The Changing Face of Animation

The days of the Disney Renaissance are long over. The standards of animation are changing in a new-world landscape, at an age where digital and computer images outdate the traditional hand-drawings of the past. Walt Disney Animation Studios (along with their subsidiary company, Pixar Animation Studios) and DreamWorks Animation lead the forefront of computer-animated movies. In this digital age of computer generated imaging (CGI), an important question has remained overlooked:

Is traditional, hand-drawn animation a thing of the past?

Since the release of Pixar's Toy Story in 1995, feature-length computer animation has become an integral part of mainstream film. Toy Story's production company, Pixar, has released over a dozen movies over the last seventeen years, most of which have been critically and commercially successful. While the Disney Renaissance period (1989-2000) continued to dwindle, Pixar grew in popularity, surpassing even the producers expectations.

Disney ultimately bought their longtime partner Pixar in 2006. But, Walt Disney Animation Studios still produced their own movies throughout the 2000's to little to no success, failing in comparison to Pixar's seemingly unstoppable collection of smart, funny, and entertaining features. Hand-drawn Disney movies such as  Brother Bear (2003), Home on the Range (2004), and The Princess and the Frog (2009) remain greatly overshadowed by the computer animated Pixar films Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), and Up (2009).

Rival company DreamWorks Animation released their own line of computer-animated productions at this time, none nearly more potent than Shrek (2001), a fairy-tale mashup that matched Pixar's level of ingenuity and technical achievement. Madagascar (2005) and How to Train Your Dragon (2009) continued DreamWorks success streak, with some critics proclaiming it could beat Disney in the digital age.

But Walt Disney Studios, innovative as ever, managed to adapt to the modern era of animation. While the dated Dinosaur (2000) and the story-less Chicken Little (2005) marked forgettable attempts at computer animation by Disney, the highly creative and entertaining Wreck-It Ralph (2012) marks a new turn for Disney. Wreck-It Ralph is a fun, humorous, and oftentimes heart-warming adventure that manages to provide a feel-good story with striking visuals. It's Disney's best animated production in years, even surpassing some Pixar movies in terms of animation potential.

Through all of their failures and lackluster productions in the 2000's, it's a computer animated film that brings Disney back to the forefront of animation. No matter how hard the studio tries, they cannot underestimate the power of CGI. Which begs the question again: Is traditional, hand-drawn animation a thing of the past?

The answer: Maybe.

In 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences created the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars. Nominated films Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Pixar's Monsters, Inc. were easily beat out by DreamWork's Shrek. Since the category's creation in 2001, only one traditionally animated film has ever won Best Animated Feature (in 2002, for Japanese Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away). Pixar has won the category six times, while Disney has only been nominated for four hand-drawn animated films. Disney is now marketing four movies from 2012 in their For Your Consideration campaign: Pixar's Brave, as well as Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph and the animated short Paperman (which combines hand-drawn animation with computer images).

Disney has announced a new film for 2013, Frozen, which will be another computer animated production. DreamWorks Animation has not created a single traditionally animated film since 2003's Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and has announced a dozen new movies for release over the course of the next four years- all computer animated.

The changing face of animation is obviously made from a computer. But do not underestimate the importance of traditional animation; when done right, it can be just as effective as computer animation. Walt Disney Pictures is still the biggest name in animation, and for rightful reasons. Their classic films still manage to capture the essence of life and the entertainment of movies. Children today are still loving the likes of Pinocchio (1940), Cinderella (1950), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Little Mermaid (1989), and The Lion King (1994).

The fact remains that computer animation will continue to thrive in the modern age. In a few years, maybe every Disney film will be computer animated. But traditional animation is still a valid art form, and remains vital to understanding the animation genre of filmmaking. While hand-drawn animation is primarily a thing of the past, it still remains a part of cinematic history that should be celebrated well into the future. Animation is changing, but one thing will always remain: through all the turmoil and problems, films adapt to modern technologies in the noble effort to spread movie magic for all ages.