What Happened to Western Animation?

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Animation. You know it and I know it. Chances are most of you had an experience growing up where you watched any number of THIS giant soul-eating conglomerate’s movies and realized the wonders of animation. I watched so many Disney movies growing up that I couldn’t even tell you what the first one was, or even which ones I prefer. It was a simpler time where I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that these movies were animated, they were just... stories, wildly expressive and vibrant stories. But here’s the thing, when I say the word “animation”, what picture pops into your head? Do you see this? Or this? Animation has severely changed over the past two decades, with the advent of Pixar, the industry began to shift into a different approach to animation that was both more cost effective, and also made more money. At the turn of the 20th century, Pixar’s CG features were making more and more and more money, while Disney’s hand-animated films were making less and less. Take Lilo and Stitch for instance, I don’t know about you guys but this was a classic growing up in my household, you know the whole schpiel, ohana means family, and family apparently means only making 270 million dollars at the box office. Now here’s where it gets crazy, less than one year later after Stitch came out, Pixar’s Finding Nemo would release to a public craving more CGI animation, and it would go on to make almost quadruple the amount that Stitch did, nearly 1 billion dollars… soooo yeah, I have some bad news for you guys, if you loved movies like The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, or Treasure Planet, those movies were flops, apparently very few people cared about them. Fast forward to 2005 and we see the dawn of a new age, Walt Disney Animation Studios for all intents and purposes, was DONE with hand-animation. With the release of Chicken Little, they began their escapades into CG animation in the hopes of attaining even a fraction of the success that Pixar was at the time… Now at first they didn't, they definitely didn’t, but eventually we know how that story turns out now that Disney is continuously putting out billion dollar CG animated hits. And yes there actually was a brief renaissance period where Disney returned to hand animation for both The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh, but it didn’t last long and that leads me into a question that has kept me up at night for ages… Why couldn’t they coexist? Why can’t we get a mix of CG animated films and hand-animated films today? What’s stopping us? And unfortunately the simple answer I’ve come to is that nobody was or is interested in paying to see these hand-animated movies anymore. Studios are simply just capitalizing on what most people are paying for. You remember how I said Disney came back to hand animation with The Princess and the Frog? Well that movie made even less than Lilo and Stitch did, sitting at 260 million dollars worldwide. Less than a year later, that same Disney would release a CG animated film named Tangled, and do you want to know how much that movie made? It’s sad to say that the diminishing returns and reduced market for these hand-animated films are probably the main reason they died out in the first place. Now I’m not shaming CGI films, there are so many CG animated movies that I love, the How to Train Your Dragon movies, many Pixar classics like Toy Story or the Incredibles, even the recent Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a great example of taking CGI animation in a fresh direction that, frankly, FEELS hand-animated sometimes with the way it’s stylized. CGI is good, but you want to know what isn’t good? Losing what got us here in the first place. Even now Disney is releasing these live action remakes that are making hundreds of millions of dollars more than their animated counterparts ever did, while also removing a lot of the life and personality that made those movies beloved in the first place, I mean look at this scene from the new Aladdin live action movie, classic adaptation of an iconic song, Prince Ali. Now I want you to take a look at the way this scene is composed, the way it’s edited, everything about it is just so dull, you can tell it’s trying to be extravagant and wild but the way it’s shot and choreographed is so boring, there’s nothing interesting going on, it’s slow, it just kills every bit of energy and pace that the original scene had. Don’t believe me? Look at the original scene for yourself, look at how much more full of life it is, how many quirky scenes are going on at the same time back to back to back, it keeps the energy high and manages to interject a lot of comedy and funny moments effortlessly through the expressiveness of animation. Seriously, out of everything you chose to cut from this scene, you took out Genie transforming himself into various people in the crowd to hype up Aladdin? That was like the best part! Hearing Robin Williams’ impersonations, how visually entertaining the gags were, how do you butcher a scene this much? And here’s the thing, other than that scene, I actually like the majority of stuff that’s been shown from the Aladdin movie, it still very well could and probably will be a fun time, but I can’t help but feel like Disney is erasing their own history with these kinds of films, it’s trying to replace it with what’s become more socially acceptable, transforming these properties into things that are supposed to appeal to an audience that just don’t take animation seriously, in which case I say screw that, and screw those people for looking down on such a powerful artistic medium, if they didn’t want to watch these stories before because they were animated, I’m sorry to say but they really don’t deserve to watch these in live action now. It shouldn’t be a secret at this point that I prefer hand-animation, I like how personal it feels and I like how limitless it is in its creativity. There’s a soul and charm in traditional animation that speaks to me and I’ve been searching ages for anything in Western animation that still holds that spirit. So is it all doom and gloom? Is there any place left for traditional western animation? Well… kinda, but with an asterisk next to that. Traditional western animation does still exist in the form of television, shows like The Simpsons, Spongebob, Adventure Time, these are shows that started out animated and they’re still being animated to this day. I have to be honest though, it’s not the same and doesn’t feel the same, these are sitcoms, they’re pumped out on a regular schedule for years on end, and of course I don’t mean this as a jab at those shows, I do think they’re expressive and fun in a way only animation can be, but it still feels held back compared to other animated projects due to their networks and schedules. Of course while the majority of western animated television is like this, we do have a few exceptions, take Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series that began airing last year, this show… it looks incredible, in terms of animation quality, creativity, and pure fun, it