Tiana (Disney+ Series - 2024)

[Disney Irish]

I was considering linking that article, it's really sobering and painted WDAS making a new 2D film as basically impossible. Honestly feels like there were more ambitious hand drawn projects being considered (mostly as Eric Goldberg implied as such in interviews) but were shut down for some reason and I don't blame Henn for retiring as outside of Parks stuff, pencil tests and the occasional short, not much is being done on the 2D front there. I can still see 2D shorts coming out from time to time, but theatrical 2D is dead and buried at Disney.

I think if they can find a way to do CG generate 2D and make it look good I would think that Disney would put out another 2D theatrical feature in the future. But hand drawn 2D, I wouldn't say impossible, but its less likely. And given that a majority of animation houses aren't doing classic hand drawn 2D animation either, its hard not to see why Disney wouldn't want to go in that direction either as its far more expensive and time consuming.

But I never say never, so one has to leave open the possibility that they may in the future.

 

[TsWade2]

I think if they can find a way to do CG generate 2D and make it look good I would think that Disney would put out another 2D theatrical feature in the future. But hand drawn 2D, I wouldn't say impossible, but its less likely. And given that a majority of animation houses aren't doing classic hand drawn 2D animation either, its hard not to see why Disney wouldn't want to go in that direction either as its far more expensive and time consuming.

But I never say never, so one has to leave open the possibility that they may in the future.

So what you're saying is that there's a chance that Disney will do a 2d animated feature film, but not in a hand drawn style like the Disney Renaissance era?

 

[Disney Irish]

So what you're saying is that there's a chance that Disney will do a 2d animated feature film, but not in a hand drawn style like the Disney Renaissance era?

There is always a chance of Disney doing any type of animation style, not just 3D CG. As we saw with Wish they are trying different animation styles than what they have been traditionally using the last decade. But do I think hand drawn is more likely to be used than CG, probably not. But that doesn't mean its not possible, as anything is possible.

 

[TsWade2]

There is always a chance of Disney doing any type of animation style, not just 3D CG. As we saw with Wish they are trying different animation styles than what they have been traditionally using the last decade. But do I think hand drawn is more likely to be used than CG, probably not. But that doesn't mean its not possible, as anything is possible.

I’ll accept that. Thanks!

 

[LittleBuford]

Personally, I would love it if Disney returned entirely to hand-drawn animation, leaving computer animation to Pixar. Alas, it isn’t going to happen.

 

[TsWade2]

Personally, I would love it if Disney returned entirely to hand-drawn animation, leaving computer animation to Pixar. Alas, it isn’t going to happen.

Sadly, you're right. I either blame it on Michael Eisner or Bob Iger. Or better yet, I blame Jeffrey Katzenberg who is a CEO of Dreamworks.

 

[Tha Realest]

Sadly, you're right. I either blame it on Michael Eisner or Bob Iger. Or better yet, I blame Jeffrey Katzenberg who is a CEO of Dreamworks.

Disney was still doing hand drawn when Eisner and Katzenberg were in charge. So, in terms of Disney’s abdication of this art form, that’s on Iger and Lasseter.

 

[Miss Rori]

For that matter, Katzenberg's Dreamworks tenure began with a fairly even split between hand-drawn films like The Prince of Egypt and all-CGI projects. It's just that way more people came out for Shrek than Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. It's the same kind of thinking that discouraged Disney from continuing to produce 2D films; the audiences seemed to be gravitating towards the CGI films, and as much as 2D fans insisted there was still an audience for them, The Princess and the Frog's take didn't make a great case to Disney for continuing to serve two masters, while 2D talents like Glen Keane couldn't adjust their skillset to 3D as had originally been planned with Tangled.

 

[Tha Realest]

Scott Gustin just posted this on Twitter. Still no release date on this series.

 

[Surferboy567]

I think this thing might of gotten quietly axed or turned into a movie.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I think this thing might of gotten quietly axed or turned into a movie.

