Recently, avid fans were wondering whether Disney was making a sequel to Frozen when it was discovered that an animated film entitled Strange Magic was in production. Now, we have answers!
According to sources including Variety, Strange Magic is a forthcoming animated film from Lucasfilm set to be released on January 23, 2015 through Disney’s Touchstone Pictures banner. It has nothing to do with Frozen and was already in production before Disney bought Lucasfilm.
Directed by Gary Rydstrom (who also directed the Pixar shorts Lifted and Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation), the film is based on a story by George Lucas and is said to be a “fairy tale musical” inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. An interesting aspect of the film is that it seems to be a jukebox musical in that it will feature “popular songs from the past six decades”. The music director and composer of the film is Marius de Vries, who also was the music director for Moulin Rouge!, another jukebox musical, so that doesn’t surprise me. (I just hope that he throws in a Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, or Bing Crosby song somewhere in the film.)
The voice cast for the film includes Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Sam Palladio, Alfred Molina, Elijah Kelley, Bob Einstein, Peter Stormare, Meredith Anne Bull, and Maya Rudolph (isn’t she in everything?).
