Walt Disney Feature Animation has had more than its fair share of rumour and innuendo swirling around it this year. From questions about whether John Lasseter and director Glen Keane were best buds or bitter enemies over Rapunzel (the smart money seems to be on "best buds" right now) to the PR flaks freaking out over The Frog Princess and the Frog, it's plain to see there's no shortage of drama at the Mouse House's animation division.
This latest installment of "As the Mouse House Turns" involves the CGI flick American Dog. Just to give a quick recap: director Chris Sanders had developed this story of a pampered pooch getting stranded in the Nevada desert. Everybody was jazzed about this script because Sanders' previous flick, Lilo and Stitch, was one of WDFA's few hits between 1995 and 2006.
However, Sanders ran into trouble with WDFA creative chief John Lasseter: Lasseter was (a) not thrilled with what Sanders was proposing and (b) never that big a fan of Lilo and Stitch to begin with. To make a long story short, Sanders left Disney (he's now reworking John Cleese's Crood Awakening script for DreamWorks Animation) and Chris Williams took over American Dog.
Williams made several changes to Sanders' original concept: the pampered pooch Henry became the Alsatian Bolt, the hero of a hit television series who thinks he actually has super powers. The Nevada desert became the back streets of New York City, while the one-eyed cat is now Mr. Mittens (actually a female cat), and a hamster-in-a-bubble named Rhino.
A couple of animation sites announced there's also a name change coming for this movie. Animated News claims that this flick will be changed to Hollywood Dog (suiting the new premise); they're taking this from Jim Hill Media. Blue Sky Disney says the movie will be actually called Bolt, after the title character's new handle. To back this up, they're also giving the official release date for this flick: November 26, 2008.
So who's right? Only God or Chris Williams know, and neither one is talking. IMDb is still listing the flick as American Dog, but they're also listing Sanders' original premise so it's safe to say that site is slightly behind-the-times.
A lot can happen between now and 2008, but it's interesting to note that John Lasseter called the movie American Dog when he was talking it up to investors back in February. That implies the movie's title is set in stone, since investors don't like sudden changes of that magnitude when their money is on the line.
So, regretfully, I'm going to have to shoot down both Animated News and Blue Sky Disney's rumour mills. American Dog is not getting a new name.
Extra Tidbit: Box Office Mojo claims that Pixar has listed a movie called Up as coming out on June 12, 2009. However, a little trip to IMDb shows that the long-awaited Toy Story 3 is also listed as coming out that year. Since there's no indication that Pixar is going beyond their current one-flick-per-year policy, here are my thoughts:
- Up is actually a code word for the afore-mentioned Toy Story 3 (Pixar likes to keep use code words for their movies as much as possible to keep information from leaking out).
- Up is the name of a new animated short which will show before Toy Story 3 in theatres.
Personally, I'm thinking Speculation #2 is the more likely of the two scenarios. Of course I will keep you posted as more information comes out.
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