I for one welcome this fabulous move:

http://www.cinematical.com/2006/12/19/back...ing-for-disney/

There's no point in competing to see whose computer is best. Let's move away from 3D animation and move back towards the incredible beauty of hand-drawn animation.

I for one think their nuts. But I didn't read the article. Still, I know what doing it the 'old' way involved, who's around that can still do it (a few) and how close CG can come to 'the old way' if that's the goal. It falls short but the difference versus the difference in manhours... taken at face value, I think they'll return to the 21st century once they see the hours building up. Disney, and I love them, is still a business. It must be something half way -- oh hell I guess I should read so I can comment intellegently LOL.

or... why change now!

r

ok... I read it and all the reader posts: Preserving an old 'art form' strikes a powerful note that's hard to put down. And I do love live plays. Still the work involved was killer and its hard to see any business going all the way with this.

The 2D features that got expensive were the "tradigital" things, as Eisner called them, like "Treasure Planet" ($140 million) that had tons of CG around the 2D characters. Compare that to the more completely 2D "Lilo and Stitch" ($80 Million) or "Tripletts of Belleville" (<$20 Million)

I don't think the budgets on 3D features has turned out to be significanlty less than on 2D.

(The following pure speculation mixed with my opinion. My take on the matter.)

Anyone who subscribes to the Disney Channel knew all along that 'hand drawn animation' wasn't about to go anywhere. That there was some serious realignment and a total commitment to 3D was apparent though.

Think about it.
Disney was getting trounced in that PIXAR was about to break away, other companies (Dreamworks, etc.) were (and are) on the rise. Ultimately Disney (read: Eisner) realized they needed to commit themselves to the techology or fall helplessly behind.

Disney Feature Animation sure took the hit of course in jobs lost/livelyhoods interupted.
But there is so much we don't know about the events as they transpired.

IMO 'hand drawn animation' isn't (and wasn't) going away. It was just catching up with the times.

So, 2D hand drawn animation makes a comeback. Yea!
(Loved it when it happened with "Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Little Mermaid et al. too!)

There are several more revolutions working thier way into our animated future as well.
They could signal doom and gloom or opportunity depending on the perspective.

The Paperless Animation Studio is on the horizon!
The promise of a 'paperless' office has long been the holy grail of just about anyone in the computer business. My own experience regarding this is that going 'paperless' increased the amount of paper in our (government) offices by several thousand percent. So much for the paperless office.

Technology in the hands of the masses!
Large corporations face a considerable challenge when powerful technology seeps out to the average person/studio. They'll need to work hard to create opportunities for continuing success.
Mass distribution via the internet seems to be the holy grail in this instance. Control the media... control the message. That kinda thing.

Disney/Pixar must continue to reinvest in people and technology to remain relevant.
Just as Walt Disney always pressed into technology Disney/Pixar must do likewise; 2D, 3D, whatever.

I can't see it as all or nothing but sometimes you've got to bet the farm.

I'm surprised someone didn't cry "heresy!" on that post. That said, I don't agree with it. There is no "better" between 2D and 3D animation. I play classical guitar and R&B on my electric guitar; I play tenor sax and my WT-11 (electronic sax). You won't find me trying to choose between "old" and "new" for my music. Why bother comparing 2D and 3D.

While we're talking about this, who saw the Jimmy Neutron/Fairly Oddparents crossover episodes?

I think that is totally cool.
I like 3d-animation (I wouldnt be here if not) and I think it can make great storries and so on, but the problem is: There where toooo many (often not very good) movies with it, so that the flair of 3d-aimation will very soon being exploited. That is okay and will make the movies better, because they cant count on the technical aspect of the animation and how cool that all looks...

Somehow I miss the Disney-movies... I know that they were very "romantic" and so on, but today, every 3d-animation is trying to let you laugh about it and even if some of it are very very funny (for example the Shrek-series) but very often they just try and I cant laugh about it.
So why not try another way, which was done by Disney?
Mangas can be very serious, funny, tragic, full of action...
But till now there was only one maybe two 3d-animations (of the more known one) which were/was anything but funny -> "the spirit within"....

Anyhow, I've grown up with Disney, I watched their movies with my dad at christmas and there is a emotional feeling about disney that noone else can call for.
I was a bit sad about it, when I heard of disney more or less leaving this part behind and that children can't see that anymore...

And know I will out myself: I am a "BrotherBear"-lover!


*Fuchur*