Saturday, September 27, 2008

Disney, Depp & Developments

Seems that Johnny Depp is quite comfortable in his relationship with Disney, as he will be in at least two upcoming projects for the studio. Disney also announced a bunch of projects in development. From Hollwoodreporter.com-

Move over, Mickey Mouse: Johnny Depp, having buccaneered his way through three "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, is becoming the new mascot of Walt Disney Studios.

Depp, taking on the role of the Mad Hatter, has accepted an invitation to join the manic tea party in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland."

In a surprise piece of casting, Depp also will play the sidekick Tonto in the upcoming movie version of "The Lone Ranger."

A daylong preview of upcoming Disney movies and projects, held Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, ended with a surprise appearance by the actor, outfitted as Jack Sparrow, walking onstage to the tune of "The William Tell Overture," the "Lone Ranger" theme.


Other announcements of note include a third "National Treasure" movie, the moving up of the release date of "Cars 2" from summer 2012 to summer 2011, and a return to traditional animation with "The Princess And The Frog" with Oprah Winfrey lending her voice to that project. That one in particular really pleases me. Not that I am all that excited about the movie itself, but it's nice to see that traditional animation is not dead. I love Pixar films, they are the current gold standard of animation, but since the advent of 3D CGI animation, traditional animation has been pushed to the side. There is no reason for this, there is enough room in the entertainment world for both kinds of animation, and I for one would like to see even more traditionally animated movies in the future.

Also on tap from Disney, a return to the "Witch Mountain" series, one of my favorites when I was growing up, a new version of "A Christmas Carol", and the one I am most looking forward to, "Tron 2.0". I remember seeing the original "Tron" in the theaters, and always thought that they should make a sequel. For whatever reasons they waited so long, one is finally in the works. It obviously won't be as groundbreaking as the original, but hopefully it will give us a great story and awesome action.

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