What kind of animation would you most like to see from Disney (excluding Pixar)?
Hand-drawn animation only
CG-animation only
A mix of hand-drawn and CG
Whatever Disney thinks works best at the time
0voters
…quoted from the “Frozen (The Snow Queen)” topic:
Fascinating subject! Flik-E’s point warrants plenty of thought and discussion. I lean toward trusting Disney to choose whatever medium best fits a project in an aesthetic sense, but at the same time it’s easy to see how gauging audience response, perceived or real, figures into the bottom line–and maybe money trumps artistry. Then there’s the question of DisneyToon Studios as a separate unit from Disney’s feature animation unit…and DisneyToon is also deep into CG-animated films. Even though there’s arguably more hand-drawn animation coming (and maybe coming) out of Disney than any other major outfit, is hand-drawn animation getting the short end of the pencil?
There’s more than one possible answer here…hence the poll.
I think it really depends on the kind of story that they’re trying to tell. Disney have proven that they can make enormous hits from either medium (Tangled, the majority of their hand-drawn films) as well as… not-so-great ones (Chicken Little, Home on the Range).
Wreck-It Ralph, for example, wouldn’t work as a hand-drawn film. Winnie the Pooh wouldn’t work as a CGI film.
I’m not picky… I love animation in general, so as long as they make great movies, I don’t care what medium they’re in. As Mr. Lasseter has said “No one in the history of film has been entertained by a medium, it’s the story that entertains them” (Not a direct quote here). I do, however, have problems with people who think that CG animation has no art or heart involved and think that traditional animation is somehow “perfect”.
It’s common misconceptions that Disney is automatically better with 2D animation (hello, Home on the Range) or that 2D is automatically “more artistic” than 3D. The truth is that it’s not what you use to make art, it’s HOW you use it. Say we have two painters, one that uses grade-A oil paints and one that uses $4 watercolors. While the watercolors may be cheaper, they are not necessarily easier to use and if the painter is more skilled they can very well make a superior painting to the painter using expensive oil paints.
What people who say things like “Disney NEEDS to go back to 2D instead of crappy CGI!” is that their aversion to CGI is most likely only caused by how common it is RIGHT NOW–exactly what made 2D go out of style a decade earlier! In the nineties, every animated movie was traditionally animated until Toy Story came along, and even then far fewer CGI films were made for a while. There were plenty of crappy traditionally animated films, we just usually don’t remember them past the test of time. CGI didn’t make movies worse or less artistic, it just made them different to look at. A movie being in CGI does not make it any less of a good movie if the tool is used well. Plus, I heard a very good point on why Tangled was traditionally animated; imagine how incredible Rapunzel’s hair looked with the CGI. Now imagine her hair was a traditionally animated 70-foot mass of mostly one color like Disney characters have. Sorry, that wouldn’t have worked nearly as well.
That said, CGI is overused in this day and age. Its a matter of balance. I would love to see more 2D animated films, and I expect that they’ll eventually be back. It just takes time. They’re dipping back into it with more 2D shorts, and if those work I expect we can see more in the future. We don’t know right now what “Snow Queen” looks like, so we can’t judge whether or not it would have worked better in 2D. Personally, I’m more concerned that they gave it to the director of Surf’s Up, which seems a very odd choice to me.
Agreed, Rac_Rules, many good points in your post. Here’s an article from 1994 about ReBoot, the first CG-animated TV series, with an interesting quote:
“Few–if any–in the industry expect computer-generated animation to replace traditional cartoons.”
Ten years later, things might have looked a bit different. Now, it’s encouraging that Disney has Paperman coming, and DreamWorks has Me and My Shadow on the way.
As for Frozen and Chris Buck, director of Surf’s Up (and Tarzan), here’s one guess:
Why isn’t this debate between cel animation and CG animation? Although “hand-drawn” is a more generally understood than “cel animation,” there hasn’t been much actual hand-drawing in Disney since 1989, when the CAPS system was introduced for The Little Mermaid. The storyboards, of course, are hand-drawn, but storyboards are nothing more than skeletons or sketches of an actual film.
Cel animation though, is a term that refers to it whether it is actually hand-drawn or looks hand-drawn but is done through CAPS or another computer system.
I would like to see Disney focus more on the 2D. I’m not saying they have to give up doing CGI but as it was pointed out, CGI is the common norm now. I just want to see 2D come back. I’m guessing CGI will be the go-to medium for animation from here on out, but I would like to see 2D be used more often. Now 2D seems to be like a novelty.
I understand that CGI is huge at the box office these days, and this business is all about money. What I don’t understand is why can’t Disney have a hand-drawn section of their animation department that dedicated to making inexpensive hand-drawn features. Making movies like Winnie the Pooh won’t help draw the crowds to the theaters. I think it will take the right movie to get lots of people to see hand-drawn movies in theaters again. There’s something about hand-drawn animated movies that’s magical to me when I see them on the big screen. I love CGI, but it just doesn’t compare.
I, personally am fine with whatever. Though, since we just watched Wreck-it-Ralph, the opening short film had a good rendering style. It was 3D graphics but it was rendered in a style that made it look almost like a 2D pencil sketch.
Either way, i’m fine with whatever. Though i kind of lean towards 3D. But that could be because Im a 3D modeler and animator myself .
I think Disney should use both. While I usually prefer hand drawn animation because in my personal opinion it feels like it has more charm, many CGI films have that charm. Look at every Pixar film. Plus many more. Disney should use both. Don’t give up on either one: Both got you here, even CGI. How about next some stop motion? That would be pretty cool!