Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

[milojthatch]

Thought I'd post this here on the 2D Animation is dead thread

It really is disheartening for artists such as myself who believe in making quality art that can appeal to everyone without being on the nose to see things like this just popping up on the internet. And what makes it even sadder is that some of the parents who take their kids to see these films just don't care.

No, they don't care. Kid movies are glorified baby sitting for many parents.

[estefan]

Props to Blue Sky Studios for not having any sequels in production at the moment. They're usually pretty quick to announce the next Ice Age, but I think the disappointing numbers in the US and even the large drop in attendance internationally may have put an end to that series.

Blue Sky is my favourite current animation studio (is it sacrilegious to say that on a Disney forum?), so it's neat they have a sequel-less slate. Not even another Peanuts movie, mostly because the Schultz estate only ever intended to make the one.

I think the biggest offender in terms of un-originality is Illumination Entertainment. Their entire upcoming slate is just sequels and a Dr Seuss adaptation of a story that has had a popular animated take already. At least we know after Toy Story 4, Pixar has primarily original films planned.

[DisneyEra]

Props to Blue Sky Studios for not having any sequels in production at the moment. They're usually pretty quick to announce the next Ice Age, but I think the disappointing numbers in the US and even the large drop in attendance internationally may have put an end to that series.

Blue Sky is my favourite current animation studio (is it sacrilegious to say that on a Disney forum?), so it's neat they have a sequel-less slate. Not even another Peanuts movie, mostly because the Schultz estate only ever intended to make the one.

I think the biggest offender in terms of un-originality is Illumination Entertainment. Their entire upcoming slate is just sequels and a Dr Seuss adaptation of a story that has had a popular animated take already. At least we know after Toy Story 4, Pixar has primarily original films planned.

Since your a fan of Blue Sky, do you know what this is

[Sotiris]

Since your a fan of Blue Sky, do you know what this is

It's tentatively titled "Pigeon: Impossible" and it's based on a short of the same name. Personally, I don't find the premise very interesting. It's a shame Blue Sky opted to greenlight this into production over Anubis.

[DisneyEra]

Since your a fan of Blue Sky, do you know what this is

It's tentatively titled "Pigeon: Impossible" and it's based on a short of the same name. Personally, I don't the premise very interesting. It's a shame Blue Sky opted to greenlight this into production over Anubis.

They cancelled Anubis for that

[Sotiris]

They cancelled Anubis for that

It's not clear yet if they cancelled it or just postponed it.

[estefan]

Bruce Zick, the author of The Anubis Tapestry, Tweeted that they're still waiting for the official greenlight from Fox. That's why we haven't really heard anything about it, despite Blue Sky owning the rights for nine years now and Fox dating the film's release for next March. This whole production has been really confusing.

Any project Blue Sky gets to make, I immediately get excited for (with the exception of Ice Age sequels, as I feel that series began to lose steam with the third one). Ferdinand is currently my most anticipated animated film of the year and I'm definitely looking forward to Pigeon Impossible.

Blue Sky tends to be rather secret about their projects, which I like. It lessens the disappointment of them announcing a promising project and then revealing some years later that it's been cancelled. DreamWorks Animation has an annoying habit of doing that.

[unprincess]

I just looked up Anubis. It looks like an amazing concept, but I have a feeling BS(haha, what unfortunate initials) would just water it down and make it awful like they did Epic.

[Kyle]

To me, blue sky has some of the best artists at any studio, they are brilliant at translating 2d designs into 3d. I just rarely have interest in the films themselves, which is a shame. Not sure if its the writing or concept in general, they just don't grab me. I think they need to ease off doing well known properties.

[estefan]

I just looked up Anubis. It looks like an amazing concept, but I have a feeling BS(haha, what unfortunate initials) would just water it down and make it awful like they did Epic.

