When considering proposals for 12 Princesses I hope that AS is keeping in mind that THIS is what the audience expects from a modern princess movie... not girls who only care about boys and dancing.
"Who Needs a Prince When Fun's Afoot?
The 3-D animated film "Brave" has a female protagonist who finds independence outdoors and tradition indoors."
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/movies/brave-pixars-new-animated-film.html?nl=movies&emc=mua2_20120622
From the review:
"It hasn’t been easy, to judge by the deep divide between the movie’s seductive pictorial splendor and its discouragingly uninspired script by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman and Irene Mecchi. (Ms. Chapman, the first woman hired to direct a Pixar feature, either left or was removed from “Brave” and now shares directing credit with Mr. Andrews.)"
Ouch... another review that slams the writers...
And of course the funny thing is the writer follows the notes given... ;-0
@ Jamster -- exactly. It's not like the writer has final say. But the writer (not the director, not the producer, not the studio execs who gave the notes) is always the one who gets blamed for a weak script.
If only there was some way for writers to publicly post the script as THEY wanted to write it -- and hope to ever get a gig again.
"If only there was some way for writers to publicly post the script as THEY wanted to write it -- and hope to ever get a gig again."
I heard about a website called Amazon Studios that gives that option.
Dirctor Andrews tried to explain that it was an approaching deadline that brought him into the director's chair After working on the project for years, at the 18-month from release point, Pixar decided to make a chance:
Early test screening complained the main thrust of the story was unfocused and hard to follow. "Whose story it was – whether it was Merida or her mom's story or Merida choosing which parent she was going to be more like – these things weren't working, and having more of an objective eye coming into it, I killed some babies to get the story moving again in the direction that was entertaining and had action in it and didn't compromise the heart or the humor."
Not that it was easy to get right: "I put it up on reels four times in the span of a year, in some very different ways, before I got it to where everyone was saying, 'Yeah yeah yeah that's it, it's working, it's working.'" ."Because the bones of the story were fantastic – the root of the parent/child relationship, the magic of this child in this desperate situation asking for this spell, not really knowing what it's going to be – all that stuff was there and those elements were working," "There were things in place that we didn't want to lose. I wanted to do right by Brenda because we're friends and it's always an awkward, weird transition. But also deliver something that Pixar wanted to get. It was a lot to do. It was a crazy, crazy minefield, but there were things that I had to keep that couldn't budge, which makes the combination of elements really tricky. It was a Gordian knot I had to untie and tie again to get it to sing."
"We wanted to make a story that would resonate with everybody, and I think this parent/child relationship, that heart, is definitely there," Andrews said. "And for me, the one thing for me, that I really liked about the story is it is a dark tale. I'm really glad Pixar got behind it and supported it and didn't try to lighten it." He then explained the historical precedence: "There's real stakes for this character and some real lessons. That's what makes the original Grimm's fairy tales so great – they're warnings to youth about being mature when they reach adulthood. It is going to be a dangerous place and their decisions and choices can have dire consequences and they can't take growing up lightly."
Which doesn't sound very much like the current version of "12 Princesses," does it? Warnings to youth about the world being dangerous and their decisions have consequences... or, as Yannick said, "What plan?"
I think "Brave" teaches us... that reasonable people, even professionals, can disagree over a task as daunting as adapting a Grimm's Fairy Tale.
The process AS has chosen... submit treatments, wait months without any kind of feedback... probably NOT the most productive.
Even after years on the project, the story "wasn't there yet."
If AS would pick the top ten, give them $4k apiece, and let them brainstorm... sort of the way AS was supposed to be from the start...
Most Pixar movies start from a more creative Story World than Scotland. there was so much "real Scottish stuff" that showed up in the first act, so it wasn't the magical Fantasy world that we see in the opening to "12 Princesses" test movie..
If this was a Group Project...
the first thing we would have to agree on is, "Why do people want to see THIS movie?"
With Titanic, the memory of a real news event, the spectacle of the world's largest ship, and the romantic notion of meeting your Soul Mate at the same time the ship hits an iceberg.
For Jurassic Park, seeing realistic dinosaurs on the screen for the first time. And, being scared.
For The Exorcist, seeing priests as heroes and being scared.
Assuming that "12 Princesses" doesn't have the Fear Factor of Jurassic Park, and it's not going to be a huge budget like Titanic, wy would people want to pay to see it?
I thought "a return to childhood." A chance to go back to a world where you can recapture your youth.
But... it's a Grimm's Fairy Tale. Germanic. It's about the lessons a child has to learn before they leave home and try to survive on their own.
From the LA Times:
"Merida is one of a growing band of pop culture princesses whose defiance, athleticism and pluck would shock their pie-baking, floor-scrubbing, dulcet-voiced Disney ancestresses.
Driven by cultural changes and marketplace forces, these new screen princesses mix equal parts fantasy and female empowerment. In the dark, PG-13 action film “Snow White and the Huntsman,” Kristen Stewart plays the classic fairy tale heroine as a Joan of Arc-like figure who commands a ragtag army in a suit of armor and with grimy fingernails; in “Mirror Mirror,” a more whimsical Snow White adaptation also in theaters this spring, Lily Collins trades her skirts for a pair of poufy pantaloons and learns to swashbuckle from the seven dwarfs."
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2012/06/22/pixars-brave-shoots-arrows-in-the-princess-ideal/
"Girls just wanna have movies!"
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/964032/brave-movie-review-and-women-filmmakers
"Pixar's Brave first female heroine!
Brave -- the first female hero from the blockbuster dream team Pixar -- opens this weekend and will more than likely stomp the box office competition."
A healthy $67 mil for 3 days, three times #2 Madagascar 3 (also for a family audience) and even ahead of Wall-E @ 3 days.
Looks like another girl-power hit...
Not the Pixar knows how to make anything OTHER than hits...
