Would Walt approve of CGI?

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UmbrellaFish
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Would Walt approve of CGI?

Post by UmbrellaFish »

This question really isn't if Walt would approve of CGI, but say that Walt was still living today. Now, we all know Walt was always on the verge of doing something for his movies. And we should be pretty sure that Walt would have either made the first CGI movie, or at least a CGI movie following the success of another.


But, really here's the question. Would Walt have taken out the animation department entirely, like Disney did a couple years back (of course they've fixed that mistake)? Walt was always doing new things. Sound cartoons, color cartoons, and feature-length movies, all of which people were negative about. So, would have Walt approved of the recent CGI take-over? We griped about the CGI take-over at Disney not long ago, but it may have been something Walt would have done.


So what's your opinion?
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Post by MrIncredible »

I think he would have seen it as another step in the advancement of the animation medium. He probably would have done what Lasseter and Catmull are doing by deciding CGI or Cell on a project by project basis. That's pretty much how I feel, I know that's how a lot of these animation gurus feel and that's pretty much what Roy has said how Walt would feel.
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Post by Maerj »

Since we are bringing Walt back, let's bring back Ub Iwerks as well. I think that Ub would have been one of the first people to start using computer animation and I think we would have had some really crazy looking stuff. So, yeah, as the last person said, I think it would have been used on a project to project basis.
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Re: Would Walt approve of CGI?

Post by Escapay »

It's rather silly for anyone to think Walt would say, "CGI? No thanks, traditional animation has worked fine all these years, we don't need anything new". He was always trying to find new ways to entertain, he went from silent shorts (pre-Steamboat Willie) to sound shorts, from black and white to color, from shorts to feature film, from animation to live-action, from movies to television. I'm sure Walt would had championed the use of CGI, and likely would have been the first.

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Post by UmbrellaFish »

So, here's my opinion. I think Walt would test the waters first. If that would be successful, he'd make more. Sometimes I do wonder though, if Walt would have gotten taken-away. I view 2-D animation, CGI, and claymation as three different mediums (although technically the word "animation" does describ all three of those mediums). I think Walt may have seen that, too, or so I hope he would.

I think Walt would have defintley known which stories were fit for each medium, although I do wonder if Walt may have become to favorable of CGI...
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Post by UncleEd »

I've wrestled with this one many a night....

The answer is quite complex but here is what I think could have happened if Walt had lived than he had. According to Man Behind the Myth Walt was going to put the underlings in charge of the films while he focused on Epcot. We know how that would have turned out because it was the underlings who churned out all that mediocre crap in the late 60's and 70's. I believe that Walt would have HAD to have taken charge over the films again after seeing what his boys would do without him. This may have killed him in itself because he would have been spread thin between his projects.

Had Walt lived I question if his films would have been rejected by the public since fantasy films did so poorly in the post Walt period. But could Walt have made fantasy films that sustained public interest? George Pal was a friend od Walt's, made fantasy films, and in the post Walt era his films were rejected. I do believe if Walt had been around that Star Wars would have been a Disney film. I think he could have seen the appeal in that idea. He might even have been as hands on as he had been on his other pet projects or even named George Lucas his number two man. This surely would have boostes Lucas' career as well.

Ironically it was Lucas who founded Pixar so I would believe that Lucas still would have brought the CGI angle into the Disney fold. If Ub had still been alive I agree he may have been the forefather of CGI though and he would have done it in the 70's.

I'm not sure if Walt would have shut hand drawn animation down because he seriously considered it in the early 60's after Sword in the Stone failed besides the time Roy wanted it shut down after Sleeping Beauty failed. Because Walt opted not to do that Roy kept it alive after Walt's death.

I do believe with Walt around we would have seen more hibred films like Atlantis. He may not have made that particular film but the technology is certainly Walt worthy. I think Walt would have known that it was the characters and story that made the film good and not the technique regardless of what he would have done.

The real question is though would Epcot have been a failure? I wonder if it could have been given how original an idea it was and how little profit it could have generated. This could have been a huge success or the greatest failure of his life. What does anyone think on that?
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Post by Timon/Pumbaa fan »

UncleEd wrote:The real question is though would Epcot have been a failure? I wonder if it could have been given how original an idea it was and how little profit it could have generated. This could have been a huge success or the greatest failure of his life. What does anyone think on that?
That's truly a fascinating question we'll never know the answer to. But I believe Walt would've found a way to make it work like he did everything else. It's a shame it never got to be it's true potential.

As for the original question, I think anyone who'd say "No, Walt wouldn't have invested in CGI" clearly don't know Walt, or the Disney company in any shape or form. Walt was all about diving into new technology and innovating new ways for the future. I think Pixar would've been a part of Disney before Toy Story was released had Disney been alive. But would he had given up hand-drawn animation? Hard to say. Walt loved nostalgia, but was far more focused and concentrated on the future. I personally think he would've given hand-drawn animation the shaft.

Personally, I view traditional animation(also known as 2D animation) as black-and-white of modern times. We'll see it occasionally time to time, but we'll never see it truly back in the same way we grew up with it or as we've learned about. It's currently back now, but it won't be for long.

But I do love the new Goofy short, and despite the bumps, am optimistic about the future for Disney, which looks mostly positive.
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