Modern Animated Fairytales - Pixar Makes Disney Hip (VIDEO)

One of the most exciting things to happen to the animated world of entertainment was when Pixar joined forces with Walt Disney Animation Studios. In April, they announced details about the films they would create in their partnership, the most recent being Bolt which hits theatres in November. Other films include Newt and The Bear and the Bow in 2011 and in 2012, Cars 2.

Another project they’re working on is The Princess and the Frog, an animated musical to be released December 2009 which will feature Disney’s first black princess. They’re also working on direct-to-DVD flicks about Peter Pan’s Tinkerbell.

Disney movies have been a favourite for decades, but in recent years, their ability to maintain appeal began to falter. Stories about princesses, dwarves and mermaids no longer cut it for today’s young. The alliance with Pixar was intended to help make the films more relevant to modern children.

Building on that, animated films aren’t just for children anymore. So many are infected with such clever humor slips right by innocent minds, but the cheeky, sometimes even naughty, commentary gives adults something to revel in.

That’s precisely what the new films promise to offer and the reason behind Disney’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006.

“Instead of just buying Pixar and moving on, Mr. Iger understood what made the acquisition valuable, said Mr. Price, the author,” the NY Times says. “‘If you are acquiring expertise,” he said, “then dispatch your newly purchased experts into other parts of the company and let them stretch their muscles.’”

In Disney’s case, Pixar was assigned the difficult task of turning around a storied animation department that had fallen into disrepair as it struggled to find its footing in a new world of computer-generated pictures.

I can’t wait to see The Princess and the Frog! It will be interesting to see how Pixar takes the cheesy edge off Disney’s traditional to princess movies.