Kung Fu Panda Director Helming The Little Prince

Apologies for the latency of this post, but news broke earlier this week that Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne is directing an animated adaptation of the beloved, 70 year-old, children's book, The Little Prince.

Disney's Big Hero 6 Adaptation Listed for November 2014 Release

2014 is gearing up to be a really good year for animation: Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, Laika's The Boxtrolls, possibly Henry Selick's The Shadow King, and now another exciting prospect from Disney. A while back we heard that Disney were working on an animated adaptation of one of Marvel's lesser known properties, the super-team Big Hero 6. Now it's official.

Today's reveal, courtesy of Bleeding Cool, backs up what we heard in June of last year: the film is being directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and is due in 2014. The release date revelation comes via RentrakSpain, a reliable site, who are listing Big Hero 6 for a 21st November, 2014 release in Spain - which tallies up with Disney's usual animated release schedule. UPDATED - 20:25 (GMT), 24/02/2013: The US release will fall, presumably, on 7th November - we heard in October that Disney had slotted an unnamed animated picture for release on that date. Hopefully the UK release won't be in 2015.

Still no official word from Disney, but it seems to be a pretty sure thing at this point - expect to hear something at Disney's D23 event this summer. Until then, it's a really exciting concept!

Thanks to Benjamin Boekelaar for the tip off.

Angry Birds: The Movie Due 2016!

Today, on the third anniversary of the release of the original Angry Birds, Rovio Entertainment announced that the planned film adaptation of the insanely popular mobile gaming series will hit cinemas in 2016!

John Cohen (Despicable Me) and former Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel (Iron Man) will produce and executive produce the film, which is being entirely produced and financed by Rovio themselves, respectively. Cohen has worked closely with Blue Sky Studios previously, but, worryingly, "had the idea to reimagine Alvin and the Chipmunks and developed the 2007 film." Otherwise, I'm pretty excited!

"Following Marvel Studios’ example, which was architected by David Maisel, Rovio will produce and finance the movie outside the studio system and retain full creative control while creating innovative entertainment at the highest level of quality." Says the press release.

Angry Birds: The Movie will have finished loading by summer 2016, and, who knows, maybe we'll see a film version of Angry Birds Star Wars one day - presumably after Disney have bought Rovio as well...

Editorial: Adapt to Survive

From 1937 to 2011: One can't help but think something went awry along the way for animated adaptations.

Animation is built on adaptation. Walt Disney started off with adaptation, from his early Alice Comedies, to short-films like The Three Little Pigs, to his first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, they're all based on existing stories. In fact, think of your favourite Disney films of all time; films like Snow White, Pinocchio, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, they're all based on existing, popular stories, books or folk-tales. Even The Lion King, arguably the jewel in the Disney crown, is based on Shakespeare's Hamlet.

It's a long and important tradition, fairy-tales are what (whether they like it not anymore) typifies Disney; nearly all the best Disney films are based on existing stories: Hans Christian Anderson ones, Brothers Grimm ones; the inspiration comes from the stories and - however faithful an adaptation they may be - the films, for better or worse, spin-off from there.

However, the problems occur when adaptations come at the expense of originality; when studios take well established, well loved characters and try to "reinvent" them, to save on marketing and pull high box-office receipts, often at the expense of quality. This is a subject that seems particularly relevant at the moment, with the colossal glut of animated films coming up that are foregoing originality in favour of established characters and stories. In a world where we're in 2012 and expecting a Woody Woodpecker film, a Popeye film, another Curious George film, and all the possible (and likely) adaptations coming out of DreamWorks' purchase of Classic Media, it's easy to feel like we're drowning in adaptations.