DVDizzy Forum

Wonderlicious wrote:

DisneyDude2010 wrote:I would love to see The Snow Queen as well . I would like it to have a Christmas feel to it. Has Disney ever done a Christmas Film Before ?

There's Christmas scenes in Lady and the Tramp, as well as The Nightmare Before Christmas and the featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol (not to mention various live-action films), but I doubt that Disney would want to associate one of their major animated features to much with Christmas as it could limit the year-wide appeal, which so many other classics have.

Well, arguably it was the Christmas theme which saved Nightmare Before Christmas. Without constant seasonal playings, I doubt it would have achieved the "cult" (which isn't actually a cult anymore, its too mainstream) following it has now. Just as constant seasonal showings of "Its A Wonderful Life" has greatly increased its popularity.

I personally think that they should do a Christmassy Animated film. If only because should it "fail" in the theaters that year, its assured additional exposure each and every Christmas.

We'll have to see if Disney's recent A Christmas Carol movie gains in popularity over the next few years.

2099net wrote:Well, arguably it was the Christmas theme which saved Nightmare Before Christmas. Without constant seasonal playings, I doubt it would have achieved the "cult" (which isn't actually a cult anymore, its too mainstream) following it has now. Just as constant seasonal showings of "Its A Wonderful Life" has greatly increased its popularity.

I personally think that they should do a Christmassy Animated film. If only because should it "fail" in the theaters that year, its assured additional exposure each and every Christmas.

We'll have to see if Disney's recent A Christmas Carol movie gains in popularity over the next few years.

True true. The Nightmare Before Christmas also has links to Halloween (making it fitting for viewing for more than just 25 days of the year, even if that means just three months ), but that association has undeniably been a factor in it becoming a perennial. And of course, I suppose that one could even argue that Disney animated films, in particular fantasy-based ones, are associated with Christmas, arguably fuelled by fairy tales and folklore being associated in general with the holiday season (I believe that some people even think that "When You Wish Upon a Star" is a Christmas carol).

I'm not too big on Christmas films normally, but I agree that association with Christmas could help an animated film from Disney remain well known even if it were to fail first time round (perhaps unjustly against something crappy like a Chipmunk or Twilight movie). The original Snow Queen story has always been highly associated with Christmas due to its setting in snowy Scandinavia (not to mention that Hans Christian Andersen wrote it and published it in the month of December), but it actually has practically nothing to do with Christmas itself (more just winter in general and the changing of the seasons). I hope that if Disney were to eventually make it, it wouldn't necessarily become a simple Christmas distraction that people would only want to watch during a 25 day period and could be watched at least throughout the colder months despite Christmas potentially fuelling its popularity.

November 20, 2010

Anonymous #1 wrote:Catmull and Lasseter are MORONS for killing "The Snow Queen".

Anonymous #2 wrote:Trust me, you wouldn't be saying this if you saw what they pitched as Snow Queen. It didn't work. And it's not permanently shelved, but the form it's in now won't go forward. That's a good thing.

Floyd Norman wrote:So, you're telling me there are no other talented screenwriters and development artists who can jump in?

One poor pitch does not end development of a viable property. Many hit films had an initial "poor pitch." Disney needs to take the gear shift out of neutral.

Steve Hulett wrote:When I talked to Chris Buck, he told me the development crew got the first full pass of "Snow Queen" up on reels and it was shelved three days later.

Chris told me at the time that NOBODY, including Lasseter, had seen it. That they were just beginning to revise the rough assemblage when the main lot shut it down.

Anonymous #3 wrote:Disney was right to can "The Snow Queen". It wasn't very interesting.

Anonymous #4 wrote:And that's Disney's fault, from what I hear. The writers tried to turn it into a another boy-girl-meet-cute-romance-movie and the boy and girl I'm referring to WASN'T the Kay and Gerda in the original story. Disney was trying to force the Hans Christian Anderson tale into a trite princess formula, and the Snow Queen isn't that kind of fairy tale. The writers just couldn't see the worth of the tale as it is. Major fail on their part.

Source: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... again.html


November 24, 2010

Q: Do you still have plans for bringing a hand-drawn animated version of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen to the big screen?

Alan Menken: It’s on the shelf. We had actually written that to be a live stage show at the Tokyo DisneySea park. John Weidman wrote the book, and Glenn Slater and I did the music and lyrics. It turned out to be a bit expensive, and then it was picked up as a possible animated film. In the aftermath of The Princess and the Frog, it was put aside. It’s not an easy story to tell, to be honest. It may yet come back, though. If Tangled does well, maybe we can revisit it. Whether that will open the door to hand-drawn 2-D animation, that’s a question I couldn’t answer. Everybody is so tickled by the possibilities of CGI. That’s where everyone wants to put their energy right now, including even many former hand-drawn animators. I think prior to Tangled coming out, there’s been a lot of reevaluation at Disney: What do we want to do? What does this company stand for? And probably after Tangled there will be a re-reevaluation. Right now, I’m just thankful that they’re giving me something to keep me from being swallowed up by Broadway.

