AIDA: the animated musical

[camfatkin_]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 5:17pm

Now I think in my opinion, it is safe to say Aida will never make the transfer from stage to screen unless it was animated!
I know it was originally supposed to be animated before elton and tim took it to Broadway. Does anybody think this could work? now that disney is back to animating movies traditionally, it could very well be an amazing animated movie, if done correctly!
Of course there would be obvious cuts (another pyramid needs to go!) and perhaps toned down in the sexuality department. I wouldn't want the movie to destroy the memory of the show but it could be just what the animated world needs! (again i say, if done correctly!)
comments? thoughts? ideas? what do you all think?

ps. sorry if this has been brought up. i did a search and came up with nothing!

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 5:51pm

Disney isnt fully committed to a return to traditional animation. It got burned heavily on its last one.

That being said, it might be interesting as an animated film, but what would it have that you couldnt do with a non-animated film? Animation has to bring something new to the table to be successful, and I dont really see AIDA as doing that.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 5:53pm

Couldn't do it. Little kids wouldn't be able to get past the first half of the finale.

[Gingersnap2]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 6:26pm

They'd have to give it a happy ending...lovers being buried alive together is a bit too grim.

[camfatkin_]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 6:37pm

i think it would work as an animated film because i feel a lot of the music is reminiscent of the classic disney films of the 90s. Written in the stars feels like a disney love ballad which i love!

SeanMartin ,
arent they commited again? because they have three new animated features coming out, but the only one i can remember off hand is "the frog princess" which sounds promising, especially with anika noni rose in the title role!

I've always though "Every Story" would work if it was told through archeological (sp?)paintings and symbols.
"Fortune Favors the Brave" would be a fun number on the boat.
"My Strongest Suit" would look good as a sort of fun montage such as "Zero to Hero" in Hercules. I think that "Written in the Stars" and "I know the truth" would be beautiful on screen as well. I imagined "Truth" being sung in the garden for part of it while Amneris is singing and crying by the moonlight, and then carrying over into her getting prepared for the wedding.

As for the ending...i have no idea what to do there!

perhaps im just overthinking this too much. I just finished a production of it, thought about this all while doing it!

[blaxx]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 6:53pm

*SPOILERS*

Doesn't it have a happy ending, though? I remember they meet again at the museum, as the lights dim. Maybe not happy, but certainly with more hope that...Pocahontas, for that matter.

[Studmuffn520]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 7:21pm

i think it would be great as an animated movie

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 7:30pm

Can they do it in "Disney Digital 3D"? If so, I'm there! All they have to do is make the tomb into Amneris's secret time machine, and then slightly rewrite the last scene in the Museum.

If we're lucky we'll get a direct to DVD sequel "Aida 2 - Mereb's Revenge", featuring "Fortune Favors the Brave" and other songs that were cut on the way to Broadway.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 7:40pm

Complete threadjack, but Tech, I love your avatar! I'm listening to Jerry Likes My Corn right now.

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 7:51pm

Thanks Wizard. I am glad that Pixar's original "Grey Gardens Under the Sea" animated concept was rejected.

[musicalkid]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 8:58pm

Take a look at these cool pics of characters from the unmade disney film, AIDE. look like a totally different storyline than the movie (bad guys), with design slightly reminicent of Hercules style. i don't know if these are from before or after aida on broadway. enjoy.

http://animationarchive.net/Deleted%20Animated%20Movies/Movies/Aida/Model%20Sheets/index.php

btw- I wish THIS Aida would have been the first dark-skinned DIsney Princess. she looks full of character, unlike Mady (or is it?) from the upcoming "frog princess" IMO. then again, let's wait, see and count on Disney to do it right

Updated On: 5/5/07 at 08:58 PM

Posted: 5/5/07 at 9:21pm

I'm not a fan of the animated musical concept with regards to Aida mainly because I tend to associate animated musicals with a much younger audience than Aida's intended audience.

I could see the film working as a straight-up musical - no cartoons, no musical within a musical, no actors staging the musical within the show. It would be extraordinarily expensive to finance and some parts would no doubt be historically inaccurate, but considering the musical doesn't exactly prize historical accuracy in the first place, I wouldn't have a problem with it. However, I don't see any of this happening in the near future, if at all.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 9:32pm

When "Home of the Range" was met with less than glowing returns, Disney anounced that they were leaving traditional cel animation forever. Anything they develop now is digital 2D, and that's hardly a committment. Disney is pretty much finding its feet yet again, after its past projects have bombed so severely at the box office.