No mention of it not being worked on. The slowdown may be because DAS is doing it (along with the Vancouver studio), and they're probably going to not churn out things as fast as other animation studios. Also, there's the unionification of animators, among whom, one of their chief complaints is being over worked. So, a slow down in output is likely due to that.

Or, it's been secretly cut.

Or, they're waiting to see how TBA is received before making announcements.

Or, they want this to be a centerpiece of D23.

From Wiki...

A first look of Tiana was revealed in 2021,[133] with the series originally scheduled to release in 2022.[137][138] The release date was later changed to 2023[139] and eventually 2024.[140] In March 2023, the show's page changed to "coming soon to Disney+" with mention of a date removed.[141]​

​

The series will be among the first spin-offs of a Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be produced by the studio itself rather than Disney Television Animation. Animation services will be provided by Walt Disney Animation Studios' Burbank and Vancouver studios, with storyboarding and pre-production also handled at the Burbank studio.[142]​

 

[peng]

No mention of it not being worked on. The slowdown may be because DAS is doing it (along with the Vancouver studio), and they're probably going to not churn out things as fast as other animation studios. Also, there's the unionification of animators, among whom, one of their chief complaints is being over worked. So, a slow down in output is likely due to that.

Or, it's been secretly cut.

Or, they're waiting to see how TBA is received before making announcements.

Or, they want this to be a centerpiece of D23.

From Wiki...

A first look of Tiana was revealed in 2021,[133] with the series originally scheduled to release in 2022.[137][138] The release date was later changed to 2023[139] and eventually 2024.[140] In March 2023, the show's page changed to "coming soon to Disney+" with mention of a date removed.[141]​

​

The series will be among the first spin-offs of a Walt Disney Animation Studios film to be produced by the studio itself rather than Disney Television Animation. Animation services will be provided by Walt Disney Animation Studios' Burbank and Vancouver studios, with storyboarding and pre-production also handled at the Burbank studio.[142]​

100% its being turned into a movie now. Calling it will be re-announced at D23. I know that the unionization was for the technical directors, who were some of the only non-union staff there besides the software people. I also know that the show went through a ton of staff turnover for writers, so I guess that since the Moana tv series got the same treatment, the Tiana series was next in line, as WDAS exits TV production entirely. Overwork is also big problem as half of the frozen documentary was the crew slowly getting jokerfied being worked to death on the project, doubt that hasn't changed at Disney.
EDIT: removed the bit speculating on the medium, who knows at this point and disney tends to hire animators for their next feature en masse around a year-year and a half to when it comes out.

 

[Disney Irish]

March 7th 2025 is slated for a Disney release in theaters, wonder if this could be it. There is also May 23rd 2025 also slated for Disney release in theaters.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

100% its being turned into a movie now. Calling it will be re-announced at D23. I know that the unionization was for the technical directors, who were some of the only non-union staff there besides the software people. I also know that the show went through a ton of staff turnover for writers, so I guess that since the Moana tv series got the same treatment, the Tiana series was next in line, as WDAS exits TV production entirely. Overwork is also big problem as half of the frozen documentary was the crew slowly getting jokerfied being worked to death on the project, doubt that hasn't changed at Disney.
EDIT: removed the bit speculating on the medium, who knows at this point and disney tends to hire animators for their next feature en masse around a year-year and a half to when it comes out.

If this were happening, Tiana's supervising animator Mark Henn would not have retired when he did. He's still working on an animated short for the studio, and he would definitely be working on this if it were bumped up to a feature. He was very pessimistic about the future of 2D projects at Disney in a recent interview with the Bancroft Bros.

 

[Disney Irish]

If this were happening, Tiana's supervising animator Mark Henn would not have retired when he did. He's still working on an animated short for the studio, and he would definitely be working on this if it were bumped up to a feature. He was very pessimistic about the future of 2D projects at Disney in a recent interview with the Bancroft Bros.

