Walt Disney Princess Academy (Short Fan Film Project)

[Disney's Divinity]

Disney's Divinity is secretly David Kawena.

If I had his talent, there would probably be a lot more Disney slash in the world. (Small blessings for some of you, I guess. )

[TsWade2]

After months working on it, with hundreds and hundreds of storyboards and concept art, the Disney Animation hand drawn studios closed its doors. So there was no point for us to even show that project

The reason Disney would never even consider this project is not because they've stopped producing hand-drawn animation but because they have a policy to never hear pitches from anyone outside the studio.

Well, if you ask me, they're just chickenpoop!

[Elladorine]

Well, if you ask me, they're just chickenpoop!

It's more about legal issues than being chickenpoop.

[Flanger-Hanger]

As stand alone artwork for yourself or a small group of people, this stuff is fine and nice, but as a movie narrative that tries to have some logic and appeal to it beyond those who can name everyone featured, it's not very good.

It doesn't make sense (why does someone like Jessie want to be a "princess"?), it's not very creative and would just be another example of Disney cashing in on older ideas instead of creating new characters.

As merch or short clips it's OK, but I'm glad Disney didn't make a short movie or series out of it.

KH works because there's the added element of game play and participation on the part of the viewer and the cross-over element is more self contained to the different levels and less about seeing everyone at one all the time together. Theme park shows also work better because they're based more on spectacle than plot and again, the cross-overs are more limited in frequency and number.

I remember liking some drawings for a Disney high school fan concept that featured lots of different charcacters going to the same place. But that "show" at least understood that you had to make some changes in character design and personality to fit the concept and give it cohesion. Just because you can draw them "on-model" doesn't mean they'll not look weird sitting next to each other.

[Sotiris]

Besides, even if that were the case, he wouldn’t need approval to prefer one medium over another; there is such a thing as personal taste. Moreover, I think it's outrageous to call him a hypocrite because of it. As far as I know, he could care less about most live-action Disney films at all. I find you to be the hypocrite for dismissing someone just because he doesn't cater to your view of what a Disney fan should be, based on vague ideas taken from a deviant art account.

I agree. It's clearly a matter of taste and the set of aesthetics one adheres to. Personally, I prefer hand-drawn animation to CG or stop-motion but I don't consider it superior to the others. Every animation medium has its strengths and limitations and ideally the medium chosen serves the nature of the story first and foremost.

For what it's worth I, too, believe that Tangled would have looked better in 2D. In particular, the designs of the human characters did not translate as well in CG.

[Disney's Divinity]

@FH: As far as I know, we haven't been given any details about what story or otherwise they might have used the concept to tell, except that they were going for something that was "artistic, classy but very funny"; all we have is a title to go on. I find it hard to define whether it would be capable of having a logical and appealing movie narrative based on the nothing we've been given. Isn’t this what people usually profess around here to stifle criticism--you can’t judge anything until you see a final product? At least let’s be consistent and leave off criticizing a project that we haven’t been given any details on other than a couple of pieces of concept art and which will never see the light of day anyway.

[disneyprincess11]

This looked great, but my problem with PA is that there is TOO many Disney female characters! And some of them doesn't even fit. Like Jessica Rabbit, Jessie, Violet? Really? It's too much of a fan fiction.

[SWillie!]

@FH: As far as I know, we haven't been given any details about what story or otherwise they might have used the concept to tell, except that they were going for something that was "artistic, classy but very funny"; all we have is a title to go on. I find it hard to define whether it would be capable of having a logical and appealing movie narrative based on the nothing we've been given. Isn’t this what people usually profess around here to stifle criticism--you can’t judge anything until you see a final product? At least let’s be consistent and leave off criticizing a project that we haven’t been given any details on other than a couple of pieces of concept art and which will never see the light of day anyway.

I do agree with this. I'm always one to discourage criticism before we have anything to go off of. That should apply here as well.

My bigger issue with this is that some people on the first couple pages here seemed to be taking this as something legit, as in 'can't wait to see the final product'... I think thats probably because of how nice the images are. But it should be repeated- this IS being created by fans (whether or not the term 'fan fiction' applies) and is NOT being created by Disney.

[Flanger-Hanger]

@FH: As far as I know, we haven't been given any details about what story or otherwise they might have used the concept to tell, except that they were going for something that was "artistic, classy but very funny"; all we have is a title to go on. I find it hard to define whether it would be capable of having a logical and appealing movie narrative based on the nothing we've been given. Isn’t this what people usually profess around here to stifle criticism--you can’t judge anything until you see a final product? At least let’s be consistent and leave off criticizing a project that we haven’t been given any details on other than a couple of pieces of concept art and which will never see the light of day anyway.

But the basic plot and some ideas have been shown, which is what I've been criticizing. That's how most projects are first judged by the company when new ideas are presented.

[DancingCrab]

I edited the title of the thread to say (Short Fan Film Project) in case it was confusing anyone as to the legitimacy of the project.

Remember, this hasn't been turned down by Disney....it has never been presented to them to begin with. I think the authors realize it has a snowball's chance in Hell of ever getting seen by Disney, let alone green lit for development, so they are just sharing some of their concept art, which I personally think is kind of stunning.

