OTL BLUTH cancelled satyrday as he noticed feel a rethread to rock a doodle(the story an owl that stole the sun) that is why was cancelled
The Day Disney Almost Flew Too Close to the Sun: a collaborative TL
- Thread starter Shronkey2021
- Start date
Either one would work because it could continue Shrek's work in subversion while doing some reconstruction: A Dragon's Lair would be as satrical and jabbing as Shrek would be, but also basically show Dirk and Daphne as a happy loving couple. Besides showing Dirk being a bold hero, it would likely take ideas from the cartoon and have Daphne be capable as well (likely playing her damsel angle maybe as part of her affection to Dirk). It would definitely be more risque than Disney's usual fare, but it could be its charm.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon meanwhile would be more of a classical reconstruction; while lacking the attitude angle, it does have a main female protagonist trying to rescue her prince and more of the hallmarks associated with Disney. So either or could work though leaning a bit more toward Dragon's Lair being adapted.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon meanwhile would be more of a classical reconstruction; while lacking the attitude angle, it does have a main female protagonist trying to rescue her prince and more of the hallmarks associated with Disney. So either or could work though leaning a bit more toward Dragon's Lair being adapted.
I'll keep going ahead though we can still comment on one another's stuff and go back in to fill the gaps.
June 2002: Disney's 40th animated feature film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire would be released, having been longed hyped up and given awareness as a form of cautious optimism and the work done to create an Atlantis themed area in Adventureland of The Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World park for the past few months. While many were worried if children would stay because it was a little over 2 hours long, they were surprised to see the massive success due to the effort, worldbuilding and a few songs in the Atlantean language, one that is a joyous song of praise of Atlantis and welcoming and the other a more solemn and melancholic one from Kida from her mother. Another, though not in Atlantean language, was a song sung by the crew that showed off some of their character and done to stave off boredom (though also foreshadowing as the only two who didn't sing would turn to be the antagonists). The film got critical success with a 93% and A- ratings over it, which helped restore further faith within the company they were going on the right track. It also got a couple eyebrows for the anti-imperial message and anti-capitalist one with the villain's greedy and exploitative ways.
Even the competition gave fair credit for it. The trailers shown before the film was another Lilo & Stitch one along with another upcoming one, Treasure Planet, a space adapation of Treasure Island, which got many people excited as it was shown Disney pushing more with combining hand-drawn animation with CGI. Beyond that, the Atlantis attraction over in Adventureland helped showed off the investment and to keep alert for more (a subtle hint at the coming Atlantis animated series). With the success of the film and excitement over the release of the Ghibli film Spirited Away, many were having renewed hopes for Disney.
June 2002: Disney's 40th animated feature film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire would be released, having been longed hyped up and given awareness as a form of cautious optimism and the work done to create an Atlantis themed area in Adventureland of The Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World park for the past few months. While many were worried if children would stay because it was a little over 2 hours long, they were surprised to see the massive success due to the effort, worldbuilding and a few songs in the Atlantean language, one that is a joyous song of praise of Atlantis and welcoming and the other a more solemn and melancholic one from Kida from her mother. Another, though not in Atlantean language, was a song sung by the crew that showed off some of their character and done to stave off boredom (though also foreshadowing as the only two who didn't sing would turn to be the antagonists). The film got critical success with a 93% and A- ratings over it, which helped restore further faith within the company they were going on the right track. It also got a couple eyebrows for the anti-imperial message and anti-capitalist one with the villain's greedy and exploitative ways.
Even the competition gave fair credit for it. The trailers shown before the film was another Lilo & Stitch one along with another upcoming one, Treasure Planet, a space adapation of Treasure Island, which got many people excited as it was shown Disney pushing more with combining hand-drawn animation with CGI. Beyond that, the Atlantis attraction over in Adventureland helped showed off the investment and to keep alert for more (a subtle hint at the coming Atlantis animated series). With the success of the film and excitement over the release of the Ghibli film Spirited Away, many were having renewed hopes for Disney.
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July 2002: Later in the summer, Don Bluth's first film in working with Dreamworks Animation is released... Dragon's Lair The Movie. A hand-drawn animated film with some CGI elements incorporated (such as a bit of the backgrounds and the magical abilities of the dragon and Dirk's magic sword). Taking elements from not just the original arcade game, but also the comics and cartoons, it shows the heroic knight Dirk the Daring rescuing his princess Daphne from an evil dragon. However, despite the seemingly simple premise, it subverts most expectations by expanding on the characters and being very tongue-in-cheek about itself unless it needs to be serious. Dirk and Daphne were preestablished as already being in a secret relationship in the early parts of the film (revealing they knew one another since children) along with Daphne being just as capable (if not a bit more bloodthirsty) than Dirk. Beyond the slight satire and the subtle adult jokes implied by Dirk and Daphne's intimacy, there are a few serious moments played that show the like of glamor that comes with being a knight and princess, hence explaining their "retirement" from the roles in the end.
While there was some concerns on whether Dragon's Lair The Movie would fare well, it would become a smash hit. This was due to the combination of taking some clever and risque approach with the "Disney fairytale" along with some well-animated action scenes, a few somber scenes and witty dialogue. While not as successful as Shrek, the film did do quite well for itself and would humorously get its own video game adaptation in Dragon's Lair The Movie's Game.
The video game was agreed upon thanks to the earlier success of Titan AE: New World, a video game adaptation/sequel of the film made with Bungie Inc that takes a century after the events of the film which saw humanity's new home threatened by the remants of the Drej (some of which survived by not partaking in the film's climax.) The game used a fair bit of Halo Combat Evolved's assets as the start-off point.
After a bit of searching , the video game adaptation would be created by the new video game developer Double Fine Productions, with the deal having a note on Dreamworks helping Double Fine with their own project in development. Double Fine was chosen after noting the work that the founders did on other works, such as Monkey Island.
