According to Variety The Academy Award and Annie Award-nominee Mike Johnson, who co-directed with Tim Burton on Corpse Bride will be taking the directors chair in a CG/Stop-Motion hybrid feature for Vanguard Films titled ‘Oz Wars’. Having some experience in Stop-motion, Johnson helped alongside A Nightmare Before Christmas as Assistant Animator as well as some other animation work on James and The Giant Peach. So he knows what he’s doing!
‘Oz Wars‘ is a contemporary version of the Oz anecdote, and is a spin on the classic tale — adding “a whirlwind of warrior witches, black magic, martial arts and monsters.” So you know where gonna get great here! And somehting I think I’ve been waiting for is its being described as a animation “not just for kids”! but really most animated films of this and of the last decade have been aimed at Children but are meant for adults — for example the Toy Story
To be honest, when the producers are using the words “dark, slick, sexy and dangerous” as a description then you ought to hope that it’s not a kids film. Or though it wouldn’t be the first time.
This is not the only Oz related film in the works at the moment, with Sam Raimi‘s prequel Oz: The Great And Powerful, a big-screen adaption of the novel and subsequent musical Wicked, and a animated film Dorothy of Oz. And now theres Wars, I mean talk about an idea over-load — I don’t mean to be pessimistic but having this much Dorothy just doesn’t seem like a good idea. Can Oz Wars survive the oversupply? It seems that in the next few years we might have to start buying in bulk…
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