Disneyland Is About To Get Hairy

CONCEPT ART OF THE TANGLED EXTERIOR LOCATION AT DISNEYLAND

(Yes - it's a preview thanks to Photoshop - not yet built)

Starting October 15 Disney's Rapunzel and Flynn Rider (from the coming-soon-feature-animation Tangled) will be greeting guests at Disneyland Park in Anaheim. According to this announcement HERE, it looks like they'll be meeting-and-greeting in Magic Kingdom in Orlando too. (See the link for details of what's getting bumped to make room for the 'Tangled Experience'.)

From Disney.com's First Look:

Rapunzel will be greeting guests in the location that currently houses Gepetto’s Sweet Shoppe.

[THIS IS CONCEPT ART FOR THE INTERIOR]

We’re sharing a first glimpse of concept art created for Rapunzel’s new meet-and-greet location in Fantasyland. As you can see in the image above, Rapunzel’s 70-feet of golden locks will drape luxuriously around the room. Flynn Rider, Rapunzel’s love interest, will also be on hand to meet and greet guests throughout the day.

What? No hair salon? ;)

The Wizard of Oz Steampunk Style - I of V

I found some interesting concept development sketches of the characters from The Wizard of Oz and thought I'd not only share those but other steampunk Oz illustrations from my archives that I like.

Today's is by Jeremy Vanhoozer, an Art Director currently working at Cartoon Network. He has a couple of versions of some of his characters so far and this is an ongoing project, so be sure to check into his blog HERE to see the alternatives and updates (he posts most days and this is his current focus project).

Here's what the typography concept (shown at the head of the post) developed into:
Dorothy:
Toto is looking very interesting...
Tin Man:

I love the flying monkey!As of today you can also see versions of the Scarecrow, and the Wicked Wict of the West on his blog too.

Oh yeah - and isn't his blog header cool?

Pumpkin Coaches For Modern Day Cinderellas

Heidi posted an awesome seasonal entry on pumpkin coaches and carriages this week on the SurLaLune blog HERE, showing some gorgeous examples of life-sized fairy tales coaches to drool over. Go have a look, then come back...

As a sort of sequel/addendum to that entry, I thought I'd show you some 'coaches' a modern-day Cinderella might use. Perhaps staying away from a bouffant outfit might be the way to go if she wants to get into these vehicles (and out of the ball in one piece):

The FGM (Fairy GodMother) 2005

(Found HERE)

Pumpkin Car by Tuneman

(Found HERE at Motortopia
The fairy godmother may have forgotten the 'meeting Royalty' factor here.)

'Vintage' Pumpkin Car - always classy
(Many dress options with this one though some different curtains would be nice. Found HERE)

Eco-Friendly Superhero Concept Car

(Found HERE - it's powered by bio-diesel fuel and electricity,

both generated by pumpkin seed oil!
The only outfits I can think of to compliment this ride are really only suitable for, well, Halloween.)

The FGM 2005 looks awesome - as long as it comes with the top-up. The last thing you need is to re-do your hair just as you're making your grand entrance. The speedy getaway options throughout are very appealing though.

For some steampunk options, watch for my Steampunk Cinderella entry coming next week!

Steampunk Hansel & Gretel by Donglu Yu

Last Hansel & Gretel post of the week...
I (almost) guarantee it!

I found this steampunk Hansel and Gretel by Montreal artist Donglu Yu a while back when I was researching 'the best steampunk fairy tale illustrations on the web' (see HERE for the last of three posts, which also links to the previous ones) and didn't include it because it didn't really catch my eye as representing Hansel and Gretel very well at the time.

I've since found the artist's overview of her painting from concept to final and I can appreciate the art - and her interpretation of the tale - far more now. I missed some important ones on my first few viewings. I didn't even see the witch up in her lofty room stirring the pot at first.

I'm hoping by showing you some of the development you'll come to appreciate her vision of the story as I have.When you realize what's in the details, this piece becomes very interesting and it's clear why Donglu's work has been recognized by an elite group of digital artists.She and her artist fiancé were featured in the prestigious digital art publication Exposé (7) this year in June (see article HERE), along with a very nice print of Donglu Yu's steampunk Hansel and Gretel (it has better contrast than most copies of this piece I've seen on the web, so the details are more noticeable).From introduction to the artist's project overview:

This is my great pleasure to discuss about the creation process for my latest work “Hansel and Gretel”. This image is originally created for the Steampunk Challenge hosted by CG Society. Right from the beginning, I had the intention of making a whimsical image which can remind us certain magic moments that the old folklores and fairy tales have brought us during our childhood. Hansel and Gretel has been one of my favorite bedtime stories: I can still remember how I was imagining those two little kids walking through the forest to arrive at the witch’s house which is deliciously decorated with all kind of confections. I want to recreate that feel of wonder that I have experienced longtime ago with the proper visual language.

