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This article originally ran on July 23, 2019 when the remake ofThe Lion Kingwas in theaters.
it’s possible for you to listen to ithere, and follow the entire series at theDisney Dilemma hub.
It was about halfway through 2019s photorealistic remake ofThe Lion Kingthat I found myself overwhelmed with grief.
(Never mind the fact that the scene was set during the day!)
What I suddenly longed for was a burst of hand-drawn animation.
In the wake of that movies epochal success, the suits at Disney became more aggressive about their releases.
They split the animation unit and pushed for faster timelines.
They put out cheap, direct-to-video sequels to some of their most beloved titles, thus devaluing their brand.
(RememberThe Lion King 2: Simbas Pride?)
Meanwhile, event releases likePocahontas,Hercules, andMulanfailed to replicate the success ofThe Lion King.
Of course,whythey didnt do well is another question.
Pixar was, famously, a filmmaker-driven studio, where animators and artists often collaborated on creative decisions.
By contrast, Disney was being run by managers, executives, and accountants.
You could see the difference in the respective movies they made.
Hand-drawn animation actually got tossed a lifeline when Disney bought Pixar in 2006.
Traditional animation, the thinking went, had become too costly to produce.
But those Pixar movies made money.
Beyond that, Disney films also had a berserk sense of spectacle and showmanship that distinguished them.
But theyre far more grounded.
Somebody, we sense, created these pictures, and now the pictures are coming to life.
But we also sometimes sense the presence of another human speaking through that experience.
Walt Disney himself represents a good case study for the power of personality as expressed through hand-drawn animation.
Part of this was the result of aggressive branding.
But it was also because all these hand-drawn creations clearly had to be the work ofsomebody.
The Walt Disney name, in other words, was built on the one-to-one connection created by his cartoons.
Think Chuck Jones, and Tex Avery, and Hayao Miyazaki, among many others.)
The celebrity animator was, ironically, another reason cited for the traditional forms demise.
The era of the million-dollar animator has come to a close.
But today, traditional animation itself is certainly not dead.
Or maybe, in the case of the most recent versions ofThe Lion KingandAladdin, how itisntdone.
