Today Disney descended upon Toronto. Mark Zoradi the president of Disney Motion Picture Group (I think he might have a little bit of money) came to town with a massive presentation of all of the upcoming projects from the Walt Disney Studios. After being greeted by posters of the Disney releases for the next twelve months and a wide assortment of impossibly perky Disney employees, we were all treated to a massive reel of exclusive footage and production stills from upcoming Disney projects. I was there to see it all and am happy to report the highlights (including an incredible exhibition of sets and props from Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice In Wonderland). Read on dear reader to get all of your much needed Disney kicks.

Spielberg At Disney

First off Zordi proudly announced that Steven Spielberg has joined team Disney. Dreamworks now has a partnership with Walt Disney Studios and will be involved with distributing and producing a few Dreamworks projects ever year starting in 2010. This combination makes perfect sense since Steven Spielberg is essentially the Walt Disney of his generation (E.T. would have made ole Walt proud, were it not for the fact that he was cryogenically frozen somewhere deep beneath the ground at Disneyland when it was released…or so the legend goes). This also means that Disney is now involved with Pixar and the Dreamworks CGI team who have produced the likes of Shrek, Antz, and Kung Fu Panda. In other words Disney now has its finger in the pot of the two most successful CGI animated companies in the world. 2D animation may have died, but Disney has still found away to be at the top of the animation heap. I guess Mickey Mouse doesn’t like competition.

Disney 3D

One of the big points that the Disney corporation wanted to get across today was they are damn, damn serious about making 3D movies. Recent surveys have shown that movies screening in 3D make over 2.5 times as much on 3D screens than they do on 2D screens. 3D cinema seems to be the way of the future for blockbuster entertainment and Disney is jumping in full throttle. They have plans to release 17 3D movies to be released by 2012 (many of which will be 3D-ified versions of Disney classics). They are also hoping to start releasing movies exclusively in 3D in the near future. So it looks like Disney will paving the way for this exciting new cinematic technology starting with…

Toy Story 1 & 2 In 3D and Toy Story 3

This was no shocker. Obviously Toy Story was going to come up. Not only is a 3rd entry in the franchise on the way, but the first two films will be rereleased in October in 3D. For the first time details were revealed about this 3D engagement. Apparently the movie will be shown as a double bill (2 movies for the price of one) for 2 weeks starting on October 2nd. There will be an intermission between the movies to keep children’s bladders from busting along with a special presentation that will include trivia, mock interviews with the Toy Story characters and an inevitable ad for the third film. Disney considers this a wonderful opportunity to introduce the world of Toy Story to a new generation of children. That’s right the Toy Story movies are so old now that they are considered classics and children have to be introduced to them. You are officially old. We were then shown a trailer for the Toy Story rerelease in 3D. The results were damn impressive and this should be a great cinematic experience. Check out the trailer below. Unfortunately it’s not in 3D over the internet, but use your imaginations people!

Zoradi then told the crowd a little bit about Toy Story 3. The movie will apparently follow the adventures of the toys once they are discarded following their owner’s departure to college. It will also feature the voice of Michael Keaton as Ken. We got a peak at his character via a hilarious Ken mocumentary made by the good people at Pixar. Keaton is playing the character as an irritatingly vain asshole who hates being second fiddle to Barbie. The character alone will make Toy Story 3 worth seeing. Welcome back Keaton. We’ve missed you!

Cars 2

The Pixar presentation continued with a discussion of Cars 2 which is set to open in 2011. Unlike Toy Story 3, this is not a Pixar sequel to get excited about. Cars is easily the least interesting project the company has ever put out. They barely had enough material for a single film, so I can’t even imagine what they’ll do for a sequel. You know that incredible streak of critically acclaimed movies that Pixar has going right now? Expect that to end here. So why is the studio making it? Well, the reason slipped out during the presentation. Cars has sold more merchandise than any other Disney film released since the millennium. This movie is going to sell a lot of toys and that’s why it’s being made. It has nothing to do with creativity. Pixar founder John Lasseter directed the first cars, but has stepped aside for the sequel. Given that he runs the studio and can direct anything he wants, I think that says a lot about how he feels about the movie. There will be a lot of money made on this one, so it’s happening whether we like it or not.

