Rapunzel (2009), Walt Disney Feature Animation Options

[Happy_Day]

Release Date
2010 (USA)

Plot Outline
After a retooling, the film will be based again on the literary origins of the famous fairy tale, in the veins of Classics like "Snow White" and "Cinderella": described as a traditional, character-driven fairy tale it will speak to a modern audience, with a different new style of its own.

Cast
Kristin Chenoweth ... Rapunzel (voice) (rumored)
Matthew Gray Gubler ... Young Prince Flynn (voice) (rumored)
Dan Fogler ... Prince Flynn (voice) (rumored)
Grey DeLisle ... Madame Gothel / Evil Witch (voice) (rumored)
David Schwimmer ... Father Sam / Mr. Sunton (voice) (rumored)
Carolyn Lawrence ... Mother Amy (voice) (rumored)
Peter Sallis ... Gramps Franklin (voice) (rumored)
Pam Hyatt ... Granny Claire (voice)
Kevin Linehan ... Narrator (voice)

Concept Artwork











Animation

The film will be made in CGI, though Rapunzel will resemble traditional oil paintings on canvas: "There’s no photoreal hair. I want luscious hair, and we are inventing new ways of doing that. I want to bring the warmth and intuitive feel of hand-drawn to CGI.

"For inspiration, Keane and his animators are referencing a painting by French Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, applying a certain richness that they have never attained in animation before. A fairy tale world has to feel romantic and lush. So we were able to duplicate the shot with the girl on the swing in 3D, to do a dimensional tree where the leaves turn, but it still feels like it has calories if you look at it too long. Very painterly. The next step was to do an animated human character: to get a softness, a feel of blood in the veins. I want skin moving across bone and tendon and there’s a subtlety to this. The thing is, I don’t want realism."

"Kyle Strawitz really helped me start to believe that the things I wanted to see were possible… that you could move in a Disney painterly world. He took the house from Snow White and built it and painted it so that it looked like a flat painting that suddenly started to move, and it had dimension and kept all of the soft, round curves of the brushstrokes of watercolor. Kyle helped us get that Fragonard look of that girl on the swing… We are using subsurface scattering and global illumination and all of the latest techniques to pull off convincing human characters and rich environments."

One of the main ambitions of the makers of Rapunzel is to create movements that are just as soft and fluid as of that in the old Disney Classics.

New - Visual Development

[OBSCURE Sin]

I miss the old animation style. Seems like Lilo and Stitch was the last one of those.

[monchichi]

I read about this in Wiki before... they're re-doing the entire thing to make it less Shrek-like and making it more of the classic style where they sing and dance and stuff like that.

I prefer the classical style the most because only Disney is good at making that stuff. To be honest, I'm getting sick of those modern fairy tales... the humour is wearing thin...

[RAINii]

tell me why i'm 18 already..
but i'm way too excited. haha
i can't wait till it comes out
i also want it to be in the classic style animation
she'll be added into the disney princess collection
so i hope she's the same style animation
if now, she'll look rather strange with them XD

[losborrachos]

i know... i love the old-school hand-drawn type of animation (well, it's not actually hand-drawn but you know what i mean)... i've been waiting for another 'princess' film so i hope it's serious and not a shrek-type parody (which has been done too many times and gets really old to be honest)

[LucasBunny]

Geez too much CGI

It was cool when Toy Story came out but now it's too much
although All of the disney CGI flicks are the bomb.

Incredibles is <3

but wait for Frog Princess guys
it will be out I think 2009 and it will be handdrawn

[kiki]

I loved the classics. I'd be so disappointed if it was made any other way. lol... RAPUNZEL! I can't wait to watch it, even though I'm already a teenager. heehee...

[butterflyeffect]

I'm hoping it's a classic.
It's coming out after I graduate from high school. lol :x

[rapunzel283]

!!!

Another Disney Princess


I still think the one of the most beautiful Disney movies is Sleeping Beauty. Aurora/Briar Rose was SO BEAUTIFUL.
It'd be awesome if the movie was made old-school style o_ov

[Happy_Day]

Have you guys watched the clip yet? Isn't it ?!
I'm REALLY hoping we won't have to watch an hour and half of that kind of Rapunzel, lol!

[shizniz00]

same here i miss the old classic disney movies..they dont make them good as before..hopefully this one will be a classic

[Happy_Day]

I know I shouldn't fully trust Wikipedia, but I find that most of the time, its information are true.

Rapunzel is an American animation film scheduled for release in 2009 and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures and to be distributed by Buena Vista Pictures in the United States. The story is based on the fairy tale Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm.

