I’m not exaggerating when I say that Disney has dropped traditional drawn, or “2D”, animation. Any cartoon they’ve put out lately–be it streaming, on their remaining TV presence, and of course movies–have been in 3D or done by an outside studio, with the company that was once a leader in animation serving as distributor at best. Phineas & Ferb, Milo Murphy’s Law, Hailey’s On It, certain Marvel shows until recently, and even the Mickey Mouse shorts by people who clearly didn’t understand 1920s-1930s animation or humor and made something ugly and disappointing–were not made by Disney animators. Traditional animators are gone at that company (or so it appears), and in its place are either computer-generated “3D” animation or live-action demakes of 2D classics right up to the “Disney Renaissance”, a period where Walt Disney Studios was making the best of both methods to create new and interesting stories.
Fansided’s Along Main St., their Disney-focused section, recently released an article suggesting The Walt Disney Company, which hasn’t done anything Walt would have done since Bob Iger showed up, proving that Michael Eisner was not the worst thing to happen to the company, might bring back 2D animation thanks to one comment from one person, and it’s the first time I heard of 2D artists still existing at Disney Animation beyond designing characters for the 3D movies.
This week, Jared Bush shared how important diversity was to the Walt Disney Company and the role it played in the creation of its films. While some might roll their eyes at the premise at first, he’s not talking about a forced DEI initiative, but diversifying the type of media Disney puts out.
“I love 2D,” Bush said. “Right now we have 2D artists who are doing some bonkers amazing things. I’ll leave it at that,” Bush said with a wink when we asked about the format returning to the studio.
If you’re anything like this writer [Along Main St. contributor Zach Glass], that nugget of information had your radar going off. As much as Disney has helped shape the animation industry, it feels like the studio has completely forgotten its roots.
Jared Bush is a Disney movie director putting together a sequel to the excellent movie Zootopia. What could the 2D artists be working on? My guess is merchandise or the aforementioned character models because while Disney has all but abandoned “those silly cartoons” under Hollywood’s continued pushback against animated productions daring to think they’re equal to live-action, the only animation they have put out is computer generated, and not only by Pixar, a company they acquired because of their success in 3D animation until recently.
Look, I’m not bothered by which format you go by. As I wrote in my Art Of Storytelling series, both serve a use depending on the needs of your story and which better brings it to life. I am disappointed traditional animation has been abandoned by a company founded by a man whose goal was to push the boundaries of animation as a form of storytelling. Bringing that back may bring back a lot of traditionalists, and show Disney can work in both forms and do it well…at least if it wasn’t modern Disney.
With the exception of maybe Once Upon a Studio, the most recent traditionally animated Disney feature was 2011’s Winnie the Pooh. That means it’s been over a decade since Disney has dipped it’s pen in the ink of its landmark art style.
Given the criticisms heaped on films like Strange World and Wish…, it feels like this direction could be a breath of fresh air. However, it might be a dollar short and a day late.
Disney has been absolutely smashed by the competition, just look at some of the most recent Oscar results. As Dreamworks and Sony squash the mouse at every turn, it’s truly going to take a massive dose of Disney magic to get back on top. However, it might not be as impossible as one might think.
I wouldn’t put it past them to do to Bambi what they did to Simba.
Not that Dreamworks is a stranger to modern Hollywood’s disapproval with animation, as the live-action remake of the book adaptation How To Train Your Dragon shows. The difference is they didn’t screw up the ending like Lilo & Stitch by focusing on Stitch and fundamentally altering the theme and message of the original movie and how important family is, even when broken like Lilo and Nani’s family after the death of their parents. However, Strange World and Wish both suffered not because of the animation but because of the story. I haven’t seen either movie, and Strange World was so uninteresting nobody discusses it anymore. All I know about it is the hero is bland and the movie was filled with forced DEI. Meanwhile Wish was such wasted potential that the fans have taken to attempt to fix what was supposed to be Disney’s big anniversary movie. The original story seemed more in line with classic Disney, while the final movie made the king into a villain just because, ditched a romantic angle because Disney doesn’t do romance unless they’re gay (like Strange World), and with a presentation that was overall disappointing, a waste of could have been a good movie. They could have made that in 2D (and there were comments that they should have, if only because that was Walt’s legacy at a time when computers weren’t even being used by the military beyond something just above a calculator) and those problems would still persist.
