Disney Abandons hand drawn animation

[RyanSD]

In some ways Disney rigged the deck against their own ink and paint shop. When you look at Brother Bear, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh you know they weren't going to be huge.

The most promising traditional animated film they had going was Rapunzel. Disney decided to shelve all the 2d and shift production to 3d. Tangled was a big hit for the studio, no credit given to the prior work done by the 2d staff.

Yeah, I can't remember the last hand drawn feature, by Disney or others, that was as good as say, Toy Story 2 or 3. Then again, the 3D stuff hasn't been great the past couple of years either. Wreck it Ralph was decent, Brave was good, but not great, and Tangled was pretty poor, as was Cars 2. I saw Princess and the Frog, and it was quite forgettable, as literally, I've forgotten most of that movie.

I would prefer that they produce great animated films, whether it be hand drawn or CG, is actually irrelevant. I can't see any animated film released in the past few years standing the test of time, with maybe Toy Story 3 as the exception...

 

[cokebabies]

I finally got around to watching Princess and the Frog and liked it a lot. Is it top ten Disney? Nope. But it's my favorite hand-drawn Disney in a long time.

But hurting the hand drawn argument - with that and Tangled coming out (roughly) similar times, Tangled destroyed it in every aspect.

 

[Coheteboy]

Yeah, I can't remember the last hand drawn feature, by Disney or others, that was as good as say, Toy Story 2 or 3. Then again, the 3D stuff hasn't been great the past couple of years either. Wreck it Ralph was decent, Brave was good, but not great, and Tangled was pretty poor, as was Cars 2. I saw Princess and the Frog, and it was quite forgettable, as literally, I've forgotten most of that movie.

I would prefer that they produce great animated films, whether it be hand drawn or CG, is actually irrelevant. I can't see any animated film released in the past few years standing the test of time, with maybe Toy Story 3 as the exception...

Tangled poor? I loved that film. I thought that was truly Disney getting back into making superb fairy tale films and staying roughly true to the source material. If it was hand drawn, i guarantee you that people would have filled the seats. It would have been amazing.

I wish they stuck with the name Rapunzel though.. "tangled" still sounds like a Dreamworks title.


Winnie the Pooh is darling of a film. It's short and not exactly mind blowing but it's wonderful for what it is.



On the subject of source material, I wish Princess and the Frog stayed closer to that and I wish Treasure Planet was Treasure Island. I think Disney should be staying faithful for the stories that inspired them rather than doing "twists".

 

[Lejuan]

I enjoyed Tangled too...

 

[cokebabies]

Tangled is probably my favorite animated Disney movie since The Lion King.

 

[Mighty_Jabba]

The new John Lewis advert is a perfect reminder of just how amazing hand drawn animation is:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0[/ame]

 

[Coheteboy]

That really is beautiful.

Again, what's amazing about hand drawn animation is that there's true talent shown on screen from the line drawings. There's a difference between seeing someone draw really well and watching someone play video games.

 

[Darth Waller]

Wow! That was awesome!

 

[egel]

That video was sweet, great art. Hand drawn animation is huge part of the reason why the old disney classics will never die. Besides the movies having great stories, characters and scores, the art makes it a joy to watch. You can see the effort put in there.

Lately I get the feeling more and more that Disney is a corporation now which soul purpose is to maximise profits (them acquiring the Star Wars license doesn't help either).

 

[Coheteboy]

Lately I get the feeling more and more that Disney is a corporation now which soul purpose is to maximise profits (them acquiring the Star Wars license doesn't help either).

Disney IS a corporation with the soul purpose to maximize profits. You aren't wrong about that.

But hopefully through it all, great art can be made.

 

[Coheteboy]

And here's the making of it:
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr...ind-the-scenes-on-the-john-lewis-christmas-ad


It's incredible. They got Aaron Blaise, a veteran Disney animator to do the animation, but they printed each drawing out on an actual set and photographed it like it was stop motion. Unreal. So impressed with this!

 

[cokebabies]

I can't watch the ad just now, but just the preview shot itself looks beautiful.

 

[lerath666]

I'd like to know specificly what they mean be " hand drawn".

