Shortly after Henry Selick’s stop motion feature James and the Giant Peach was released for Disney, the decision was made to shut down all operations. But now the man who made the Oscar nominated Coraline has returned, rejoining with long time colleagues John Lasseter and Brad Bird.
His first release in 1993 for Disney did remarkably well, Nightmare before Christmas continues now through DVD sales and heavy merchandising in all of the Disney retail stores, it delivered profit and a creatively seductive film. However with James and the Giant Peach, he did not score enough profitability for Disney to see it as a viable option to continue with and Disney pulled out of the stop motion department.
Selick speaking variety sounds, well, chuffed. “I’ll quote Dick Cook right after James and the Giant Peach was finished. He said, ‘We don’t believe this is a viable medium anymore, and we’re not going to do it’. But with the return of Selick and the recent 2D animated feature The Princess and The Frog Selick announced “It’s great that both of those things are back”.
The decision came down to John Lasseter, who once again proved his worth as one of the men at the top of the Pixar and Disney partnership. The story even eludes to the fact that Selick will no less have the Pixar ‘brain trust’ made up Bird, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter among others, to ping his ideas off and collaborate with.
This is a telling new partnership that is likely to garner the cream of the future 2d, 3d and now stop motion animated features for the considerable future, by using common sense Lasseter is creating a group of individuals that together create a complex for creativity to develop.
MATT RICHARDSON
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