Here's the final image, which I've saved till after the other details so hopefully you'll be able to appreciate it as I do now. (Click to enlarge)You can see a MUCH larger version HERE, which will zoom you in on all the details but you'll probably need to scroll up and down to see the whole piece, so you don't the impression of the story as you do from the smaller version shown above from the Exposé 7 article.

You can see many more development pictures and read about her process on this project HERE. The project is shown step by step, almost as a tutorial, though not quite. I'm so glad the artist decided to share!You can see a lot more of her work HERE at her online portfolio with the CG Society and in this excellent interview, in which she talks about her process HERE. I look forward to seeing more of Donglu Yu's work in future.

Hansel and Gretel and A Taco Stand

Hansel & Gretel overhear the plan to leave them in the wood

Today's artwork is from a similar project to the animation student posted on Monday HERE.

Gino Whitehall is now a working professional in design and illustration. The Hansel and Gretel project is from his final couple of years while studying at the prestigious Art Center College of Design and is included in his current professional portfolio.

Here you can see more concept sketches and how they developed into the final pieces.I like seeing how he translated the traditional witch's house into a Taco Stand. (From the description on his blog: "evolution of the witches house from a loose frank loyd wright inspiration to a taco stand... ") Notice the "Kids Eat Free" sign, which I can't help mentally switching around into "Eat Free Kids"...I particularly like how the witch gets her comeuppance.You can see more of Gino Whitehall's work HERE in his blog or HERE at his website, whitehallstudios.com.

Hansel & Gretel Production Design Assignment by Varga Petra

In putting together yesterday's blog post I realized I have enough Hansel and Gretel material to make a whole "Hansel & Gretel Week" - so that's what I'm going to do. :) (Don't worry - there will be other things popping up now and then too.)

Today I want to bring an animation student from Budapest to your attention.When people study animation in a formal setting they're often given assignments that force them to think about the creation of different elements of production beyond character drawings. These elements include background design, overall style, choosing a color palette (one for day, one for night and any other key atmospheric settings for the story - eg, rain, mist, snow, sunset/sunrise etc).What does this have to do with fairy tales? Fairy tales are an oft-used vehicle for students to explore these concepts. A common assignment is for the students to choose a fairy tale (sometimes they're given a more obscure one, to force a little more research and development) and to build the elements of a film, as if it were going to go into production.

The images you see here are by Varga Petra and show how she had to consider the story in creating the other elements for a potential production (see her titles below each piece to see which element was the focus). You can see other pieces from her assignment HERE.Although I admit I would love to see a less popular tale tackled, no matter how many students do a single fairy tale, the results are always different. I find that fascinating.You can see the rest of Varga Petra's lovely art blog "Anillusion" HERE (or click on the Anillusion header below). Included are a Red Riding Hood piece, a Rapunzel piece and lots of Alice in Wonderland work, not to mention other interesting characters that seem ripe fodder for fairy tales.

Pixar's First Fairy Tale: "The Bear and the Bow"

NOTE: If this post looks familiar, you are not seeing things. I'm re-posting it as I felt it got buried in other news a few days ago.

Pixar are busy working on their first fairy tale titled "The Bear and the Bow".

Apparently writer and director, Brenda Chapman*, loves Grimm's fairy tales and Hans Christian Andersen's tales. Her story is a combination of her love for those tales and a reflection on raising her daughter. (source: Wikipedia)

The "Bear and the Bow" takes place in "a rugged and mythic Scotland", where Merida, a member of the royal family, decides to give up her family name for her dream of becoming an archer. Merida makes reckless choices, preferring to run wild through the Scottish highlands than put on a dress and behave herself at court, resulting in peril for her father's kingdom and her mother's life. "Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark, ancient curse to set things right." (quotes from slashfilm.com)The characters made public so far are Princess Merida - whose hair is constantly tangled (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), King Fergus (Billy Connolly), Queen Elinor (Emma Thompson), a witch - who prefers to be called a wise woman - baddie (Julie Walters), a fifteen foot bear and Merida's younger triplet brothers.

Here's Reese Witherspoon on her character Merida(from pixarplanet.com):

"I get offered a lot of animated movies… [then] Pixar came along with [a] great character. A girl from royalty who would rather be a great archer? And she has a Scottish accent? Who could turn that down? You always go for the great character to play, even if she’s animated."

