Create the Next Film in the Disney Classics Canon

[DisneyManOne]

Listening to Eric Whitacre's soaring choral work made me wonder...what if Disney were to adapt Goodnight Moon into a short film? It would be very simple. Using Eric Whitacre's lush choral arrangement of the song--just the voice and the piano to give it a bit of childlike simplicity--I think the result could be the stuff sweet dreams are made of.

Title: Goodnight Moon
Format: Hand-drawn. I think hand-drawn animation fits the piece best.
Running Time: 5 minutes.

​

The short starts in complete silence. There is no Disney vanity plate. We instead fade in on a shot of the night sky, with the moon shining bright. A title appears: "Walt Disney Pictures presents". The title fades out, only to quickly be replaced by "Goodnight Moon" in its iconic font.

Suddenly, the camera slowly pans backwards. It goes backwards through a window and into the "great green room". The choir starts to sing. The first half of the song would be generally simple--just a little boy playing in his room, while the camera pans over the various things. Of course, some things would be animated--for example, the cow would be seen jumping over the moon, freezing mid-jump.

When the "quiet old lady" enters, she scoops up the boy in her arms and puts him in bed. Over the next part of the song, we once again pan over the room, over the things, but this time, we'd see some of the things seemingly going to sleep--for example, the cow would land and make its bed in a nearby haystack, the lights on the toy house would turn off, etc.

On the lyric "And goodnight to the old lady whispering hush", the lady tucks the boy in, turns off the light and looks to the audience and puts a finger to her lips.

On "goodnight stars", we see a view of the window, stars shining brightly. We go through the window again and into the night air. The wind gently blows. On "goodnight voices everywhere", we pan over the countryside the boy resides in.

Over the rest of the song, we see animals settling in for the night, we see owls fly overhead, we see all that lush, beautiful stuff that always associated with night. And as the song reaches its end, we just pan upwards towards the stars, ending with a fade out on the moon.

The credits to the short play in complete silence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you guys think? I'm actually thinking about doing a full-fledged "package feature" featuring classic children's books, with Goodnight Moon serving as the finale. Maybe I'll post about that some other time.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Who would be singing it though?

 

[DisneyManOne]

As September draws to a close, I thought I'd share this idea I had for a possible candidate for the Disney Canon.

Title: The Fantasticks
Format: Hand-drawn
Running Time: Around 100 minutes.



Based upon the long-running musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, I think The Fantasticks would be a sentimental addition to the Disney Canon. Given the matter of the story, I'd consider it a deconstruction of the earlier Disney films (that's why I chose hand-drawn for the format).

The story is narrated by a mysterious man named El Gallo, who implores us to "try to remember the kind of September" when we were young and full of dreams...not really sure of how life works. He introduces us to two youths: Luisa and Matt. Luisa is a bit...shall we say, "out there". She thinks she's a princess and wears a glue-paste necklace that belonged to her mother and considers it the most precious thing in the world to her. Matt is a biology student who finds his life of science shattered whenever he's around Luisa. They fall in love...that kind of forbidden love. You see, their fathers, Bellamy and Hucklebee, are feuding, and have gone to the trouble of building a wall between their houses. As you can tell, Matt and Luisa think they're star-crossed lovers...but that's what their fathers want them to think. Yes, this feud is all just an elaborate act so that Bellamy and Hucklebee can get their kids together. According to them, if you tell a kid no - they'll do it for sure!

During a secret meeting between Matt and Luisa, Luisa reveals she had a vision of a man coming to kidnap her and Matt fighting him off. Not long after, the fathers meet and discuss how to end their false feud. Matt's father proposes that they hire a professional to do the job. In enters El Gallo, who processed to explain all the various set-ups he can create for the kidnapping. After agreeing on a "first class" kidnapping, El Gallo sets off to find actors to help. Soon he finds Henry (an old Shakespearean actor) and Mortimer (who is really good at death scenes). Both are far past their prime, but he allows them to join anyhow. Not long after, Matt and Luisa meet again in the forest. El Gallo and the actors appear to kidnap Luisa, but are easily "thwarted" by Matt. Thus the faux-feud ends and everyone lives happily ever after.

Or do they?

