Timon and Pumbaa. © The Walt Disney Company. All Rights Reserved.

Adapting for the Tube
These limitations, however, have not stopped Disney from experimenting and taking some chances with its characters. Case in point is Timon and Pumbaa, a series based on the comic sidekicks from Disney's behemoth of animated blockbusters, The Lion King. Instead of re-creating the lush, lyrical mood of the film week after week, supervising producers Tony Craig and Roberts Gannaway decided to shape Timon and Pumbaa in a more Tex Avery-ish vein. "What we tried to do, to keep it fresh, was expand on their personalities as a comedy team," noted Gannaway, "in the tradition of good comedy teams like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby or Martin and Lewis. The other thing that we did to try and keep it interesting was to not have them locked into the Serengeti, but allow them to travel the world and meet different kinds of animals."

Gannaway and Craig have also translated one of Disney's most beloved films, 101 Dalmatians (which recently got a new 'leash' on life thanks to a popular live-action remake), for the small screen. "The animated feature and the live-action film are really about the human characters," noted Gannaway. "The objective of the TV series was to make a show about the puppies' individual personalities. This isn't really explored in the movie beyond a `tagging' of the different types."

In addition, the producers have given the new Dalmatians it's own highly stylized look, different from that of the original film and have even tackled what many would have thought verboten: Disney's most popular screen villain, Cruella DeVil. "We needed to expand her so that she would become more of a greedy character," said Gannaway. "It's been daunting, because she is such a great villain."

This fall, WDTVA will again place their own distinct stamp on a new series, when Hercules, Disney's loopy feature from last year, makes its way to ABC's Saturday morning line-up, as a weekly animated series.

"What we've done in Hercules is what we've always tried to do in every series which is keep the tone," said Stones, who will also be serving as executive producer for the new show. "We look at the feature film and we say, `What do people like?'"

The answer to this was the original's irreverence and the producers of Hercules, the series, found that the best way to capture this was through what they call a "mid-quel." That is, the events that take place on the show, take place not before or after those of the film, but at a point within the story. So, instead of taking the safe route and relaying Herc's exploits as a strong-man here among mortal earthlings, the series will focus on the character during his teenage years, allowing the show to tackle issues of romance, teen angst and a main character still struggling to find his place in the world. As Stones noted, "By ignoring continuity and trying to stay true to the elements of humor and adventure in the film, we came up with a much stronger series that really stands on its own."

Most of the original voice cast from the film will return, including a real surprise: James Woods in his blisteringly bad role of Hades. With Woods signed on, the producers suddenly found that there was a flood of recognizable names who wanted to be part of the show. "Every episode was cast as if it was a feature film," says Stones of this unexpected luxury. The new show will boast over 150 celebrity voices including: Seinfeld's Jason Alexander as Poseidon, Mike (Mannix) Connors as the hard-boiled cop, Chipacles, Regis Philbin as the voice of Typhoon and game show host Wink Martindale, somewhat typecast as Sphinx Martindale. In addition, a majority of the show's 65 episodes will also feature songs.