With Disney getting back into the hand-drawn animation game (the trailer for their first hand-drawn film since 2004’s Home On The Range, The Princess And The Frog is below, in case you haven’t seen it), the Mouse Kingdom has now announced that they’d love to draw some Pooh (I’m sorry, but poo jokes are too tempting, and from the moment Dinsey produced a TV series called The Book Of Pooh, all bets were off). No title for the new Pooh flick has been announced yet, but it will be hand-drawn and should appear on screen sometime in 2011.
The last Pooh flick, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, only grossed $18 million, but Disney know that making new features for the character is worthwhile, even if no one goes to watch them. The Pooh franchise is the second biggest licensed character franchise in the world (hence why Milne’s estate has spent a lot of time in court arguing with Disney over profits), and so anything that keeps the bear in the public eye as a headline star is bound to generate profits from the endless merchandise that is poured out for Eeyore, Piglet, Pooh and co.
Whatever the movie’s like, we’re just gald Disney has gone back to producing hand-drawn theatrical features, as while CG may be shiny, there’s still a place for the low tech approach, as long as it’s well done.