3D Animated Feature News, April 2004

The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread to come from Universal Pictures
After they release Curious George, Universal Pictures is likely to create a movie based on Kate DiCamillo's Newberry Medal-winner, The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread. One most hope they shorten the title. Produced by Gary Ross (writer of Big, director of Pleasantville, Seabiscuit), the movie is, according to Yahoo News, "a tale of three misfits, a banished mouse, a rat who likes the light and a young servant girl with cauliflower ears - whose fates are intertwined with that of a princess".

Disney developing One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
Released to bookshelfs everywhere on March 15, icSeftonandWestLancs reports that Clive Woodall's One for Sorrow, Two for Joy has had its rights bought by Disney for $1 million. The author's debut novel, it's been dubbed as a "classic fairy story for all ages", "which is set in Birddom, a place in which a lone robin is given the seemingly impossible task of saving the world from the evil magpies". Its book cover compares it as being an epic in the tradition of Watership Down and Lord of the Rings. Author Woodall is, or possibly now was, a supermarket manager in Britain.

Master P: Kung-Fu Panda
Based on an original idea by writers Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff, Master P: Kung-Fu Panda is an upcoming 3D animated feature, that will be distributed by DreamWorks. The movie centers around a kung-fu fighting panda, battling a gang of snow leopard bandits that have come down from the highlands to invade the bamboo jungle. Master P won't actually be animated by DreamWorks' own animation studio, but Pacific Data Images.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua, or South of the Border
A pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua gets lost in Mexico, when her owner takes it on a spa vacation. Used to riding in a purse, the dog is forced to find her way back home. That's the plot of South Of The Border, a Disney live-action/CGI hybrid feature film, currently in development.

Website Done Deal reports that the movie was written by Mad TV and The Bernie Mac Show's Jeff Bushnell, and will be produced by John Jacobs. An interesting curiousity, there was a good-will, war-time documentary by Disney by the same name.

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