Venture brothers, for example, Is hand drawn. On a computer, with a Wacom tablet and stylus. ( or similar tools)

Though for some people, it dosn't count as being "hand drawn" unless it's done on animation cells with inks and such.

 

[Captain EO]

Hand drawn means someone using a pencil, pen or stylus and drawing a character on paper or a computer screen.

As opposed to someone modeling a character on a computer in three-dimensions.

It doesn't mean they have abandoned it. Remember when they "abandoned" it after Home on the Range, only to make Princess and the Frog a few years later? All it means is right now, none of their movies in the pipeline are going to be hand drawn, but they could return to it at a future time.

 

[Coheteboy]

It doesn't mean they have abandoned it. Remember when they "abandoned" it after Home on the Range, only to make Princess and the Frog a few years later? All it means is right now, none of their movies in the pipeline are going to be hand drawn, but they could return to it at a future time.

I mean... Disney as a company hasn't abandoned hand drawn animation, as their Mickey Mouse cartoons are all done by the old style and Phineas and Pherb is a hand drawn toon too. There's just nothing for feature animation.

And as a company, they DID abandon hand drawn animation after Home on the Range. They sold off the animation desks, they fired so much of their staff, they shuttered the animation studios in Orlando, Paris, Japan. That was a TRUE abandonment.

The hand drawn animation in the movie Enchanted a few years later wasn't even done by "Disney". Yes, it was done by veteran Disney animator James Baxter but not in house.

Princess and the Frog came under new CEO Bob Iger, new management in John Lasseter, etc.... rehiring Ron Clements and John Musker. Sadly, they only made two films before abandoning it once more.

Ron and John are still at the company but developing a CG movie now.

 

[rushmore223]

I love both mediums, and would hate to see either go away. They both have startling examples of greatness as well as dismal low points. Computer Animation is just as expressive a tool as Hand drawn animation is, it just matters who the artist is and the story thats being told.

Just fun fact... In Disneys Golden Era, they actually sometimes used a process that was similar to todays motion capture. Actors would be filmed doing certain movements, and the animators would trace over the frames. It's not like the cel shading that was done in modern movies like "Waking Life" (I think thats what its called) and I cannot remember specifically which films the process was employed in, but I remember seeing making of features. Perhaps someone else on here will remember? Anyway, I actualy was not very fond of that style of animation as it tended to feel more stiff to me and took away from the creativity of the animator, much like I am sure motion capture does today.

 

[beeshaw]

Just fun fact... In Disneys Golden Era, they actually sometimes used a process that was similar to todays motion capture. Actors would be filmed doing certain movements, and the animators would trace over the frames. It's not like the cel shading that was done in modern movies like "Waking Life" (I think thats what its called) and I cannot remember specifically which films the process was employed in, but I remember seeing making of features. Perhaps someone else on here will remember? Anyway, I actualy was not very fond of that style of animation as it tended to feel more stiff to me and took away from the creativity of the animator, much like I am sure motion capture does today.

You're talking about Rotoscoping which is basically motion capture for animation. Of course now it has a whole new meaning in CGI effects.

Some pretty cool history on the technique...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping

 

[rushmore223]

You're talking about Rotoscoping which is basically motion capture for animation. Of course now it has a whole new meaning in CGI effects.

Some pretty cool history on the technique...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping

That didnt take long, thanks for the link.

 

[Coheteboy]

The Disney artists didn't do much rotoscoping though. They learned pretty quickly that live action movements aren't very convincing in an animated world, but using a live action model did help quite a bit with the timing and acting.

Many of Don Bluth movies used rotoscoping techniques and that's why some of them just didn't look as good upon revisiting them.

 

[beeshaw]

The Disney artists didn't do much rotoscoping though. They learned pretty quickly that live action movements aren't very convincing in an animated world, but using a live action model did help quite a bit with the timing and acting.

Many of Don Bluth movies used rotoscoping techniques and that's why some of them just didn't look as good upon revisiting them.

Disney only used Rotoscoping in Snow White but ditched it for human characters but used it sparingly for some animal movements in other features. (thanks Wikipedia!)