Also, I can’t think of any animated movie Sony’s put out besides the “Spiderverse” movies, which is also the only Spider-Man related thing Sony has put out that was done well since Sam Rami’s Spider-Man 2.
Plus this is modern Disney, and as I’ve gone over many times they don’t care about classic Disney or Walt’s legacy. Wish was probably more of a “we kind of have to” situation, an obligation they would have rather have avoided. Even the marketing was weak compared to Once Upon A Studio, a short that was itself a questionable tribute to the studio’s animation history. That I have seen and it wasn’t exactly impressive. Most of the complaints I hear by critics isn’t the computer animation but the weak storytelling flush with “modern sensibilities”, which even on its own doesn’t make a bad story. Meanwhile Kingdom Hearts, a game using all 3D to mash up Disney works and Square Enix games in a story that makes about as much sense as the US tax code, is still praised for how it uses Disney’s characters and adaptations.
Speaking of comparisons, what about the admittedly not family-friendly anime or shows allegedly inspired by the Japanese storytelling style. Lazarus is a show produced for Williams Street and Cartoon Network/Adult Swim/Toonami by the creator of Cowboy Bebop and the John Wick franchise stunt coordinator. I did a Saturday Night Showcase on the first episode. While they’ve had racists and evil white men, trans people for no storytelling reason, the tomboy lesbian, and even environmental themes since my review it also has good action, good character moments, and good performances in the English version (though none of the Russians have accents). It’s kind of amazing to watch someone use “woke” elements and still make a good story that I keep wanting to come back to.
There may or may not be some computer assist, but I don’t see this scene looking as good in 3D or live action. There’s a reason it’s used in posters.
Look, I’ll take a personal stand on the culture war and I’m rolling my eyes with you, but I’m here to discuss storytelling and Lazarus shows you can be woke and not suck, by focusing on characters and storytelling and the “woke” parts just be part of the world. So the problem isn’t that Disney’s current output is “woke”, though that certainly makes it worse, but how it handles those elements, which is to say terribly. Following the Ghostbusters 2016 formula, they seem to think “put a chick in it, make her lame and gay” should protect them from all criticism. “There’s a minority and you’re a bigot if you hate it.” No, your story is bad and filled with stereotypes pretending to be “positive diverse representation” and no amount of forced “diversity” with no diversity of thought, characters, perspectives, or design is going to make your story any less garbage. Mostly because Lazarus doesn’t focus on being woke, but on being good. Haley’s On It also managed to show the girl fail only to overcome her failure with the help of her friends, one of which is a boy and her love interest despite also having the lesbian tomboy and a gay couple more feminine than Hailey, rather than have her girlboss her way to becoming the scientist who ends global warming before the world catches on fire. We’ll never know how that story ends since Disney killed it. Probably for being good and showing how much they stink at this. Remember, they didn’t make the show, they just aired it.
So while I’d love to see traditional animation return from the House Of Mouse it won’t solve the problem. Instead it would end up being just another gimmick. “Look, it’s traditional hand-drawn animation (using a computer at some point in the process because they don’t make cels anymore since times change). Don’t you want to come back to us and the theaters now?” Not if your 2D stories are just as bad, bland, pointless, dull, and goes against traditional Walt Disney storytelling in the name of making the “cool kids” happy as your 3D stories. I don’t want to see classic animation be yet another lame gimmick like the live-action demakes or even what 3D started out as. Though at least back then the stories were good. Today they aren’t and no amount of classic animation, computer animation, or live actors can solve that problem.
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