By I’m digging how Disney is picking up some of the better cues from Pixar, namely the revival of the old tradition of a pre-movie short. I think, before Pixar started doing it again, the last cartoon short before a movie I saw was a new Mickey Mouse cartoon in front of A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.
Anyway, these are the first images from The Ballad of Nessie, which will play in front of the upcoming Winnie the Pooh on July 15. It’s got the most gorgeous hand-drawn quality to it. I’m absolutely in love. The Loch Ness Monster, whose best friend is a rubber duck named MacQuack, has to defend her lake from a greedy Scottish land developer named MacFroogle. Between how adorable this is with how amazing Winnie the Pooh looks, I am SO looking forward to July! Check out the full complement of pictures in the gallery, and make sure to spy the synopsis below the cut.
[Via Collider]Set in the “bonny blue highlands” of Scotland, “The Ballad of Nessie” is a whimsical and colorful tall tale about the friendly Loch Ness monster, Nessie, and how she and her best friend MacQuack the rubber duck came to live in the moor they now call home. Setting the adventure into motion is a greedy land developer named MacFroogle, who decides to build a mini-golf empire on top of Nessie’s home.
Directed by the Emmy® Award-winning team of Stevie Wermers-Skelton and Kevin Deters (“Prep & Landing,” and the 2007 Goofy short “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater”), “The Ballad of Nessie” is animated in classic Disney hand-drawn style. Written by Wermers-Skelton, Deters and Regina Conroy, the film is produced by Dorothy McKim and Tamara Boutcher, and features a musical score by Oscar®-winning composer Michael Giacchino (“Ratatouille,” “Up”). Animation on “Nessie” was supervised by five of Disney’s top talents: Andreas Deja, Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, Dale Baer and Ruben A. Aquino. Scottish comedian Billy Connolly narrates the film.
“The Ballad of Nessie” hits the big screen with Walt Disney Animation Studio’s latest feature film “Winnie the Pooh,” which opens in theaters in select international markets in Spring 2011; the U.S. release date is July 15, 2011.