Chicken Little Makers 'Quit' Disney

[Isaac]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v686/zapppop/98s.jpg Randy Fullmer (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0298427/), who produced Disney's Chicken Little (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0371606/), and Mark Dindal (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0227540/), who directed it, have quietly quit the company, the animation website O-meon.com reported Wednesday. In an interview, both Fullmer and Dindal denied that the takeover of Disney's animation business by Pixar execs played any part in their decision to leave. Fullmer said that he just wanted to "do my own things for awhile," adding: "It was great to work with 400 people in that sort of collaborative thing but it would just be nice to go back and be an individual artist for awhile." Dindal said that he was interested in making a film combining live action with animation. "I started to save up some money so that I could strike out for about a year and see what I could do as far as trying to get a film along those lines." He did not indicate whether he had approached Disney about such a project.

Keep in mind, Cynthia Harris also 'quit' working for Disney.

[Not Afraid]

I buy his reasoning actually. It sounds like a good move.

[wendybeth]

Unfortunately I bought his movie. That was not a good move.

[innerSpaceman]

Transparent Trap.

[Gn2Dlnd]

Twanspawent Twap?

[Moonliner]

While Chicken Little was a bomb I do hope that the Pixar takeover does not sound the death knoll for all hand drawn animation. Stitch is still one of my favorite Disney flicks of all times and I'd hate to see the art form die off at Disney.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Oh, I doubt that Pixar will be the death knoll for traditional animation. They, after all, bought all of Disney's traditional animation supplies after Disney itself tried to kill traditional animation off. Those two men are CGI animators.

Pixar-Disney's already trying to bring it back. "Enchanted," a film I'm very looking forward to, is a live-action/traditional-animation film about an animated princess who gets cursed by the evil queen-type to real-life New York City. Starring Amy Adams. Songs by Alan Menken. Hand-drawn animation. I'm there.

[Gemini Cricket]

I did not get to see 'Chicken Little' (I really had no desire to see it) but I thought it did pretty well at the box office... ???

[Kevy Baby]

$135,289,768 through March 26 according to Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/)

[Gemini Cricket]

$135,289,768 through March 26 according to Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/)
I see. I wonder how much they spent on advertising. It seems like they did a lot of it. $135 isn't bad but it's not great, either...

[scaeagles]

While I am amazed that the piece of crap movie that it was made that much, in the current Hollywood climate, that's actually pretty good, isn't it?

[Gemini Cricket]

While I am amazed that the piece of crap movie that it was made that much, in the current Hollywood climate, that's actually pretty good, isn't it?
Yep. Movies seem to struggle to get to the 100 million mark nowadays. I'm pretty certain they were trying to hit 'Lion King' numbers. That seems like an uphill trek...

[Snowflake]

Oh, I doubt that Pixar will be the death knoll for traditional animation. They, after all, bought all of Disney's traditional animation supplies after Disney itself tried to kill traditional animation off. Those two men are CGI animators.

Pixar-Disney's already trying to bring it back. "Enchanted," a film I'm very looking forward to, is a live-action/traditional-animation film about an animated princess who gets cursed by the evil queen-type to real-life New York City. Starring Amy Adams. Songs by Alan Menken. Hand-drawn animation. I'm there.

You and me both, sister! Thanks for posting this info.:snap:

[Alex]

I wouldn't get too excited about the hand-drawn animation in Enchanted being a sign of a revival at Disney. They aren't doing th animation in that movie, and neither is Pixar. James Baxter Animation is doing the sequence.

Sure, there is hope that it will be so successful that Disney has to return to hand-drawn animation full time but there are a lot of hurdles. One, it would be very expensive to recreate what used to exist and it would be a couple years before any product could be created. Two, there is no reason that CG animation can't be used to produce what looks like hand-drawn animation (see the short Lorenzo for an example of something you'd swear is hand-drawn being completely CG).

While I would regret it if the look of hand-drawn animation dies, despite any momentary resurgence, I think the process is for the history museum except for very localized specialty projects.

[innerSpaceman]

Wouldn't use of a computer to produce the look of something hand-drawn be prohibitively more expensive than just, well, drawing it?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Wouldn't use of a computer to produce the look of something hand-drawn be prohibitively more expensive than just, well, drawing it?Not if you don't have to hand draw every single cell, but rather produce charcter deisgns that LOOK hand drawn, but are actually animated by softwared.

[innerSpaceman]

Yeah, that's what I thought someone would say. But the highly-paid animators do only "key" drawings, and the vast majority of actual drawings are done by grunt-work "in-betweeners."


Eh. whatever.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yeah, that's what I thought someone would say. But the highly-paid animators do only "key" drawings, and the vast majority of actual drawings are done by grunt-work "in-betweeners."


Eh. whatever.Yes, but there are still a time and flexibility factors involved. You'd have the same setup of the lead artists doing the key frames, while fresh-out-of-Cal Arts flunkies serve the role of the 'tweeners. But while certainly those flunkies are probably more well paid than traditional in-betweeners, they can produce results in a fraction of the time. And equally as importantly, produce alternate results in equally small fractions.