Rapunzel

Mark Zordi announced that Disney would be releasing a CGI animated version of the classic Repunzel fairy tale in CGI. Surprisingly, the movie will be an all CGI projects from Disney without any involvement from Pixar. It will be directed by the same team who made last year’s Bolt. Expect a sassy princess with plenty of one-liners and pop culture references. You know, for kids.

Beauty And The Beast 3D
Here’s a piece of trivia for you: what was the only animated movie to ever be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars? Why 1991’s Beauty And The Beast of course. This Valentine’s Day you’ll be able to enjoy it in a whole knew way because Disney is re-releasing the film in 3D. We were shown a scene from the 3D-ified (yeah, it’s not a word. I made it up. Deal with it) Beauty And The Beast and it looks simply amazing. You honestly would think that Disney had planned for the movie to be shown in 3D all along. Surprisingly the only thing that seems to have aged is the animation which is no where near as fluid, detailed, or beautiful as the classic Disney movies like Pinocchio. But of course, the animation department was run like slave labor back then, so I suppose you have to make some concessions for workers’ rights…lame! Get ready to be blown away by this. Hopefully it’s the start of a string of rereleases of classic Disney movies in 3D, because the results are incredible.


The Princess And The Frog

Next up was a peak at Disney’s upcoming 2D animation revival The Princess And The Frog. While it’s great to see that Disney isn’t abandoning traditional hand drawn animation for CGI (I hope it never goes away. It’s a beautiful art form in it’s own right), it’s really to bad that this is the movie they’re making. I can’t say I’m excited for this movie, which features some slightly racist stereotypes. That said, it’s not a movie for me. It’s for kids and I’m sure they’ll eat it up. Let’s move on, shall we?


Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol

I won’t go into too much detail on this one because I already did a pretty detailed article on a previous preview presentation for the film that you can read here. This time Disney showed a slightly expanded version of the scene they screened last time. It plays just as well and the 3D effects are incredible (at the moment no one is better at 3D than Robert Zemeckis), but the CGI looked even better. The weird thing about seeing advanced footage or trailer for movies that relay heavily on CGI is that the effects are never finished. CGI is so complicated that the animation is normally being tweaked right up until the release. Mark Zoradi said that the clip we saw was about 90% finished and it was one of most amazingly lifelike examples of CGI animation I’ve ever seen. I can only imagine what the final film will be like. This will be a massive hit over the 2009 holiday season. Start saving up to take your family to an IMAX screening now (IMAX tickets now cost $17…what the hell?!).


Old Dogs

Next up was an ad for a film by the director of Wild Hogs starring Robin Williams and John Travolta about a pair of middle aged wild men who are suddenly forced to take care of young children. Somehow the movie looks even worse than that description sounds. Nuff said.


The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Wanna see a movie where Nicolas Cage teaches Jay Baruchel how to be a sorcerer? Me neither, but it’s coming out next summer anyways. Someone really needs to tell Nicholas Cage not to act in movies that require him to have long hair. He looks ridiculous every time. Here’s an actual picture of him in the movie:



Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland

Finally, the big showpiece of the Disney presentation was Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. We were lucky enough to get to see the trailer for the film in 3D, which is absolutely remarkable. It looks amazing online, but seeing Burton’s unique world come to life in 3D was something else. The combination of live action, CGI, and motion-capture performance that Burton is using in this movie is mind blowing. It’s the closest he’s come to creating a live action cartoon yet, which seems to be a bit of a career goal for Burton. Following the screening we were taken to an exhibition of actual sets and props from the movie. The detail and stylized design of the sets and props was remarkable. This is going to be one Burton’s most visually impressive films yet. I snapped a couple pics of the display on my cell phone for y’all to enjoy. I apologize for the less than ideal quality, but I had no idea that the presentation would be so impressive or that we would be allowed to bring cameras. Ah well, at least you’ll get an exclusive peak at what Burton has in store for us. Appreciate what I’m showing you goddamn it!


A peak at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

An amazingly detailed model of the room where Alice grows into a giant.

Some of Burton’s creepy child face flowers. The models on display were animatronics and made small continual movements. I will have nightmares for weeks.

…and finally here’s the trailer for the movie. It’s not as impressive on the computer as it is in 3D, but you’re just going to have to deal with it now aren’t you?!


Whew! What an epic presentation. Disney definitely has a lot of exciting things coming up. Looks like they’re still going to be an absurdly financially successful company for years to come.