You’re assuming this project if turned into a feature would be regular 2D and not the 2.5D shaded cel animation they used for Wish.

 

[peng]

If this were happening, Tiana's supervising animator Mark Henn would not have retired when he did. He's still working on an animated short for the studio, and he would definitely be working on this if it were bumped up to a feature. He was very pessimistic about the future of 2D projects at Disney in a recent interview with the Bancroft Bros.

Oh yeah 100%, 2D is dead at WDAS outside of shorts and that interview drove that point home hard. If the series was 2D, he'd probably have remained onboard, though there are some comments about Eric Goldberg that said it would be at least some parts would be 2D in some interviews he gave in 2022, but realistically, its going to be for flashbacks, the majority of the trainees they had were laid off (2-3 remain out of the 5 hired) and Goldberg seems to be getting ready to retire himself and besides, a turnaround of less than a year seems nigh impossible, 2D or not. And lastly, even if 2D was the dominant medium for theatrical animation, they wouldn't use it as they couldn't change things at a drop of a hat like in CG (said CG changes also require a ton of work), as shown in the Frozen docuseries. WDAS desperately needs a creative shakeup, say what you want about modern pixar, but at least they are experimenting with Story and Style, which will probably not happen at the main animation studio.

Bizarrely, there are multiple 2D films coming out this year, planning to see them and skipping Moana 2 and probably any new WDAS movie, the people that I know have seen the one that has been in theaters, Robot Dreams, have been saying its really good.

 

[Miss Rori]

You’re assuming this project if turned into a feature would be regular 2D and not the 2.5D shaded cel animation they used for Wish.

Given how a lot of viewers weren't impressed by Wish's animation, I'm doubtful they're going to try that approach again, especially for a sequel to a film that was so heavily sold on being "classic" 2D. I also doubt that if Tiana becomes a movie, it will be a theatrical film; they'll probably send it straight to D+ they way they did with Hocus Pocus 2 and Disenchanted.

 

[Disney Irish]

Given how a lot of viewers weren't impressed by Wish's animation, I'm doubtful they're going to try that approach again, especially for a sequel to a film that was so heavily sold on being "classic" 2D. I also doubt that if Tiana becomes a movie, it will be a theatrical film; they'll probably send it straight to D+ they way they did with Hocus Pocus 2 and Disenchanted.

A majority of the complaints for Wish wasn't about the animation, it was about the story.

Anyways whether they use that same animation style as Wish or traditional 2D, it still doesn't mean it can't go theatrical. I'm sure we'll see soon enough.

 

[Tha Realest]

I’d hope we hear something about this soon. How could they miss this opportunity for cross-promotion? Is the Synergy Machine on the fritz?

 

[BrianLo]

March 7th 2025 is slated for a Disney release in theaters, wonder if this could be it. There is also May 23rd 2025 also slated for Disney release in theaters.

To follow up on that, those are theoretically live action films. Though maybe the dates changed since you posted as well. The only unnamed dated animated release for WDAS is November 2026. Which is likely Frozen 3.

100% its being turned into a movie now. Calling it will be re-announced at D23. I know that the unionization was for the technical directors, who were some of the only non-union staff there besides the software people. I also know that the show went through a ton of staff turnover for writers, so I guess that since the Moana tv series got the same treatment, the Tiana series was next in line, as WDAS exits TV production entirely. Overwork is also big problem as half of the frozen documentary was the crew slowly getting jokerfied being worked to death on the project, doubt that hasn't changed at Disney.

Maybe? But since Vancouver seems to be working on this (and Moana), the output from WDAS proper is actually fairly low. They are taking the year off, which is quite unusual. It's pretty much only truly happened once before in 2017 in recent memory. Not accounting for some skipped Novembers followed by a double release year. Maybe it was necessary though given what has occurred for their last two films.

Pixar seems to have way more output and I think they are only still the single location?

It's a bit odd WDAS is struggling so much given their resources.