And here's a very interesting report from empireonline.com:

Though it's tempting to roll one's eyes at yet another female lead character that's a princess -- especially coming from Disney-owned Pixar now -- the movie is already displaying a refreshing change of pace by reportedly focusing more on the princess' relationship with her mother than the quest to find a prince. Even the inclusion of a non-evil queen is a big step for animated features which, often based upon Grimm's fairytales, overwhelmingly feature evil stepmothers and the like.

[Once Upon A Blog's FTNH: How interesting! This sounds like a long overdue updating of the independent/rebellious princess genre that doesn't rely on a romantic plot - there has yet to be mention of a prince, other than Merida's younger brothers, at any point, though that bear is looking a little suspicious to me. Reports are that the story does, indeed center more on Merida's relationship with her mother, so I'll reserve judgment on the bear! ;) ]

While only early concept art was shown at the event, Empire Online reports that it was indeed gorgeous. See what else they had to say by clicking over to the source.

(Source for quoted text: latinoreview.com )

The tone of the film is reported to be a mix of fantasy, humor and exciting adventure in a rich and mythically lush tale. I'm really looking forward to finding out more about this film.

"The Bear and the Bow" is scheduled for a Christmas 2011 release. NOTE: *Brenda Chapman was one of three directors on "The Prince of Egypt" for Dreamworks and was involved in story/development in varying capacities on Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (story trainee), "Beauty & the Beast" (key story artist), "The Lion King" (head of story) as well as for "The Rescuers Downunder" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame".

New Disney Story Books Using Concept Art for Illustrations

There are some new Disney storybooks out that are using illustrations done by concept artists during the development of the films. With three books so far and one more one the way, this is looking to turn into a series.

The most recent release (August 18th) is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with illustrations by Gustaf Tenggren.Others in the series so far have used artwork by Mary Blair and include:

Alice in Wonderland - text by Cynthia RylantCinderella - text by Cynthia RylantComing on October 13th (or possibly September 22nd according to a Disney Press report) is Peter Pan, also illustrated by Mary Blair, with text by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson.

My only gripe is that the printing could have been better and done more justice to the beautiful artwork. Because the reproductions aren't handled as well as they could have been and are somewhat muddied and cropped, these volumes are really more for interested adults than children. Nevertheless, I think these are worth grabbing a copy of before they disappear.

Two Disney 'Art Of' Books Coming Soon

There are two lovely looking books coming later in the year from Disney animation artists:

1. The Art of The Disney Princess by Tk
Being released: October 20th, 2009

Description from Amazon:

Every little girl has a favorite Disney Princess--and for that matter, every grown-up girl, too! In The Art of the Disney Princess, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world have re-imagined their favorite princesses and portrayed them in a variety of mediums. Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Cinderella are newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. This artwork has been created especially for this museum-quality book, which is sure to delight art lovers, Disney collectors, and any prince or princess who ever believed that fairytales do come true.

Wonderful to see Snow White so beautifully drawn! I can't wait to see the creativity inside this one.
2. The Art of The Princess and the Frog by Jeff Kurtti
Being released: Dec 16th, 2009

There is no description available yet but if it's anything like the usual 'art of' books it's not to be missed. Seeing the concept drawings that appear as artists get to know the fairy tale and start to interpret it their own way is always fascinating (yes, I'm a complete pushover for an 'art of' book!)

Both books are now available for pre-order at Amazon.com (click on the titles or the images to go to the corresponding page).

Trailer for Tim Burton's Wonderland + Some Concept Art

For those of us becoming curioser and curioser as to how Tim Burton is handling the beloved classic Alice in Wonderland, here's the trailer:

I must admit I'm VERY interested in this movie now! March 5th, 2010 still seems like a long way off...

I also found some development art that was done for the movie by character designer and concept artist Michael Kutsche which, while standing well on it's own, seems to have been reflected quite closely in the film (at least for two of them). Kudos to the artist for nailing it! I'm sure there's a lot more to come. (Michael promises,via his deviantART postings, to release a lot more art after the movie hits theaters in 2010 at least). I do hope there will be a making-of book!

New Rapunzel Concept Art Released

DisneyAnimation.com has just released five new concept art images from the new version of Rapunzel.
From Film: Blogging the Reel World (slashfilm.com):

Previous director Glen Keane (now Executive Producer) developed a new look for this computer animated film, which is said to look and feel more like a traditional hand-drawn Disney Classic, but in 3D. Apparently the film uses a non-photorealistic rendering technique which will make the surface look like it is painted but still containing depth and dimensions. The movie's visual style is (still) being based on French Rococo artist Jean-Honore Fragonard’s painting “The Swing” (this is most apparent in the fifth and last image below).

