Disney just announced nine new TV shows coming to Disney+ that will be produced by either Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar. These series will mark new ventures for the production studios, both of which primarily focus on feature films with theatrical releases, and are now turning their efforts toward Disney+.
The move is likely a direct response to theater closures in 2020. Many theaters could remain closed through 2021. Other theaters have closed permanently, and - unfortunately - there could be more theaters that will permanently close in the coming months. While some economists have optimistically projected that many of the industries hardest hit by Covid will recover in the coming year, the hard truth is that even Disney can't afford to wait that long.
Disney is shoring up its entertainment output by shifting away from big "tentpole" theatrical releases and focusing on itsstreaming platform, Disney+. During the virtual 2020 "Investor's Day" on December 10, Disney announced 61 titles that will release under the Disney umbrella in the next three years. Of those 61 titles, nine are animated series that will release exclusively on Disney+. Here's an explanation of all nine Disney and Pixar series that will premiere on Disney+ between January 2021 and the end of 2023.
In fall 2021, Baymax! will become the first-ever animated series produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios – the Disney entertainment powerhouse that has produced most of Disney’s animated feature films. Baymax! will star the lovable, marshmallow-like healthcare companion from Big Hero 6. Each episode will feature a new patient for Baymax to help as he zips around the fictional city of San Fransokyo. The cast of Baymax! has not been announced and Disney has yet to confirm whether Scott Adsit will return after voicing Baymax in Big Hero 6 and Big Hero 6: The Series.
Following Baymax!, Zootopia+ will premiere sometime in 2022. The short-form Disney+ show will explore minor characters from Zootopia like Fru Fru (the mouse that Judy Hopps saves from a giant runaway donut), Flash (the sloth at the DMV), and Gazelle’s tiger dancers. It will also feature in-universe reality TV shows like The Real Mousewives of Little Rodentia and So You Think You Can Prance. Zootopia+ will be co-directed by two people from the Zootopia creative team: animator Trent Correy and writer Josie Trinidad.
Tiana is an exciting new series that will follow the characters of Disney’s last 2D animated princess film, The Princess and the Frog, as they explore their world of 1920s New Orleans. Tiana has been announced as a “long-form series” featuring original music, but the cast and creative team have not been announced, so it’s unclear whether Randy Newman will return to compose the music or Anika Noni Rose will return to voice Tiana.
Disney also has yet to reveal whether the series will be filmed using hand-drawn 2D animation (as with the film) or the 3D style that has become ubiquitous in Disney productions. The series is set for 2022 and will likely be promoted alongside Disney’s refurbishment of Splash Mountain in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, which will be rethemed using characters and settings from The Princess and the Frog.
In 2023, Disney’s most recently inducted princess will get her own series, which will include original music. Moana: The Series will show Moana exploring the ocean and islands in the South Pacific. As with many of Disney’s recently announced productions, details are forthcoming. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the music for Moana with Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson starring in the film, but fans will have to wait and see if any of them return for Moana: The Series.
Walt Disney Animation Studios CCO Jennifer Lee announced Iwájú – a new sci-fi animated series that Disney will make in collaboration with Kugali Media. The Disney+ series will be based on a Pan-African comic collection from Kugali Media, which was founded by game developer Tolu Olowofoyeku, comic book writer Ziki Nelson, and animator Hamid Ibrahim. Iwájú is the only series announced for Walt Disney Animation Studios that will be entirely original (all of the other Disney series will expand on existing franchises).
The title Iwájú originates from Yoruba - a language that is primarily spoken in West Africa. The word roughly translates to "The Future," which is fitting since Kugali CEO Ziki Nelson identifies many of Kugali’s productions as Afrofuturist. Nelson said in a 2019 video clip for BBC Stories:
In the science fiction genre, there were hardly any Black people. It was as though they were passing on this message that there were no Black people in the future. Musicians and writers decided that they were going to create their own genre – Afrofuturism – which presents a future where Black people do, in fact, exist.
