Does Disney own Terminator these days? We’re too tired at this point to be sure or go look it up ourselves, but they’ve certainly got one in thing with James Cameron’s mean metal man: They’re not going to stop until we’re dead. Which is to say, that the company’s massive investor call continues to roll right along this afternoon, willing new Disney projects into existence, mostly at Disney+. Like, hey: Do you like the studio’s slate of animated films over the last decade or so? Movies like Big Hero 6, The Princess And The Frog, Moana, and Zootopia? Well, guess what: We have (four) new TV shows for you!
That’s right: Disney announced today that it’ll soon be producing animated TV versions of all four movies, titled, funnily enough, Baymax, Zootopia+, Tiana, and Moana. (The company has been big on that “first name basis” TV titling thing of late; look also to Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, Loki, etc.) Details about the shows are sparse (it’s not even clear if Tiana, described as a long-form musical comedy, will maintain the traditionally animated style of 2009's The Princess And The Frog), but, damn: That’s a lot of TV.
Timing windows for all these shows are a little loose, but Baymax, Tiana, and Zootopia+ are all currently set for a 2022 release, while Moana will launch some time in 2023; all expected to land at Disney+.
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Guessing this is the confirmation that Big Hero 6: The Series is ending after all. Shame.
Makes sense, built universe, many of the world artifacts already made for rednering, Main characters probably fully articulated, and with the success of Dragonriders, that they would be using all these assets to continue to make money.
Part of me does wish they had gone with the last names for a few of those, I’d love to see them trying to market Laufeyson or Tano. But you don’t have a lot of options for Tiana and Moana, they don’t have last canon last names.
They could have called the Moana show “Of Motunui.”
Well, that’s disappointing. I mean, the fact that those movies are getting shows is pretty nice, but this pretty much confirms that none of these movies will get sequels now, much like how Big Hero 6 just got shafted with a show and no sequel.
Normally I’d feel this way, too, but considering that 1) Disney Animation is handling this instead of the TV animation group; and 2) Disney+ seems to be serious about quality (based on Mando and the Marvel trailers), I’m actually cautiously optimistic that these will be better than getting theatrical sequels!
I just watched Big Hero 6 a week or two ago (Baymax the character- great; the movie as a whole- drifted into generic by the end in a way but good overall) and it’s practically begging for a sequel at the end, not even counting the mid-credit bit. It was well reviewed, did well money-wise, the kids loved it– I’m surprised they didn’t start production on a sequel a couple weeks after the first one hit theaters.
I know we got a computer-generated Tiana in Ralph Wrecks the Internet, but I’d love to see them make the series using old-tyme cel animation. Something tells me they won’t, though.