You might say "sequels!", but that's an outside bet at this point. There is still no hard-and-fast plan for Alice In Wonderland 2 and Sam Raimi has already said that he won't be back if the alleged sequel to Oz: The Great and Powerful actually becomes a reality. Well, what *do* you get when combine the Wizard of Oz, Alice from Wonderland, the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella? You get the potential for the one set of properties with the potential to learn the would-be lesson from The Avengers as well as the one studio with the bank roll to see it happen. Even people who liked Alice In Wonderland don't really want a sequel, and what franchise possibilities are there in the further adventures of "the Beast" or the various fairy tale heroines following their respective happy ever afters? Oz: The Great and Powerful has real franchise possibilities but I'd argue the sequel potential for the rest are pretty thin. But using these films in much the same way as the 'Phase One' Marvel films has real potential, something that could build into a 'Fairy Tale All-Stars to the Rescue" type grand-slam summer event picture.
Imagine the financial draw of seeing Alice, Oz, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the Beast (who will in no way basically be a revamped version of the Hulk, no sir!). Each of these films will of course have side characters for extended cameos, be it paying Johnny Depp $10 million for a cameo as The Mad Hatter or using the various villains (the Wicked Witch, Maleficent, etc.) as threats paving the way for whatever the big-bad happens to be (I'm thinking Chernabog from Fantasia), along with an assist from Tinker Bell and her fairy army. I think this is frankly Disney's end game with all of these fairy tale revamps. They are spending too much money to merely be crafting 'one-and-done' tentpoles and the financial appeal of their own in-house Avengers is both too logical and too tempting to resist. This is a way for them to make the 'Disney Princesses to the Rescue' movie they have to be itching to do without violating the unofficial 'animated Disney Princesses do not interact with each other' rule that was enacted in 2000. You've got an Avengers-type franchise technically targeting girls but with enough 'male drawing power' to rope in the young boys as well.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. So what do you think? Is Disney planning some kind of team-up picture with the various heroes of their obviously successful brand of live-action fairy tales? Would you want to see such a thing? Sound off below on Mendelson's latest crazy theory...
Scott Mendelson
