Quite a lot has been announced today in the animation world. First off, Disney has unveiled some new details for the 2013 Walt Disney Animation Studios release Frozen, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. It will be directed by Chris Buck, of course, and produced by Peter del Vecho, the man who produced The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh.
It turns out that this will be more of a loose adaptation of the classic fairy tale than anything because the main protagonists are not Kai and Gerda, but rather someone named Anna and a mountain man named Kristoff are the leads. For months, we all knew that Kristen Bell would provide the voice of the heroine. The Snow Queen herself will be voiced by Idina Menzel.
In “Frozen,” a prophecy traps a kingdom in eternal winter, so Anna (voice of Bell) must team up with Kristoff, a daring mountain man, on the grandest of journeys to find the Snow Queen (voice of Menzel) and put an end to the icy spell. Encountering Everest-like extremes, mystical creatures and magic at every turn, Anna and Kristoff battle the elements in a race to save the kingdom from destruction.
Everest-like extremes? Mystical creatures? I'm already sold. Also, it's going to be another Broadway-style musical, which I'm currently on the fence about. While the plot does sound ambitious and a bit different, I just hope they do something interesting with the musical numbers and not try to rehash The Little Mermaid and the other Disney Renaissance films. The music will be written by Robert and Kristen-Anderson Lopez. Robert Lopez is well known for The Book of Mormon. The husband-and-wife duo also provided the lyrics for some of the songs on Winnie the Pooh.
Next up, DreamWorks Animation has changed the release date for Mr. Peabody & Sherman. Originally slated for March 14, 2014, the film based on the segments from The Rocky and Bullwinkle show will open on November 8, 2013, as confirmed by Collider. Ian McShane, Allison Janney and Stephen Colbert have been added to the cast. DreamWorks' Me and My Shadow was supposed to open that day, but now it's coming out on Peabody's old date. For the better maybe, considering that November 2013 is very crowded: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Thor and Frozen. Something ambitious like Shadow needs breathing room.
Lastly, Sony Pictures Animation also announced that they are making a film based on the long-running Tonka trucks toy line. Now I am honestly not looking forward to this, seeing that it's another film based on a toy. Also, what could a Tonka movie possibly be about? Oh, and Happy Madison is working on it. So from the looks of it, this will be some animated Adam Sandler comedy based on the classic toy trucks? I don't know why Sony would jump on the toy movie bandwagon, but it's starting to get annoying.
Anyways, that's all for today's news. Three in a row: Disney, DreamWorks and Sony. What are your thoughts on all of this? Are you looking forward to the three of these films? Do you think Sony Pictures Animation doing a Tonka movie is a good idea or a bad idea? Sound off!
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