[Yes, Tim Schafer writing a Dragon's Lair video game based on the movie based on the game, which would be referenced.]
While there was some concerns on whether Dragon's Lair The Movie would fare well, it would become a smash hit. This was due to the combination of taking some clever and risque approach with the "Disney fairytale" along with some well-animated action scenes, a few somber scenes and witty dialogue. While not as successful as Shrek, the film did do quite well for itself and would humorously get its own video game adaptation in Dragon's Lair The Movie's Game.
The video game was agreed upon thanks to the earlier success of Titan AE: New World, a video game adaptation/sequel of the film made with Bungie Inc that takes a century after the events of the film which saw humanity's new home threatened by the remants of the Drej (some of which survived by not partaking in the film's climax.) The game used a fair bit of Halo Combat Evolved's assets as the start-off point.
After a bit of searching , the video game adaptation would be created by the new video game developer Double Fine Productions, with the deal having a note on Dreamworks helping Double Fine with their own project in development. Double Fine was chosen after noting the work that the founders did on other works, such as Monkey Island.
[Yes, Tim Schafer writing a Dragon's Lair video game based on the movie based on the game, which would be referenced.]
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Hope they just doesn't throw away the deep canvas engine, that thing have so much potential.
A joke that write itself.
Maybe something could be done with space ace? A tv series or something?
Not sure on the Deep Canvas engine stuff though given the film is coming out a year or more later, CGI will look a bit nicer.
As for Space Ace, not sure what they’d do though Dreamworks do have to keep their word with Double Fine. Besides, maybe this new Psychonauts Project could lead to other opportunities, like in television...
I dunno if psy is that popular, yeah the original sold 1,5M copies in 4 platforms but the sequel only existed thanks crowdfunding and there zero life signals since.
Regardless nice bluth have something to do rather slipping into irrelevance
I hope no one minds, but I decided to add something related to the Disney Parks.
Late 1998: Eisner attends a game of golf and chats with Randy Fullmer and a number of business friends such as Bob Iger. During the course of the game, discussion moves onto upcoming Kingdom of the Sun movie which Fullmer gave a extension to, and other future Disney projects. This leads to Eisner to mention he’s thinking of approving the idea for a European version of Disney’s MGM Studios by opening a sister park to Disneyland Paris, now that said park is finally turning a profit.
Iger however manages to persuade him that it might be a better idea to hold off on any such plans, and not the rock boat as it were just yet. Better instead to give Disneyland Paris a few more years to grow and turn a profit before considering that. Eisner agrees, and plans for what would have been Walt Disney Studios Park are rejected.
May 2002: After a few years delay, Disney would finally begin plans for Phase II of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which would include the land of Beastly Kingdom and the replacement of the Dino-Rama area with the Excavator D-ticket mini-mountain mine cart coaster. Finally plans for another new coaster for Asia called Expedition Everest began to take shape.
Although the Beastly Kingdom project had been shelved by Eisner due to similarities to the Merlinwood area in Universal’s Islands of Adenture (owing to former Disney Imagineers jumping ship to Universal), the recent failure of Disney’s California Adventure and complaints from members of the Disney family and the board makes Eisner worried about his future. Following a call with Bob Iger, Eisner decides that what is needed is some kind of successful theme park expansion to take the boards mind off of Disney’s California Adventure. After briefly considering going back to the idea of Walt Disney Studios Park, Eisner instead decides to move forward with what he considers the cheaper option, moving forward and completing the originally promised Phase II of Animal Kingdom which for the most part plans already exist.
Eisner especially hopes that adding three roller coasters to the park (Dragon’s Tower, the Excavator, and the newly planned Expedition Everest), would not only give a nice boost to the park, but would take attendance away from the recently opened Universal Islands of Adventure.
September 2002: Disney announces plans for a retheme of the Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland themed to the recently successful Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The ride will be titled Submarine Expedition to Atlantis.
July 2005 to December 2006: Beastly Kingdom, the Excavator, and Expedition Everest open to the general public. All three openings massively boost ticket sales to the park and lead to a noticeable decline in attendance at Universal Islands of Adventure for a number of months. Universal itself would complain that Beastly Kingdom was copying off of their Merlinwood area in Islands of Adventure, only for Disney to shoot back that the plans for Beastly Kingdom hadn’t been changed since the 1990’s (a bit of a lie, as there were some differences between the final plan and the 1990’s plan), accusing Universal of having hired Imagineers who openly copied Disney’s own plans. The matter is soon after dropped.
Late 1998: Eisner attends a game of golf and chats with Randy Fullmer and a number of business friends such as Bob Iger. During the course of the game, discussion moves onto upcoming Kingdom of the Sun movie which Fullmer gave a extension to, and other future Disney projects. This leads to Eisner to mention he’s thinking of approving the idea for a European version of Disney’s MGM Studios by opening a sister park to Disneyland Paris, now that said park is finally turning a profit.
Iger however manages to persuade him that it might be a better idea to hold off on any such plans, and not the rock boat as it were just yet. Better instead to give Disneyland Paris a few more years to grow and turn a profit before considering that. Eisner agrees, and plans for what would have been Walt Disney Studios Park are rejected.
May 2002: After a few years delay, Disney would finally begin plans for Phase II of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which would include the land of Beastly Kingdom and the replacement of the Dino-Rama area with the Excavator D-ticket mini-mountain mine cart coaster. Finally plans for another new coaster for Asia called Expedition Everest began to take shape.
