Disney is a studio that knows how to mine its back catalog; no other company has been as adept at re-releasing films to an eager audience. Looks like the latest to be mined will be The Lion King, which the studio is working to convert to 3D. Along with news on that, we’ve got updates on the Roger Rabbit sequel and bad news about The Snow Queen, the Hans Christian Anderson adaptation once thought to be an upcoming hand-drawn animated film. Read More »
On Friday December 4th, I was lucky enough to spend the whole day at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank. My mission was to film footage for a /Film Exclusive documentary about the return of hand-drawn animation, focusing on Disney’s superlative new picture, The Princess and the Frog.
During the day I carried out filmed interviews with the film’s directors John Musker and Ron Clements, leading lady Anika Noni Rose, producer Peter del Vecho and a whole host of animation, storyboarding and design talent. I think I pushed deeper than you’d typically see on a behind-the-scenes piece for DVD, for example, and I’m sure I managed to get an awful lot of good footage and interesting discussion, as well as some genuine revelations about the current state of hand-drawn animation and the creative qualities of The Princess and the Frog.
That documentary will be some time coming, however – I’ve got hours and hours of footage to sculpt – but, in the meantime, I’ll be able to show you a few little glimpses of what went down on the day. To start off with, there’s a very brief and essentially unedited clip after the break, one in which Peter del Vecho makes very clear the next few hand-drawn projects from Walt Disney Animation.
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