As time goes on, everyone is beginning to realize that "happily-ever-after" isn't all it's cracked up to be. With the wall torn down, everyone is slowly getting on each other's nerves. As the tensions reach the boiling point, Hucklebee accidentally reveals that the whole thing was just an act. Matt is no hero. In a desperate attempt to prove himself the hero he perceived himself to be, Matt faces El Gallo once more...and promptly gets his butt handed to him. Provoked, Matt runs away to see the world, hoping to "find his madness", leaving Luisa behind and heartbroken. As a sign of this tragedy, the fathers have set to work rebuilding the wall, lamenting about how sad their kids have become. Now El Gallo swoops in and Luisa pleads for him to take her to see the world. He promises he will, and tells her to pack, under the condition that she leave her beloved necklace with him as a promise she will return. As she leaves, Matt returns, bloodied and beaten, and fully aware the world isn't what he thought it would be. El Gallo turns to leave with Luisa's necklace, but Matt makes an attempt to stop him. He merely brushes him off and disappears. Luisa comes back to find Matt and comforts him as the snow of December begins to fall and they begin to remember their feelings for each other once more. The fathers are overjoyed to see the two reunited, and El Gallo, seeing that all is right once more, sets off for parts unknown, but not before telling the fathers to "leave the wall."

What do you guys think? Could this work as an animated film?

 

[DisneyManOne]

I've got another idea! You know, it's funny--Disney certainly gets a lot of mileage out of their princesses. If one princess can inspire the enthusiasm created by Snow White or Cinderella, and two can conjure the frenzy of Frozen, can you imagine the excitement--and merchandising potential--that could come from twelve?

Title: The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Format: Hand-drawn

I've always considered dancing to be incredibly romantic. It's no wonder Disney has used dance to underscore some of their most romantic scenes--for example, the tender waltz Cinderella and the Prince share at the ball, or the famous ballroom sequence in Beauty and the Beast. As such, I've always considered the classic Brothers Grimm story The Twelve Dancing Princesses to be a perfect story to be adapted for Disney.

Plot: In a faraway kingdom, there live twelve princesses, each one as beautiful and as graceful as can be. Their father, the good King Heinrich, has kept them away from society, for fear that the cynicism the world brings shall corrupt his daughters. But this doesn't stop his daughters from yearning to explore the world, and thus, they've developed a cunning plan. Every night, their father locks the door to their room as they sleep. But by morning, their shoes are tattered and hole-filled, and the daughters refuse to spill the beans as to why this is. In order to solve this mystery once and for all, Heinrich issues forth a proclamation: Any man that can solve this mystery within three days' time shall be wed to any one of the twelve princesses. If not, he is imprisoned. (In the original story, the failures are put to death, but hey--Disney movie!)

News of this proclamation spreads fast, preferably through a musical number, and many men arrive to try, but are all imprisoned. One man who is intrigued by this concept is a poor peasant named Alistair. He has traveled great lengths in order to reach the King's palace and try his luck with the mystery. Along the way, he spies an old woman being abused by hostile nobility. Alistair fights them off and comes to the woman's aid. Taking Alistair to her cottage, she reveals herself to be a witch...but a benevolent one. She reveals that because of Alistair's kind heart, she shall make sure that he emerges victorious. Because of her magic powers, she knows all about the princesses and what they do. They have a very special method of making sure the men fail to solve the mystery: whenever they offer the man in question a drink, they lace it with a sleeping potion. So, she advises him not to drink anything the princesses offer him, and loans him an invisibility cloak so that he may follow the princesses to their mystery place without being noticed.

When Alistair reaches the castle, Heinrich is apprehensive to allow him to try his luck, seeing how he is nothing but a poor peasant. Alistair is able to plead his case, and Heinrich allows him to stay. As with past competitors, Alistair is treated like royalty. As he is roaming about, checking out his new surroundings, he meets up with the eldest--and the most beautiful--of the princesses, Amelia. These two strike up a conversation, becoming good friends in the process. At a welcoming feast at sunset, he meets the other princesses. When Heinrich proposes a toast to welcome the newcomer, Alistair finds that Amelia has given him a goblet to drink from. Remembering the witch's words, Alistair pretends to drink and pretends to become sleepy. Noticing Alistair's "drowsiness", Heinrich dismisses the feast so that all may retire to bed.

As Heinrich locks the door for the night, the princesses prepare to go to their mystery place. They dress in the most beautiful gowns and wear pure golden tiaras. As they prepare, they sing of what their dream men would be; with Amelia's dream man being "a prince among men" (Foreshadowing, much?). Ready to go, Amelia activates a trap-door in the wall of their bedchamber, which leads through a tunnel and out the back of the castle. Alistair follows behind, invisibility cloak draped round his body.

