[Rumor] WDAS to Produce Only 1 Film Every 2 Years!!

[UmbrellaFish]

Give it a little time. Nothing is set in stone until Tangled's box office reciepts come in.

[Kraken Guard]

I dont like Pixar anymore! The parks are getting so many Pixar stuff recently and getting rid of other Disney Stuff! Tarzan Rocks for example at Animal Kingdom.. Nah, i still like Pixar.. But it just seems like they are taking over the parks and that is what im not liking about it!


Indeed, only time will tell..

(Keeps finger crossed!)

[estefan]

I'm not worried. This happens time and time again at Disney Animation. They have a couple of under-performing films that don't meet their expectations, they think the studio will close and then bam, they have a massive hit. In the 1940's, there was fear of it closing and then the success of Cinderella saved them. In the 1980s, The Little Mermaid caused their musical renaissance and most successful decade to occur.

So, let's wait to see how Tangled does. If it becomes a smash hit, the executives will be kissing up to WDAS all over again. Besides, we also have to remember that Snow Queen and (briefly) King of the Elves were shelved. It takes about three to four years to make an animated film, so it's not surprising there is a gap in the schedule. They're just trying to pull themselves together. This is like the late 1980s. The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company did solid business while still not out-grossing their competitors (in their case, the Bluth-Spielberg collabs), much like Bolt and Frog. Tangled could be our Little Mermaid.

In any case, we will just have to wait and see. Tangled could face the wrath of Harry and Yogi, thus sinking. Or it could capture the family holiday audience and do amazing business.

[toonaspie]

I'm more worried about the fact that Pixar plans to make 2 films every year.

They probably have a bigger staff but then several of the future films they have planned are sequels.

Also it's not enough to make a quality film. It's true that quality has no distinct length and some of the greatest films were made in a very short period...but what about marketing issues? Disney can't just release films on a scheduled basis. They need to ensure that their films are released at the proper time and cope with other blockbuster competetion.

ETA: an ironic thought...the very thing that Disney tried to do less of in order to fix itself (CGI films) is now the very thing they have come back around to (only it's Pixar-produced films, not Disney as back in the Michael-Eisner-kill-off-2D days.)

[Rudy Matt]

Bambi took 7 years
Pinocchio took 3
Fantasia took 2.5
Snow White took 3 years.
Sleeping Beauty took 4 years

I think those are the greatest, along with Dumbo, which was made in relative short order.

[AladdinFan]

So this means the fate of WDAS is Tangled. Hopefully it makes a lot of money.

[Ukrainian]

My thought - Disney is going to have gap between their releases in the next decade and maybe produce just one film in two years as it was said in rumor but not because of money, reputation or competition with Pixar but just because there are no projects in the pipeline to make.

Remember that King of the Elves was planned for 2012 release and The Snow Queen for 2013? So there was no gap originally. It all started with KOTE going the wrong way in story development that's why it couldn't meet it's planned release date.
But I'm pretty sure that through some time the line of development will be filled with Disney projects and they will be released every year.

[toonaspie]

So this means the fate of WDAS is Tangled. Hopefully it makes a lot of money.

Pretty much what it boils down to (though not many would admit it). As much as I'm not a fan of what I've seen so far, I'm willing to support it for the sake of WDAS.

[PatrickvD]

well if that movie we get every 2 years is hand drawn, I don't see the big deal. That would be like returning the studio to its roots.

not cram out a billion films like DWA and Pixar..

[AladdinFan]

well if that movie we get every 2 years is hand drawn, I don't see the big deal. That would be like returning the studio to its roots.

I agree with that there are way too many CGI movies WDAS should stick only to animation.

[mawnck]

Also it's not enough to make a quality film.

Nor is it necessary. One of those Disney-Animation-saving movies was Robin Hood. The public likes what they like and doesn't give a wet slap whether it's any good or not.

