George Lucas' Animated 'Strange Magic' Announced for 2015

We may not have George Lucas to kick around anymore when it comes to Star Wars, but clearly he's not getting out of the film biz entirely. Today we learned that Touchstone Pictures will release Lucasfilm's animated movie, Strange Magic, on January 23rd 2015, which is based on a story cooked up by Lucas himself.

Strange Magic is described as a "madcap fairy tale musical inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with popular songs from the past six decades used to help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion." Lucas will exec-produce and developed the story but won't be at the helm, with those duties going to Gary Rydstrom, who did great work on Pixar's Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation.  Rydstrom also co-wrote the screenplay with Irene Mecchi (Brave) and David Berenbaum (Elf).  Providing voicework is an extensive cast including Alan Cumming, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Chenoweth, Maya Rudolph, Sam Palladio, Meredith Anne Bull, Alfred Molina, Peter Stormare, Elijah Kelley, and Bob Einstein. Composing the score and serving as music director will be Marius de Vries, known for his work on Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge.

Rumors had been going around the last few days that Disney and Lucasfilm were developing a Frozen sequel and that Strange Magic, which they established a domain name for, would be the working title. Instead what they get is a George Lucas-produced animated musical, so there are probably a few disappointed Disney fans out there right now.