Source: http://insidemovies.ew.com/2010/11/24/a ... n-tangled/

LOL Interesting answer from him.... I hope it happens! Even if it's done in CGI.

It sounds like Disney still has plans for The Snow Queen, they have just devided to wait some time to make sure that the audince does not get an overdose of princesses:


January 7, 2011:

"There are other fairytales and other princess movies in development at Disney," Greno says, politely but firmly. "Part of the problem was that the studio had The Princess and the Frog, then us, then Snow Queen. It was princess, princess, princess! It was too much all at once, so they felt it was better to spread them out. Given how Tangled is doing, people clearly like the fairytale idea."

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mov ... dies-20110 106-19gpp.html

FOr me, it seems like the writers of the referred article was trying to create some self-fulfilling prophecy, and by doing this, hoping to make some influence in the animation business, so that they maybe would make a little contribution to change the direction they themselves would like to see it heading for.

That's great to know. Ever since I read the tale when this thread first started, I've been really excited to see this turned into a movie (I'm not expecting it to be verbatim like the story, because that wouldn't work anyway, but I love the spirit of the story, which'll probably still be kept).

Now I just hope it stays 2D. I don't mind that Disney will do 3D films (considering Tangled looked great), but I don't want them to give up on 2D either.

Disney's Divinity wrote: Now I just hope it stays 2D. I don't mind that Disney will do 3D films (considering Tangled looked great), but I don't want them to give up on 2D either.

I hear you on that.

Seriously, Disney needs to do everything in their power to keep hand-drawn animation alive and not let it die. Heck; I hope John Lasseter can keep it from dying.

I'm glad it's still in the line-up. I read "The Snow Queen" over break and liked it overall, although it is a little rambling. It's really fun to read aloud (especially giving different voices to all the flowers ). I think the movie version will have very little in common with the story, but that's fine with me. It needs a little tweaking. Gerda needs a ton more character, for one thing.

What parts of the story would you guys like to see make it to the final version?

Linden wrote: What parts of the story would you guys like to see make it to the final version?

Don't make the Snow Queen evil. That would so fucking lame and predictable change. They have to have a bad guy in it, make it the troll/devil thing that cause problem like in the story.

Snow Queen should be elegant and pose. Like in those two awesome concept arts of her's.

cut out some unneeded characters like the Prince and Princess, etc.


Don't make it lame(like that shitty storyboard that was leak)

Super Aurora wrote:Snow Queen should be elegant and pose. Like in those two awesome concept arts of her's.

Like so

But yeah I agree, she shouldn't be the bad guy, just the supernatural woman that steals young boys and promises to free them from the troll mirrors splinter

well, I think It would be interesting she ACTUALLY was a bad guy, but one of the smartest and most ellegant ever

like maleficient or snowhite´s queen she could represent a beautiful but evil character

in an animation spanish forum, one guy spoke about changing the relationship between the snow queen and kay. In the book he gets "enchanted" by her, but what about if she tried to make him love her? it would be so mean and twisted!!!

we have not seen ever tha kind of behaviour from a bad female guy onto our hero, only in the little mermaid and just after a complete "wade up and liposuction" of Ursula into Vanessa

I wish the disney runners would listen these kind od suggestions in order to make a much better film, unpredictable, breathtaking and really interesting

Rumpelstiltskin wrote:Greno says, politely but firmly. "Part of the problem was that the studio had The Princess and the Frog, then us, then Snow Queen. It was princess, princess, princess! It was too much all at once, so they felt it was better to spread them out.

I don't understand exactly why they list Snow Queen as a "princess" story, unless the version they were working on altered it to be one in some way. The original tale is about Gerda's quest to save her friend. The Snow Queen herself isn't that large a role even. Perhaps Gerda was a teenage princess in their version, though I hope not. I also could see Disney changing the kids, or young lover's (depending on how they play it) names to be more modern.

DancingCrab wrote:

Rumpelstiltskin wrote:Greno says, politely but firmly. "Part of the problem was that the studio had The Princess and the Frog, then us, then Snow Queen. It was princess, princess, princess! It was too much all at once, so they felt it was better to spread them out.

