Disney doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to science fiction movies, especially not in recent years. In 2000, Mission to Mars suffered middling critical reviews and made a scanty $110 million worldwide on a $100 million budget. By 2002, the Disney Renaissance had come to an end, and the animated Treasure Planet was a total flop, grossing only $110 million on a $140 million budget. And this year’s Mars Needs Moms was an even bigger disaster, grossing only $38 million on a $150 million budget.
Promotional image for John Carter (2012), image copyright Disney
With so many sci-fi failures in so few years, it’s surprising that the upcoming John Carter (2012) got made at all, but perhaps Disney thinks that the fourth time will be a charm. Unlike Treasure Planet and Mars Needs Moms, John Carter is a live action adventure film based on A Princess of Mars (1912), the first novel in the 11-book Barsoom series by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs is best known for creating the character Tarzan, but it is his century-old Barsoom series that inspired countless science fiction writers to write in the genre and encouraged scientists to focus on space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life.
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ABC’s Once Upon a Time debuted last week as one of two new primetime series with a fairy tale twist (the other being NBC’s Grimm).
Pinocchio and Geppetto from ABC's Once Upon a Time, photograph by Jack Rowand and copyrighted ABC
In Once Upon a Time, fairy tale characters, including Snow White, Geppetto, Rumplestiltskin, and Little Red Riding Hood, have been cursed by the Evil Queen and are now trapped in the real world in a town called Storybrooke, Maine, with no memories of their past lives. Only Snow White’s daughter Emma escaped the curse, and she has returned to the town 28 years later to break the curse and restore the characters to their happy endings.
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74 years ago, Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the first full-color animated feature ever produced and the first film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics cannon which has grown to 51 animated features, including 2011’s Winnie the Pooh.
Still from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), image copyright Disney
Despite the years that have passed, Snow White remains a very popular Disney character. She is one of the ten official Disney Princesses and appears frequently at the Disney parks as a meet and greet character and in the Snow White’s Scary Adventures dark ride. The seven dwarfs in the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale may not have had names or personalities, but Walt Disney imbued them with both, and Sleepy, Happy, Grumpy, Dopey, Sneezy, Bashful, and Doc remain beloved classic characters.
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In 2009, I visited the New Orleans Museum of Art during a wonderful special exhibit: Dreams Come True: Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio. The exhibit was timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Disney’s 49th animated feature, The Princess and the Frog (2009), which is set in 1920s New Orleans.
New Orleans Museum of Art: Disney's Fairy Tales Exhibit, photograph by Valerie Champagne
The exhibit featured concept art, designs, and animation cels from Disney’s The Three Little Pigs (1933), Snow White and the Seventh Dwarfs (1937), The Ugly Duckling (1939), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and The Princess and the Frog (2009). I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit, and I credit it as my first introduction to the wonderfully talented art director, color stylist, and designer Mary Blair.
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17 years after Disney’s The Lion King hit theaters in 1994 and nine years after the IMAX re-release in 2002, The Lion King returned to theaters last month on September 16th – and this time it came in 3D.
Originally heralded as a limited 2-week release, more than 2,000 theaters have carried The Lion King in 3D for more than 5 weeks, and the film has earned $87 million at the box office to date, including the $52 million it made from two consecutive weeks at the top of the domestic box office.
Logo for The Lion King in 3D, image copyright Disney
Converting a traditionally 2D movie to 3D is an expensive process, but The Lion King‘s 3D run has been a smashing success, far out-grossing the $15.6 million earned by the 2002 IMAX release and bringing the film’s total worldwide lifetime box office gross to more than $900 million. When adjusted for ticket price inflation, The Lion King is currently ranked #18 in the all time domestic box office. Only two other traditionally animated films have grossed more: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and 101 Dalmatians (1961).
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2225
