The Flames of Love and War

The Flames of Love and War would be a 2024 American hand-drawn animated romantic drama film directed by Dana Terrace and ND Stevenson in their feature directorial debuts, from an screenplay co-written with Molly Ostertag, and Rachael Vine, and produced by Osnat Shurer, while Stevenson, Terrace, Byron Howard and Jennifer Lee would serve as executive-producers. The film would star the voices of Erin Kellyman, Gabrielle Nevaeh, Robert Downey Jr., Jeffrey Combs, Sarah-Nicole Robles, Zeno Robinson, Dawnn Lewis, Fra Fee, Mae Whitman, Kimberly Brooks, Guillermo del Toro, and Bumper Robinson, while Nami Melumad would compose the score for the film. In the film, the princesses of two kingdoms in war with each other must work together after getting lost during a battle.
Disney would announce the film during the D23 2021, with Terrace being set to write and direct the project, and Cravalho and Nevaeh set to star. The film would use hand-drawn animation because Terrace would feel "it gives the story a deeply artistic visual companion that complements it". Animators would use older Disney fims such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Fantasia 2000 (2000), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and the works of Milt Kahl as inspiration for its visuals. The filmmakers would also consult with several former soldiers in order to show a realistic depiction of war in the film, as well as with the GLAAD in order to feature an adequate representation of lesbian characters in the film. Marc Okrand would be hired to develop the languages featured in the film.
The film would be released on November 22, 2024, accompanied by the Donald Duck short Family Guarding. It would became a critical and commercial success, grossing 1.2 billion dollars over a budget of 150 millions, and being praised for its direction, screenplay, themes, vocal performances (particularly Paquin and Page's), use of hand-drawn animation, visuals, depicition of LGBTQ+ characters, and musical score. The film would also have an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Picture and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Film, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Original Score.
==Synopsis ==
In a far-away world, two opposite species are at war with each other: One made of fire, and one made of water, with each other seeing the other as a threat to their existence. However, the curious princess of the water realm, Aqua, and the cold and hardened princess of the fire realm, Phoenix, discover a mysterious danger that threatens the safety of both if their kingdoms. Now, the two must work together in order to save their homes. As the relationship between these princesses blossoms into love, the two realize how to finally end their kingdoms' war.
== Voice cast==
*Gabrielle Nevaeh as Aqua, the princess of the water realm, who holds a lot of curiosity and excitment for anything new and different to her. Nevaeh would say that "Aqua holds an obsession with everything new that she has been told to supress, but she just can't help it, and really hates herself for that cause her dad always told her 'new is bad', but her love for Phoenix brings her some questions". Terrace would compare her to Hunter from The Owl House, as "someone who really wants the love of someone who isn't worth the trouble, but ends up finding that love with the right people". Lauren MacMullen would serve as Aqua's supervising animator.
*Erin Kellyman as Phoenix, the princess of the fire realm, who developed a distant and hardened personality due to the war and developed a hate against the water creatures because of it. Kellyman said the film would be "Phoenix' coming of age story. Througth the film she finds out what kind of leader she will be thanks to her love for Aqua", citing the characrer's healing of PTSD as "the journey to that conclusion". Kofi Fiagome would serve as Phoenix' supervising animator.
*Robert Downey Jr. as Basileus, Aqua's father and the king of the water kingdom, who fears that the fire people may one day destroy their kingdom, as he believes them to be demons. Terrace choose to have the character be "as unlikeable as possible" because she "wanted him to be scary. Villains are meant to be frighting and threatening and imposing. Not sympathetic". The character was inspired by villains from the James Bond franchise, as Terrace didn't wanted to hide his role as the villain but at the same time not making Aqua look unintelligent for assuming he cares for her, and she felt the "charisma and charm" of James Bond villains would allow the writers to accomplish both things. Writer Nate Stevenson would describe his bigotry as "a reflection of how he truly sees himself as: A god who thinks he can determine good and evil based on what he likes". Spencer Wan would serve as Basileus' supervising animator.
*Jeffrey Combs as Calidi, Phoenix's father and the king of the fire realm. Director Dana Terrace would serve as Calidi's supervising animator.
*Alan Tudyk as Praelia, Calidi' general, servant, and personal bodyguard. Andreas Deja would serve as Praelia's supervising animator.
