Rapunzel Updated

Jim Hill has some nice info and pictures related to "Rapunzel Unbraided" over at JimHillMedia.com. With my track record for hating the direction that Disney Animation is headed, I didn't expect to be too excited to read this article when I saw the title. But, the tagline "a film of astonishing beauty" intrigued me, and after reading the article, I'm suprised to say that I came away from it excited for the prospect of this picture. I have long lamented the fact that Disney has left 1) traditional animation and 2) fairy tales. When originally reading that this would be a Shrek-like modern take on the story done in CGI, it certainly didn't play well for me. Well... I'll be happy to be wrong about this, as I certainly want to see the product succeed. Pop over to check out the article and see the photos. The animation looks very nicely done and very "Disney." It doesn't really state the direction of the storyline, so I'm still holding out for that, but I like what I see thus far.

I'm willing to give them a go at this, although I wish they'd do traditional as well as computer animation. I'll see "Chicken Little." I will probably see "Valiant," although I know this one wasn't done in-house and is getting luke-warm press. If these three movies and others in production (Wilbur Robinson, American Dog) do well, I'll be man enough to admit that they made the right decision. But it still seems like their following the DreamWorks/Pixar pack instead of being the trend-setters that they used to be...