Hand-Drawn Animation Returning to Disney

Thanks, Craig. This is great!

YAY!!!!
im thrilled about this!!!

Fantastic news! I hope it's an ENORMOUS hit, and proves all the naysayers wrong, wrong, WRONG.

What was the last quality hand-drawn animated movie? Since the Disney greats ending around Mulan (all of which were hits) I can't remember ONE that unjustly flopped...make a QUALITY one, let it flop, then pronounce the genre dead maybe, but not before that.

---

Now let's see if they can make a Disney movie that doesn't rely on flatuence for humor.

I'll only watch if Erika is someone's voice.

---

It's about time. With WB, Dreamworks and Disney all shutting their Feature Animation houses down at the same time, there must be so many amazing animators that are itching to work on a traditional North American production (that is...if they haven't all relocated to Europe).

Akiva

It's great news. Most of the kids I work with only like the hand drawn movies. I have missed the "princess movies."

---

"the movie and that it will have the kind of "Broadway style" for which Menken's earlier Disney films have been famous."

O thats right, because IT WORKED!

I understand what you mean, Best12. But I've always gotten the impression that what you're talking about was a deliberate design choice on the part of the studio to brand each movie with its own visual style. Sleeping Beauty in particular features highly stylized characters (particularly animals), and so does Mulan, to some extent.

I think it's more the tride-and-true story/musical format they need to get back to. I usually welcome taking chances visually though.

Oh, it was definitely a deliberate design choice by Disney. And it was a huge mistake, and it did more creative damage than they realize to the artform.

This is what I can't stand...



And I firmly believe that audiences haven't been able to put into words what is so WRONG here. These characters don't look like they were developed by artists who were trying to tell a good story. They look like they were developed by Marketing execs who were drooling at the prospects of cross-promotion. They all seem to say, "Please love me! See my movie! Buy my toy!" There is nothing emotionally "real" in their pop-eyed faces. They all look worried and desperate.

This is what is possible today...



Disney used to be able to do this so well. They were the best in the business at character animation and conveying human emotion, and they deserved their "legend" status. Now, they have become the worst at it. Bottom of the heap. I don't believe that hand-drawn animation is dead or ever will be... but I believe that badly-drawn hand animation SHOULD die. And I hope and pray they abandon their recent "style" and go an entirely new direction.

And I'm very glad they're giving it a shot again. I'm rooting for them, and believe they have the ability to climb out of their creative rut and invigorate the art form once again.

EDIT: jasonf---I think most people (critics and even Disney execs) think it's the story, music or the subject matter that is at fault when a hand-drawn Disney film flops. Or they think people aren't "warm" to the hand-drawn look anymore. They never think it's just BAD artwork though. I'm baffled by that. It was/is so obvious to me, at least.

---

Updated On: 7/28/06 at 04:02 PM

To a point I think that's true - but did you see Home on the Range? Terrible story, uninteresting characters, not much real humor...it wasn't just the art work that stunk!

---