*Sarah-Nicole Robles as Amica, a scientist and Aqua's best friend. Co-director ND Stevenson would compare her to Rafiki from The Lion King in that "both are mentors with an un-mentor-y way to teach", througth the writerd didn't wanted the character to come off as a Rafiki copy, so they instead drew indpuration from Entrapta from Stevenson's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Eric Goldberg would serve as her supervising animation.
*Zeno Robinson as Sodalistas, Amica's brother and one of Aqua's friends who is a geek fascinated with conspiracy theories. Co-wroter Molly Ostertag said the producers didn't wanted the character to be "just the guy who says conspiracy theories" but a three-dimensional character in his own right, so they also gave him a mentorship role for Aqua and "an ability to act seriously when things go south". Jorge Rizo would serve as Sodalistas' supervising animator.
*Dawnn Lewis as Curat, Phoenix' therapist.
*Fra Fee as Caecus, Basilius' aide
*Mae Whitman as Whitner, Phoenix' late best friend and a member of her squad.
*Kimberly Brooks as Nichols, a late member of Phoenix' squad.
*Guillermo del Toro as Shatner, a late member of Phoenix' squad.
*Bumper Robinson as Avery, a late member of Phoenix' squad.
Additionally, director Dana Terrace would provide the vocal effects for Amabilia, a creature that Aqua finds in the forest and eventually befriends. Co-writer ND Stevenson would voice Auditor, Aqua's assistant. Stephen J. Anderson makes a cameo as a Water librarian. Armin Shimerman makes a cameo as a bartender, in reference to his role as Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. John de Lance, Carlos Alazraqui, and Gabrielle Ruiz make cameos as characters in a TV series wayched by Sodalistas.
==Production==
===Writing===
Terrace worked with Nate Stevenson and The Owl House writers Molly Ostertag and Rachel Vine on the screenplay. The writers sought to make a film that was darker and more dramatic in tone than previous Disney romance films, while still being family-friendly, so they put an emphasis on war and its effects after early screenplays underused that concept. The writing team used as a primary basis for the war the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. They also decided to give the film a slower, more character-based pacing after watching Lady and the Tramp (1955). 
Regarding Phoenix' arc, Terrace wrote her as "a hardened soldier who gets softer", describing her arc as "learning to love again". She worked closely with experts on PTSD to potray the condition as accuretly as possible througth her. During talks with psychiatrists, Terrace realized Phoenix' PTSD could also be used as a way for Phoenix and Aqua to bond while furthering both of their arcs, so she incorporated scenes of Aqua learning of and helping Phienix to deal with her PTSD. For the scene where they realize their feelings for each other, Terrace was inspired by the "Can You Read My Mind?" sequence from Superman.
Terrace noted the main reason for the film's existence was to diversify the Disney Princess brabd with a lesbian couple and a princess who struggles with her mental health. Whike she did wanted to explore the mental focus aspect of the film, she also wanted the lesbian relationship to be "something that just happens" and the leads being girls never being brought up im the film. Terrace also said the film's focus on war and mental health made it darker than most modern Disney films, describing it as more in line with the Disney Renaissance films of the 90s. However, she said replicating those movies wasn't the intetion, and that the dark tone was "simply the product of what we explore in this film". The filmmakers neverthless cited Tarzan (1999) as an influence regarding the film's balance of dark tone and lighthearted content. According to the writers, the film would be intnende "to be a very Disney film in a rather un-Disney way", citing the use of a cover of Florence and the Machine's "Dog Days Are Over" in the ending over an original song as usual in a Disney feature film as an example of "doing typical Disney stuff but with a twist to it".
===Animation===
Director Dana Terrace wanted the film to be made enterily in hand-drawn animation dye to her love for traditional animation. In addition to other Disney animators, Terrace would hire previous collaborators such as Stephen Wan and Kofi Fiagome to work on the film. The animation for the action sequence would draw inspiration from Terrace's show The Owl House, with her intention being to "marry the Disney style with the anime-esque style". Regarding character designs, Terrace would use the Fantasia 2000 short "The Firebird Suite" as her main inspiration, while the film's art style would be inspired by the works of Milt Kahl, particularly One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Robin Hood, due to how "unashamed his works were of the fact that they were drawings". For the film's underwater sequences, the animators would study the work done in The Little Mermaid in order to fully capture underwater movement, while the Fire Kingdom would be modeled after the Kingdom of the Brine from Warner Bros.' Aquaman. Additional inspirations for the film's art style wpuld be Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, and the works of Hieronymus Bosch, particularly on how the film's asthetic would have a "idealistic appearance while also having a bit of a dystopian feeling to it", while the more surrealistic edge to the art style would allow it to stand from other science fiction projects.