That being said, what kind of nincompoop sends Tangled out against Harry Potter?

A nincompoop with an agenda is certainly one possible answer. Kind of a silly one, though. If you're going to intentionally kill a movie, why not make it a cheap lousy one?

[Disney's Divinity]

A nincompoop with an agenda is certainly one possible answer. Kind of a silly one, though. If you're going to intentionally kill a movie, why not make it a cheap lousy one?

I don't know, if I were trying to close a studio, it'd be easier with a very expensive one, so that they can't really come back from that.

Not that I hate Tangled, but I'm not expecting that to be another Cinderella or Mermaid (in terms of financial success). Might do better than TP&TF, but I doubt it. I think a lot will have to depend on how they market the film.

I don't really care how little or often they make traditionally animated films. As long as they still happen occasionally, I'm fine.

[Disneykid]

I'm not worried at all. Like others have said here, Disney releasing a new film every other year will give them more time for quality control. Obviously not every film that's going to come from the studio after this change will be utterly brilliant, but I still think the extra time will do more good than harm.

Disney shot themselves in the foot throughout the new millennium by over-saturating the market with their films. We were given not one but two films from WDAS in 2000 (I'm not counting Dinosaur) and 2002, while the films of 2003 and 2004 (Brother Bear and Home on the Range) were only five months apart. Stack on top of that direct-to-video films gone theatrical (such as the Pooh spin-offs) plus the actual direct-to-video stuff, and you just had too many animated films under the Disney banner per year. Disney films were no longer special and were feeling like a dime a dozen.

I remember back in the 90s when a Disney animated classic was an event, something eagerly waited for. I haven't felt that way about a WDAS film since Hercules, though Tarzan and Princess and the Frog came fairly close (I'm not talking quality here; I mean hype and anticipation). Disney's gotten rid of I think all but one direct-to-video department, and that one is only focusing on Tinker Bell, nothing else. The only non-WDAS and Pixar animated films we're getting from Disney now are Robert Zemeckis' motion capture stuff like A Christmas Carol, and those aren't a yearly thing. So with most of the clutter out of the way and the WDAS stuff being spread out, these releases have more room to breathe and be given the attention they deserve both from a filmmaking and publicity standpoint.

So I think all this talk about WDAS closing down is just that: talk. Every couple of decades there's talk of them closing down, but it hasn't happened, yet, in the past 73 years. And you know what? If only Pixar stays open, then fine. Their batting average is more consistent than Disney's thus far, and does it really matter what label we put on these films? If Up were done by WDAS, would you feel any differently about it? As long as we get quality filmmaking under the Walt Disney Pictures banner, I don't care what studio is animating them. I just want good stories.

[Kyle]

Pixar will Not be doing two films a year. Lee Unkrich was asked about this recently, he doesn't see them ever getting to the point where they can maintain their quality standard and put out more than one a year. This is happening one year, 2012, but that's only because they happened to have two films theare were far enough along to do so (Brave and Monsters inc 2). But don't expect this to happen again for quite some time.


As for Disney, its probably a good thing that their figuring out quality should take priority over quantity. Princess and the Frog felt rushed if you ask me. I suspect the same is happening with Tangled.

[yukitora]

What an amazing filmography WDAS has

[singerguy04]

Thinking back on the subject, Disney wouldn't dare close down WDAS simply due to public image. Think about it, if Disney is so swept up in the idea of the public going completely mad over Song of the South why would they drop the studio that started everything? Once something like this would hit the media mainstream, I bet anyone who has ever enjoyed a Disney Animated Classic would be upset with the company.

What I can see happening is the company re-focusing WDAS on things like the Tinkerbell films, or maybe on more animated shorts. Maybe letting WDAS do a big project every few years, but keep them busy on smaller things that don't cost as much or require as much staff to finish.

