It could be mature, but then again ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’ was released through Touchstone Pictures, and that was a G-rated movie. It’s all about marketing and which films Disney wants the average hoi polloi to associate with their animated classics and rank alongside films like ‘The Lion King’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, etc.

I see what you mean, but think about this, Disney Animation, Pixar, and DisneyToon are all under Disney banner. Disney also owns Lucasfilm, so its natural for them to put it under their banner as well. Since Disney owns Lucasfilm, there is merchandize and franchise potential for this film, so I see no reason why its not under the brand.
Also, the reason why Ghibli and Gnomeo and others were distributed by Touchstones is becoz they’re either too mature for core audience or they’re not Disney films. Disney never release non-Disney films under the Disney banner.
Which makes me think: if this is under Touchstone, and it’d also Disney property, maybe the film is very mature for kids? Midsummer Nights Dream isn’t exactly for all ages as well, so possibly that.

They could easily just have shown the production company’s logo side by side though kind of like how pixar’s logo was featured with their films. Although many many people have confused planes as a pixar film.

I guess it just depends on if there’s a family market for this film. If its suitable for families and it can have merchandise geared towards families, its disney. If not, it goes under touchstone.

I also feel, for animation at least, having a Touchstone logo and not a Disney one lessens confusion on who actually made it. Even if Steamboat Willie isn’t at the front, if a castle is there many will automatically associate Disney Animation if it is an animated movie.

Just to make a long story short, it basically comes down to marketing. Disney can make toys out of any film pixar, disney animation, and disneytoon release. The films they merely distributed like Ghibli are looked to see if there is a big potential market for disney’s core audience (families). Those that do are placed under disney while others (Gnomeo) go under touchstone.

I guess the animated films released on touchstone are films that are a bit more artsy or slighty more adult than the ones released on disney. For example, when it comes to Ghibli, they thought that Ponyo and Arriety would have elements marketable to disney’s core audience. However, wind rises was seen as more adult so they used the touchstone brand for it.

Even though Gnomeo was rated G, its british and shakespearian elements may have been seen by disney as a little outside the core audience. (In truth, this could easily have been fit under the disney brand). This must be the same with strange magic where some of the elements disney found were a little mature for the disney brand.

Although one of my longshot hopes is that pixar or disney animation studios can make a film geared towards adults with a pg 13 or r rating and call themselves a different name for those productions.

Yeah, it’s a bit late to announce it, in my opinion.

The main reason why Disney doesn’t release all their animated films that they work on through their main Walt Disney Pictures banner is because those films are part of what’s called the “Disney Canon” or “Disney Classics” or “Disney Masterpieces”. These are the 54 animated films that are the main projects of the Studios since ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ up until the most recent ‘Big Hero 6’.

Any other animated film that they release, but aren’t really majorly working on get released through their Touchstone, DisneyToon, or Miramax banners. These include the above mentioned ‘Strange Magic’, ‘A Goofy Movie’, ‘Peter Pan 2’, ‘The Tigger Movie’, ‘A Jungle Book 2’, ‘Planes’, ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’, ‘The Brave Little Toaster’, etc.

Summing up, the main reason is so that Disney can differentiate between THEIR movies, i.e. the ones they wanna be known for (the Canon) and the OTHER animated movies that they release. Hence, that’s why ‘Strange Magic’ can’t be released by the Walt Disney Pictures banner.

I feel your frustration, brother!

maybe……so feminist that the story is in jeopardy maybe? idk