The Frog Princess Press Release

[Fantasmic]

http://disneyfrogprincess.blogspot.com/
A site dedicated to Frog Princess news. Only started recently, but it will become a great source of FP knowledge, I assure you!

[Poody]

Oh awesome. I prefer the second pic of her, donno about the first one. Is that Whitney? Are there any similar blogs for Enchanted or Rapunzel?

[Fantasmic]

I am aiming to make blogs for both, but Rapunzel has a long and political history I'm not entirely sure of. Enchanted seems more probable. I'm hoping to make an image of the standing version of Maddy to put alongside the other princesses for the blog. If someone could do that, I'd give muchos kudos.

[bradhig]

New Orleans may not bt a good choice after it got wasted by Katrina.

[PatrickvD]

New Orleans may not bt a good choice after it got wasted by Katrina.

wasted?

anyway, it takes place in the previous century and deals with the city's rich culture. Why would it not be a good place for a story to take place?

[Jules]

New Orleans may not bt a good choice after it got wasted by Katrina.

wasted?

anyway, it takes place in the previous century and deals with the city's rich culture. Why would it not be a good place for a story to take place?

I think what bradhig means is that it may be a bit tasteless to use New Orleans as the setting of a movie, after it has been flattened by a hurricane a couple of years ago and claimed lives.

I don't agree though, becuase if yous stick to that attitude you will end up doing nothing! We should consider ourselves lucky the twin towers were not digitally edited out of Oliver and Company in its 2002 DVD release, for stupid reasons!

[TheBigBreesy]

wow, thanks for sharing. This film sounds better and better. And they havent even started to animate.

Oh yeah, kings and queens of parades are a big deal. It's all ceremonial of course, but their are elaborate Mardi Gras balls for many of different parades called "Krewes". I'm not sure if Disney will actually get the rights to use real parade names , but a big one is the "Krewe of Zulu" which is an all black parade that I believe was in existence in the 20's, probably way before. There is always a "Queen Zulu" and "King Zulu" and its two different people each year who get "crowned". It'll be interesting if the royalty aspect of the movie revolves around a mardi gras parade.

I'm from New Orleans as well and I think this is a really cool concept.
Take a good look at the billboard in the back of the mardi gras parade picture. Doesn't it say Rex, the oldest of the krewes?

As for not setting it in New Orleans because we were "wasted" by Katrina, the areas that are going to be in this film are the ones that New Orleans are famous for and the ones that were unscathed by Katrina. The Garden District, the CBD, and the Quarter is where the movie will primarily take place, I'm sure.

Also, unbeknownst to many, New Orleans has gained the moniker "Hollywood South" because they have steadily been stealing business from Hollywood in the past decade. Louisiana is the second or third in line as far as movie production goes, from the last figures I heard. New York may be ahead of us, but I'm not sure.

I don't find it being set in New Orleans being tasteless at all. The mass media does so much to villify the area since Katrina. It'll be nice to see the magic New Orleans posesses passed on through what will definitely be a high-grossing film. See the Denzel Washington movie "De ja Vu" to see the way a movie can successfully acknowledge the events of Katrina and still move forward from that, and even embrace those events into the story, to make a very good movie.

[Fantasmic]

i just realised... Maddy'll do meet'n'greets in New Orleans Square at dl

[RichKoster]

Not only is New Orleans a great place for Disney to set its new animated feature, it has much local flavor (and not just of the food variety) and real characters. In fact, Disney likes New Orleans so much they'll hold the world premEAR in... well, you'll have to hear for yourself, I don't want to spoil it for you!

My wife Carol Koster and I were at the Disney shareholder meeting where both of us asked questions of Bob Iger.

You can hear the questions and answers easily on my Disney Echo website by clicking here. I also asked questions: About the world premEAR of Disney's "The Frog Princess" in New Orleans with Disney having a Mardi Gras-style parade through the French Quarter, leading up to a stage show in the Superdome and then the first showing on giant screens inside the Superdome of the movie itself -- just like Disney did with the world premEAR of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." By following that same link and scrolling down the page a bit from where my wife's question is, you'll hear the greatly-appreciated answer to my "The Frog Princess" question as well as my question about adding New Orleans as a port of call to Disney Cruise Line.

By the way, on the Disney Echo we give links to your UltimateDisney.com wedsite all the time and always have to things to say about it. I'm glad to be able to add to the discussions here as well as give y'all a chance to actually hear the questions and answers for yourself.

And in our existing topic about Disney's "The Frog Princess" (click here) on the Disney Echo, Carol points out not only where else Disney can have a meet and greet Maddy at Disney resorts, but also how the New Orleans and Mardi Gras connections in the upcoming animated feature can tie in Maddy's royalty to carnival in the Crescent City.

[Disney Duster]

I'm hoping to make an image of the standing version of Maddy to put alongside the other princesses for the blog. If someone could do that, I'd give muchos kudos.

But there are two standing versions of Maddy.



RichKoster, wow, glad we have you here!

[RichKoster]

RichKoster, wow, glad we have you here!

It is my pleasure! And thank you for our kind words.

Isn't this a picture of Maddy standing, too?


Or perhaps is that her mom?

[singerguy04]

I've become more excited about this film after seeing this concept art for it! Although I am kinda dissapointed that there probably wont be a castle of any kind in this film, I think Maddy looks nice so far.

