Caffeinated Clint
An Insider – we’ll keep him anonymous – checked in to give us the low-down on Disney’s forthcoming “The Three Musketeers” movie.
“Here’s the scoop on DisneyToon Studios upcoming Mickey Mouse movie "The Three Musketeers”. I worked on the movie, but I am absolutely not a Disney drone. This is my first and last project with the studio. But I choose to remain anonymous because I do continue to work in Hollywood. First off, this is not a cheapquel. It just happens to be made by the Disney division that makes the cheapquels.
“It’s hard to believe that Mickey Mouse has never starred in his own feature length film. The Three Musketeers, at just a few minutes north of sixty minutes, satisfies this distinction. What the film makers did was to bring in all the classic Disney characters, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, Peg leg Pete (complete with his peg restored), Clarabelle, and the Beagle boys, and let them act. They all play important roles in this comedic reimagining of Victor Hugo’s classic tale of friendship and sword fighting. The director, Donovan Cook, was not some Disney lackey; he had a vision to revitalize characters which had become stale due to overuse as corporate icons. He pushed this vision down the throats of the mindless mid-level executives who tried to smash everything down to fit in the usual bland direct to DVD box. He pushed so hard that he was just about booted off the show on several occasions.He bowed when he had too, but the movie remains strong, and funny, and probably some of the best work to come out of the studio in quite a while.
“Unfortunately, it is not a masterpiece, 25 million dollars was not enough to allow it to get buffed to a super fine polish. Especially when none of the executives believe there is any kind of market for traditional 2-D animation. Then on top of that, add the fact that no executives believe there’s an audience for a Mickey Mouse movie, and you have a recipe for total disaster. That the movie came out charming, funny, engaging, and wonderful to look at, is testament to all the talented artists who fought the Disney machine to create a film of the kind of quality that Walt himself would be proud of. The film succeeds with many nods to the old style. The backgrounds were painted with water colors to mimic the classic Disney films of the 1940’s. The colors are not the garish hues from "House of Mouse". The Animation, meanwhile, was produced at Disney’s Australian animation studio, and at the Studio lot in Burbank.
“And what set out as a cost saving measure turned into the story’s good fortune, when rather than having some cheap hack write mediocre songs, the score includes classic melodies complete with hilarious new lyrics written by one of the animators. The voice actors got to flex their talent and act. And they are very proud of the film. So is Roy Disney, who saw the picture just before departing the company, and was dismayed that it was not even being considered for a theatrical release. The Three Musketeers is exactly the kind of thing that Disney should be doing instead of making Brother Bear II and turning Mickey Mouse into a 3D CGI mutant.”
We should see Disney’s “The Three Musketeers” sometime this year.
