Tag: Cinderella

D23 Expo 2013: Live Action (Part 2: Disney Nature, Disney Studios)
(Part I of the Studios live-action presentation recap is here).

Disney Nature

The next Disney Nature film will be released on Earth Day 2014, and is titled Bears.   We saw the trailer, being shown for the first time anywhere, which featured footage of a family of bears in the Alaskan wilderness.

Disney

The last portion of the Studios live-action presentation was from Disney Studios, and was presented by the studio’s President of Live Action Production, Sean Bailey

Muppets Most Wanted

The setup here is that there is an international jewel thief that looks exactly like Kermit (well, almost — the jewel thief has a mole that Kermit lacks).   We saw a bit of footage from the film and an especially-for-D23 filmed bit from the set, where Miss Piggy was under the mistaken impression that she was addressing P23, the world’s largest gathering of Miss Piggy fans.   Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, and Ty Burrell join the Muppets.   Ty then drove onto stage in a very tiny car and chatted about the film for a bit before shoehorning himself back into the car to drive away.

Into the Woods

This filmed adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical fairy tale was previously announced, but this presentation was the first announcement of the film’s cast.

Meryl Streep will play the witch.   Johnny Depp with play the Big Bad Wolf.   Other cast members include Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, and Emily Blunt.

Rob Marshall (Chicago, Pirates of the Caribbean 4) directs.

Cinderella

Director Kenneth Branagh brings the classic fairy tale to the big screen in March 2015.   We were the first audience to see a sneak peek.   There isn’t much at this point, really just some costume tests (and we were told Cinderella’s gown may change).    Cast includes Lily James (Cinderella), Richard Madden (Prince Charming), Cate Blanchett (Stepmother), and Helena Bonham Carter (Fairy Godmother).

Maleficient

Coming July 2014; Director Robert Stromberg, Producer Joe Roth, and writer Linda Wolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King).    Starring Angelina Jolie (as Maleficient) and Elle Fanning (as Aurora).

Angelina Jolie was on hand to talk about the film; says that since a child she has been drawn to the Maleficient character.    We were the first audience to ever see the trailer for the film; the trailer mostly features Maleficient laying a curse on the infant Princess Aurora, but that scene was intercut with various other scenes from the film.   Angelina looks quite frightening in the role and shared that when children would visit the set, they would generally want nothing to do with her if she tried to approach and greet them in a friendly manner.   (And in fact, her daughter plays the infant princess in some scenes because they were unable to find anyone else that wasn’t scared of her!)

Tomorrowland

Just not sure what to say about this one … if may turn out to be something very interesting, but the entire setup for the film is just a huge campaign of lies and misdirection, and I don’t think that’s the way to set about getting people excited about your project.

The presentation starts with the explanation of this mysterious box (labeled “1952”) that was found deep in the Disney archives.    Director/Producer/Writer Brad Bird and Writer/Producer Damon Lindelof came on stage to show us some of the contents found in this mysterious box — like a photo of Walt Disney and Amelia Earhart dated two years after her disappearance, an “Amazing Stories” comic book from 1928 with a mysterious hidden message, and a blueprint for the It’s a Small World attraction which, viewed under black light of the appropriate wavelength, reveals hidden rooms under the ride.

After the presentation ended, for the rest of the Expo you could view the contents of this mysterious box on the show floor, but any attempt to photograph anything would bring security on the run.    Must protect these precious fake artifacts!

Lindelof is best known as one of the produces behind Lost — which I loved.   But in Lost, we were drawn in first and foremost because we cared about the characters, and then we were presented with a complex, layered mystery to unravel.    Here we are being given what I’m sure is an equally complex and multi-layered mystery — but we aren’t being given any reason to care.    Maybe that will change as we learn more.

Tomorrowland is a December 2014 release starring George Clooney.    OK, I think I see why people will care.

Saving Mr. Banks

The story behind the story of bringing Mary Poppins to the screen; in particular, the difficult relationship between Walt Disney and author P L Travers as Disney attempts to get the rights to make the film. Mrs. Travers (as she insists she be called, to no avail) has no interest in selling the rights, especially not to this man who makes cartoons.

As must as I’d like to, in the short amount of film we saw I just can’t stop seeing Tom Hanks; putting a mustache on him doesn’t make him disappear into the role.   I hope that’s just an initial reaction and that in a feature length film I’ll be able to forget it’s Tom and completely accept him as Walt Disney.

The footage we were shown looks great; I’m not sure how much of it is “true” and how much of it is “based on a true story”, but either way it looks like it’s going to be very entertaining, and quite funny.

Besides Hanks and Thompson, the film features Jason Schwartzman and B. J. Novak as composers Richard and Robert Sherman, Bradley Whitford as screenwriter Don DaGiadi, Colin Farrell, and Paul Giamatti.