Although the Beastly Kingdom project had been shelved by Eisner due to similarities to the Merlinwood area in Universal’s Islands of Adenture (owing to former Disney Imagineers jumping ship to Universal), the recent failure of Disney’s California Adventure and complaints from members of the Disney family and the board makes Eisner worried about his future. Following a call with Bob Iger, Eisner decides that what is needed is some kind of successful theme park expansion to take the boards mind off of Disney’s California Adventure. After briefly considering going back to the idea of Walt Disney Studios Park, Eisner instead decides to move forward with what he considers the cheaper option, moving forward and completing the originally promised Phase II of Animal Kingdom which for the most part plans already exist.
Eisner especially hopes that adding three roller coasters to the park (Dragon’s Tower, the Excavator, and the newly planned Expedition Everest), would not only give a nice boost to the park, but would take attendance away from the recently opened Universal Islands of Adventure.
September 2002: Disney announces plans for a retheme of the Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland themed to the recently successful Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The ride will be titled Submarine Expedition to Atlantis.
July 2005 to December 2006: Beastly Kingdom, the Excavator, and Expedition Everest open to the general public. All three openings massively boost ticket sales to the park and lead to a noticeable decline in attendance at Universal Islands of Adventure for a number of months. Universal itself would complain that Beastly Kingdom was copying off of their Merlinwood area in Islands of Adventure, only for Disney to shoot back that the plans for Beastly Kingdom hadn’t been changed since the 1990’s (a bit of a lie, as there were some differences between the final plan and the 1990’s plan), accusing Universal of having hired Imagineers who openly copied Disney’s own plans. The matter is soon after dropped.
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Late 1998: Saban Entertainment, upon receiving the Sentai footage for their next season of Power Rangers, is forced to overhaul the intended "Lost Galaxy" plotline when it is discovered that the series is instead themed around nature and magic; after some initial debate in an effort to salvage the concept through editing the footage to look more "spacey"( the idea is shot down after the producers are reminded of Power Rangers Turbo's similarly disastrous efforts), Saban instead decides to go all in on the "mystical" nature of Gingaman, building an entirely new plotline heavily rooted in Celtic folklore and legends of the Fae, borrowing elements and characters from an aborted concept for an American tokusatsu to further flesh out the series. Power Rangers: Mystic Knights, the first post-"Zordon era" series, airs in February 1999.
Hopefuly @Shronkey2021 doesn't mind since it does create its own divergeance point instead of their own, though we'll have to see what they say.
Here's the first draft of the complete timeline so far:
Summer 1998: Disney's new film, Kingdom of the Sun, directed by Roger Allers, and music by Sting, is having time problems, with a November 22, 2000 release on the way, and sponsors like Coca-Cola and McDonald's lining up, Allers tells executive Randy Fullmer that he'd be done in 6 months - 1 year. Fullmer accepts Aller's extension.
Late 1998: Eisner attends a game of golf and chats with Randy Fullmer and a number of business friends such as Bob Iger. During the course of the game, discussion moves onto upcoming Kingdom of the Sun movie which Fullmer gave a extension to, and other future Disney projects. This leads to Eisner to mention he’s thinking of approving the idea for a European version of Disney’s MGM Studios by opening a sister park to Disneyland Paris, now that said park is finally turning a profit.
Iger however manages to persuade him that it might be a better idea to hold off on any such plans, and not the rock boat as it were just yet. Better instead to give Disneyland Paris a few more years to grow and turn a profit before considering that. Eisner agrees, and plans for what would have been Walt Disney Studios Park are rejected.
Late 1998: Saban Entertainment, upon receiving the Sentai footage for their next season of Power Rangers, is forced to overhaul the intended "Lost Galaxy" plotline when it is discovered that the series is instead themed around nature and magic; after some initial debate in an effort to salvage the concept through editing the footage to look more "spacey"( the idea is shot down after the producers are reminded of Power Rangers Turbo's similarly disastrous efforts), Saban instead decides to go all in on the "mystical" nature of Gingaman, building an entirely new plotline heavily rooted in Celtic folklore and legends of the Fae, borrowing elements and characters from an aborted concept for an American tokusatsu to further flesh out the series. Power Rangers: Mystic Knights, the first post-"Zordon era" series, airs in February 1999.
February 1999: In a miraculous turn of events, Kingdom of the Sun is completed, with time to spare.
November 2000- Kingdom of the Sun releases on time after Disney made some adjustments and sacrifices (such as cancelling their Dinosaur project) and has some noticeable impacts on the animation industry. The frustration at a percieved notion of lack of creativity in Disney led to a predominant number of writers leaving Disney in revolt and would end up joining various aspects of the competitions. One side-effect of this was the delay of Titan A.E., a project headed by Don Bluth; the delays came with some new writers coming in and snowballing into concerns over the usage of computer animation and deciding instead to rely on traditional animation, with the new release date in Spring 2001. Others join DreamWorks for more experimental fares in their animated works.
The film would get critical reception and box office profit higher than expected. The reviews noted how much of a fresh breath of air the story was and the different setting. Despite concerns of Pocahantas and Hunchback of Notre-Dame, this along with the previously released Tarzan seem to have restored faith in the works, but also caused Disney to begin looking over what worked and what hadn't. They came to two conclusions: 1 was that they could learn forward to more adventurous stories while maintaining the Disney touch, such as the music. 2 was on expanding being European fairytales and go into the wide world along with not rely on royalty. As such, two Disney projects began getting more focus and work along with advertisement plans: one was a story of Atlantis (which included 2 songs in the Atlantean language made for the film) and one a space-based adaptation of Treasure Island (with musicians being looked for to make a few "space pirate shanties".)
May 18, 2001: Shrek is released into theaters. DreamWorks' newest CGI feature is a hit with critics and audiences. It becomes one of the highest grossing films of the year, thanks to it's voice acting, sarcastic sense of humor, and parodying of the classic Disney fairy tale. However, some are concerned with the future of DreamWorks' traditionally animated movies with Shrek's success. But thanks to the successs of recent films like Kingdom of the Sun and Titan A.E. (which came out one week after Shrek), those fears are dismissed.
