Tinkerbell flying again and again and …
I am not talking about the fireworks spectaculars at Disneyland Anaheim and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World – even so the beloved fairy takes flight in both parks during. I am talking about the upcoming projects of Toon Disney, the animation arm of the Walt Disney Company responsible for the 2008 direct to video animated features “Tinker Bell”. Said release was a considerable sucess for the Walt Disney Company and helped further establish the Disney Fairies franchise, that in 2008 also began to invade the Disney Resorts (so far Disneyland Resort Paris is lagging behind btw, having neither featured an attraction nor a special event for the new franchise).
Anyway, back to Toon Disney and its latest plans…
As the TAG Blog (of the Animation Guild 839) reveals the second Tinkerbell feature is ready to be released, while Toon Disney is already at work on the Tinkerbell features three, four and five!! According to the source of that post John Lasseter and parts of his Pixar team are deeply involved in the creative process for the future Toon Disney productions, going as far as Toon Disney conducting special story sessions with him allowing him (as well as fellow Pixar creatives) to provide notes to improve the material.
Let’s hope that the praise that Steve Hulett’s source heaps on the creative process is valid – since preparing five Tinkerbell features also runs the risk of sinking a lot of good money if interest in the character should fall off in the coming years. One shouldn’t forget that Pixar for example doesn’t start work on their sequels before the numbers are in for the prior movie, while here the fates of part three, four and five clearly lay at least to a good part on the sucess of part two.
On a second note it is interesting to read that John Lassenter brings in fellow Pixar creatives to provide notes. Now, don’t get me wrong, Pixar has been riding a series of hits in the past years so there input (as well as any other professional input) certainly is valuable. But isn’t Disney Animation itself having great creatives and especially story people as well? Why is he not bringing in those? This seems especially strange to me, as the Pixar creatives have no or very limited experience with the classic Disney fairy tales and the classic Disney characters such as Tinkerbell. While the stories of Pixar features were popular with the audiences, they clearly were far from the fantasy fairy tale world the Disney Fairies are inhibiting. In my humble opinion knowledge about the classic character Tinkerbell and the traits that have been assigned to her over the decades by the various arms of Disney are a necessity to avoid ending up with a chizophrenzic character that showcases different character traits and antics depending on which creative arm of Disney has prepared a product. Also wouldn’t it be a good management decision to show John Lasseter’s trust to the team of Disney Animation if he would bring some of them in to give notes?? In the end certainly if the result entertains the audience there is nothing to complain, but to help foster a good work climate and help creative teams develop further involving the cast members from Disney Animation seems a logic choice in the long run…
Before I forget it: according to the post in teh TAG Blog Toon Disney is not only preparing the (so far) three remaining Tinkerbell features but also “visual development for the next group of Toon Disney features (waay different than Tinkerbell)”. Anyone got a clue??