I don't understand exactly why they list Snow Queen as a "princess" story, unless the version they were working on altered it to be one in some way. The original tale is about Gerda's quest to save her friend. The Snow Queen herself isn't that large a role even. Perhaps Gerda was a teenage princess in their version, though I hope not. I also could see Disney changing the kids, or young lover's (depending on how they play it) names to be more modern.

that´s what I mean, if gerda and kay are young lovers and the queen tries to make kay love her, it could be a kind of love triangle that might turn out to be very interesting

DancingCrab wrote:

Rumpelstiltskin wrote:Greno says, politely but firmly. "Part of the problem was that the studio had The Princess and the Frog, then us, then Snow Queen. It was princess, princess, princess! It was too much all at once, so they felt it was better to spread them out.

I don't understand exactly why they list Snow Queen as a "princess" story, unless the version they were working on altered it to be one in some way. The original tale is about Gerda's quest to save her friend. The Snow Queen herself isn't that large a role even. Perhaps Gerda was a teenage princess in their version, though I hope not. I also could see Disney changing the kids, or young lover's (depending on how they play it) names to be more modern.

It is technically Gerda's story, and the fact is that she's a young girl with no ties to royalty whatsoever. Gerda does actually meet a prince and a princess along the way, but it's brief and one of the least exciting moments, and most film/TV versions have skipped this bit. My idea would be either that they were trying to make Gerda a bit older and push her into the Disney Princess category despite not having any royal ties (like with Mulan), that they were restructuring the story into a fairy tale romance, or that they'd come to view "princess movie" as being a synonym for general fairy tale.

Well I don't want to knock an idea like that, as it could work just fine. But I kind of hope they keep them as kids who are best friends. Not every fairy tale needs to be a romance, and it would be nice to see something more akin to Pinocchio again as well.

DancingCrab wrote:Well I don't want to knock an idea like that, as it could work just fine. But I kind of hope they keep them as kids who are best friends. Not every fairy tale needs to be a romance, and it would be nice to see something more akin to Pinocchio again as well.

Yep.

Super Aurora wrote:

Linden wrote: What parts of the story would you guys like to see make it to the final version?

Don't make the Snow Queen evil. That would so fucking lame and predictable change. They have to have a bad guy in it, make it the troll/devil thing that cause problem like in the story.

I think it's unlikely they'll bring the troll into it. Unless they do an intro like with The Black Cauldron, explaining how the mirror was created. But even then, he'll most likely not be a part of the actual story.

I don't mind if they make her a villain, as long as they handle her carefully. Maybe make her not completely control over her actions (because she also has a shard in her heart), and evil in an apathetic way. And the whole "in love with Kai" idea would be good, too, considering they've never done anything like that. Female pedophile?

Personally, I don't think Gerda or Kai need any work as characters. I'm sure they'll probably age them to teenagers, because no doubt they'll be a love story (and, I have to admit, I thought the story was really sweet because of the way Gerda went forever to find him, and how she saved him). Gerda is already a very strong character. But, yeah, Gerda's name's gotta change.

A part I hope they keep is the part where Gerda is also tempted by a witch. I'd like if they kept the flower scene, too. It would be hilarious. And, of course, Gerda and Kai's reunion scene where he's putting together the mirror. I really wouldn't mind if they cut most of the rest of it, tbh.

mipiel wrote:well, I think It would be interesting she ACTUALLY was a bad guy, but one of the smartest and most ellegant ever

like maleficient or snowhite´s queen she could represent a beautiful but evil character

That's why I don't prefer her be a villain. We already had that type of female villains in Disney. Gets boring after awhile.

One thing that annoys me is turning certain characters into villain that were villains to begin with. Clayton is a big example.

LucilleBallFilms wrote:

Super Aurora wrote:Snow Queen should be elegant and pose. Like in those two awesome concept arts of her's.

But yeah I agree, she shouldn't be the bad guy, just the supernatural woman that steals young boys and promises to free them from the troll mirrors splinter

But isn't she kind of evil? In a cold unfeeling way, like she has no heart. That is how I remember her, although it has been a while since I read the story. I wouldn't want her to be actively evil, but the fact that she is so cold and unfeeling makes her part of the problem.



Why change Gerda's name? I've always liked it.

Rapunzel wrote:

LucilleBallFilms wrote: But yeah I agree, she shouldn't be the bad guy, just the supernatural woman that steals young boys and promises to free them from the troll mirrors splinter

But isn't she kind of evil? In a cold unfeeling way, like she has no heart. That is how I remember her, although it has been a while since I read the story. I wouldn't want her to be actively evil, but the fact that she is so cold and unfeeling makes her part of the problem.



Why change Gerda's name? I've always liked it.

The way I see her is as a neutral character.