No More Traditional Animated Fare from Diz for the Next 4 Years

[Silverstar]

According to Disney CEO Bob Iger, the only Disney Animation studios that were making traditional animations were Walt Disney Television Animation. That means that there will be no traditionally animated films from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disney Toon Studios for a while into the foreseeable future. Thoughts?

I don't know what this says about me, but I'm actually OK with this. I know Disney defined traditional hand-drawn animation for a lot of people, and a lot of animation purists view CGI as the great Satan that's destroying all animation, but I've never been one of those people. No, I'm fine with CGI as long as it's good CGI that's not cheap looking, and there's still plenty of hand-drawn animation on television, on the internet and in foreign animated features. I only care if the story's good, so this officially qualifies as a non-issue in my book.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Thanks, Lasseter. If there's one thing animation needs right now it's less variety.

[Silverstar]

This doesn't rule out something akin to Paperman; in fact, I know a lot of people have said they'd like to see another animated project done in that style.

[Avaitor]

I really don't like how Disney blames Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh's disappointing box-office results on hand-drawn animation, but neither were big BO draws, so there you go. Then again, I believe that Tangled's massive success is overstated due to its 3D showings, but it still did better than either.

I do think this is lame news, since in terms of animation, CG is still a little behind compared to hand-drawn's ability to express subtlety and personality. Granted, that's not the same in terms of story-telling, but hey, this is animation we're talking about. Is it wrong to want a little variety in art design?

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's a bit unfair as well compared to what those two films went up against and when they were released. They also made money and a good profit, but apparently it still wasn't enough.

I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm not going to say I'm not disappointed they didn't try harder.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Called it.

I don't think WDAS will ever completely move away from hand drawn animation. Didn't they do something similar to this a few years ago for pretty much the same reason?

I'm at least hoping they try to perfect the technique they used in Paperman. I would love to see a movie made with that.

[Avaitor]

I think I read that Disney isn't even trying something like Paperman again as of right now.

But I think people are blowing this out of proportion. They've only announced that they're not doing any hand-drawn animated films now, not that Disney is done with them. Give them time.