1:09 pm - 08/16/2011
John Lasseter believes that, “No amount of great animation will save a bad story.” Not every exec at Disney appears to share the same values though. Speaking at SIGGRAPH last Sunday, Andy Hendrickson, the chief technical officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, offered his opinion by emphatically stating that when you’re making a tentpole feature like Toy Story 3 or Alice in Wonderland, story is overrated:
“People say ‘It’s all about the story.’ When you’re making tentpole films, bullshit.”
He supported his theory by citing Disney’s recent Alice in Wonderland as an example: “The story isn’t very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves. And Johnny Depp didn’t hurt.”
So according to Hendrickson, here’s the Disney formula: VISUAL SPECTACLE+JOHNNY DEPP-STORY = $$$. At least he’s honest about how Hollywood works nowadays. Give this man a promotion and corner office post-haste!
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Disney Animation Exec: Story is Irrelevant to Our Company
John Lasseter believes that, “No amount of great animation will save a bad story.” Not every exec at Disney appears to share the same values though. Speaking at SIGGRAPH last Sunday, Andy Hendrickson, the chief technical officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, offered his opinion by emphatically stating that when you’re making a tentpole feature like Toy Story 3 or Alice in Wonderland, story is overrated:
“People say ‘It’s all about the story.’ When you’re making tentpole films, bullshit.”
He supported his theory by citing Disney’s recent Alice in Wonderland as an example: “The story isn’t very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves. And Johnny Depp didn’t hurt.”
So according to Hendrickson, here’s the Disney formula: VISUAL SPECTACLE+JOHNNY DEPP-STORY = $$$. At least he’s honest about how Hollywood works nowadays. Give this man a promotion and corner office post-haste!
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Source
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Oh...
I work at a daycare centre and pretty much 80 % of the kids there have seen the movie already...
i hate how it opened the same day as harry potter
for the example the man gave.... everyone already knows the story of alice and wonderland, so they did work hard to make the graphics qt, and that IS what brought the general public in to see it + johnny depp (minus alice stans or w/e)
& its different if you're doing original works
Without the visuals these were all shit, and yet most of them are crossing the billion dollar mark, where more daring and original movies like any Studio Ghibli production, Scott Pilgrim, Legend of the Guardians, X-Men First Class (the story wasn't original per se but it was awesome), Attack the Block, etc. barely recoup there costs.
This guy is so very wrong.
/disney fan who wants to become a stan
I don't understand Hollywood's hatred for writers...the human desire for stories is the reason Hollywood exists.
As for movies like Tangled or The Princess and the Frog, they weren't guaranteed moneymakers, but the story was the most important element. Even Toy Story 3, but that is because Toy Story is, well, a Toy Story movie.
Disney can be their former awesome self when they want to be. I just wish they wanted to be awesome more often.
I'm still bitter over the mess that Alice in Wonderland was.