying here she wants to direct a live-action remake of Brave or she wants the IP rights to Brave? 'Cause the latter is plain delusional.

It's true; what she said could also be interpreted that way.

[Sotiris]

I didn't know that Merida being a tomboy wasn't Chapman's idea.

If and when that happens, don’t expect Chapman’s work to feed into even the most well-intentioned of cinematic tropes, like the enduring “badass woman” character (Chapman lightly groaned when the term was mentioned). “That’s part of what I was dealing with in ‘Brave’ [with Merida], the whole idea of trying to make her that tomboy, which was never my intention,” Chapman said. “She was an athletic girl who had other aspirations than just getting married, but I never saw her as the warrior princess. How about just telling a story and focusing it around a woman?”

Source: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/11/brend ... 234598677/

[Disney's Divinity]

I actually think Moana (the character) ended up turning out like she's describing, as far as a girl who has aspirations other than marrying but never comes across like a "warrior." If they could let Moana turn out that way, it's a shame they didn't let Chapman have more leeway. I think the people in charge at PIXAR at the time just did not like having to work with a woman, which caused them to make issues with her over nothingburgers, essentially.

[Redadoodles]

In hearing her speak in several documentaries and upon reading this and many an article, I again come to the same conclusion. Brenda Chapman is a gifted storyteller who was silenced because she didn't fit the Lasseter mold. The guy keeps getting underneath my skin. What projects could have been, that due to him will never see the light of day. He stifles creativity. What I don't unserstand though is that Pete Doctor is considered to be the new messiah....I really really hated Inside Out with every fiber of my being. And altough Up was great storytelling I for one would have preferred a somewhat different approach.

She's ten times the writer Jennifer Lee is that's for sure. I hate comparing women but I couldn't resist in this case.

[DisneyFan09]

Gender Equality in Animation:
https://www.stage32.com/blog/gender-equ ... t_pj-nF5sQ