Disney Animation Update

From the Animation Guild blog two quick updates on Bolt and The Princess and The Frog, the next two films from Walt Disney Animation Studios:

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Bolt is moving into higher gears as more of the staff begins getting overtime. As one artist said:

"I caught a screening of the film, mostly story reels now, a few days ago. I hadn't seen it in some time, and they've revamped the story a lot since January. And I really thought it worked well ..."

Princess and the Frog now has production animation going on, as well as experimental animation. The studio formed a study group to analyze the hand-drawn features of the nineties to sort out what elements worked and what didn't, how they can get the most bang for their production buck, etc.

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I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that Bolt turns out to be lightning in a bottle for Disney. They need a good hit soon. But I still regret that Chris Sanders style has been excised from the picture.

Tags: animation, disney, feature+animation, walt+disney, bolt, the+princess+and+the+frog, hand+drawn+animation, wdas, wdfa

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Disney Heroes as Underwear Models

Artist David Kawena over at deviantART has a deft touch for drawing some of Disney's most popular animated characters. Last year he took on a project to bring to life, in near photo-realistic, what each of Disney's classic hero characters would look like as drawn in the typical "Hero Pose". I don't know about you, but they make me think of those giant posters underwear models you see in Times Square.

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Bolt coming along strong at WDAS

Readers who saw early concept art or even a short animation loop at SIGGAPH will be surprised by the look of BOLT, the 2008 release from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Back when Lilo & Stitch director Chris Sanders was at the helm, and the film was called "American Dog", viewers would have been treated to a colorful wash inspired by the drawings of Edward Hopper of animation and heartfelt story of a dog who lost his way in America.

Since the decision to switch directors, and much of the story, very little concept art has been seen. What we have seen is a total change in direction. But now a few people have seen test-screenings and the early word is good.

This will likely be the last CGI film from Walt Disney Animation Studios for a while. They'll let the more experienced crew up at Pixar handle that load for now.

Animated News has a photo of a poster for Bolt at California Adventure and the first official trailer is rumored to be in front of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. Btw, NT2 is also going to feature the first new Goofy Short to be released in a long time -- How To Hook Up Your Home Theater.

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