D23: Disney Animation News
Monday, August 17, 2015 at 12:00PM 
Manuel here to talk Disney Animation. As you can see Disney has a very busy (if, yes, remake friendly) slate ahead, and while Pixar will be offering mostly sequels (hey there unnecessary Cars 3, Toy Story 4, and long-awaited The Incredibles II!) with only the Day of the Dead-themed Coco as its original entry in 2017, Disney Animation looks to be picking up the slack. And so, let's look at three images from their upcoming films:
Zootopia (March 4, 2016)
We’ve already seen the teaser and with its release day fast approaching we’ll surely get a full-length trailer soon (perhaps attached to Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur?). And as I worried this might be Disney’s first full-length Dreamworks animated film, the folks at D23 surprised us with a new casting announcement. While Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin play the leads (he a fox, she a bunny; might it be a screwball-ish rom-com?), Shakira will be lending her voice to “Gazelle, the biggest pop star in Zootopia.” I kind of love this? But perhaps it’s just memories of Shakira’s early Colombian soap opera beginnings rushing back and reminding me of her pre-worldwide fame persona.
Moana (November 23, 2016)
Disney is surely taking its pledge for diversity in stride. Moana is being directed by John Musker & Ron Clements (Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules) and centers on an adventurous young woman who yearns for the sea. Set in the South Pacific, it currently boasts Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as its main voice cast (I wonder what’s kept them from casting its female lead?) who was ecstatic during the D23 presentation, clearly thrilled to be part of this story. I am particularly excited about this film, especially given the artwork that was shown. That she's reminding me of Lilo and Nani (two of my favorite Disney gals in recent memory) makes me all that more hopeful for this film.
Gigantic (2018)
Tangled, Frozen, and now Gigantic. There’s something to be said about re-branding fairy tales, but this new way of Disneyfying titles makes me happy we got The Little Mermaid and not Soaked, Beauty and the Beast and not Cursed. Tangled director Nathan Greno says this will be the “definitive” Jack and the Beanstalk adaptation. Oh, and if you haven’t guessed from that artwork, Jack is a Spaniard during the Age of Exploration who befriends an 11 year old girl giant, so clearly this isn’t your parents’ Beanstalk tale.
Has the one-two-punch of Frozen and Big Hero 6 amassed enough goodwill to keep you excited about Disney animation’s prospects? Do you have any suggestions as to who Musker & Clements should be casting as Moana?
Reader Comments (9)
Wow, so many sequels on their timeline! That's a bit disappointing.
That Pixar news depresses me.
GUGU MBATHA RAW as Moana!!!
I really wish they'd have a traditional handdrawn animated film again. Will we have to wait a decade?
Honestly, the only one of these that I'm pumped about is Moana. Zootopia looks way too Dreamworks, Gigantic's title makes me gag (and admittedly Frozen lost a bit of love with me upon a repeat viewing, though I still like it best of the recent Disney films), and the Pixar sequels go from "I guess" (Incredibles II) to "blech" (Cars 3) to sacrilegious (Toy Story 4). I expect to be in the minority opinion on a lot of these when they come out.
Zootopia: Conceptually, I find this boring. It probably won't be creepy like, say, Bee Movie (the closest comparable Dreamworks movie) was (Hi Vanessa Bloome, have you met Princess Elise? You have something in common...), but I've always found "talking humanoid animal exists in the human world" stories have more dramatic possibilities (think Sonic the Hedgehog (The DC Comics of the story format in terms of general tone and power levels) or TMNT (The Marvel Comics of the story format in terms of general tone and power levels) than these kind of stories.
Moana: Nothing to say here.
Gigantic: Title also makes me want to gag, but the concept (some sort of commentary on old school imperialism and sexism) leaves me VERY intrigued and, furthermore, wishing that Disney would risk going for PG-13 to soft R content for an animated piece.
You missed some of the most exciting news to come out of the event - Broadway composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton; In the Heights) will be writing songs for Moana. Having both him and Johnson on board makes me all kinds of excited.
The only one that seems exciting is Moana, but seriously, can they break away from the tomboy-gets-tamed stereotype for all of their minority "princesses"?
They had open casting call for Moana voice actress for Polynesina people and were looking for something quite young so maybe that it why it is taking so long. But I would have fought they ending up casting somebody reasonably famous and announcing it in D23 would have been more likely. But often Disney announces voices quite late for the characters, if The Rock had not been casted already I would not have been waiting news yet.
Disney animatation film rakend in order of anticipation: Moana, Gigantic (I liked the in development name Giants better), Coco, Toy Story 4, Incredibles II, Zootopia (the designs look a little Dreamworksy but the synopsis does not, and I do not mind Disney trying new things occasionally), Finding Dory, Good Dinosaur, and not anticipating Car 3 at all.