[steetboris]

I wish it were the other way around. I'm not a big fan of Pixar's films (with the exception of Ratatouille) and I can hardly watch any of their films more than once, while I absolutely adore 2-D films. Oh well Embarassed

Wow! I rarely post here, but I had to. I thought I was the only one on this earth that has never liked the Pixar films (except Ratatouille too!) and love the 2D films. THANK YOU!

With that said, I honestly don't understand why people keep thinking that more time means more quality. I believe Lion King wasn't very long in development, and it was a huge success. Talespin was a series made very quickly to avoid staff being fired, and it's the best, most varied series ever made. And there are hundred of projects like this which were done quickly and were successes, and many examples of projects that took a long time and ultimately failed.

I'm only very disappointed if it were true...I mean no one lives forever, and I want to see as many new 2D animated films as can be.

[DisneyJedi]

Prince of Persia

Haven't seen it, don't want to see it, heard it was bad.

I dislike how much of a company Disney is. They would rather release a few live action movies in order to gain a couple millions of dollars, knowing that these movies might not be well recieved, (Sorcerer's Apprentice, not well recieved by critics or public alike), then spend a few years developing a good animated movie (Princess and the Frog, 4 years for development, was well recieved by critics) even if it is a "disappointment" at the box office ($150 Mill is a disappointment? To some studios that is a godsend.)

It just irks me, as it probably does to everyone else.

Don't you mean TPatF's budget was $105 million?

[Wonderlicious]

I think that the most upsetting thing about that post is that some executives, whomever they so are, can actually want to sabotage WDAS completely. Call me a silly traditionalist, but the heart of the company is that animation studio - not Pixar, not the people who make Phinneas and Ferb and the Tinker Bell films, but the one where all the major films were made, from Snow White and Pinocchio through to The Lion King and Aladdin and up until The Princess and the Frog and beyond. Those executives who think otherwise should probably go and apply for another job, as they shouldn't be working for Disney with such an attitude.

I do want to honestly say "no, Disney would never do that", but I honestly do worry that things may take a turn for the worse. There do need to be new releases more than every three years to spice things up; it's not like the mid-50s to 80s where there would be regular theatrical re-releases of older films that came out so rarely that they would seem brand new anyway (unlike today where they've on home video formats for years). I really pray that Tangled does better than Bolt or The Princess and the Frog, as I don't want WDAS to go into chronic decline like what might be implied.

Having said that (and after that pro-WDAS rant, it may seem a bit paradoxical), I don't want WDAS to necessarily produce a film every year. As Kelvin mentioned, Disney cannibalised themselves earlier in the decade, and nobody would want that to happen again. What I'd ideally like to see in all honesty is them releasing a feature every 18 months or so, alternating between summer and winter slots (with some shorts also added in for good measure). Think of it like how Aladdin was released in November 1992, while he Lion King came out in June 1994 (and continue the trend by pretending that Pocahontas came out in November/December 1995).

I also think that Pixar should do the same, as the novelty of a Pixar film just for being Pixar has long worn off. While Disney was almost becoming a film-factory back in the early 2000s (many of them being cheap DTV productions), Pixar was coming out with one good film every 18 months, which seemed just right; reasonably rapid yet not too overwhelming. Now, they've been coming out with a new film every year for a good while, and it looks as though they might start churning out DTV stuff (the Planes thing) and a great deal of sequels (there's even been a Finding Nemo 2 domain name registered by Disney according to Jim Hill). I think that Pixar's golden touch at the box office might end up taking a serious blow very soon. I know that Cars sold lots of merchandise, but I don't see Cars 2 being that huge a success at the box office; remember that Cars sold fewer tickets than other Pixar films, especially internationally, and I wouldn't say that it pops into as many people's heads as the other Pixar films (unless it is very popular over in the States; I'm talking from a European/British perspective here).

[DisneyJedi]

Exactly! The one Disney executive that REALLY needs to go is that animation-hater, Rich Ross. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to be chairman just so he could get the Animation Department shut down.