is a far cry from basically anything else you can watch on the network right now. You can tell the creators and the animators both have this insane passion not only for the material they’re working with, but for animation as a whole, you can see so much influence from old school Gainax, especially Fooly Cooly. It just looks awesome and I wish more western television tried to do things as ambitious as this project. Nickelodeon actually has a track record for producing shows like this, another such example would be the Avatar and Legend of Korra series, both of which despite being outsourced to Korean animators, were very forward-thinking in terms of setting a higher standard for American television, ESPECIALLY The Legend of Korra, my god, if you want an example of some of the finest and most consistent hand-animation that exists anywhere, you should watch The Legend of Korra, it is insane what Studio Mir was able to accomplish on that series. One thing you might notice these shows have in common is that they’re very anime-inspired, and that’s kind of been the elephant in the room this entire video, traditional hand-animation is very much alive, just not in the West. Overseas in Japan they a ludicrous market for animated television which releases upwards of 20-30 different series every single season. Not only is that a lot but generally speaking there’s a higher standard of quality that Japanese animated television goes for compared to Western television. Take a show that aired just last season for instance, Mob Psycho 100 Season 2, this is by no means the norm of a standard anime production, but it does showcase that hand-animation is very much alive and well, as both seasons of Mob Psycho 100 have some of the best animation I have ever seen in my entire life. So yeah, anime is great, but it’s not a solution, mostly because in order to release so many series with such high quality in that short a timeframe, it naturally means that these animators and staff are being worked to the bone for barely any pay. The animation industry in Japan is notorious for its inhumane working conditions, and as the number of shows continues increasing and increasing per season, it’s inevitably going to lead to a crash. Definitely not an ideal scenario for one of the last places on Earth creating quality hand-animation. I think what bothers me the most about the lack of traditional western animation is that there are so many alternatives that could have been further explored and taken advantage of. Look at Disney’s deep canvas technology for instance, it was a wild invention that allowed Disney to basically create 3D scenes that they could paint over and seamlessly blend into their hand animation. It was used in Tarzan and even more extensively in Treasure Planet, and in both instances I think the results speak for themselves. This was a tool that allowed animation to stay as imaginative and inspired as before, while also letting it run around in gorgeous 3D environments that kept scenes feeling dynamic and visually engaging. Like all good things however, it costed money, and I assume it wasn’t cost effective enough for Disney to continue using it, epsecially after the financial failure of Treasure Planet. Another cool alternative I’ve been thinking about a lot connects to two live action movies that are on everyone’s mind right now, Detective Pikachu and the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Both are taking an inherently animated character and transitioning it to live action, because… well, ya know, live actions sells, man. One obviously does this better than the other but what if there was another way? What if there was a movie, or multiple movies, that showed you can combine animated characters with live action footage? Well you know me and my rhetorical questions at this point, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Space Jam, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action all showed that this can not only be done, but it works, it works really well. This would be so fitting, especially for a character like Sonic the Hedgehog, who is inherently goofy and self-aware. The idea of putting an animated version of him next to an actor like Jim Carrey, that just sounds hilarious and also just way better than the travesty they ended up going with initially. Ultimately I guess the point I’m trying to make with this video is that animation is different than it used to be, not necessarily for the worse, but in a way that’s abandoned its roots. CG animation has become the new norm, live action remakes are seemingly replacing their animated originals, and other forms of animation are so unpopular that studios won’t even think about investing in them. However there are still rays of hope that tell me even if Western animation can’t regain its former glory, there are some great projects out there helmed by great people who are keeping the art of hand-drawn animation alive. The Samurai Jack creator is coming back with a new series, Studio Mir had that Koji pilot a while ago, and literally as I was editing this video Cartoon Network announces this really cool looking show called Mao Mao, there’s good stuff to look forward to, and if all that isn’t enough, well you can always turn weeb and start watching some anime, I don’t mean to brag but I have a pretty good channel for recommending anime. Speaking of me, if you want more occasional opinions, or you just wanna keep in touch, you can follow me on Twitter @PhenomSage, and if you want to chat or make friends, you should totally join my Discord server, it has a great community of people, we do group anime-- er, I mean hand-animated streams together, it’s a lot of fun, be sure to join if you're interested. Also make sure to tell me in the comments what you think about how animation has changed, do you think it’s possible for hand-animation to make a comeback? It would be pretty cool, but even if it doesn’t... We always have the originals, right?
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Channel: PhenomSage
Views: 482,280
Rating: 4.8830948 out of 5
Keywords: what happened to western animation, what happened, western animation, disney, walt disney, aladdin 2019, aladdin live action, aladdin, the lion king, the lion king 2019, the lion king live action, remake, friend like me, prince ali, circle of life, song, aladdin remake, the lion king remake, hand animation, animation, cgi, cg, 3d, west, phenomsage, phenom, sage, anime, tarzan, treasure planet, analysis, review, animation studios, history, culture, cartoon, how to train your dragon
Id: HoSThfmOyHA
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)
Published: Mon Jun 03 2019
Reddit Comments

Capitalism

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/Hotcarlinyoface 📅︎︎ Jun 12 2019 🗫︎ replies

This video didn't actually say anything... His entire point is; "What happened to hand drawn animation? Well... more people pay to see CGI movies than hand drawn animation, so that's why studios make CGI movies. Here, look at these IMDB gross numbers."

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/timo906 📅︎︎ Jun 14 2019 🗫︎ replies
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