[RichKoster]

I am kinda dissapointed that there probably wont be a castle of any kind in this film...

I dunno, St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter's Jackson Square looks very Disney castle-like to me!

[Fantasmic]

I'm hoping to make an image of the standing version of Maddy to put alongside the other princesses for the blog. If someone could do that, I'd give muchos kudos.

But there are two standing versions of Maddy.



RichKoster, wow, glad we have you here!

well, one's a storyboard, it looks like. The one with more clarity is the one I mean. Any links to the song played from the movie? For some reason, I can't get into the blog

[Poody]

I actually had a feeling that the head shot of Maddy might have been her mother too....

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Jim Hill is the same guy who very recently claimed that American Dog, and most likely also Rapunzel, should be produced in 2D. Which was not the case. And have anyone read the post from Rhett Wickham in the same article? Among other things, he writes;
"According to my sources the screening was a routine screening scheduled some time back. It was followed by notes, and the next screening was then scheduled for June. The June date is not set as a deadline to fix anything, per se, no more so than any other subsequent screening of projects in development are deadlines for anything other than the expected progress and attention to the notes delivered by management and colleagues. "


Still, I must admit I'm a little worried about the project too. All I need to hear is the words "the plot and story is now ready, and the movie will go into actual production in July (or some other month not far away)".

[blackcauldron85]

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/ ... n-dog.aspx

"Pixar? They do CG well. Very, very well, in fact. And -- for a while there -- that Emeryville-based operation pretty much had a lock on the whole computer animation field. But now Pixar faces increasing competition in the CG arena. I mean, it's not just DreamWorks Animation that's turning out popular computed animated movies anymore. There's also Blue Sky Studios & Sony Animation & Warners & Nickelodeon ... As well as Disney Feature Animation.

You see, that's the really tough part of the situation that Catmull & Lasseter now find themselves in. These guys are running two animation studios that are -- in effect -- in direct competition with one another. Think about it. If Pixar's making CG films and WDFA is also producing computer animated features, doesn't that basically mean that these two studios are now competing for the same customers? That they're both lusting after the same dollars?

That doesn't seem like a very smart business plan to me. Competing directly with yourself.

Wouldn't it be smarter (in the long run, anyway) to create a way that consumers could differentiate between these animation studios? So that they'd know to associate a certain sort of film with Pixar and an entirely different type of production with Walt Disney Feature Animation?

Well, that's the way that Catmull & Lasseter are thinking these days. Which is why they've begun applying the brakes over at WDFA. Shifting that animation studio's production schedule over from a one-new-film-every-year routine to a slower paced one-new-film-every-18-months production schedule. So that they can then buy themselves a little more time before the next Disney Feature Animation production after "Meet the Robinsons" is due to hit the screen.

Now -- as to the real reason that Ed & John pulled Chris off of "American Dog" ... Sanders deliberately designed that film to be a CG feature. And Catmull & Lasseter ... Well, they don't really want Disney Feature Animation to be in the computer animation business as of 2008.

Wait a minute ..., " you sputter. "You don't mean ... You can't mean ..."

Yep. Following the release of "Meet the Robinsons," Ed & John would like WDFA to go back into the traditional animation business. Full-time. With their battle plan being that -- from here on in -- Pixar would do all of the CG features while Disney Feature Animation would then become a strictly traditional operation.

Obviously, this is a pretty bold plan. One that (given the $100-million-plus that WDFA spent over the past three years to retrain that studio's staff as well as to change Disney Feature Animation into a start-of-the-art CG operation) Bob Iger reportedly hasn't entirely embraced yet. The way that I hear it, Disney's new CEO wants to see how well "Enchanted" does at the box office next November as well as how the story reels for "The Frog Princess" turn out before he officially commits to Catmull & Lasseter's new scheme.

So again ... When you take in the view from a thousand feet back ... And you realize that animated features are like ocean liners. In that they both take years to build & then launch ... If Disney Feature Animation really is going to get back into the traditional animation business ... Well, that means that -- at some point -- WDFA actually has to stop working on those CG-only projects that it already has in its development pipeline.

It was just the luck of the draw that Chris Sanders' "American Dog" wound up being the film that was about to be greenlit, that was officially about to be put into production when Ed & John decided "Let's not do this anymore."

Oh, sure. There'll be some talk now about about assigning a new director & story team to "American Dog." But the very first thing that Catmull & Lasseter will be asking these folks to do is re-imagine this film as a traditionally animated feature.

And remember how Ed & John reportedly had a conversation with Glen Keane earlier this year about possibly doing "Rapunzel" as a traditionally animated feature? And how that master animator supposedly told the new ubermeisters of WDFA that he wanted to stick with CG? Well, I would imagine that -- after the first of the year -- Catmull, Lasseter & Keane are going to have another conversation. And if Glen knows what's good for him, he'll quickly agree to turn "Rapunzel" into a traditionally animated feature."

I just wanted to show what Rumpelstiltskin was talking about. I don't think that Jim Hill thinks that these movies *should* be in 2D, but that it's a possibility.

[Kram Nebuer]

Was the Chesire Cat sacrificed for the Frog Princess's boa?

[PatrickvD]

Was the Chesire Cat sacrificed for the Frog Princess's boa?

yeah they performed a whole voodoo ritual. He's gone

[Poody]

OMG....