Fine Tuning Episode 104: Rescuers Down Under, Disney Animation, and Pixar Projects

Holiday Animation and Home Entertainment

• 🎄 Animated holiday music videos are appearing on YouTube, featuring artists like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Brenda Lee, with some incorporating elements from classic holiday films.
• 🎁 Recommended holiday gifts for animation fans include Pixar's "Art of Onward" and "Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 2."
• 🎬 The "Puppet Tunes Movie Volume 2" collection is highlighted, featuring the stop-motion work of George Pal, though some shorts contain dated humor.
• 📺 Season 2 of Netflix's "Hilda" has launched, with a 70-minute movie also in development.
• 🐭 Aardman's "Robin Robin," featuring Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant, is an anticipated holiday special on Netflix.

Disney Animation and Live-Action Adaptations

• 🚀 Disney's Investor Day revealed numerous projects, including "Raya and the Last Dragon" moving to March 5th with Disney+ Premier Access.
• 🇨🇴 "Encanto," set in Colombia, is highlighted, with Lin-Manuel Miranda involved in the music and story.
• 🐿️ The "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers" hybrid film will feature a 2D Chip and a 3D Dale, with John Mulaney and Andy Samberg voicing the leads.
• 🤥 Live-action adaptations of "Pinocchio" (directed by Robert Zemeckis) and "Peter Pan & Wendy" (directed by David Lowery) are in development, with confirmed casting for Tinkerbell and Captain Hook.
• 🧜‍♀️ "The Little Mermaid" and "The Lion King" prequel are expected to be theatrical releases, with "The Lion King" prequel potentially benefiting from a less location-dependent production.
• 📺 Walt Disney Animation Studios is expanding to Disney+ with series based on "Baymax," "Zootopia," "Tiana," and "Moana."
• 🌍 Disney is collaborating with the Pan-African entertainment company Kugali on an animated project.

Pixar's Upcoming Slate

• 🐼 "Turning Red," directed by Domee Shi, features a girl who transforms into a giant red panda and is set for a March 2022 release.
• 🌊 "Luca," set in Italy, is described as charming and will hit theaters in June 2021.
• 🚀 "Lightyear," voiced by Chris Evans, is a sci-fi origin story for the character, exploring the in-universe movie that inspired the toy.
• 🍿 "Pixar Popcorn" is a series of short films, and "Doug Days" will feature Doug from "Up."
• 🚗 A "Cars" franchise series focusing on road trips is also planned.
• 🥎 "Win or Lose," Pixar's first original series, follows a middle school softball team, with each episode told from a different character's perspective.
• 🏢 "Monsters at Work" is delayed and likely moving to 2022.

Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Fox Animation

• 🌟 Lucasfilm is developing "Star Wars: Visions," an anime anthology series, and "The Bad Batch," a "Clone Wars" spin-off.
• 🤖 "Droid Tales," a special featuring C-3PO and R2-D2, is also in the works.
• 💥 Marvel's "What If...?" animated series will explore alternate histories, potentially featuring Chadwick Boseman's final appearance as Black Panther.
• 🧊 A new "Ice Age" movie, "The Adventures of Buck Wild," is coming, but not from Blue Sky Studios.
• ✍️ "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" will be an animated feature, and DreamWorks is working on a "Dog Man" animated film directed by Peter Hastings.

The Historical Significance of "The Rescuers Down Under"

• 🇦🇺 "The Rescuers Down Under" is celebrating its 30th anniversary and is recognized as a historically significant animated film.
• 💻 It was the first fully digital animated movie, utilizing the CAPS (Computer Animation Production System), marking a major technological leap from "Snow White."
• 💰 The film's development involved significant investment and overcoming executive skepticism, with Roy Disney playing a key role in securing funding.
• 🦅 The animation featured advancements like Glen Keane's work on Marahuté, the eagle, and contributions from story artists like Brenda Chapman and Chris Sanders.
• ⚠️ Controversies included the decision to change the protagonist from an Aboriginal child to a white child due to perceived box office concerns, and issues with George C. Scott's performance as the villain.
• 🏠 The film's release was overshadowed by "Home Alone," impacting its box office performance, a fact that deeply affected director Mike Gabriel.
• 💡 The film's technological innovations were not widely publicized at the time, despite their importance to the animation industry.