May 2001: On Memorial Day weekend, Titan A.E. would be released over in theaters. A animated post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film with the same classic Bluth charm, it would be known for its stunning visuals, though the CGI was toned down than originally planned. While the original draft of the plot was a bit cut-and-dry, the rush of writers of Disney eager for experimental work added and tweaked it, giving it a somewhat satirical edge to it, though not enough to rob the film of the seriousness. It did succeed in adding more charm and wittiness with it, being more dialogue-heavy and having various one-liners. As such, it would recieve grades of around B- and 83% or so. As such, this brought back home for discussion of Fox Animation though some wonder if Bluth Studios would be revived instead or if Don Bluth may end up finding work in Dreamworks with his growing group.
One side effect was the planned video game adaptation still going ahead, but now planned also for Xbox release as part of discussions with Microsoft, who agreed to let their new subsidiary in Bungie Inc, to work on it, with the plan being to use some of the work and assets from their big game Halo: Combat Evolved to help with it.
July 2001: After various discussions, the news came that Don Bluth would be moving over to DreamWorks along with the writing staff he gathered for Titan A.E. While it was unsure due to the success of Shrek showing the company may head forward with CGI, they did like Titan A.E.'s work and figured it would still be worth having traditional animation and to expand. They invited him over and talks were head as a result.
Indeed, Bluth noted his plans on working with DreamWorks, including a new film though not confirmed which ones. Rumors circulated it would be either an animated film based on the video game Dragon's Lair or an aniamted adaptation of the Norwegia fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Another aspect of interest was the possibility of a continued relationship between Bluth's quasi-studio and Bungie with Xbox on future games.
November 2001: Monsters Inc from Pixar comes out and maintains the record of success by Pixar in their collaboration with Disney though many are concerned with the future of the partnership due to potential rumors of conflicts, but both parties dismissed it as such. Additionally, Monsters Inc's theatrical release showed two trailers for upcoming Disney animated films. One is Atlantis: Lost Empire, which was delayed for more work and advertising, coming out in Summer 2002 and a teaser for the film after, Lilo and Stitch, which many have predicted will be released in early 2003.
May 2002: After a few years delay, Disney would finally begin plans for Phase II of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which would include the land of Beastly Kingdom and the replacement of the Dino-Rama area with the Excavator D-ticket mini-mountain mine cart coaster. Finally plans for another new coaster for Asia called Expedition Everest began to take shape.
Although the Beastly Kingdom project had been shelved by Eisner due to similarities to the Merlinwood area in Universal’s Islands of Adenture (owing to former Disney Imagineers jumping ship to Universal), the recent failure of Disney’s California Adventure, complaints from members of the Disney family and the board makes Eisner worried about his future. Following a call with Bob Iger, Eisner decides that what is needed is some kind of successful theme park expansion to take the boards mind off of Disney’s California Adventure. After briefly considering going back to the idea of Walt Disney Studios Park, Eisner instead decides to move forward with what he considers the cheaper option, moving forward and completing the originally promised Phase II of Animal Kingdom which for the most part plans already exist.
Eisner especially hopes that adding three roller coasters to the park (Dragon’s Tower, the Excavator, and the newly planned Expedition Everest), would not only give a nice boost to the park, but would take attendance away from the recently opened Universal Islands of Adventure.
June 2002: Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire would be released, having been longed hyped up and given awareness as a form of cautious optimism and the work done to create an Atlantis themed area in Adventureland of The Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World park for the past few months. While many were worried if children would stay because it was a little over 2 hours long, they were surprised to see the massive success due to the effort, worldbuilding and a few songs in the Atlantean language, one that is a joyous song of praise of Atlantis and welcoming and the other a more solemn and melancholic one from Kida from her mother. Another, though not in Atlantean language, was a song sung by the crew that showed off some of their character and done to stave off boredom (though also foreshadowing as the only two who didn't sing would turn to be the antagonists). The film got critical success with a 93% and A- ratings over it, which helped restore further faith within the company they were going on the right track. It also got a couple eyebrows for the anti-imperial message and anti-capitalist one with the villain's greedy and exploitative ways.
Even the competition gave fair credit for it. The trailers shown before the film was another Lilo & Stitch one along with another upcoming one, Treasure Planet, a space adapation of Treasure Island, which got many people excited as it was shown Disney pushing more with combining hand-drawn animation with CGI. Beyond that, the Atlantis attraction over in Adventureland helped showed off the investment and to keep alert for more (a subtle hint at the coming Atlantis animated series). With the success of the film and excitement over the release of the Ghibli film Spirited Away, many were having renewed hopes for Disney.
July 2002: Later in the summer, Don Bluth's first film in working with Dreamworks Animation is released... Dragon's Lair The Movie. A hand-drawn animated film with some CGI elements incorporated (such as a bit of the backgrounds and the magical abilities of the dragon and Dirk's magic sword). Taking elements from not just the original arcade game, but also the comics and cartoons, it shows the heroic knight Dirk the Daring rescuing his princess Daphne from an evil dragon. However, despite the seemingly simple premise, it subverts most expectations by expanding on the characters and being very tongue-in-cheek about itself unless it needs to be serious. Dirk and Daphne were preestablished as already being in a secret relationship in the early parts of the film (revealing they knew one another since children) along with Daphne being just as capable (if not a bit more bloodthirsty) than Dirk. Beyond the slight satire and the subtle adult jokes implied by Dirk and Daphne's intimacy, there are a few serious moments played that show the like of glamor that comes with being a knight and princess, hence explaining their "retirement" from the roles in the end.
While there was some concerns on whether Dragon's Lair The Movie would fare well, it would become a smash hit. This was due to the combination of taking some clever and risque approach with the "Disney fairytale" along with some well-animated action scenes, a few somber scenes and witty dialogue. While not as successful as Shrek, the film did do quite well for itself and would humorously get its own video game adaptation in Dragon's Lair The Movie's Game.
