Walt Disney Studios has had a huge impact on the world of feature-length animation, releasing the first full-length animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," in 1937. The only full-length animated film to ever be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture was Disney's 1991 release "Beauty and the Beast." While Disney was a trendsetter in two-dimensionally animated film, this corporate giant has now been downsizing its traditional non-computer animation department and gearing its production towards computer-animated films exclusively.
"Disney has no 2-D projects currently in production for them to work on," said David Koenig, the senior editor of "The Merchant Magazine," on MousePlanet.com, a Web site that provides independent news articles, commentary, editorials, reviews and guides about the Walt Disney Co.
"The vast majority of feature animation's artists have been reassigned to a computer or shown the door," Koenig continued. "It all points to Disney's latest two animated features 'Brother Bear,'" which opened Nov. 1, "and next spring's 'Home on the Range' being their last."
Koenig added that Michael Eisner (the president of Disney) has officially decreed 2-D animation dead, and said that "Eisner's ominous pronouncement is just words ... [but] his actions speak just as loudly."
Others in the world of animation agree with Koenig in that Disney's focus on computer-animated projects is misguided. Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of two of the most popular shows on the Cartoon Network, "Dexter's Laboratory" and "Samurai Jack," which are both 2-D animated shows, contests that 2-D animation is still a viable art form.
"I think that hopefully this is a phase because there's not that many successful 2-D features, but I don't think 2-D is gonna die out," Tartakovsky explained. "3-D is still such a novelty ... that people are going to see the movies, not just because of the stories, but also because of it being 3-D. What needs to happen with 2-D is that somebody needs to make a film that is untraditional that really pushes the boundaries of 2-D animation. Although, it's like a Catch-22, because you want to do something new, but nobody wants to take that risk."
From a business perspective, the risk is a high one. The latest animated films to make a big splash at the box office have almost entirely been computer-animated. The prime example of this is "Finding Nemo," which currently, according to the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), is the highest grossing film of the year - even beating out the mega-hyped "The Matrix: Reloaded."
Even Disney's rival, Dreamworks, made its bread-and-butter with the computer-generated "Shrek," which came out in 2001. Disney's most recent 2-D outing before "Brother Bear," "Treasure Planet," was a big disappointment financially. In contrast, all five of the films made by Pixar, the studio that produces Disney's computer-animated films, have grossed over $100 million domestically.
The question that frequently is raised is whether or not the Pixar films like "Nemo" are making money because they are done on computers, or because of superior storytelling and filmmaking techniques employed by Pixar.
"It's the stories and the filmmaking that makes [an animated film] successful," explained Tartokovsky. "If Pixar did 'Treasure Planet' exactly the same way, shot-by-shot, but all in computer generated it would maybe make another five million but that's it. The reason people went to go see 'Nemo' was because it was a heartwarming story with great characters. It's not so much about the technique, but about the filmmaking. It's just excuses rather than digging into the heart of the issue and realizing that [Disney's] making the wrong movies."
From the artistic side of animation, the importance of 2-D is undeniable. However the issue becomes more complicated when the business aspect becomes involved. Looking at the box-office numbers alone, it is easy to assert that movie patrons would prefer an animated feature done with computers rather than a 2-D film.
Sophomore James Gardner is sympathetic to Disney's recent changes and feels it is silly to not progress with available technology.
"From an economic perspective, I understand why Disney would move away from hand-drawn films," Gardner said. "The market demand is for computer animation. Just look at the overwhelming success of the 'Toy Story' movies and 'Monsters, Inc.' If [Disney] can take more profit from computer-animated movies than they can from hand-drawn films, then they should concentrate their resources on computer animation."
However, not every feature using computer animation is a guaranteed success. In 2001, Columbia Tri-Star released "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," which was animated entirely using computers. Despite the immense budget of over $100 million, the movie failed financially in the theaters - grossing only $31 million domestically, according to RottenTomatoes.com, a movie information site.
The issue of the survival of 2-D animation is important not only to studio bigwigs, filmmakers and cartoonists, but to the viewers as well. Many AU students grew up watching 2-D Disney movies such as "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin" and are emotionally attached to the medium.
"I remember when I first went to see 'The Lion King' on the big screen, and it was one of my favorite movies growing up," said freshman Eliza Benton. "The last few Disney movies that aren't done by Pixar just don't do it for me. I don't think the problem is in the animation but just the fact that [Disney's] not making good movies anymore."
Will Gordon, a junior, believes that Disney is not going to be able to avoid putting out 2-D animated films if there's an audience for them.
"I think 2-D animation is important because it's a style that audiences are familiar with," Gordon said. "I think even if Disney does mostly computer-animated movies, I don't think they're going to be able to avoid putting out 2-D movies. I think when they do the whole animation frame-by-frame using cells, it just looks better, and I think people are going to appreciate that."
Some people believe that 2-D animation has a steadfast quality.
"I think it's going to take something really big to change it," concluded Tartakovsky. "There's something about watching 2-D on the big screen that makes it more appealing, and people are starting to forget about that. Right now there's just a lot of tricks and gimmicks and fanciness and not so much of the heart, and that's the way animation started, with the heart"
