AWN reports that Guillermo Del Toro, director of PAN’S LABYRINTH, and the upcoming feature THE HOBBIT, is teaming up with the Walt Disney Company to create a new production label for more edgy animated films. The Disney Double Dare You label will be headed by del Toro himself, creating and producing new projects like the first in development, del Toro’s own TROLLHUNTERS. The del Toro Disney link up was announced at the D23 Expo and del Toro stated:
“As a director, I love to take audiences into fantastic new worlds and provide them with some anxious moments in the process. It is part of the Disney canon to create thrilling, unforgettable moments and villains in all their classic films. It is my privilege for DDY to continue in this tradition. To partner up with The Walt Disney Studios, with the support of Dick Cook and John Lasseter, is to belong to a storytelling partnership that I admire deeply. It is a true honor. I look forward to coming up with fresh and original stories that will take Disney films in a whole new direction. The emphasis is on fun, and we have some great ideas already on the storyboards.”
With this and Disney’s purchase of Marvel, there are some Disney fans concerned that this will be a further split between “Boy-Disney” and “Girl-Disney”, pigeon-holeing their projects into one cannon or another. We will see if disney animation head John Lasseter will be able to stem the tide of separation.
