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With Tangled releasing on Friday, there’s a certain strange timing to an LA Times article where Disney Animation Studios president Ed Catmull claims the fairy tale genre is dead, that, “…they may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it…but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up.†This is plausible, at least for Disney’s end of things, as both The Snow Queen and Jack and the Beanstalk, both fairy tale properties, have been pulled from Disney’s animation lineup. However, not an entire day later, Ed Catmull posts a claim on his Facebook page that the LA Times’s headline was a mistake, claiming “a number of projects in development with new twists that audiences will be able to enjoy for many years to come.â€
Slashfilm thinks that this statement is damage control, trying not to make it sound like Disney is abandoning Tangled before its release. I can’t say I disagree. From trailers, Tangledlooks absolutely deadly, and it’s true that fairy tales definitely seem to be outside the zeitgeist. That said, it’s a Disney movie with an aggressive marketing campaign behind it. Kids are probably going to see it, and…
With Tangled releasing on Friday, there’s a certain strange timing to an LA Times article where Disney Animation Studios president Ed Catmull claims the fairy tale genre is dead, that, “…they may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it…but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up.” This is plausible, at least for Disney’s end of things, as both The Snow Queen and Jack and the Beanstalk, both fairy tale properties, have been pulled from Disney’s animation lineup. However, not an entire day later, Ed Catmull posts a claim on his Facebook page that the LA Times’s headline was a mistake, claiming “a number of projects in development with new twists that audiences will be able to enjoy for many years to come.”
Slashfilm thinks that this statement is damage control, trying not to make it sound like Disney is abandoning Tangled before its release. I can’t say I disagree. From trailers, Tangled looks absolutely deadly, and it’s true that fairy tales definitely seem to be outside the zeitgeist. That said, it’s a Disney movie with an aggressive marketing campaign behind it. Kids are probably going to see it, and it could very well generate the kind of interest in fairy tale movies and princess stories that Iron Man did for the cape and cowl set. It’s a Disney movie for Thanksgiving, so it’s certainly going to produce the cash-age to show that fairy tales aren’t entirely dead.
Still waiting on someone to start putting Fables on television or the silver screen. Make it happen, people.
[Via LA Times, via Slashfilm, via Ed Catmull’s Facebook]