B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman came on stage to talk about playing the Sherman brothers and getting to work with Richard Sherman (Sherman even worked with Schwartzman, who plays the piano, to show him how to handle the phrasing).   An upright piano was then rolled out onto stage and they led us in a sing-a-long of Let’s Go Fly a Kite.   Richard Sherman joined them onstage (to a standing ovation) to close out the studios presentation and send us off to our next Expo experience.

Related articles
- Stop! – DisneyNature’s Bears New Trailer (spicypulp.com)
- D23 Recap: Walt Disney Studios’ Live-Action Films TOMORROWLAND, SAVING MR. BANKS, MALEFICENT, INTO THE WOODS, MUPPETS MOST WANTED and More (collider.com)
- D23 Expo Walt Disney Studios Presentation (psbcreativearts.org)
August 13, 2013
Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives

As chronicled in the last couple of blog posts, I made a recent visit to Southern California to see Disneyland during the Christmas holidays and to visit the Reagan Presidential Library.    The Reagan Library is current hosting (through April 2013) an exhibition entitled Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives.

The exhibition is presented by the Disney Archives, and includes many unique items from throughout the history of the Disney organization.    Because of the venue, some of the items selected for the display highlight Disney’s connection to Reagan (his work for Disney included emceeing Disneyland’s opening day broadcast) or to the presidency in general (Hall of Presidents sculptures, for example).   But the exhibition is far broader than just a few tie-ins.   Some of the items have been displayed before (such as at similar exhibitions at the D23 Expo in 2009 and 2011), but some are being displayed to the public for the first time.

In the earlier galleries, we see items such as a movie poster from one of the Alice comedies. (These early films combined live action and animation and were loosely based on Alice in Wonderland).   We also see a pencil sketch of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit — the animated character that Walt developed prior to Mickey Mouse.   And of course we see the early Mickey Mouse, including some of the early merchandising efforts for the character.

Poster from an Alice comedy

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit pencil sketch

Early Mickey Mouse merchandise

There are cels here from some of the most notable early Disney animation shorts, including Academy Award winning Silly Symphonies Flowers and Trees (the first color cartoon) and The Three Little Pigs (famous for the song “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”).

Cel from Silly Symphony “Flowers and Trees”

Cel from Silly Symphony “The Three Little Pigs”

While animation buffs (such as myself) are likely to be familiar with a lot of the short features highlighted here, it was the move into feature length animation that really set Disney apart from what every other studio was doing.   One of the interesting artifacts on display was a partial Snow White costume, worn by Marge Champion when doing live action reference for the animators.

Several of the feature length animated features started in the same fashion — with a shot of a story book.   As the camera zoomed in, the story book would open, and we would dissolve into the animated scene.   Several of these storybooks (from Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella) were on display, including some of the interior pages.

Also on display was Herb Ryman’s original Disneyland sketch.   The story of this sketch is that Walt needed something to show to investors, and Herb produced this very detailed sketch over the course of a weekend as Walt described what should be in the various areas of the park.

Another fascinating exhibit was a full-scale re-creation of Walt’s formal office — every detail just as he left it, right down to the ordering of books in the bookcases (including one that is shelved upside down, because that’s the way Walt had left it).

After leaving this area of the exhibit, we start seeing props and costumes from some of Disney’s most well-known live action films from the early days.   This includes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Nautilus submarine model), The Absent-Minded Professor (Model T), and Mary Poppins (Julie Andrew’s costume).

Still more costumes … we get costumes and an office set for Cruella de Vil (from the live-action 101 Dalmatians movie), Belle’s ball gown from the Broadway Production of Beauty and the Beast, several costumes from Annie Leibovitz’ Disney Dreams photo series (Tiny Fey’s Tinkerbell, Scarlett Johansson’s Cinderella, and Rachel Weisz’ Snow White), and Whitney Houston’s fairly godmother costume from a TV production of Cinderella.

Yes, we do have more costumes — here are 3 from Enhanted: Giselle’s wedding dress (Amy Adams), and costumes worn by James Marsden (Edward) and Susan Sarandon (evil stepmother / wicked queen)

We also have some props and costumes from Alice in Wonderland . . .

. . . and also from Tron (both the original and the recent sequel)

We have quite a bit from the Pirates of the Caribbean series:

Last of the movie stuff: props from Marvel movies (Iron Man 2, Captain America, and the Avengers)

We also get to see some interesting items from the theme parks: Malificient in dragon form (from Fantasmic!), hitch hiking ghosts from the Haunted Mansion, a ride vehicle from Mr. Toad, and busts of all the presidents from the Hall of Presidents:

This is far from everything that is on display at the exhibit, but I hope serves to give a good flavor of the kind of items that are on display.    The Reagan Library and the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit are both worthwhile, and I really enjoyed the day I spent there.

January 7, 2013