Mickey Ending Hand-Drawn Animation

 

Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, Pinocchio. Each are examples of classic Disney films that were each hand drawn frame by frame known as traditional animation or cel animation.

Announced Wednesday, chief executive Bob Iger revealed that it’s shutting down any remaining 2D hand drawn feature animation facilities left and will only be committing to 3D rendered and animated films from now on.

"To my knowledge we're not developing a 2D or hand-drawn feature animated film right now," said Iger. "There is a fair amount of activity going on in hand-drawn animation but it's largely for television at this point. We're not necessarily ruling out the possibility [of] a feature but there isn't any in development at the company at the moment."

The studios last hand-drawn animation The Princess and the Frog, the traditional musical, based on the Brothers Grimm story the Frog Prince but relocating the action to 1920s New Orleans, was well-reviewed by critics but "failed to mirror the astounding success of Pixar at the box office with a middling return of $267m (£178m). Another hand-drawn animation – 2011's Winnie the Pooh – drew praise from critics but pulled in just $33m across the globe. Meanwhile, Disney CGI efforts such as 2009's Bolt and 2010's Tangled grossed $310m and $590m."

"Unfortunately 2D became the excuse for poor storytelling," said John Lasseter, the Pixar boss who also became Disney Animation's chief creative officer in 2006 and who pioneered the CGI animation revolution with Toy Story in 1995. "The general consensus was that audiences did not want to watch hand-drawn animated films, which is of course completely ridiculous. The day I stepped in we got in touch with these guys and set about bringing back the artists that Disney had laid off."

In honor of those whom drew our favorite characters, here are three of my favorite Disney films and their animators:

 

 

The Little Mermaid (1989)

“I heard Part of Your World, Jodi Benson singing that, and it just captivated me. I had to do that. And I went to the directors and said, ‘I really want to do Ariel.’ And they said ‘Well I don’t know. This is supposed to be a pretty girl. Can you do that?’  I said, ‘ Look, I have to do Ariel. I mean, I can feel it in my heart." - Animator Glen Keane

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

 

Fred Moore rose to prominence at Disney very quickly in the early thirties due to his great natural talent and the tremendous appeal of his drawings, which is still greatly admired by animators and animation fans. He had animated some scenes of the White Rabbit.
 



Beauty and the Beast (1991)

 

"Having been lucky enough to work around James Baxter for a number of years (someone who I consider to be the greatest living animator around), I can tell you that that is his ultimate weapon. He doesn’t check emails. He doesn’t compulsively surf YouTube. He doesn’t keep a blog. He doesn’t read blogs. He doesn’t watch TV or eat or sleep or do anything that resembles a sane modern life. All he does is animate. And that’s all you have to do." - Jim Hull

What is your favorite traditional animated Disney movie?