Chris Williams has been handed Chris Sanders' American Dog. What's he going to do with it?
(Source: jimhillmedia.com)
As I had talked about here, new Disney creative heads John Lasseter and Ed Catmull had removed Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch) from his follow-up American Dog, and installed Disney vet Chris Williams (Mulan) as director.
Apparently there were several reasons for the change. Firstly, Lasseter wasn't a big fan of Lilo and Stitch, which meant he wasn't a fan of Sanders' artistic sensibilities. The second was that Sanders and Lasseter weren't getting along when it came to this new movie. Not only that, American Dog in its original form was going up against Toy Story 3. Guess who would lose in a situation like that?
Sanders is also updating his resume, since he's no longer an employee at the Mouse House.
Here's American Dog's original plotline:
"Henry, a famous TV dog, finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert. Out in the world for the first time, Henry's tidy life of scripted triumph has come to an end, and his 2,000 mile trek through the real world is just beginning."
Lasseter decided to make changes. So Sanders was out and Williams is in. Henry is no longer a cute little brown dog but has become a white Alsatian with a brown lightning bolt running down his body (his name? Bolt, natch). Also, the Nevada desert (which was too close to the setting of Lasseter's Cars) is now the back streets of New York City.
In the new plot, Bolt is the star of a fictional television series called American Dog; a cross between Johnny Quest and James Bond. The only problem is that Bolt actually thinks that he is a super-powered canine and that his co-star Penny is really his friend, instead of being a 12-year-old actress paid to love him. However, this all changes when Bolt is accidentally shipped to NYC.
The dim-witted dog's new friends Mr. Mittens (actually a female cat: her owner's not too swift) and Rhino the hamster have to get Bolt back to Hollywood, and still in one piece. That last bit's important because Bolt still thinks he has super powers, which cause him to do crazy things.
Of course, halfway back to Hollywood, Bolt realizes that he's not really a super hero and that American Dog is just a TV show. Cue the shock and wailing.
Unfortunately this new plotline has a certain similarity to two movies from Lasseter's past: Buzz Lightyear's story arc from Toy Story (toy thinks he's really a super-hero) and Lightning McQueen from Cars (pampered race car must survive in the real world). All this after Lasseter shot down the whole Nevada desert angle in the original plotline.
Oh yes, and Disney's writers are casting about for a new title for this flick: Hollywood Dog is somewhere near the top of the list. Also, the retooled American Dog will stay a CGI flick, mainly because Disney's already done so much prep work on the feature already. And this movie will come out in 2008, presumably nowhere near Pixar's 2008 release: Andrew Stanton's Wall-E.
Is American Dog 2.0 superior to the original? Will Williams do a better job than Sanders would have? Is this a good or bad decision? Only time will tell.
