Comebacks seem to be announced every day but it would take a hard heart to sneer at news of this one: a silly old bear of very little brain. Winnie the Pooh.
Disney announced today that it has begun production on the first Pooh feature film in decades, due for release in spring 2011. Writers have gone back to the original AA Milne books and, specifically, five unfilmed Pooh stories to be knitted together for the new film.
John Lasseter, Disney-Pixar's chief creative officer, said: "Winnie the Pooh has already been one of my favourite characters. Everyone always thinks Winnie the Pooh is for little kids but I screened original prints of the two Disney films and what's interesting was how they made a theatre full of adults laugh so hysterically."
Lasseter said they would be staying faithful to previous films by having watercolour backgrounds and Burny Mattinson, who previously worked on Pooh films, would be lead story artist.
The news broke in London in front of Disney staff and journalists and there was a definite old-school style as Lasseter announced Disney-Pixar's upcoming slate. The first 30 minutes of Disney's first hand-drawn animation for five years, The Princess and the Frog, was the finale of the presentation.
Lasseter also said Disney would be tackling one of the few non-Disneyed fairytale princesses – Rapunzel. But this one will be muchmore about girl power – far more kick-ass than Cinderella ever was. Her 70ft-long hair would not, said Lasseter, be just "a passive object of beauty". It would be a central part of the film and viewers can expect to see her using it as Indiana Jones would use his whip.
And of course the majority of what Disney-Pixar produces will be computer-animated and 3D. Toy Story 3 will tell the story of Andy – this may make you feel old – as he is about to leave for college and he has to bag up all his old toys.
There will also be a Cars sequel in which the characters come to Europe, speeding down the autobahns of Germany, getting stuck on French roundabouts and negotiating the wrong side of the road in the UK.