The video game was agreed upon thanks to the earlier success of Titan AE: New World, a video game adaptation/sequel of the film made with Bungie Inc that takes a century after the events of the film which saw humanity's new home threatened by the remants of the Drej (some of which survived by not partaking in the film's climax.) The game used a fair bit of Halo Combat Evolved's assets as the start-off point.
After a bit of searching , the video game adaptation would be created by the new video game developer Double Fine Productions, with the deal having a note on Dreamworks helping Double Fine with their own project in development. Double Fine was chosen after noting the work that the founders did on other works, such as Monkey Island.
September 2002: Disney announces plans for a retheme of the Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland themed to the recently successful Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The ride will be titled Submarine Expedition to Atlantis.
July 2005 to December 2006: Beastly Kingdom, the Excavator, and Expedition Everest open to the general public. All three openings massively boost ticket sales to the park and lead to a noticeable decline in attendance at Universal Islands of Adventure for a number of months. Universal itself would complain that Beastly Kingdom was copying off of their Merlinwood area in Islands of Adventure, only for Disney to shoot back that the plans for Beastly Kingdom hadn’t been changed since the 1990’s (a bit of a lie, as there were some differences between the final plan and the 1990’s plan), accusing Universal of having hired Imagineers who openly copied Disney’s own plans. The matter is soon after dropped.
Summer 1998: Disney's new film, Kingdom of the Sun, directed by Roger Allers, and music by Sting, is having time problems, with a November 22, 2000 release on the way, and sponsors like Coca-Cola and McDonald's lining up, Allers tells executive Randy Fullmer that he'd be done in 6 months - 1 year. Fullmer accepts Aller's extension.
Late 1998: Eisner attends a game of golf and chats with Randy Fullmer and a number of business friends such as Bob Iger. During the course of the game, discussion moves onto upcoming Kingdom of the Sun movie which Fullmer gave a extension to, and other future Disney projects. This leads to Eisner to mention he’s thinking of approving the idea for a European version of Disney’s MGM Studios by opening a sister park to Disneyland Paris, now that said park is finally turning a profit.
Iger however manages to persuade him that it might be a better idea to hold off on any such plans, and not the rock boat as it were just yet. Better instead to give Disneyland Paris a few more years to grow and turn a profit before considering that. Eisner agrees, and plans for what would have been Walt Disney Studios Park are rejected.
Late 1998: Saban Entertainment, upon receiving the Sentai footage for their next season of Power Rangers, is forced to overhaul the intended "Lost Galaxy" plotline when it is discovered that the series is instead themed around nature and magic; after some initial debate in an effort to salvage the concept through editing the footage to look more "spacey"( the idea is shot down after the producers are reminded of Power Rangers Turbo's similarly disastrous efforts), Saban instead decides to go all in on the "mystical" nature of Gingaman, building an entirely new plotline heavily rooted in Celtic folklore and legends of the Fae, borrowing elements and characters from an aborted concept for an American tokusatsu to further flesh out the series. Power Rangers: Mystic Knights, the first post-"Zordon era" series, airs in February 1999.
February 1999: In a miraculous turn of events, Kingdom of the Sun is completed, with time to spare.
November 2000- Kingdom of the Sun releases on time after Disney made some adjustments and sacrifices (such as cancelling their Dinosaur project) and has some noticeable impacts on the animation industry. The frustration at a percieved notion of lack of creativity in Disney led to a predominant number of writers leaving Disney in revolt and would end up joining various aspects of the competitions. One side-effect of this was the delay of Titan A.E., a project headed by Don Bluth; the delays came with some new writers coming in and snowballing into concerns over the usage of computer animation and deciding instead to rely on traditional animation, with the new release date in Spring 2001. Others join DreamWorks for more experimental fares in their animated works.
The film would get critical reception and box office profit higher than expected. The reviews noted how much of a fresh breath of air the story was and the different setting. Despite concerns of Pocahantas and Hunchback of Notre-Dame, this along with the previously released Tarzan seem to have restored faith in the works, but also caused Disney to begin looking over what worked and what hadn't. They came to two conclusions: 1 was that they could learn forward to more adventurous stories while maintaining the Disney touch, such as the music. 2 was on expanding being European fairytales and go into the wide world along with not rely on royalty. As such, two Disney projects began getting more focus and work along with advertisement plans: one was a story of Atlantis (which included 2 songs in the Atlantean language made for the film) and one a space-based adaptation of Treasure Island (with musicians being looked for to make a few "space pirate shanties".)
May 18, 2001: Shrek is released into theaters. DreamWorks' newest CGI feature is a hit with critics and audiences. It becomes one of the highest grossing films of the year, thanks to it's voice acting, sarcastic sense of humor, and parodying of the classic Disney fairy tale. However, some are concerned with the future of DreamWorks' traditionally animated movies with Shrek's success. But thanks to the successs of recent films like Kingdom of the Sun and Titan A.E. (which came out one week after Shrek), those fears are dismissed.
May 2001: On Memorial Day weekend, Titan A.E. would be released over in theaters. A animated post-apocalyptic science fiction adventure film with the same classic Bluth charm, it would be known for its stunning visuals, though the CGI was toned down than originally planned. While the original draft of the plot was a bit cut-and-dry, the rush of writers of Disney eager for experimental work added and tweaked it, giving it a somewhat satirical edge to it, though not enough to rob the film of the seriousness. It did succeed in adding more charm and wittiness with it, being more dialogue-heavy and having various one-liners. As such, it would recieve grades of around B- and 83% or so. As such, this brought back home for discussion of Fox Animation though some wonder if Bluth Studios would be revived instead or if Don Bluth may end up finding work in Dreamworks with his growing group.
