Check it out before it gets pulled: a short clip from Disney's Rapunzel now appearing on YouTube.
(Source: www.youtube.com)
Someone on YouTube managed to score a 15 second clip of Disney's Rapunzel (actually, it's a 5-second clip repeated 3 times but don't worry). This hopefully will be 3rd on Disney's animated slate, after Enchanted and The Frog Princess.
If this is a sign of Disney's next generation "animation revival," then count me a believer. The colours are super-saturated and the animation strikes a lovely balance between the Mouse House's post 1961 work (when they stopped rotoscoping human figures) and its 1990's "revival" style.
Glen Keane's the guy behind this. He's been a longtime animator for Disney: he goes back as far as 1977's Pete's Dragon, plus he's been supervising animator on most Disney flicks since The Little Mermaid. In addition, he's the son of Bil Keane, creator of classic comic strip The Family Circus.
If Glen's allowed to make this flick on his terms, I think it'll be a worthy addition to the Disney canon.
Check out the Rapunzel clip over here before the Disney secret police find it and shut it down.
EDIT: A little more info. Apparently Glen Keane is trying to make Rapunzel CGI but with the look of cel animation. It was originally meant as a Shrek-style deconstruction of the Brothers Grimm tale, but Disney executives asked Keane to remake it with a more traditional plot (a la The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast).
There are also couple of conflicting rumours swirling around this flick (take your pick of which you choose to believe).
- The first one claims that Keane and Lasseter are on the outs over Rapunzel, and that Lasseter is about to kill the flick. Apparently, Lasseter wants to keep Disney a cel animation house and reserve Pixar as the sole CGI facility, and Keane wants to keep Rapunzel a CGI flick, but not make it at Pixar.
- The other rumour that John Lasseter has seen the first act of Rapunzel as Keane envisioned it and he was very pleased with how it's turned out.
