Toon Tuesday : Can Glen Keane straighten out all of “Rapunzel” ‘s story snarls by June?

Jim Hill

18 years ago

Over the past five weeks, the Walt Disney Company has really been out there thumping the tub for their upcoming line-up of animated features.

In early February, John Lasseter & Ed Catmull were talking up “Meet the Robinsons,” “Ratatouille,” “WALL * E,” “American Dog” and “Toy Story 3″to investors. And later that same month, Disney Consumer Products reps allowed licensees at NYC’s American International Toy Fair to get a glimpse of “Enchanted.” And just last week, Randy Newman performed a musical number from “The Frog Princess” at Disney’s annual shareholders meeting in New Orleans.

And that is admittedly is a very impressive array of motion pictures. But me? I couldn’t help but notice the one WDFA production that Disney didn’t talk at any of these events. And that was “Rapunzel.”

Do you remember how heavily the Mouse hyped this movie at SIGGRAPH 2005? With concept art from this Glen Keane project being prominently displayed at WDFA’s recruitment booth. And how Keane himself appeared at a special session at that year’s event to talk about the role that new technologies played in the “Legacy of Disney Animation” and then showed some test footage from “Rapunzel Unbraided.”

Of course, back then, “Rapunzel” was envisioned at WDFA’s answer to Pixar. Proof positive that the Mouse still had what it took to be tops in toons. That Disney was still capable of rising to meet the competition. More importantly, that Feature Animation’s long-standing traditions of excellence and innovation were still alive & well.

But — of course — that was back when WDFA was supposed to be competing directly with Pixar Animation Studios in 2007 and beyond. But now that Pixar is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company ( More importantly, now that Lasseter & Catmull are calling the shots at Feature Animation) … No one knows quite what to do with “Rapunzel.”

You see, part of the problem here is that — prior to the Pixar acquisition — Keane was WDFA’s 800-pound-gorilla. As in: Glen was the guy that management had to keep happy. Given that he had become Mickey’s mouthpiece. The point man for Disney’s controversial changeover from being a studio that worked mostly in traditional animation to becoming an state-of-the-art operation that worked strictly in CG.

So whenever a reporter from Entertainment Weekly or CBS Sunday Morning would come a-calling, Keane was the animator that Mouse House marketing execs would inevitably trot out. And Glen would then show these journalists the CG ballerina test that he’d done and assure them that “Rapunzel” will be ” … a film of astonishing beauty.”

Which was all well & good … Except that Keane really was trying to make “Rapunzel” (Which is supposed to be Glen’s directorial debut, by the way) the most beautiful animated film ever produced. With characters & backgrounds that mirrored the lush detail that Jean-Honore Fragonard used to put into his paintings. Which meant expensive test after test, as Keane pushed WDFA’s R & D team to deliver the sort of stylization that this modern animation master was looking for.

Production of this high-profile project also bogged down as Glen & Co. struggled to come up with a workable script. Should this animated feature be a spoof of all the Disney fairy tales films that had proceeded it? Or should this movie have a more serious take on its source material? Keane and his creative team struggled with this for years as they tried to come up with just the right tone for their film. Before they eventually settled on a version which would more-or-less be a faithful retelling of this classic story from the Brothers Grimm.

Of course, all of these preproduction problems consumed an awful lot of time. More importantly, they blew through a lot of Disney’s dough. But — back then — that was okay. Because Feature Animation needed a high-profile, prestige picture to show the world that they weren’t going to dry up & blow away once Disney’s co-production deal with Pixar expired.

But in the meantime, Michael Eisner stepped down as CEO and Bob Iger then became the Mouse House’s new Big Cheese. And six months later, Iger removed David Stainton as head of Disney Feature Animation and — after completing a $7.4 billion deal to acquire Pixar — put John & Ed in charge of WDFA.

And once that was done … Well, Glen Keane wasn’t quite as important as he once was. At least from a publicity point of view. Now it was John Lasseter who was WDFA’s new 800-pound gorilla. And from what I hear, Lasseter is rather concerned about “Rapunzel.”

Don’t get me wrong, folks. Glen Keane’s directorial debut still looks as though it will be ” … a film of astonishing beauty” loaded with lush visuals. It’s just the proposed storyline of this still-in-development animated feature that now appears to be on the slim side.

Mind you, back in the late summer of 2006, Keane reportedly showed Lasseter the first 20 minutes of the most recent version of “Rapunzel.” And John was allegedly very lavish in his praise, saying that it was the strongest opening of a Disney fairy tale film that he’d ever seen. The only problem is … Glen & his team are still struggling to come up with a satisfying second & third act for their animated version of “Rapunzel.”

Lasseter has supposedly told Keane that he has until June to get all of “Rapunzel” ‘s story problems resolved. At that time, John & Ed want Glen’s film up on reels. And they’ll then screen the work-in-progress version of this proposed animated feature. And if “Rapunzel” still has significant story problems at that point … Well, there’s a couple of ways that Lasseter & Catmull can go here. They can :

Cancel the project outright.

Take “Rapunzel” away from Keane and give this film to another director to develop.

Assign a co-director to work with Glen on this proposed animated feature. With the hope that — between the two of them — Keane & his new directorial partner can then solve all of this production’s story problems.

Of course, what’s kind of intriguing about all this is that (According to the scuttlebutt that’s now making the rounds at WDFA) it’s the co-director idea that Glen is apparently most resistant to. The rumor is — that if Lasseter & Catmull force Keane to start sharing directorial duties on “Rapunzel” — that this animation master may then pull a Chris Sanders and quit Walt Disney Studios rather than continue to work on a severely compromised version of the film that he originally developed.

Now what complicates this whole situation is that John & Glen has a long history together. In that they both started working at Disney Feature Animation back in the late 1970s. In fact, Lasseter & Keane actually worked together on the project that was supposed to have been WDFA’s initial foray into computer animation. And that was that 30-second test that was done for the “Where the Wild Things” featurette that Disney Studios never quite got around to doing back in the early 1980s.

So to now have Glen go from being the No. 1 guy at Disney Feature Animation (I.E. The animator that the studio felt that it just had to hang on to. Out of concern about the possible PR ramifications were Disney to ever let an artist of Keane’s calibre walk out the front door) to now wind up one of John’s subordinates, a guy that Glen started out with … That’s kind of a bitter pill to swallow.

Then — when you consider that “Rapunzel” (Which was originally supposed to be the film that would revive the fairy tale tradition at Disney Feature Animation) is now third down in the pile behind “Enchanted” and “The Frog Princess” … Well, that’s why it’s been so hard for animation fans to watch this once-high-profile project slowly turn into a no-profile project. Something that’s no longer even mentioned whenever studio officials start talking about what WDFA has in its development pipeline.

Mind you, this whole situation could quickly turn around if — come June — Glen Keane & his story team actually deliver a revised version of “Rapunzel” that has a much stronger second & third act. But if that doesn’t happen … Well, Keane could wind up getting tossed off of the project that he’s been working on since 2002 or wind up having a co-director foisted on him.

Which (I know) sounds somewhat cruel. But the fact of the matter is Disney Studios officials really do want to move forward with production of an animated version of “Rapunzel.” They’re already reportedly tentatively pencilled this film in as the Mouse’s big holiday release for 2010 (With “Toy Story 3” then filling the May 2010 slot). But — of course — that all depends on Glen Keane and/or the directors that follow him finally resolving this film’s myriad story problems.

So here’s hoping that Glen doesn’t tear out what’s left of his hair as he tries to find an entertaining & involving way for Rapunzel to let down her hair.

Your thoughts?