For the scenes where Phoenix is the main focus, the film's art style wpuld change to "something more threatening and gothic". According to Terrace, this would be to showcase how she perceives the world as following her war esperiences, since she wanted to "explore the insecurity and feeling of danger that soldiers with PTSD have" wothout having her repeteadly say it, so the animators resolved to have the art stylechange to showcase her emotional state, inspired by the successful use of multiple art styles in Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. For the art style during those sequences, Terrace would be inspired by Tim Burton's depiction of Gotham City in Batman.
The animators were inspired by the Borg Cube's interior in Star Trek: Picard for Basileus' room, deeming it a fitting inspiration due to Basileus' controling nature. The character was also designed to "seem geniunely affable" because she felt such looked made the character creepier due to the dissonance between hus appesrance and behavior, an affable appearance worked for the character's deveptive personality, and worried giving him a villanous appearance would contradict the film's anti-prejudice themes. Terrace also wanted green coloring and lighting to be promenient during the scenes in his room both to further the homage and in reference to how green has been associated with villains in previous Disney movies, througth with care to not to make it "too promenient". She also wanted the scenes featurkng him to have "smaller, more claustrophobic backgrounds", in contrast of the largers used througth the rest of the film, "to give this feeling of helplesness. Of being trapped with an abuser and without a way out". In contrast, Terrace wanted the scenes with Phoenix and Aqua to promeniently feature golden colors to "give them this feeling of beauty and freedom" as a way to showcase their healthier relationship between each other.
== Music ==
=== Score ===
Nami Melumad would compose the film's instrumental score; she was hired by Terrace due to having composed sclres for the Star Trek franchise, of which Terrace is fond of. Melumad would say that the film's plot would require for her to create a score that could "combine war, romance, and wonder, perfectly as one". Melumad would call the Phoenix's theme as "a hard nut to crack", as the character would require a "hardened, warrior theme that could be used in a romantic light", througth she would describe Aqua's theme "easier to do" than Phoenix, as the character's theme would requiere a "sense of curiosity that also work as a romantic theme". Melumad also wrote a romantic letimof that served as the film's main theme.
==== Track listing ====
All score tracks composed by Nami Melumad
No.	Title
1 	Bombastic Opening
2 	Bad Dads Before Pals
3 	You're One Hot Soldier
10 	Fiery First Meeting
15 	Do Fire Princesses Dream Of Explosions?
20 	(In)Filtration
21 	Spaghetti Has In Me Some Volatile Reactions
29 	Angry Dad
30 	Breaking Up the Relationship
31 	The Root of War Evil
32 	Following Your Burning Feelings
33 	It's a Small War, After All
34 	Burning With Hatred
35 	Family Fight
36 	Victory Romance
37 	Wed You Be My Partner?
39 	I Have The Hots For You (FireWater Suit)
===Songs===
Raphael Saadiq would curate and produce the film's soundtrack. Director Dana Terrace would hire him due to his work on the Disbey/Marvel series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which convinced her to hire him in hopes of creating "an unusual soundtrack for a Disbey Princess film" with high quality. Saadiq would be hired for the project during early development in order to give him "plenty of time" to work on the songs for the film and allow him to develop the soundtrack in a way that could stay close to the film's tone abd story.
Also featured in both the film and the soundtrack would be a cover and Florence + The Machines' "Dog Days Are Over". While rare for a Disney film to include a cover of a preexisting song, Terrace choose to incorporate it after listening ton the song and feeling it worked for the film's ending. Also included in the soundtrack is the song "Love Power" from Disney's Muppet Treasure Island (1996), which Terrace decided to incorporate due to feeling the song's lyrics managed to reflect the film's themes of love over fear and hate.
