Jedijax719
Well-Known Member
Why that far away?
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Moana 2 (Disney Animation - November 2024)
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
1. To give it time to hire back all the hand-drawn animators of Disney who are retired and join the hand-drawn Disney animators (new and old) still at WDAS and get the tech and tools needed to make it hand-drawn animated.
2. To make sure the switch from Paperman (but in color)-style animated Disney+ series to theatrical fully 2D/hand-drawn animated theatrical movie sequel isn’t rushed out so fast like Moana 2 was.
3. To not rush the story.
4. To ensure the animators are given time and not overworked to near-death, especially with the Animation Guild getting a fair deal now.
5. And for the 20th Anniversary of the original The Princess and the Frog.
Oh, also, because Thanksgiving 2025-2028 already has films at Walt Disney Animation Studios set with Zootopia 2 next year, an untitled original film in 2026, and Frozen III-IV in Thanksgiving 2027 and Thanksgiving 2028, which is why Thanksgiving 2029 should be Tiana/The Princess and the Frog 2, especially since it’ll be special as the last WDAS film of the 2020’s will be their first fully 2D/hand-drawn animated film since 2011 Winnie the Pooh.
As Deadpool would say, that return to hand-drawn animated movies for theaters at Disney “only took [nearly] 20 f—king years.”
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DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
Moana 2’s CinemaScore is an A-: https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/s/xwhJeyzaBj.
TalkingHead
Well-Known Member
Yep, same A- audience score as Wish but it’ll be a cash cow because it’s an IP sequel.
Will be interesting to see if Mufasa’s business is affected at all by this.
DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
Also, same audience score as Ralph Breaks The Internet and Frozen II
That's *usually* a 3.4 multiplier of opening weekend at the box office.
According to The Hollywood Reporter early tracking has Sonic the Hedgehog 3 getting the edge over Mufasa once they open head to head. If Moana 2 is all Disney focuses on after this first weekend in terms of promotion...well, that wouldn't help its chances.
It does still puzzle me why Wish didn't get anywhere with families with that A-, even given some competition between Trolls Band Together and Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Arguably Disney's marketing and merchandising push was much more robust and wide than Moana 2's has been.
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
I don’t really want Disney Animation producing profound mediocrity like this and I’m not wild that Disney is being rewarded for it.
I suspect the audience’s judgement of Moana 2 will show up in the box office for Moana 3 (I feel the same way about Frozen 2). Or maybe excellence really isn’t a profitable goal for animated films.
DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
Least its assumed billion dollar success MIGHT persuade Disney to turn Tiana’s series for Disney+ into The Princess and the Frog 2 for movie theaters in Thanksgiving 2029, with hopefully a hand-drawn animated style.
Farerb
Well-Known Member
Filmmaking Process - Moana 2
From sequence to shot to frame, explore our studio pipeline.
disneyanimation.com
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Moana was an unalloyed success at the box office and has continued to grow its audience in the years since. Princess and the Frog was viewed as a disappointment at the time and there’s no indication it’s had the same level of audience growth since.
Your continued and very specific refrain that a TV series that’s been stuck in development for years and already reconfigured at least once will be retooled and released in theaters five years from now is a bit odd.
Jedijax719
Well-Known Member
Which was also the same score as Frozen II. The difference is that the RT score did not reflect a feeling of avoidance the way it did for Wish. 67% isn't great, but it's stable enough to keep people from staying home.
Well Moana was probably the biggest no brainer of the year. IMO even more so than Deadpool and Wolverine…. The more surprising element…. Disney was considering a TV series over a theatrical sequel
Farerb
Well-Known Member
They started working on it when they still thought investing on new content for Disney+ was profitable.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Same. Wish I still don’t understand. To the point I accept Dis at the box office was broken. But I guess it was probably super multifactorial.
Don’t forget about the live action film….
Frozen 2 is not as maligned by the gen audience though as you guys think. It’s still competitively streamed.
Even before they had to have known Moana would have made money in the theatrical window…. Plus it would still end up on Disney plus…. A win/win situation….I am thinking it was a Chapek decision… as he was the same genius who thought it was a good idea to send all Pixar films to Disney Plus
TalkingHead
Well-Known Member
Funny how many casual reviews compare this to the Eisner direct-to-video sequels. Have to think if that was now, Cinderella 2 and Lion King 3.5 or whatever would’ve all gotten theatrical releases because IP sequels are the cornerstone of Disney’s brand today.
DisneyWarrior27
Active Member
It’s a possible scenario though, considering everything else Disney has moved from releases on Disney+ to upcoming theatrical releases:
- Marvel Studios’ Armor Wars
- Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch
- Disney’s Freakier Friday (Freaky Friday 2)
- Disney’s The Princess Diaries 3
- Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian & Grogu: A Star Wars Story (which is being repurposed from Season 4 of The Mandalorian)
- Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana 2 (originally Moana: The Series for Disney+ from WDAS Vancouver)
And that’s not counting other Fox releases originally planned for Hulu that have been and will now be turned into theatrical releases (The First Omen, Alien: Romulus, and soon Predator: Badlands).
If all those can get theatrical releases, Tiana should too, especially since her first film wasn’t necessarily viewed as a disappointment at the box office, more like a moderate box office success with strong critical acclaim that made Lilo & Stitch numbers globally against a $65M (according to people who worked on the film)-$105M budget.
Also, it showed up Nielsen’s charts once in February 2021.
So, it had growth at one point.
All I’m suggesting is Disney change it from a Paperman-style (but in color)-animated series for Disney+ into a fully theatrical, fully 2D/hand-drawn animated feature film to give the medium of hand-drawn animation on the big screen at Disney one last chance to prove itself worthy of continuing in the eyes of the people and in the eyes of Disney execs too. But also, they should delay it to Thanksgiving 2029 to give it the needed time to get all the legacy Disney hand-drawn animators back to work on it, get the tech needed to make it happen, and make sure the switch from series to movie is handled carefully and at an appropriate pace, a pace that won’t overwork or rush animators to near-death, as we saw with the reports that came out on Across The Spider-Verse, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Inside Out 2.
Also, I argue The Princess and the Frog isn’t a disappointment or failure that Winnie the Pooh was when it only made $50M against a $30M budget when Disney released it next to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
They just need to make sure Tiana/The Princess and the Frog 2, if they turn it from series to movie, stays as far away from Avatar 4 as possible.
Plus 2029 will be the 20th Anniversary of the original Princess and the Frog and will be the year after WDAS’s next 4 movies come out (Zootopia 2, and original untitled movie, Frozen 3, and Frozen 4) all come out.
So… makes sense to do it that way.
erasure fan1
Well-Known Member
The more puzzling thing is how it got that score on the first place. It wasn't good at all. It was a really bad effort for something that should have been such a big deal.
I am what they call a princess and the frog apologist. That said, you are right on the money. My youngest loves frogs. She has a closet full of frog outfits, dozens of stuffed animals, had a pet frog for over 4yrs. If its a frog item she probably has it. But she doesn't care about this movie, at all. For some reason it hasn't been able to break through. So Another film, especially hand drawn, would probably not go over so hot. I just don't see it becoming something that get a significant following.