The film will be made in CGI, though Rapunzel will resemble traditional oil paintings on canvas[citation needed]. One of the main ambitions of the makers of Rapunzel is to create movements that are just as soft and fluid as of that in the old Disney Classics.

Very few details have been released about this film, except that in October of 2005, production was halted in order to "retool" it. Early versions of Rapunzel (then titled Rapunzel Unbraided) had been criticized by top Disney artists and executives for having too many similarities to the 2001 DreamWorks hit animated film Shrek, which parodied numerous fairy tales and Disney animated films. The retooling is expected to take two years, with Rapunzel's release date being pushed back from 2007 to 2009. Many classic Disney films often go through this retooling phase[citation needed]. In July 2006, Disney's new creative head John Lasseter admitted that he is very pleased with Rapunzel thus far, after seeing a nearly-completed first act.

If the film is released on schedule, it will be the first Disney animated feature based on a traditional European fairy tale in eighteen years (the previous one being 1991's Beauty and the Beast).[2]

So I guess it will be made in CGI, which sucks! Oh well..
I hadn't even read about Rapunzel in Wikipedia, and I had thought it resembled Shrek. Wow, I guess I'm not totally clueless about animation, hehe!

Story
Originally, the film's plot revolved around two 'romantically challenged', real-world teenagers who are transformed into Rapunzel and her Prince by a disgruntled witch who can no longer stand happy fairy-tale endings. However, since production was halted in 2004 for major retooling, Glen Keane has "promised" that the film will revert back to the fairy tale's "literary origins." Thus, it is likely that the previously-mentioned plot of two 'romantically challenged, real-world teenagers' will be discarded.[citation needed]

Ew, I'm hoping it will be discarded.

Visual Style and Animation
The movie's visual style will be based on the painting "The Swing", by the French Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard[3]. Because director Glen Keane wanted this to be an animated movie that looked and felt like a traditional hand-drawn Disney Classic in 3D, he first had a seminar called "The Best of Both Worlds", where he, with 50 Disney animators (CGI artists and traditional artists), focused on the pluses and minuses of each style[4]. The movie will be made by animators from both traditional and CGI backgrounds.

Omg, this is one of my favorite artworks! I REALLY hope the movie's atmosphere will be like this, dreamy and romantic.

Hmm.. Maybe TOO similar..

Disney Princesses
It is uncertain whether or not Rapunzel will be joining the Disney Princess franchise. There are currently eight princesses in the line. Princess Tiana of the upcoming Disney animated feature The Princess and the Frog has been announced to be joining the line after her 2009 debut. Since The Princess and the Frog is due for a release in the same year as Rapunzel, the fact that Rapunzel has not yet been admitted as a princess is puzzling. If Rapunzel is not added to the line, a logical explanation could be because this film is animated in CGI while the current and future films with Disney Princesses are animated using traditional techniques.

[iloveren]

she looks like kate hudson.. or not

[Vanessa728]

awww...how cute. im sike and really looking forward for that.

[chula]

i wish they can make it classic-style ... i can't just imagine fairy tale stories in pure CGI.

CGI rapunzel reminds me of those creepy barbie movies that little girls watch.

[i3lu3fun]

CGI rapunzel reminds me of those creepy barbie movies that little girls watch.

haha, exactly that's what i thought.

[~neh~long~]

i'll be excited if it's in a classic style. if it is, i'm so excited!! i never thought there would be a day when i would for another classical disney movie, but i am. i always loved the rapunzel story, even with its dark side

[losborrachos]

but wait for Frog Princess guys
it will be out I think 2009 and it will be handdrawn

the one with the african american princess? yea i'm so excited for that

Omg, this is one of my favorite artworks! I REALLY hope the movie's atmosphere will be like this, dreamy and romantic.

Hmm.. Maybe TOO similar..

o hay there fragonard... i remember in an early film class this girl pitched a concept for a short film and basically used all fragonard paintings as her storyboard (i believe the title of her pitch was "the swing")... i agree though his paintings are beautiful and somewhat underrated like most rococo works... anyways, so cg or no cg, the promo pics are quite reminiscent of the princess style...

[domokunn]

i hope it's in the classic styles like the old disney movies.
it seems like every single animated movie
out there right now is 3d-ish

[OBSCURE Sin]

CGI rapunzel reminds me of those creepy barbie movies that little girls watch.

same here =__=

how can you keep something classic when its like that? I think it loses that traditional, romantic feel. I love Toy Story, Bug's Life, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, but for things like this you need the original style.

[/end psycho rant]