Recently at the Walt Disney Company shareholders’ meeting, CEO Bob Iger mentioned that there currently aren’t any traditionally animated films in the works; however, he forgot to mention that there is a rumored another in the works that we haven’t heard about: namely a Rumplestiltskin adaptation called The Name Game.
The Playlist is reporting that Ron Clements and John Musker are at the helm. Clements and Musker previously directed other princess tales such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Princess and the Frog.
While it is true that they are working on a top-secret animated project for Disney, Bleeding Cool‘s source says that it is not 2D, but rather is “fresh and original, not a fairytale movie” set somewhere in the South Pacific and involves a Tiki carving character. Some would immediately jump to an Enchanted Tiki Room movie, but to me this feels more like the idol, Shiriki Utundu, from the Tower of Terror Ride at Tokyo DisneySea (despite the fact that Shiriki Utundu is from Africa).
There are lots of speculations and uncited sources regarding this news, so definitely take everything with a grain of salt.
I’ve personally always thought that Disney should do an animated Rumplestiltskin since it is a classic fairy tale in the same vein of their other animated films. After DreamWorks Animation used the character in Shrek Forever After, I was worried that they wouldn’t want to touch the character with a ten-foot pole. So you can see why I’m so excited about this rumor. It’s another great fairy tale on which Disney can put its magical creative touch!
Equally interesting is the misunderstanding that 2D animation is dead for Disney. Iger was using a very strict definition of what “traditional animation” is and was only referring to the next four years. Apparently, he was referring to projects that are completely traditionally animation and left out non-traditional methods such as the Paperman 2D/CGI hybrid technique. Also, considering John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are running Walt Disney animation these days, it seems unlikely that they would completely turn their backs on the medium that they were raised on and that is the studio’s legacy.
What do you think about a Rumplestiltskin film for Disney?