Disney Future Projects

Disney is an animation studio beloved by many, and right now they're riding off of the massive success of Frozen,  a film that gave Disney two Academy Awards, a chart-topping song in "Let It Go" by Idina Menzel, and a billion dollars in box-office dollars. That's right, Frozen is the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time. So with so much success, what does Disney have planned for the next year?

Big Hero 6 (November 7, 2014)

Big Hero 6 is the 54th animated Disney film. It's also a lot less traditional than anything they've done before. It's the story of a group of ragtag kids who become superheroes. The characters in this film are based off of characters of a Marvel Comics franchise centered in Japan. So Disney is blending their style of animation, with the Marvel properties they so famously own, as well as Japanese animation. This film will be heavily derived from anime influences, and will feature the first Japanese main character of a Disney film.


Into the Woods (December 25, 2014)

Into the Woods is based off of the award-winning Broadway play of the same name. The story centers around a universe in which the Grimm fairy tales coexist. The two leads are a baker man (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) cursed childless by a wicked witch (Meryl Streep). The only way to break the curse is to find others who have sought help from witch, and right the wrongs. They come in contact with a multitude of storybook characters including Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Prince Charming (Chris Pine) and The Wolf (Johnny Depp) Into the Woods as a play, is a much more mature view on fairy tales, presenting the characters as they would be if they were in the real world. Let's hope Disney doesn't take out that edgy material just to keep the characters the same as they have been in their animated movies.


Cinderella (March 13, 2015)

Disney is hoping to keep up with their impressive track record of live-action fairy tales with Cinderella. 2010's Alice in Wonderland is Disney's most successful live-action fairy tale. That movie, starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, and Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway as the Red and White Queens respectively, made over a billion dollars worldwide. Maleficent is the third highest-grossing movie of 2014 so far, with over 700 million worldwide. These darker spins on fairy tales will continue with Cinderella starring Lily James (Lady Rose on Downton Abbey) as the titular character, Recent Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett as the Wicked Stepmother, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother. Cinderella, while not a huge success with her original film, has since evolved into arguably the most famous Disney princess. The meet-and-greets at Disney theme parks, and the fact that Cinderella's Castle has become an symbol for Disney, have made her iconic. There's no doubt in my mind this movie will be big among family audiences and fans of Disney.

Tomorrowland (May 22, 2015)

Tomorrowland is a film shrouded in mystery. Disney is being very secretive about what this movie is about. We know one thing about the plot: It's based off of the Tomorrowland section of the Disney amusement parks. It stars George Clooney, and takes place in a land between time and space known as Tomorrowland. It's directed by Brad Bird who gave us Ratatouille and The Incredibles for Pixar.