Hexed

[Jules]

I think my reaction to the trailer falls somewhere in the middle of both extremes. I cannot say I was sold on it or particularly impressed, but nor did I get the feeling the film would necessarily be bad or incompetent based on what I saw. I remain pretty neutral about it.

Admittedly I am crestfallen with the film’s look. Besides Wish, I don’t know what’s taking WDAS so long to hop onto the stylised CG train. I cannot believe this is the same studio that gave us ‘Paperman’ and that should have bested Pixar, Sony, and all the other studios with Tangled’s painterly CG animation had Lasseter not interfered. (He really did not see past the end of his nose there, did he?)

Agreed with Disneynerd that the character designs have exceeded their shelf life, and why WDAS remains stubbornly stuck in this design language is beyond me. For the record, I do not think the designs are bad - far from it. I don’t think any WDAS film in recent memory has had bad designs. It’s just that they’re safe and unexciting.

I wonder what WDAS’ next original project will be in case Hexed disappoints. Let’s hope the film turns out to be a lovely work despite the unoriginal premise.

[PatchofBlue]

what i meant with clichee is that the round big eyed artstyle is soo overdone that literally AI can perfectly replicate that artstyle atp. Disney always tweaked their artstyle throughout the decades and now theyre stuck with this one for 18 years. Even when Mermaid became their first big success in decades they didnt copy and paste the artstyle, they literally experimented a bit with Aladdin (the more fluid rounder shapes), Lilo and Stitchs really striking artstyle and Pocahontas' realism etc. Imagine Pocahontas with Ariels big eyes Personally what i would love to see are character designs in the form of Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas, they looked so much more realistic and it would be refreshing after all the big eyed Rapunzel clones. I know im repeating myself but the hybrid handpainted gc look like Rapunzel Unbraided would be a dream. Overall i would be obsessed with a wdas movie in the style of Arcane (but the artstyle should be more oil painty and not too graphic). And they should explore different styles of genre tones (like Wes Anderson or smth) I dont think im asking too much from that billion dollar company sis

I see.

To me, Billie and Rapunzel's design don't look more similar than something like Ariel and Esmeralda or Jane. I think that while variation happened across those ten years, there was still sort of a hub that they liked to return to. Projects like Pocahontas, Mulan, or Lilo & Stitch I think represented specific attempts to alter that formula in order to meet the needs of their projects specific ambitions. And those first two also emerged during a time when the company was more confident in their standing with the public. (Lilo & Stitch emerged when they had Chris Sanders who was too precious to stay in one place for long.)

If I'm trying to get into the head of Disney right now, I'm probably trying to imagine what I'd have to do to remind people of how they used to love going to the theaters for Disney movies even ten years ago (and somehow consistently circumventing any examination about whether or not the release strategy of Disney+ is doing anything to sabotage that ...) And so something broadly reminiscent of proven classics would probably seem like a solid direction, and not something I, as an audience member, feel a particular hang-up over.

What's really capturing my imagination with the visuals here is mostly in the rich color palette and shape design which, again, screams FANTASY but in a way that is scouting beyond just a traditional fairy-tale look--a perfectly valid well to draw from, but one they have exhausted aggressively over the last fifteen or so years. And also, the magical effects look really, really neat, and I'm excited to see that all play out on the big screen.

Like, one thing that I will say in defense of Disney is that ... they can't really win when it comes to these things. The internet is just always primed to default to the line of "This looks so cheap, why are these designs so ugly?" whether that style choice emulates or rejects the default style. Honestly, I can't remember the last time Disney or Pixar premiered a first look at an original film and the response wasn't "Is this really the best they could do? These designs look so cheap?" And I'd say the only film where the visuals remained a real point of concern AFTER the release was with "Strange World," and even then, that still shared space with many other points of contention.

I might also afford some credit to Disney for recently launching Mirabel from Encanto, who had a decidedly different look from the usual Disney heroine. Maybe with Hoppers and its distinct aesthetic actually striking a chord with some people might give both Disney and audiences the confidence to explore more varied designs going forward. In the meantime, though, I'm actually really here for high-budget Halloweentown.