The journey to the mystery place takes the princesses (and Alistair, who is visible to us as the audience through an effect similar to the Force ghosts) through three beautiful tree-filled forests; one with leaves made of gold, one with leaves made of silver, and one with leaves made of diamond. Alistair nearly gives himself away when, in awe of the forests' beauty, he steps upon the hem of Angelina's dress (Angelina being the youngest of the twelve). Her cries of alarm are brushed off by Amelia, who tells her there's nothing to fear. At the edge of the diamond-leafed forest is a great lagoon, shrouded in mist. There, waiting by the bay, are twelve golden gondolas, each one driven by a dashing young prince. Each princess gets into one, and Alistair steps into the same boat with Angelina, who complains that the prince is not rowing fast enough, not knowing Alistair is in the boat.

Across the lagoon, the mist parts to reveal an extravagant castle--the most beautiful castle Disney has ever designed! Inside is a large ballroom, with a long table with a feast fit for a king, and a large dance floor. The princes and princesses eat and dance the night away. Alistair also eats, leading to a gag involving a steward watching a pastry float up and disappear...followed by said steward tossing a bottle of wine aside. As dawn approaches, the princesses and Alistair leave the castle and head back. Alistair runs ahead of the princesses, stopping to pick a leaf off a golden-leaf tree, and jumps back in bed just as the princesses come to check on him. Alone, Alistair marvels at how wonderful the night was, like something out of a dream. He decides that he will wait until Heinrich calls upon him to explain the mystery, so that way, he can enjoy everything again.

As the second day goes on, Alistair and Amelia meet up again, and talk of how they each view the world. When Amelia brings up Heinrich's fears that the world may be nothing but cynical, Alistair begs to differ. He tells her that as a peasant, he's seen it all; and while there might be cynicism in this world, there is more good than evil. To demonstrate, he sneaks her out of the castle, disguised as a fellow peasant, so that he may show her all the wonderful things in the world (through a song, of course!). As night falls, Alistair once again pretends to drink the wine Amelia offers him, and follows the princesses to their dream castle. This time around, on the return trip, he picks a leaf off a silver-leaf tree.

The third day approaches. Heinrich asks Alistair how he is getting on; Alistair responds that he is getting on swimmingly. This day, in particular, he and Amelia find themselves walking about the castle. They explore the palace ballroom, which is noticeably more dull than the dream castle ballroom. Amelia tells Alistair that a ball hasn't been held here in the longest time. She says that since their mother died, Heinrich has become a tad more cynical about things. He's still a jolly guy, no doubt about that, but there's something about him that seems rather off. To lighten the mood, Alistair asks Amelia to teach him how to waltz. In true Disney fashion, this is accomplished through song, and soon, they are off, dancing a glorious waltz together. And of course, it is through this waltz that they realize they are falling in love with each other. As sunset approaches and they walk the gardens together, they end up sharing a kiss. As the time to go to the dream castle approaches, Amelia is noticeably more apprehensive about giving him the poisoned wine; for fear that this may be the last time she sees Alistair. Even when they go to the dream castle, Amelia seems more apprehensive about dancing with the dream prince. This time around, Alistair brings with him two tokens: a goblet from the feast table and a leaf from a diamond-leaf tree.

Morning comes. The princesses are excited about keeping their secret, but Amelia is a bit more solemn about the occasion. She has fallen in love with Alistair, and she desperately doesn't want to see him imprisoned. Heinrich calls Alistair forward and asks him about the mystery. Alistair explains everything to him: the secret tunnel, the beautiful forests, the mysterious lagoon, the gondolas, the princes, the dream-castle, the feasting and the dancing; and showcases the leaves and the goblet as proof when Heinrich doubts his tale is so. With Heinrich convinced about this story, he calls the princesses forth and asks if the peasant speaks the truth. The princesses know that there is no use in denying the truth, and confess.

With this, Heinrich allows Alistair his pick of the crop. Of course, he chooses Amelia to be his bride, and she happily accepts. She tells Heinrich about how Alistair has shown her that there is still good in this world. Moved by this tale, Heinrich blesses their marriage and all the kingdom is invited to the wedding of Princess Amelia and Prince Alistair. Much dancing and rejoicing abound, maybe with a reprise of one of the songs we've heard before or an original ending piece, and our newlyweds live happily ever after.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried to keep this as close to the source material as possible, while adding a few new things in. There's no villain, no typical romantic cliches, no third-act misunderstandings. It's just an organic love story. Love doesn't always have to be facing villains and defying odds. Sometimes, love is just goodness and kindness; the fact that there's still good in this world. And that's what I hope this story inspires in people. What do you guys think? Do you like it?

EDIT: A good sum of this interpretation comes from the excellent Faerie Tale Theatre production, starring Lesley Anne Warren and Peter Weller. It's quite a beautiful re-telling, if I do say so myself.