I also think it's weird to attack something targeted toward the fans, as being too targeted toward the fans. That's kind of the whole point of the thing, no? If one doesn't like what they see or read, fair enough, but to say "That Zebra doesn't work because it's trying to be too much like a Zebra" is kind of a shitty thing to say about a zebra.

[Prince Edward]

David Kawena is so talented! I hope he'll get a job at Disney animation. And Disney should have made this movie, it would have been a great tribute to Disney animation and all their classic characters.

To bad Disney only seem to care about CGI, Pixar and the Disney Channel these days. Updating the Disney Princess franchise seems more important than making new traditionally animated movies.

[Disney Duster]

No, I don't mean that. I just meant specifically with Rapunzel, given the history of the character and the film. The fact that he developed the story for so long in multiple versions, and the character herself is such a labor of love, and then he never got animate her the way he wanted to... I just think that if Rapunzel ever did have some sort of hand drawn cameo in something, it should be Glen. I'm sure there are others that could do it, but since Glen is gone now I'd love to see him come back for something like that.

Oh, then I do agree with you.

[Sky Syndrome]

Someone bumped up the thread about the Pomp and Circumstance short and it made me think of this thread for the Princess Academy short. I just now checked the two facebook accounts for more updates/art and there's no new content. Bummer.

[ajmrowland]

As stand alone artwork for yourself or a small group of people, this stuff is fine and nice, but as a movie narrative that tries to have some logic and appeal to it beyond those who can name everyone featured, it's not very good.

It doesn't make sense (why does someone like Jessie want to be a "princess"?), it's not very creative and would just be another example of Disney cashing in on older ideas instead of creating new characters.

As merch or short clips it's OK, but I'm glad Disney didn't make a short movie or series out of it.

KH works because there's the added element of game play and participation on the part of the viewer and the cross-over element is more self contained to the different levels and less about seeing everyone at one all the time together. Theme park shows also work better because they're based more on spectacle than plot and again, the cross-overs are more limited in frequency and number.

also kh has original ideas and characters withvdisney ss backdrop.

[Super Aurora]

As stand alone artwork for yourself or a small group of people, this stuff is fine and nice, but as a movie narrative that tries to have some logic and appeal to it beyond those who can name everyone featured, it's not very good.

It doesn't make sense (why does someone like Jessie want to be a "princess"?), it's not very creative and would just be another example of Disney cashing in on older ideas instead of creating new characters.

As merch or short clips it's OK, but I'm glad Disney didn't make a short movie or series out of it.

KH works because there's the added element of game play and participation on the part of the viewer and the cross-over element is more self contained to the different levels and less about seeing everyone at one all the time together. Theme park shows also work better because they're based more on spectacle than plot and again, the cross-overs are more limited in frequency and number.

also kh has original ideas and characters withvdisney ss backdrop.

[ajmrowland]

I saw your name and knew you couldnt resist

But generally that series does compared to a typical crossover and most american entertainment, which isnt saying much as American entertainment is usually the most unoriginal and uninspired drivel( reality shows) ever. that's why I dont watch much TV anymore.

And since you are such a passionate hater, you clearly gave up after or even before finishing one of the games, likely KH1, meaning you wouldnt have any awareness of 90% of the(notoriously convoluted) plot and story elements and characters in 6 out of 7 games.

[thelittleursula]

KH is pretty original.

Western animation and Japanese RPG don't usually team up.

[Super Aurora]

KH is pretty original.

Western animation and Japanese RPG don't usually team up.

No it's not. KH is a cluster fuck fanfic wet dream with a convoluted plot with generic bishie characters. Having western animation and Japanese integrate doesn't make something original, especially with crap contents in it.

[FigmentJedi]

Kingdom Hearts is also a lousy-ass excuse for a crossover: The only characters that interact with multiple Disney characters are the crew surrounding Sora. It is in fact taboo in the setting for characters of different worlds to meet and despite a backstory declaring that all the worlds are one, you are actively trying to keep them separated instead of merging them into one again. You have a setting that could actually work for a shared Disney universe in the different worlds concept, but because of Disney's restrictions on crossovers, they don't do a damn thing with it.

And yeah, Nomura needed a goddamn story-editor years ago. The story's turned into a real mess and about half the reason I still watch the cutscenes for the spinoff titles is a morbid curiosity for seeing how crazy it's gotten now.

[ajmrowland]

KH is pretty original.

Western animation and Japanese RPG don't usually team up.

No it's not. KH is a cluster fuck fanfic wet dream with a convoluted plot with generic bishie characters. Having western animation and Japanese integrate doesn't make something original, especially with crap contents in it.

you passionately hate so you clearly dont play the games. Thats just common sense. You cant claim to reallyknow that much about the series unless for some reason you actually care.

Also i did say it was convoluted. That has nothing to do with originality thougb. Your right now just being a hater until you start actually addressing the issues the series has in depth which at ghis point requires a wall of text. If your not willing to back up your pov and be mature about this then dont bother talking about kh cuz you actually care about it enough to want down anything not even positive but neutral about it. After all it takes some amount of care to hate something. I dont hate justin beiber cuz j couldntcare less about him. You should try the same.