That, of course, leaves room for other studios to do it in partnership with Disney, but unless they can find room for a lovable, wisecracking asp, I'm afraid the project is DOA.

Posted: 5/5/07 at 9:38pm

"Disney isnt fully committed to a return to traditional animation. It got burned heavily on its last one. "

Lasseter spoke at the last share owners meetign and said they were FULLY commited to a return to hand drawn animation--and they have three such films in the works -- FULL traditional hand drawn animation (Enchanted, the half animated half live needed their animation too soon so the animation ahs been famred out to a small studio created by one of the ex Disney animators--ironically--who was fired when Eisner made his dumbheaded idea to cut the hand drawn)

(Rapunzel is still to be CGI tho a new form of water color like CGI)

E

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 9:40pm

MattBrain: Who said anything about lit being an animated movie for kids?

Akiva

[LuPonatic]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 9:41pm

The Frog Princess is them indeed returning to traditional animation. I think the decision was made with the departure of Eisner, because he was the one that wanted to stop in the first place. I'm pretty sure Disney has lost money on a lot of animated movies, throughout their whole time on this Earth.

Posted: 5/5/07 at 10:00pm

Yeah it was changed when John Lasseter (ironically from Pixar--btu a huge fan of hand drawn--he's largely responsible for the care putinto the translations of the Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki movies tDisney has done) became head of Disney animation when Pixar amalgamated

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 10:11pm

"MattBrain: Who said anything about lit being an animated movie for kids?

Akiva"

I didn't think of that. Good point, Akiva.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 10:41pm

I think AIDA would make for a great animated musical - either for adults or kids.

[JulesReverie]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 11:01pm

I see an animated AIDA movie turning out like another Hunchback of Notre Dame, beautiful and brilliant but too heavy and deep for kid movie material(only works for the stage but not for a G rated animated movie)

AIDA just can't work for an animated disney movie the same way Les Miserables can't(okay maybe that's over exagerating it a bit), I just see lot of potentially bad things happening that would ruin the musical AIDA(like them adding a cute and fuzzy talking animal sidekick or what not and dumbing it down too much and rewriting it to the point where it would lose all meaning and be pointless).

Maybe it could work, Pocahontas(though 90% incorrect to history) didn't have the typical happy ending where the lovers are able to live happily ever after together.

The only broadway show I could think of that's animated disney material is Wicked(and even that's agruable)
Updated On: 5/6/07 at 11:01 PM

[crzyray]

Posted: 5/5/07 at 11:12pm

nah they need to make aida a movie but a live action movie, i have some stuff pictured BEAUTIFULLY in my head...and i'd definately cast Anika Noni Rose as aida

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 5/6/07 at 12:26am

I would love to see this as a animated film, but the only way it will ever happen is if "Frog Princess" is a big success.
I personally think that if animated Aida could become another classic.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 5/6/07 at 7:26am

If indeed Disney is returning to the old ways of animation, it ould require retraining a whole host of animators... unless of course they're planning on outsourcing it to Asia (which, considering it's Disney, isnt exactly out of the sphere of possibility).

But from a business POV, it simply doesnt make sense. Compared to digital work, traditional cel is hideously expensive to create and requires a longer production cycle. Assuming this announcement wasnt a shill to placate nervous investors (and I'd happily bet it was nothing more than that), it's suicide.

>> I'm pretty sure Disney has lost money on a lot of animated movies

Only recently, because the product simply wasnt that good. Remember: Disney was founded on animation and made a good amount of coin producing it. Then Eisner came on the scene, ripped the animation department to shreds, and gave us films that were dependent on the sales of action figures and keychains over quality of filmmaking. He's also effectively ruined the theme parks as well, but that's another story altogether. Suffice it to say that Disney *has* profited well on cartoons and animated films, but now they've lost their direction, and I'm not sure at this point they'll find it again. They desperately need another Walt.

[leon1489]

Posted: 5/6/07 at 9:51am

I actually think this would be a really good idea... it would definitely be a more mature film, and I don't think you need to add cute, cuddly characters. It obviously wouldn't be targeted to young children, but I still think an animated film would work for this show.

[TechEverlasting]

Posted: 5/6/07 at 11:30am

I've always felt that Mereb's character was just a standard issue Disney "wise-cracking parrot sidekick".

How about if they make Mereb into a talking parrot standing on Ramades' shoulder, but keep everything else the same?