Yes, Disney got hurt by the last year’s “The Princess and the Frog” flop. I didn’t like it either. And yes, it probably wasn’t smart to do ANOTHER fairy tale/princess film again, right away. Everybody knows that, which is why “Rapunzel” got changed to “Tangled” , and why the studio is desperately trying to market the new movie to boys, teens and adults (I saw an add for it during Saturday Night Live this week).
But I’m not happy that the studio that brought us Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Belle has decided to stop making fairy tale films. Disney/Pixar officials are saying that times change, and they could return to princess stories someday. Well I certainly hope so. No matter how much technology improves, little kids (and big kids) will still always love classic stories with great characters. And it will be wrong for Disney to completely give-up on the genre that made them famous.
How about just making BETTER fairy tale stories. Look what DreamWorks did with “Shrek”. It would be too easy for Disney to give-up and say “we’re not going to do classic fairy tale stories anymore.” The key is better scripts, and the Pixar people should be able to help with that. Giving-up is not the answer.