What's up with animation today?

[JoeCollege]

Okay, so I'm a little hesitant to bring this up without checking elsewhere on the site... but what's wrong with animation?

As I kid, I grew up on Disney Animation (not just movies, but also the two-hour block on "the Disney Afternoon"). I vividly remember seeing Aladdin, The Lion King, the Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast on opening day or opening weekend when the theater was packed!

So, I'm more than a little upset to hear about the falling off of Disney animation in past years. Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Emperor's New Groove, even Disney's own Computer Generated "Dinosaur" were all weak... I didn't see Home on the Range or Brother Bear, but reaction was mixed at best.... I could be wrong, but the best animation (not counting Pixar) to come out of Disney in the last couple of years was Lilo and Stitch....

Then again, it's not just Disney.... while the Dreamworks Comp Animation dept has been blockbuster, Sinbad and (*shudder*) Spirit were pretty bad. And that's being nice.

To be sure, I'm a big fan of computer animation. But hand-drawn has that extra something. There's no undo key when you're drawing a cel.

So, what's up? Does the glut of cartoons now available on TV (the majority of Nickelodeon's afternoon line-up is now cartoons, and Cartoon Network shows nothing but...) lower the appeal of hand-drawn animation in general? Even so, why isn't Disney still producing Rescue Ranger/Gummi Bears/Tale Spin type shows for after-school airing on ABC? What happened to the Mickey/Minnie/Goofy/Donald shorts that I grew up on? And so on....

Can Hand-Drawn recover? Or is this it?

[Sam I Am]

Have you seen the Triplets of Belleville?

[JoeCollege]

No, I haven't. It's at home waiting for me to return (or have it shipped here). I thought about Triplets when I wrote my original post, but didn't put it in there. I'm also reminded of Spirited Away, which I didn't talk about as well. But even though there has been good animation in the past couple of years, it has come from unexpected sources (or rather, non-mainstream sources.) And neither Triplets nor Spirited Away did well at the box-office in this country (though they both had critical acclaim and Oscar Nominations.)

Again, the question isn't just why the quality of domestic hand-drawn animation has gone down (I'll take Lion King over Treasure Planet any day.) I'm also asking why the market has dried up for hand-drawn in general.

[Sam I Am]

I agree with you for the most part. It's a shame - everyone I dragged with me to see Triplets when it came to our campus film series (I already had seen it in NY) loved it.

[judycats]

i like the old hand drawn movies too. i think there is something "warm" about them that the new movies just dont have. i still love toy story and nemo, but they just don't have the same "feel" as the old ones! (my two cents)

[SuperStarKerri]

Finally, I've been looking for something like this! I am deeply saddened how all that Disney keeps doing is computer animation. Almost all of those movies are my least favorite Disney films! I seriously think they haven't made a great movie since Mulan! For a long time now, I've been drawing Disney characters and I really want to work with Disney and bring back the classic, hand-drawn animation. I really think Disney would do alot better. :/

[FrolloFan]

I thoroughly agree with Kerri on this.

I am shocked at the rumors for upcoming Disney movies, have a look:
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/intheaters.html (They're near the bottom)

[Ultimatewdwfan]

Originally Posted by JoeCollege

No, I haven't. It's at home waiting for me to return (or have it shipped here). I thought about Triplets when I wrote my original post, but didn't put it in there. I'm also reminded of Spirited Away, which I didn't talk about as well. But even though there has been good animation in the past couple of years, it has come from unexpected sources (or rather, non-mainstream sources.) And neither Triplets nor Spirited Away did well at the box-office in this country (though they both had critical acclaim and Oscar Nominations.)

Again, the question isn't just why the quality of domestic hand-drawn animation has gone down (I'll take Lion King over Treasure Planet any day.) I'm also asking why the market has dried up for hand-drawn in general.

I think for several reasons.

1. time +$$$$$, cheaper actually to make a computer generated movie, faster too.

2. The tastes of children are different than ours. i have two, they prefer the pixar stuff.

3. Original ideas. Most of the movies Disney is releasing are original ideas. Before they would use stories of CLASSICS. Little Mermaid, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh... all of the Disney Classics weren't disney ideas at all. They took great stories, put it to great ART and great music and they made movie classics.