Disney to make a cartoon based on the opera or musical Aida?

[old lady]

http://www.broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1058425

Do you agree or disagree with the idea?

 

[Xenith22]

I would much prefer a live action movie. Which I hope that since "Into the Woods" was a success might have a decent chance of being green-lit again (after being shelved in 2010) as their next Broadway to film adaptation since they already have the rights.

*warning the below contains plot spoilers for Aida*

Because in all honesty I just can't see Disney going thru with the original ending for an animated version. Every Disney animated movie has been with kids in mind as a part of the target audience. As such other than parents and villains there is not a whole lot of major characters that die in the at the end. Oh sure they do plenty of fake outs Baloo, Pinocchio, Basil, Beast, Trusty, Dory, Eugene, Elinor, Wall-E,etc...but have never gone thru with having one of the main heroes (or their sidekicks) dying at the end (unless you count Willie the Whale at the end of his short in Make Mine Music...but that was a different time and targeted an adult audience) instead of getting a happily ever after ending. So I just kind of have a hard time seeing Disney doing an animated movie where the Princess and Prince are both tragically killed via being buried alive. That's a pretty dark ending for a kids movie, even if you then push the reincarnation angle which is such a heavy concept that might go over a lot of younger kids heads where they are still going to be in tears at the end of the movie?

So yeah I tend to think Disney would end up rewriting the ending for an animated version such that Aida and Radmes are somehow rescued before their deaths. Heck I don't even believe that Disney would be willing to kill Mereb, who I strongly believe would be turned into a comic relief character. Instead he would likely just be badly wounded and presumed dead during the boat escape attempt only to turn up alive at the end.

 

[blana]

Well, they made Hunchback into a cartoon, even though the book has all the main characters dying. And Little Mermaid, when the Mermaid dies in the end...

 

[Xenith22]

Well, they made Hunchback into a cartoon, even though the book has all the main characters dying. And Little Mermaid, when the Mermaid dies in the end...

Exactly, they changed the endings. And that is exactly what I am arguing against here. The tragic ending to Aida is a core part of the story. Aida without them dying is essentially like Romeo and Juliet without them dying...maybe worse It loses a lot of what makes it such a powerful well known story. I mean without them dying you essentially then lose the star crossed lovers that find each other over time aspect. That seems pretty big to me. I don't want Aida with an simple happily ever after where they are rescued and grow old together as then it will not truly a good representation of the story that the original Aida told?

For that matter though, I think Aida also might be a bit boring to adapt to a cartoon too. I mean outside of Aida's capture, and the rescue attempt, there is not really all that much action to the story? So it seems like it could be more boring than the likes of Pocahontas adapted for kids?