New "The Princess and the Frog" Artwork

In the last week, two new pieces of artwork from Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" have surfaced on the internet (you can click on the images for a larger view):

The first one is an International Poster. You'll notice this is almost identical to the artwork being used to promote the Disney preview events of the movie in Los Angeles and New York City. As you can see, there's quite a cast of characters in this version of "The Frog Prince/King."

The second is a mural of 'the shadow man' (a.k.a. the villain, Dr. Facilier), painted to promote the movie and being spotted at some theaters. You can see some close-ups HERE.

Ultimate Disney "Princess and the Frog" Preview & Party Event

Disney is having a 'preview event' for their feature animated movie "The Princess and the Frog". While the movie is due in theaters on December 11th, event ticket holders will be able to see the whole movie ahead of time. The event runs from November 25th till December 13th, multiple times a day, at either the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City or the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.

There are a host of other activities too:

• all the Disney princesses will be in the same place at the same time (this is a first), including the newest, Tiana (from the feature being promoted)
• there are photo ops in special Princess and the Frog sets
• Disney animators will be on hand to teach guests how to draw the characters
• Princess and the Frog themed games and more
• Burbank visitors will also get the chance to tour the studio lot (an opportunity which doesn't happen much these days)

Full details can be found HERE.

Tickets for both locations can be found HERE.

The Ballad of Nessie

OK. It's not exactly a fairy tale but it is a myth and there are fairy tales with 'loch monsters' so I'm exerting my Fairy Tale News Editor prerogative here and including note of it at Once Upon A Blog. :D

Disney is working on a traditionally animated (ie. hand-drawn) short, presumably for theatrical release but as of this date no decision has been made as to what film to show it with (that's been released to the media anyway).

This little film will be a Disney take on the origin of Nessie , a.k.a. The Loch Ness Monster. The directors are Steve Wermers and Kevin Deters and the film is rumored to have completed animation in 2008 with the plan to release it some time during this year. (Steve Wermers, referenced on Wikipedia as Stevie Wermers-Skelton, and Regina Conroy are credited for the writing.) The completion of production was halted to work on a short called "Tic Tock" to release with "The Princess and the Frog" but then apparently things got switched around and "The Ballad of Nessie" will now be the short film shown before the fairy tale when it comes to theaters. (See? I worked it into fairy tale news after all!)

From the Walt Disney Animation Studios site:

With art direction evocative of the 1940s and 50s, "The Ballad of Nessie" is the honest to goodness true tale of Loch Ness and its most famous resident.

On a similar topic, in case you're not aware, there is a fairly new fairy tale story, written about Sleeping Beauty's daughter, called "Alinda of the Loch" which blends the legend of the monster with the fairy tale we know and love. You can find more information, including a chapter preview and an audio book preview, HERE.

Disney's Hollywood Studios Featuring Art & Design from "The Princess and the Frog"

Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) at Walt Disney World currently have art and design from the upcoming feature animation "The Princess and the Frog" on display.



You can see a little more HERE.

Disney's The Princess and the Frog - Conjuring the Villain NEW Featurette

Just a little something that popped up today - getting a behind-the-scenes look at what went into creating the villain in the Princess and the Frog.

Have you ever noticed that in fairy tales the greatest villains are the humans? It's not the witches, the Baba Yaga's etc - they're just forces of nature. Dangerous, yes - if you meet a wolf you'd better know how wolves behave in order to survive the encounter - but these individuals are rarely downright evil. It's the humans like Vassilisa's stepmother, scheming to make life miserable (occasionally aiming to kill their family members), that are the truly scary characters in a story. Give these malicious people access to a little magic and, well, let's just say it's a lot harder to escape their clutches.

In Disney's The Princess and the Frog, Dr Facilier is a smooth-talking, scheming, nasty piece of a human, who also happens to be a witch doctor - one who really know his voodoo. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at his creation, courtesy of Cartoon Brew:

Animation Test for "The Princess and the Frog"

Oh yay!

Here's an animation test for Disney's "The Princess and the Frog", shown at the 2009 ComiCon (last week).

fairy tale + animation = *happy sigh*
Love seeing this stuff. :)

Two Disney 'Art Of' Books Coming Soon

There are two lovely looking books coming later in the year from Disney animation artists:

1. The Art of The Disney Princess by Tk
Being released: October 20th, 2009

Description from Amazon:

Every little girl has a favorite Disney Princess--and for that matter, every grown-up girl, too! In The Art of the Disney Princess, Disney artists, designers, illustrators, and animators from around the world have re-imagined their favorite princesses and portrayed them in a variety of mediums. Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Cinderella are newly incarnated in water color, pastel, oil paint, colored pencil, mixed media, and computer graphics pieces that range from the traditional to the unconventional. This artwork has been created especially for this museum-quality book, which is sure to delight art lovers, Disney collectors, and any prince or princess who ever believed that fairytales do come true.

Wonderful to see Snow White so beautifully drawn! I can't wait to see the creativity inside this one.
2. The Art of The Princess and the Frog by Jeff Kurtti
Being released: Dec 16th, 2009

There is no description available yet but if it's anything like the usual 'art of' books it's not to be missed. Seeing the concept drawings that appear as artists get to know the fairy tale and start to interpret it their own way is always fascinating (yes, I'm a complete pushover for an 'art of' book!)

Both books are now available for pre-order at Amazon.com (click on the titles or the images to go to the corresponding page).