MovieChat Forums > Moana (2016) Discussion > So Hand-Drawn Animation is TRULY DEAD?

So Hand-Drawn Animation is TRULY DEAD?


The last two Disney musicals, "Frozen" and "Moana", have been CGI rather than hand-drawn, compared to all their previous musical animated movies, new seasons of classic 80s kids' TV shows like Mysterious Cities of Gold are also CGI, and lastly, Studio Ghibli is closing its doors as we know it forever, and no more hand-drawn animated movies are out anymore elsewhere. Is this really the death knell for this medium?

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

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Yes. When The Princess and the Frog underperformed it was the final nail in the coffin of 2D animation.

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Just Dead with Disney. Japan and other places it is alive and well.

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D'oh, I clean forgot about Japan, except, as I said, Studio Ghibli is practically dead now.

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

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More exists in Japan than Studio Ghibli.... FAR more.

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Apparently you've missed the 2D sequences in all three Kung Fu Panda movies.

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I'm talking about whole movies, OhNooos, not sequences.

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

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Oh, ok. Yeah, that's probably dead. There are some cartoons on TV, but one doesn't see movies anymore that are entirely hand drawn. The thing is, computer animation can be so very beautiful and lively.

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Both are different. Both are great in its own way.

Princess and the Frog was quite good I thought. And Winnie the Pooh from 2011.

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Yes, they are definitely both good in their own way. I was quite impressed by the selection of paint colors on display in Walt Disney World that were used in many of the films.

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Its incredible the work and expertise that was employed in the earlier Disney films, in particular during the golden era of Bamb, 101 Dalmations, etc. It will be a great shame if we actually lose that knowledge and talent. Hopefully we will still see Disney do occasional hand drawn projects like they did with Winnie the Pooh just relatively recently.

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And the ones in THIS very movie

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Only Europe and Japan are keeping traditional animation alive, sadly.

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Sadly, this form of animation is fading away. Much of the hand drawn and stop motion animation we see today is actually computer assisted.

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To be fair, all of the 90's Disney movies starting with Rescuers Down Under (incredibly underrated) were computer assisted and even some of their 80's had movies had some cgi.

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So? It's the big movie. I never did warm up to hand drawn Disney princesses or character for the last 30 years except Amy Adams's first big hit role in "Enchanted" (now, despite the spoof nature, I have warmed up to that and e njoyed Amy in her current film Revival and hope to see that other one she has)...Stitch with his gnashing teeth?? However I do appreciate on my Facebook site Stitch or any one when it comes to birthday wishes...that I have nohhhh problem with.

Scooby-Doo and Fat Albert from other famous studios, respectively Hanna-Barbera and Filmation, are cartoon animation and we all know those are *beep* and not Gertie the dinosau,r, Yogi bear, Rocky and Bullwinkle, on in Disney's canon of the times (1950s and back) Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the ATramp,etc.)

And I for one stay away from some CGI films if it's some attempt a la that sequel to 2005-06's "Hoodwinked"(which I DID like) or the Alpha and Omega ones..I don't go by the film art style even though agreed one type of animation is replacing another type, whcih becomes fairly a double take causer when done to old style cartoons like Yogi Bear or if Dumbo were done that way (and that couldn't be even with today's effects be done with a REAL elephant!)

But anyhow, just staying in the film and not facebook icon realm, if you want to argue hand drawns and mention Sleeping Beauty, Dumbo,etc. I'm in. But I do see hand drawn as well as otherwise in Moana and hey, it's the story itself and such. Besides inner Workings looked as much as a cartoon as any computer (the most computerized part of that being the music, sounding rather like the 1970s
insturmentsal "novelty" "Popcorn"), and that didn't have a "CGI" look, nor do Maui's tattoos. To me, it's the story that counts, and I'm 56.

In short, I understand, but to each their own (hand-drawn animation) tastes, and as I said, I don't like all CGI, but I go by what people all SHOULD go by--the advertising and the story.

Just try to enjoy the story. Heck, with Jennifer (my former god) Lawrence joking about the gods in Moana's setting, and on Maui's island namesake (after Maui himself), the film, with the writer of Hamilton contributingh songs (though not the score, which by another songwriter, and veteraan film composer Mark Mancini, whose credits include that odd 1994 "Monkey Trouble" with later "American Beauty" star Thora Birch), is still well worth watching. The two uptempo ones, Maui's "You're Welcome " and that large crab's songare fun yet there is a great set of adventure. Also Moana has the 1967 Mowgli's deep dark eye pupils..

"And that's SHOWBIZ--kid."-Roxie Hart.
PROFILE PIC:Courtney Thorne-Smith.
MAGIC=Sarah Silverman.

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Princess and the fog did NOT underperform for the reason mentioned....Moana had great characterization...this is like bashing late 1940s Warner Brothers Looney TUne-Merrie Melodies shorts that were in Cinecolor just because they weren't made in Technicolor...no offense to classic cartoon animaiton but Stitch and the Princess/Frog turned me off as characters...if they were CGI they would turn me off as well. COnversely I've stayed away from lots of CGI/other types (Tim Burton films, for instance like Frankenweenie) due to eye sore looking characters and those were NOT hand drawn animation. There's a reason the film's doing well, in short, and it AIN'T due to CGI! And I'm a 1960s child/1970s teenager--NOT a contemporary 19-20 year old defending CGI here ! LOL (My 56h is tomnorrow)

"And that's SHOWBIZ--kid."-Roxie Hart.
PROFILE PIC:Courtney Thorne-Smith.
MAGIC=Sarah Silverman.

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Princess and the fog did NOT underperform for the reason mentioned


It doesn't matter if it was the reason. Film studios were looking at The Princess and the Frog as one last chance for hand-drawn animation to prove that it could still perform at the box office.

But audiences didn't support it. So now it's going to be all CGI from now on.

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I never understood why the princess and the frog didn't do better. The music was great (the last Disney album I bought actually) and it had a nice moral about hard work but also balancing it with a little fun.

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Princess and the Frog didn't connect with audiences because the story was all over the place... with way too many subplots...

...You got the girl trying to open up a restaurant, turns into a frog, goes into a road trip... You got the Prince who is a party boy who's broke, you got his servant who hates him... You got the Voodoo Doctor with the servant trying to marry the protagonist's friend for her money... You got the crocodile who wants to play in band, the love sick bug... They tried to hit way too many points, they should had cut some of these subplots to make the story more cohesive...

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It seems very stupid to bank all public favor toward or against hand-drawn animation on the performance of one single movie. I loved Princess and the Frog, but the story wasn't quite as exciting as Aladdin, the Lion King, or Frozen.

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In Disney animation? It's for sure dead. We still see hand-drawn animation in Japan and those DC movies (Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Justice League vs Teen Titans, Batman: Under the Red Hood, etc.), though.

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Am sure hand drawn animation will basically come back to DISNEY slowly since you do see bits and pieces in MOANA so it's not entirely dead there yet.

2D animation in general is doing wonderfully but with movie based hand drawn animation seems to be going maybe a major "black out" period or something. It's hard to say when or if that will come back

Hopefully it will take the form someday of LION KING or FROZEN level movie to do it to get people and studios interested again.

Am pretty sure there being cautious for now but hopefully it still happen one way or other.

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