Iwájú is scheduled for 2022 and will be directed by Ziki Nelson, who said during Disney’s announcement of the series, “This show will combine Disney's magic and animation expertise with Kugali's fire and storytelling authenticity. Iwájú represents a personal childhood dream of mine to tell my story and that of my people.”
Win or Lose will become the first-ever long-form animated series from Pixar Animation Studios. The show will tell the story of a middle school softball team, with each episode following a different child throughout the week leading up to a championship game. The series will be written and directed by Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, who both worked on Toy Story 4.
Yates and Hobson's experience working together on Toy Story 4 inspired them to create the series. They realized that their perspectives differed wildly, even when they were talking about the same meeting they had both attended. Hobson and Yates were intrigued by the concept of a story being shaped dramatically by the perspective of the person telling it and ran with the idea, turning it into a full-blown animated series. Win or Lose is set to premiere exclusively on Disney+ in Fall 2023.
Pixar’s short films are as well-known as their feature films, and the studio is leaning into the format with a new series called Pixar Popcorn. Veteran Pixar director and writer Pete Docter (Inside Out, Monsters Inc., Up, Soul) announced this collection of “all-new, bite-sized stories” that will hit Disney+ in January 2021. These spinoff shorts will feature beloved Pixar characters like Buzz Lightyear, Dory, and Lightning McQueen.
Title cards for eight specific shorts were teased during the announcement. As of now, it seems like these are the only eight shorts that will debut as part of Pixar Popcorn, but that could obviously change in the future. Especially if the shorts are a hit, Disney could order another round of similar short films from Pixar. Their titles and parent films are as follows (though their titles alone are overt references):
- To Fitness and Beyond – Toy Story
- Chore Day the Incredibles Way – The Incredibles
- Dancing with the Cars – Cars
- A Day in the Life of the Dead – Coco
- Cookie Num Num – Incredibles 2
- Dory Finding – Finding Dory
- Fluffy Stuff with Ducky & Bunny – Toy Story 4
- Soul of the City – Soul
Pete Docter also announced a new Up spinoff series focused on Dug called Dug Days. The series will be directed by Bob Peterson who co-directed Up with Docter and directed the Toy Story 4 spinoff mini-series Forky Asks A Question. Peterson will also voice Dug, as he did in Up (Peterson's other Pixar acting credits include Roz from Monsters Inc. and Mr. Ray from Finding Nemo). Docter said in the announcement:
This brand new series follows our favorite talking dog now with Carl as he returns from the dangers of the South American jungles to the dangers of suburbia. Here he will face many challenges including puppies, fireworks, and of course - squirrel! Dug Days will premiere on Disney+ in the fall of 2021.
The fourth and final Pixar series announced by Pete Docter during Disney's 2020 "Investor Day" is a Cars spinoff series. According to Docter, the series will follow Lightning McQueen and Mater on a road trip across America. Docter announced, "We're excited to re-ignite the Cars franchise."
Whether he intended or not, Docter's phrasing seems apt when considering that both sequels to the original Cars film underperformed dramatically, effectively killing the franchise. However, it makes sense that Disney would indeed want to "re-ignite" Cars after pouring more than $1 billion into the 2012 addition of Cars Land to Disney's California Adventure theme park. The title appears to still be in the works, but the Cars TV series is set to premiere on Disney+ in the Fall of 2022.
Though these nine TV shows alone represent a staggering output by Disney, they are only a fraction of the new content that will be available to Disney+ subscribers in the next three years. However, it still doesn't rule out the possibility that Disney will add even more animated titles in the near future. Given that animation can be done remotely, voice-acting is naturally a socially distanced activity, and Disney+ is accessible from anywhere, it's no surprise that Disney and Pixar are relying on the animation format and streaming platform for so many of their upcoming productions.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/2Wb1JpS
0 Comments
Please don't use vulgar comments and avoid discussion on Religious matters