One side effect was the planned video game adaptation still going ahead, but now planned also for Xbox release as part of discussions with Microsoft, who agreed to let their new subsidiary in Bungie Inc, to work on it, with the plan being to use some of the work and assets from their big game Halo: Combat Evolved to help with it.
July 2001: After various discussions, the news came that Don Bluth would be moving over to DreamWorks along with the writing staff he gathered for Titan A.E. While it was unsure due to the success of Shrek showing the company may head forward with CGI, they did like Titan A.E.'s work and figured it would still be worth having traditional animation and to expand. They invited him over and talks were head as a result.
Indeed, Bluth noted his plans on working with DreamWorks, including a new film though not confirmed which ones. Rumors circulated it would be either an animated film based on the video game Dragon's Lair or an aniamted adaptation of the Norwegia fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon". Another aspect of interest was the possibility of a continued relationship between Bluth's quasi-studio and Bungie with Xbox on future games.
November 2001: Monsters Inc from Pixar comes out and maintains the record of success by Pixar in their collaboration with Disney though many are concerned with the future of the partnership due to potential rumors of conflicts, but both parties dismissed it as such. Additionally, Monsters Inc's theatrical release showed two trailers for upcoming Disney animated films. One is Atlantis: Lost Empire, which was delayed for more work and advertising, coming out in Summer 2002 and a teaser for the film after, Lilo and Stitch, which many have predicted will be released in early 2003.
May 2002: After a few years delay, Disney would finally begin plans for Phase II of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which would include the land of Beastly Kingdom and the replacement of the Dino-Rama area with the Excavator D-ticket mini-mountain mine cart coaster. Finally plans for another new coaster for Asia called Expedition Everest began to take shape.
Although the Beastly Kingdom project had been shelved by Eisner due to similarities to the Merlinwood area in Universal’s Islands of Adenture (owing to former Disney Imagineers jumping ship to Universal), the recent failure of Disney’s California Adventure, complaints from members of the Disney family and the board makes Eisner worried about his future. Following a call with Bob Iger, Eisner decides that what is needed is some kind of successful theme park expansion to take the boards mind off of Disney’s California Adventure. After briefly considering going back to the idea of Walt Disney Studios Park, Eisner instead decides to move forward with what he considers the cheaper option, moving forward and completing the originally promised Phase II of Animal Kingdom which for the most part plans already exist.
Eisner especially hopes that adding three roller coasters to the park (Dragon’s Tower, the Excavator, and the newly planned Expedition Everest), would not only give a nice boost to the park, but would take attendance away from the recently opened Universal Islands of Adventure.
June 2002: Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire would be released, having been longed hyped up and given awareness as a form of cautious optimism and the work done to create an Atlantis themed area in Adventureland of The Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World park for the past few months. While many were worried if children would stay because it was a little over 2 hours long, they were surprised to see the massive success due to the effort, worldbuilding and a few songs in the Atlantean language, one that is a joyous song of praise of Atlantis and welcoming and the other a more solemn and melancholic one from Kida from her mother. Another, though not in Atlantean language, was a song sung by the crew that showed off some of their character and done to stave off boredom (though also foreshadowing as the only two who didn't sing would turn to be the antagonists). The film got critical success with a 93% and A- ratings over it, which helped restore further faith within the company they were going on the right track. It also got a couple eyebrows for the anti-imperial message and anti-capitalist one with the villain's greedy and exploitative ways.
Even the competition gave fair credit for it. The trailers shown before the film was another Lilo & Stitch one along with another upcoming one, Treasure Planet, a space adapation of Treasure Island, which got many people excited as it was shown Disney pushing more with combining hand-drawn animation with CGI. Beyond that, the Atlantis attraction over in Adventureland helped showed off the investment and to keep alert for more (a subtle hint at the coming Atlantis animated series). With the success of the film and excitement over the release of the Ghibli film Spirited Away, many were having renewed hopes for Disney.
July 2002: Later in the summer, Don Bluth's first film in working with Dreamworks Animation is released... Dragon's Lair The Movie. A hand-drawn animated film with some CGI elements incorporated (such as a bit of the backgrounds and the magical abilities of the dragon and Dirk's magic sword). Taking elements from not just the original arcade game, but also the comics and cartoons, it shows the heroic knight Dirk the Daring rescuing his princess Daphne from an evil dragon. However, despite the seemingly simple premise, it subverts most expectations by expanding on the characters and being very tongue-in-cheek about itself unless it needs to be serious. Dirk and Daphne were preestablished as already being in a secret relationship in the early parts of the film (revealing they knew one another since children) along with Daphne being just as capable (if not a bit more bloodthirsty) than Dirk. Beyond the slight satire and the subtle adult jokes implied by Dirk and Daphne's intimacy, there are a few serious moments played that show the like of glamor that comes with being a knight and princess, hence explaining their "retirement" from the roles in the end.
While there was some concerns on whether Dragon's Lair The Movie would fare well, it would become a smash hit. This was due to the combination of taking some clever and risque approach with the "Disney fairytale" along with some well-animated action scenes, a few somber scenes and witty dialogue. While not as successful as Shrek, the film did do quite well for itself and would humorously get its own video game adaptation in Dragon's Lair The Movie's Game.
The video game was agreed upon thanks to the earlier success of Titan AE: New World, a video game adaptation/sequel of the film made with Bungie Inc that takes a century after the events of the film which saw humanity's new home threatened by the remants of the Drej (some of which survived by not partaking in the film's climax.) The game used a fair bit of Halo Combat Evolved's assets as the start-off point.
After a bit of searching , the video game adaptation would be created by the new video game developer Double Fine Productions, with the deal having a note on Dreamworks helping Double Fine with their own project in development. Double Fine was chosen after noting the work that the founders did on other works, such as Monkey Island.
