Monday, May 11, 2009

The Princess and the Frog Trailer

I love animation. Most of my Blu-ray/DVD collection consists of it–Disney full-length features, PIXAR masterpieces, Warner Brothers’ hilarious shorts, the list goes on. The animated feature is the only medium that can constantly move me to tears (not SOBBING but there have been some waterworks). When Toy Story came out in 1995 and 3-D animation entered the scene, a lot of studios began dumping their animation programs and vowed to never do 2-D animation again. Disney has since realized their idiocy and is returning to its roots with their first traditionally animated feature since 2004.



I don’t know about you but that trailer produced mixed emotions. It has two very different moods. The beginning gives me chills. The music is dramatic setting the mood as the pencil slowly recreates the familiar characters and scenes from Disney’s short lived “Second Golden Age.” You watch that montage and feel “magical” then... They show footage from the movie and they lose me. Don’t get me wrong, the animation looks fantastic and it’s great to see 2-D characters brought to life but the scenes they show–that slap-sticky, gassy humor–simply reminds me of the crapfest that Disney has been chumming out for the last 15 years:


Pocahontas
, 1995

The Hunchback of Notre Dame
, 1996

Hercules
, 1997

Mulan
, 1998

Tarzan
, 1999

Fantasia 2000
, 1999

Dinosaur
, 2000

The Emperor's New Groove
, 2000

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
, 2001

Lilo & Stitch
, 2002

Treasure Planet
, 2002

Brother Bear
, 2003

Home on the Range
, 2004

Chicken Little
, 2005


Now they weren’t ALL bad, but they weren’t exactly up to snuff either. When you look at this list and add it to the list of the direct-to-DVD garbage they’ve put out (Cinderella IV: Getting a Key Made), it brings up some doubts that Disney can actually pull this off. Can they bring the “magic?” Sure, Disney has started to pull its head out since Lasseter took over but the trailer for The Princess and the Frog didn’t make me think, “Alright! Disney is back!” Right now, all I am thinking is, “I hope they are back and that these doubts can be attributed to whoever cut the trailer together. Maybe these are the only completed shots they had to work with.
Or it was a rush job Or Chunk got the police Or one of Willy's booby traps.”


2 comments:

Unknown said...

I had the same feelings about the trailer; chills at first, not too sure about the actual movie. Here's hoping it's the start of a new golden age of some sort.

Jon said...

Agreed. It has a lot of potential to be either really incredible or really horrible. I'm starting to build my hopes up for Rapunzel, though. I'm impressed with the images I've seen, and you can't go wrong with Alan Menken composing the score.