Interesting. I absolutely loved "Epic" and didn't think it was watered down at all. I loved the world building, the society it created, how it went with a nature vs nature theme with the central conflict, found the action excellently directed, the designs were incredible and the way Chris Wedge utilised the camera was out of this world. I also think Mary Katherine is the best heroines in an animated film. But I'm a big fan of William Joyce, have a huge fondness for stories revolving around tiny people and adore world building. So it's a film that played immediately to my sensibilities. I think "Epic" has a lot of layers and nuances it's not given enough credit for. It's one of those animated films I find myself putting on again and again. If you want to know why I'm such a fan of Blue Sky's work, "Epic" is what I instantly point to (along with "Rio" and "The Peanuts Movie").

[unprincess]

yeah ok, I'll admit I still haven't seen it. Its on my very long and ever growing Netflix queue but... time, never enough time!

but geez the ads made it look so generic. But I needed another example of a BS film based on a children's book.

[estefan]

Well, give it a shot some time. It's incredibly underrated, in my opinion. It's the closest I've seen an animated film capture the size and scope of a Lord of the Rings or a Star Wars.

Blue Sky also made Horton Hears a Who, which was a pretty good adaptation of the Dr Seuss book. Aside from a couple of weird tangents (an anime sequence, the dance party ending that was common at the time), it's a respectful take on the source material. And, of course, I thought The Peanuts Movie was a brilliant and touching tribute to Charles Schulz's comic strips.

With the exception of the last couple of Ice Age films, I've always been impressed with Blue Sky's work. I'm really excited for what they'll do with Ferdinand. I think it's going to be something quite special.

[unprincess]

the only BS film Ive seen recently is the first Rio and I had mixed feelings about it. I thought it looked beautiful and loved that it was set in Brazil, a nice change of pace from the typical NYC(or American) setting of so many CGI films. I loved the bird characters(I love birds especially parrots) but I cant understand why Blue acted so wonderfully parroty but the female lead didnt act as parroty as he did (and she's wild so she should have acted more feral.) She was the typical boring tough girl is smarter then the guy female lead that's just in the film to fall in love with the main guy that Ive seen way too many times in CGI animated films. Most of the comedy and celebrity voices were annoying as usual. I did love Jermaine Clements crazy cockatoo and they did right by making the villain psycho bird a cockatoo b/c those birds truly are nutty, lol.

[blackcauldron85]

This deals with Pinocchio and Cinderella, so it can go in this thread...

Disney Memorabilia up for Auction Include ‘Pinocchio’ Paintings and Disney’s Hand-Annotated ‘Cinderella’ Script
https://www.awn.com/news/disney-memorab ... cinderella

I had no idea about the usage of annotated scripts, so I think that is very cool.

[Mooky]

Why isn't this generating more hype on the internet?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIv_ConaZ1c[/youtube]

[Rose Dome]

^

There's probably so little hype because it's such an obvious cash grab. People can be made to eat things up but they've been given too little credit with this

[Mooky]

Lol, it's possible. I never watched any of the MLP shows so I'm not familiar with its production, but I like the look of this movie and how bouncy, fluid and colorful it looks. What I don't get though, is why cast Emily Blunt and have her speak with an American accent.

[estefan]

Why isn't this generating more hype on the internet?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIv_ConaZ1c[/youtube]

I think My Little Pony was at its peak in popularity 4-5 years ago and a lot of that seems to have died down since then. I don't think this sort of film will find much mainstream popularity as the only audience it will appeal to are children and Bronies. Most people wouldn't be caught dead seeing a MLP movie, myself included.

[unprincess]

Im weird in that Im more familiar with this from the toys than the show. They look kinda odd with the fuller animation, but its nice to see a 2d film in theaters and that they stuck to the 2d style of the show instead of going all CGI. The problem is that its based on a tv series which is not exactly the most creative of sources for any animated film. Its a shame that tv shows are the last front for hand drawn animation in the US.

[Mickeyfan1990]

But it's also hope for the future of hand-drawn, think of it that way.

Plus, a 3rd SpongeBob movie is on the way.