September 2002: Disney announces plans for a retheme of the Submarine Voyage ride at Disneyland themed to the recently successful Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The ride will be titled Submarine Expedition to Atlantis.
July 2005 to December 2006: Beastly Kingdom, the Excavator, and Expedition Everest open to the general public. All three openings massively boost ticket sales to the park and lead to a noticeable decline in attendance at Universal Islands of Adventure for a number of months. Universal itself would complain that Beastly Kingdom was copying off of their Merlinwood area in Islands of Adventure, only for Disney to shoot back that the plans for Beastly Kingdom hadn’t been changed since the 1990’s (a bit of a lie, as there were some differences between the final plan and the 1990’s plan), accusing Universal of having hired Imagineers who openly copied Disney’s own plans. The matter is soon after dropped.
Overall, nice timeline and world-building you have planned out. I do have a couple of suggestions though. I do think Kingdom of the Sun and Atlantis could have fared better at the Box Office than their OTL counterparts but not quite as well as what's featured here. In the case of Kingdom, when Allers and Dindal were essentially working on two separate projects for the movie, Mark Dindal's version (more closely resembling the final version of the Emperor's New Groove) had a more positive reaction from test audiences than the version that Roger Allers envisioned, which would likely be reflected by critical reviews and its box office gross. 2000 was also a rather weak year at the box office anyway. Atlantis: The Lost Empire, on the other hand, was/is a huge risk given its target audiences being teenagers and young adults rather than kids and families, so that could impact the box office success and critical reception too. I have a couple of suggestions for both these matters if you would like to hear them.
I also wonder how the different development of Kingdom of the Sun would impact Fantasia 2000. Maybe it gets sent to Imax and regular cinemas at the same time rather than almost six months apart like OTL? That, I believe, was the big reason it didn't so so well as the box office.
I would like to hear them though keep in mind Atlantis: Lost Empire did have more time on it, more focus on it and more marketing behind it. It would be probably a little over 2 hours long and wold include a bit more, such as the aforementioned songs.
For KOTS, I would average together OTL box office grosses of both Dinosaur and TENG, which is about $260 million worldwide. It would go hand in hand with its Rotten Tomatoes Score and audience tests too (which would again be averaged between the two OTL movies), nowhere near poorly received by audiences but not universally loved either. For Atlantis, I would just increase the Rotten Tomatoes score and box office gross each by 50% (or a factor of 1.5). It would certainly be more successful and acclaimed than OTL but the 2-hour time-length and the target audience make this a big risk considering it's the Disney brand. Also, depending on how the development of Fantasia 2000 is impacted, why not release it to both IMAX and regular movie theaters at the same time and double its OTL box office earnings?
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(OK. Not sure if this'll work out, but hopefully it'll be believable. If not, I'll gladly delete it.)
November 2003: In late 03, Saban Entertainment once again found itself in hot water from concerned parents, following the finale of the latest installment of the company's widely beloved ''Power Rangers'' series. Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. The season takes place at a hidden ''Ninja Ranger Academy'', where Mighty Morphin' veterans Tommy Oliver (Jason David Frank and Jason Lee Scott (Austin St. John), train the next generation of Power Rangers to defend the Earth from the Insectoid Android and former minion of Zeo's King Mondo, ''Mandiborg'' and his terrorist group ''The Cyber Order.'' Declared by many long-term fans of the show thereafter to be one of the best in the show's history, the season, for the most part, contained not only the same amount of action, moral lessons and Japanese stock footage, but callbacks and cameos from previous installments including Turbo's Shadow Ranger, The Alien Rangers of Aquitar and Mighty Morphin's Ninjor.
The storyline of Ninja Storm, however, differed from most of the previous Power Rangers installments in two ways. First being a reduction in the initial Ranger cast from the familiar five to three with three additional rangers added later, due to the Sentai series the season obtains its Fight and Zord footage from, Hurricaneger, being the first Sentai season to use such a format since 1981's Sun Vulcan. Secondly, by its apparent inclusion of what many older fans have referred to as ''Mature Themes'', a ''Minor Deconstruction'' of the Ranger concept as well as a ''Civil War'' story arc, with former Red Ranger Jason, falling out with former Green/White Ranger Tommy over the Ranger's lack of Proactiveness in preventing monster attacks and the Idea that Rangers should do more than combat Rubber-Suited beasts from beyond the stars, such as using the ranger powers to fight terrorists, topple tyrants on Earth and taking direct, invasive action against enemies, leading to the creation of the Proactive, Brooding, Beetle Themed, Dark Red and Blue, vigilante ''Thunder Storm Rangers'' and the inclusion of a female Green ''Samurai Ranger'', who join Jason's side to contrast against the Brightly colored, traditional Ninja Storm rangers lead by Tommy With Both sides seeking to prove the superiority of their individual causes.
While these changes were welcomed and applauded by most fans, Saban Ent had since become the target of Parental Watch Groups, following the controversial season finale, which saw the Rangers' infighting result in the destruction of the Ranger Academy by Mandiborg, which, in turn, caused Red and Blue NS Rangers, Andre and Loretta, to brutally and graphically destroy the insectoid villain and his female generals without mercy, dishonoring the Power Rangers legacy and leaving both Jason and Tommy in a state of guilt and shame. The final episode ended with the repentant Red TS Ranger and Samurai ranger, Tyson and Marika, accompanying Yellow NS Ranger Cliff on a journey to rediscover their ''Ranger Roots'' at the Original Ranger city of Angel Grove, setting up the upcoming season ''Mega Morphin Power Rangers'' which would adapt footage from the sentai ''Abaranger.''