====Track listing====
No.	Title 	Performer(s) 	Writer(s)
1 	Starting All Over 	Diamond White 	Raphael Saadiq, Taura Stinston, and Brook D'Leau
2 	What I'm Looking For 	Taura Stinston 	Taura Stinston and Myriah Summers
3 	Hardened Warrior 	Eli "Paperboy" Reed 	Raphael Saadiq
4 	This Feeling 	Eli "Paperboy" Reed 	Halima Lucas, and Charles L. Liston
5 	Whispers of the Heart 	Jane Handcock and Diamond White 	Nami Melumed and Raphael Saadiq
6 	You Make My Flame Shine	Jon Batiste 	Jon Batiste
7 	Won't Stop Now 	Loly Bea 	Kurt Farquhar
8 	Dog Days Are Over 	Jane Handcock 	Florence Welch and Isabella Summers
9 	...Baby One More Time 	Michael Bolton 	Max Martin
10 	I'll Be With You 	Rhianna 	Tara Stinston, and Halima Lucas
11 	Love Power 	Ziggy Marley and the Melody Markers	Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
== Reception ==
===Critical reception===
The film would have an aproval rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 9.5/10. The critical consensus would read, "With a timely message and a modern spin on Disney's romance formula, FireWater takes Disney to a slightly more adult territory, while at the same time telling a charming romantic tale that keeps that old Disney magic." On Metacritc, the film would have an weighted average score of 91 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
==In other media==
===Short film ===
A 10-minutes film, titled FireWater: Between Kingdoms, would be released on March 3, 2025, as a part of the film's home-media release. Auli'l Cravalho and Gabrielle Nevaeh would reprise their roles as Aqua and Phoenix, respectively, while Dana Terrace would return as writer and director. The short would focus on Phoenix and Aqua trying to deal with the subjects of each other's kingdoms, only to find out that its a harder deal than expected, througth they refuse to ask for the other's help.
===Television series===
A television series set after the events of the film, titled FireWater: The Series, would premiere in August 14, 2029. Cravalho, Nevaeh, and Alan Tudyk would reprise their roles from the film, while Melissa Etheridge and Matthew Gerrard would return to write songs for the series. Set after the events of the film, the series would focus on Aqua and Phoenix struggling with both married life and their attempts to keep their kingdom unified as they face several threats. The series would be created by Dana Terrace.
===Theme park attraction===
A theme park attraction based on the film, titled Aqua and Phoenix's Honeymoon, would open at July 5, 2029. Described as "a crossover between Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway", the attraction would involve the guests watching a short based on FireWater focusing on Aqua and Phoenix's adventures during their honeymoon, before entering the short's story, where the guests help them fight monsters and defeat challenges inside the forest where they are.
==Trivia==
*The film would mark the first time a Walt Disney Animation Studios film is directed and written by a former Disney Television Animation employee.
**Additionally, aside from ND Stevenson, most of the film's writers would have previously worked on Terrace's TV series, The Owl House (2020-present).
*FireWater would be Disney's first animated film to star homosexual characters.
*According to director Dana Terrace, the reason there would be a third-year-gap between the climax and the film's ending was because he wanted a "realistic" time for Aqua and Phoenix to marry each other, as he didn't wanted to continue Disney's "married after meeting trope".
===Easter eggs===
*Aqua's first scene has her rausing to the surface similarly to Ariel in The Little Mermaid after becoming human
*The silhouette of Tamatoa from Moana (2016) would be seen among the creatures in a forest.
* A "hidden mickey" would be seen near the start of the film, as three circular buildings in the water realm would be seen from above, making them resemble Mickey's head.
*One of the creatures in the Water realm is a selkidamas, from Dana Terrace's The Owl House.
* At one point, Aqua would be heard whistling to "La La Lu" from Lady and the Tramp (1955).
*The "shark tiger" from the Mickey Mouse (2013) episode "Wonders of the Deep" would be seen briefly in the background as many ships from the water realm go to battle.
* The Firebird from the Fantasia 2000 segment "The Firebird Suite" would make sporadic appearances througth the film as a bird in the fire realm.
*The argument between Aqua and her father near the climax is an homage to Ariel and King Triton in The Little Mermaid.
Category: Disney