NOTE: words in parentheses and italics are my additions

Rather than try to rephrase this sentiment, I'll just quote Peter Sciretta (from Film: Blogging the Reel World):

"Hopefully the new non-photorealistic rendering technique employed on this production will help capture some of the painting-like beauty of these pieces."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Disney's "Rapunzel" - Still "Unbraided"?

OK - a confession. Unlike most of my posts you may find a teensy bit of an opinion being expressed in this post today... :D

In case you don't already know, Disney has another fairy tale scheduled for a late 2010 release: "Rapunzel" (sometimes referred to as "Rapunzel: Unbraided") and a little blog just told me they very recently (like, last week) had their production kick-off party. That means they're just starting the serious animation production phase 'now'! I feel for that crew. That's a very tight schedule to be working on, whether or not they've completed rigging and layout.

UPDATED AT 11:56AM:
2 OF THE DRAWINGS BELOW ARE NOT FROM DISNEY'S PRODUCTION BUT ARE 'FAN ART' BY TALENTED FRENCH ARTIST DAVID GILSON (who use to work for Disney). RATHER THAN REMOVE THE DRAWINGS I HAVE ADDED HIS CREDIT ABOVE THEM. You can see more of his 'fan art' (many of which are often mistaken for real Disney production images) in a previous post HERE and at his WEBSITE. Thank you to the anonymous commenter who pointed out my mistake this morning. :)

UPDATE 11:56AM:
The image below is not a production image but fan-art by DAVID GILSON

UPDATE AT 11:56AM:
The image below is not a production image but fan-art by DAVID GILSON

This particular feature film has a bit of a troubled history having been batted around in development for nearly ten years (at least since they announced it publicly) in story-hell, changing producers, directors and even approaches (you can see some of the old vs new artwork in this post). It was supposed to be the big 'all-CG-fairy-tale" film for Disney, proving they could do hand drawn and CG just as well. Now it's got even more pressure being the big number '50' full-length feature for Disney animation.By now, those of us who follow such things are feeling a little skeptical about it all, wondering if they can pull it together in time to meet the announced release. My guess is, if things are going well we'll see a sneak peek during the trailers shown before "Princess and the Frog". Still, just like everyone else, we can't help but be drawn to what they're doing.Apart from the whole "think of what we could do with all that hair! - and in CG!" angle being pitched to the execs, it started off with the interesting idea of basing the artwork on the famous painting 'The Swing" by French Rococo artist, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Then we heard it was all about a modern girl who got switched with the real Rapunzel (who got turned into a squirrel) and... yikes! But all reports are that it's on a much better track now - more classic and true to the original (all you fairy tale scholars out there must be thinking that's a ballsy thing to do but what they mean by this remains to be seen).

From Wikipedia:

Doeri Welch-Greiner, the production manager for the movie, says that "The original version was that a girl got pulled from the modern world and replaced Rapunzel (Kristin Chenoweth), and Rapunzel got turned into a squirrel. But we’re on a clearer, more classic fairy-tale sort of track right now with Dean Wellins as co-director; he was one of the story guys on Iron Giant and a Disney animator for a long time. It really plays on the mystery of the girl in the tower, and I think it’s really going to be great with Dean’s story sense and sense of staging, and the artistry that Glen brings to it, we hope we can bring the artistry of the movie to a different place."

Keane also promises that he’s going back to Rapunzel’s literary origins to do a traditional, character-driven fairy tale that speaks to a modern audience. “It’s a story of the need for each person to become who they are supposed to be and for a parent to set them free so they can become that. It will be a musical and a comedy and have a lot of heart and sincerity. I think that’s what Disney needs to do right now. No one else can do it. We should not be embarrassed or make excuses for doing a fairy tale."

Of course, this was added to Wikipedia before Mr. Keane was removed from the project but John Lassiter (who is determined to return Feature Animation to its glory days of good films and great returns) assures us (via press releases) that Rapunzel is now a solid movie and one worth making (deletes comment about ridiculous numbers of dollars already spent and keeps blogging).

But there's hope. Here's an uncredited source (because the person who visited the studios and blogged about it, just quoted an artist and didn't mention their name):

"Rapunzel has really, really come together. Before it was a series of really nice moments, some really funny sequences. But now it has a real epic sweep to it. To me it has the feel of those early Disney features from the forties..."

Despite all this we'll be watching keenly and closely to see just what happens with this. We'll also be rooting for it to suceed (as a film, as well as at the box office), because, quite frankly, we want more fairy tales! Here's the most recent artwork I've scrounged from around the web which shows a little development art and one scene but doesn't give away a whole lot. You can be sure if I find anything else, I'll post it!