In truth, Haim Saban's media empire had been no stranger to controversy in the past, but in recent years, following the success of 1998's Power Rangers in Space and 1999's Power Rangers: Mystic Knights, coupled with the more recent cartoons, Digimon: Evo-Spirits and The Wrestling-Superhero anime M.U.S.C.L.E and the successful revival of the 90s ''Masked Rider'' series which began in 2001 with the ''Kuuga'' adapted Masked Rider Returns, the Israeli kid's media mogul's production company, as well as its Fox Family Worldwide subsidiary and Fox Kids programming block/International TV Channels, had enjoyed a flourishing ''renaissance'' of sorts for the past 5 years. However, with the lackluster second half of Masked Rider: Dragonfire, the mounting competition by ABC, WB, Disney and 4Kids Entertainment and the recent controversies surrounding Ninja Storm, Insider Rumors began to circulate that Saban was planning on selling his assets to Time Warner Inc by 04, mid-way through the production of the Mega Morphin' season, as well as the upcoming Masked Rider: Gear Force. If confirmed, this sale would potentially make Warner Bros a media juggernaut, as well as allow them to turn the Fox Kids channels overseas into extensions of their Kids' WB block of morning programming. When asked to comment on the rumors and the Ninja Storm Blacklash, A close representative for Saban simply stated:
''It's too early to say, for now. Nothing solid has been agreed on, at least not yet. But if the worst should come from this, at least our iconic shows will live on somehow through a new company.''
November 2003: In late 03, Saban Entertainment once again found itself in hot water from concerned parents, following the finale of the latest installment of the company's widely beloved ''Power Rangers'' series. Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. The season takes place at a hidden ''Ninja Ranger Academy'', where Mighty Morphin' veterans Tommy Oliver (Jason David Frank and Jason Lee Scott (Austin St. John), train the next generation of Power Rangers to defend the Earth from the Insectoid Android and former minion of Zeo's King Mondo, ''Mandiborg'' and his terrorist group ''The Cyber Order.'' Declared by many long-term fans of the show thereafter to be one of the best in the show's history, the season, for the most part, contained not only the same amount of action, moral lessons and Japanese stock footage, but callbacks and cameos from previous installments including Turbo's Shadow Ranger, The Alien Rangers of Aquitar and Mighty Morphin's Ninjor.
The storyline of Ninja Storm, however, differed from most of the previous Power Rangers installments in two ways. First being a reduction in the initial Ranger cast from the familiar five to three with three additional rangers added later, due to the Sentai series the season obtains its Fight and Zord footage from, Hurricaneger, being the first Sentai season to use such a format since 1981's Sun Vulcan. Secondly, by its apparent inclusion of what many older fans have referred to as ''Mature Themes'', a ''Minor Deconstruction'' of the Ranger concept as well as a ''Civil War'' story arc, with former Red Ranger Jason, falling out with former Green/White Ranger Tommy over the Ranger's lack of Proactiveness in preventing monster attacks and the Idea that Rangers should do more than combat Rubber-Suited beasts from beyond the stars, such as using the ranger powers to fight terrorists, topple tyrants on Earth and taking direct, invasive action against enemies, leading to the creation of the Proactive, Brooding, Beetle Themed, Dark Red and Blue, vigilante ''Thunder Storm Rangers'' and the inclusion of a female Green ''Samurai Ranger'', who join Jason's side to contrast against the Brightly colored, traditional Ninja Storm rangers lead by Tommy With Both sides seeking to prove the superiority of their individual causes.
While these changes were welcomed and applauded by most fans, Saban Ent had since become the target of Parental Watch Groups, following the controversial season finale, which saw the Rangers' infighting result in the destruction of the Ranger Academy by Mandiborg, which, in turn, caused Red and Blue NS Rangers, Andre and Loretta, to brutally and graphically destroy the insectoid villain and his female generals without mercy, dishonoring the Power Rangers legacy and leaving both Jason and Tommy in a state of guilt and shame. The final episode ended with the repentant Red TS Ranger and Samurai ranger, Tyson and Marika, accompanying Yellow NS Ranger Cliff on a journey to rediscover their ''Ranger Roots'' at the Original Ranger city of Angel Grove, setting up the upcoming season ''Mega Morphin Power Rangers'' which would adapt footage from the sentai ''Abaranger.''
In truth, Haim Saban's media empire had been no stranger to controversy in the past, but in recent years, following the success of 1998's Power Rangers in Space and 1999's Power Rangers: Mystic Knights, coupled with the more recent cartoons, Digimon: Evo-Spirits and The Wrestling-Superhero anime M.U.S.C.L.E and the successful revival of the 90s ''Masked Rider'' series which began in 2001 with the ''Kuuga'' adapted Masked Rider Returns, the Israeli kid's media mogul's production company, as well as its Fox Family Worldwide subsidiary and Fox Kids programming block/International TV Channels, had enjoyed a flourishing ''renaissance'' of sorts for the past 5 years. However, with the lackluster second half of Masked Rider: Dragonfire, the mounting competition by ABC, WB, Disney and 4Kids Entertainment and the recent controversies surrounding Ninja Storm, Insider Rumors began to circulate that Saban was planning on selling his assets to Time Warner Inc by 04, mid-way through the production of the Mega Morphin' season, as well as the upcoming Masked Rider: Gear Force. If confirmed, this sale would potentially make Warner Bros a media juggernaut, as well as allow them to turn the Fox Kids channels overseas into extensions of their Kids' WB block of morning programming. When asked to comment on the rumors and the Ninja Storm Blacklash, A close representative for Saban simply stated:
''It's too early to say, for now. Nothing solid has been agreed on, at least not yet. But if the worst should come from this, at least our iconic shows will live on somehow through a new company.''
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Well, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time WB had their shows on multiple networks. The only major change I can see is that Marvel may have to team up with Nick and 4Kids in order to keep showcasing their shows with maybe less acquired programming in order to make room. That and Power Rangers and Digimon may show up on Toonami and CN as well as Kids' WB.
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