It’s been more than a decade since Disney (DIS) has released a film with two-dimensional, hand-drawn animation. At one point in the company’s history, that sort of thing was what Disney existed to provide.
As you’re surely aware, it’s not that Disney isn’t making popular animated films anymore. Far from it. But ever since the release of 2011’s “Winnie The Pooh” and 2009’s “The Princess & The Frog,” Disney’s focus has been on 3-D computer-generated imagery animation.
It’s an approach that has worked out well for the company. Not only was the 3-D film “Frozen” Disney’s defining film of the 2010s, but computer animated films such as “Tangled” and “Moana” were also hits.
But whenever there is an artistic shift to a new style or medium, eventually the thing that was replaced will get culturally reassessed. Absence makes the great grow fonder, after all.
From vinyl records and cassette tapes to MySpace to air-popping popcorn machines, things that were once considered old-fashioned and outdated tend to eventually amass an online group of supporters who look at it with nostalgic affection, and will lobby for its return to prominence.
And based on a soon-to-premiere documentary from Disney+, it appears that the 2-D animation renaissance might soon be upon us.
Why Did Disney Stop Doing 2-D Animation?
Whenever a company stops offering a product or service, there’s usually two reasons why. The first is that, in the company’s opinion, something better came along, and the second is that the old thing got too expensive.
The ground zero for Disney’s slow shift to 3-D was “Toy Story.” Though it wasn't the first film to feature computer animation, it was a huge hit both critically (it has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating and was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay) and financially (with a total of $373 million, it was the second-biggest film of 1995). Pixar would go on to make some of Disney’s most beloved films, and was purchased by the company in 2006 for $7.4 billion.
The explosive popularity of Pixar films such as “Up” and “Ratatouille” made it clear that there was an audience for 3-D animation, and it quickly became apparent to Disney that it was both cheaper and more efficient to use computers rather than a team of animators to make an animated film, and the only thing companies love more than making money is saving money.
In 2004, Disney closed its 2D animation studio and shifted its focus to 3-D animation, both from Pixar and produced in-house, including last year’s hit “Encanto.” There are still some traces of old-fashioned animation at Disney, such as a sequence in “Moana” featuring hand-drawn, moving tattoos. But for the most part, it looked like Disney was out of the hand-drawn animation business, to the dismay of a small but dedicated group of 2-D loyalists.
But now, those loyalists have a reason to believe that Disney may be willing to revisit its past, with an eye towards giving it a future.
How Is Disney Bringing Back 2-D Animation?
On April 27, Disney+ will premiere “Sketchbook,” a six-part documentary about the art of hand-drawn animation.
The documentary will tell the stories of six key Disney artists, as they draw some of the company’s most iconic characters. Story artist Gabby Capili draws Kuzco from “The Emperor’s New Groove,” 2-D animator-director Eric Goldberg draws The Genie from “Aladdin,” 2-D animator Mark Henn draws Simba from “The Lion King,” visual development artist Jin Kim draws Captain Hook from “Peter Pan,” supervising animator Hyun Min Lee draws Olaf from “Frozen,” and story artist Samantha Vilfort draws Mirabel from “Encanto.”
Goldberg talked about the documentary with IndieWire, noting that “it’s so rewarding to [study] because you get to understand those personal signatures that those artists bring to the characters. And, in animation, it’s more than drawing, it’s about timing and spacing, and how they move.”
In the interview, Goldberg also reveals that Disney is making steps to bring back 2-D. Last year the company launched their first 2-D training program in over a decade. Six trainees were selected from a pool of more than 2,000 applicants for a 12-month training program that encompasses character and effects animation along with cleanup, and the trainees will receive mentorship from Goldberg, Henn and animators Randy Haycock and Rachel Bibb.
This is just the first step, as Goldberg says that Disney has plans for upcoming 2-D films and series for Disney+, that will include original work and revamps of catalog material.
“I’ve been campaigning for a long time to train up people in hand-drawn, and, as the CG films became more and more popular, that idea became less and less important to the studio,” Goldberg said in the interview.
“But now we have an atmosphere and a group of people who recognize that’s part of the legacy here, and to actually have content that requires hand-drawn animation is absolutely great. Thank goodness we have people who can do both here, but to actually commit to training up a new generation is a wonderful thing and I think perfectly appropriate for [us].”
