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Friday, January 1, 2010

Image from Raiponce... sorry, Rapunzel

11:45 AM / Animation / No Comments

The jury's still out on whether this is an actual still from the film or simply a piece of production or concept art, but regardless, I'm actually rather taken by the look of Disney's upcoming Rapunzel. These are certainly among the most appealing CGI humans I've come across, taking the look of late 80s/early 90s Disney and bringing it into the third dimension. The prince looks a lot like Aladdin, while Rapunzel herself bears a striking resemblance to Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I'm not crazy about her 'tudish expression, but I think the whole painterly look, and the generally stylised nature of the design (weird photorealistic hands aside), is a thing of beauty.

This project has been in development hell for longer than any other recent Disney movie. It started off as the brainchild of master animator Glen Keane, but he stepped down last year due to health problems, turning directorial duties over to Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, Bolt's co-director and head of story respectively. I've lost count of how many times the concept has been reworked and rebooted (at one point it was meant to be a Shrek-style "ironic" take on the fairytale - thank God that was dropped), but it's due to come out this year (after having its release date pushed back multiple times), so, with the end now in sight, the version you're seeing about is presumably pretty much the final product.

With Bolt and now The Princess and the Frog, I do believe Disney is slowly but surely getting back on the right track. Fingers crossed that Rapunzel is the best offering yet from the John Lasseter era!

Source: Cartoon Brew

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