Disney Climbs The Beanstalk In GIGANTIC

Over the decades Disney has tackled many classic fairy tales and made them their own, creating definitive versions of stories like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. But there's never been a definitive version of Jack and the Beanstalk, Disney's animation chief John Lasseter told a rapturous crowd at the D23 Fan Expo in Anaheim... until now. Or at least until Gigantic comes out. 

That's the name of Disney Animation's version of Jack and the Beanstalk, and it's being directed by Tangled's Nathan Greno. This version of the story takes place in Spain during the Age of Exploration, as Europeans sailed to every corner of the globe. Jack will discover a massive kingdom of giants in the clouds, and he will meet and befriend Inma, a 60 foot tall eleven year old girl. Together they battle Storm Giants and save the kingdom and, if Lasseter's promise to leave you in tears at the end is true, must eventually part ways and return to their own societies. 

And since it's Disney Gigantic is going to have songs; the studio has re-enlisted EGOT dream team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez of Frozen fame. The duo previewed an early version of a song from the 2018 movie, where Inma sings about all the fun things she can do with the new little man she has found, like dress him up, toss him around and generally mistreat him. 

We were shown concept art of the characters, but only Inma seemed set in stone. She was based on a real life girl the production team met while they were researching in Spain; she ran up along their car and tried to race it. Later she pronounced herself a princess. This real little blonde Spanish girl informed Inma in a big way. 

What we saw looked cute, although my initial thoughts when looking at the storyboards was that Jack and Inma would be romantically involved. I'm already afraid for the Tumblr and DeviantArt posts where they are, but in the movie it seems to be a more platonic relationship. Still, the opening lyric of the song that debuted today was "There are so many things you can do with a little man," so...

Gigantic is still a ways out, and in traditional Disney animation style they may rewrite the whole durn thing between now and release. The seeds - or beans! Har har - of what they have right now are interesting, and even in still images Inma seemed a force of nature. She could become a fan favorite... but please, guys, don't make it all weird.