(no subject)

[oyceter]

In a much better mood now that I've watched my brand new Lilo and Stitch DVD ^_^.

Not that I was in a bad mood, but I'm short on sleep (entirely my own fault) and work was mind-numbingly boring. So it was nice to be able to laugh at funny round shapes in animation. Plus, I think Lilo's hilarious.

Animation makes me happy.

Comments

Me too, Oyc,

[anneth.livejournal.com]

and I'm fair broken-hearted that Disney's giving up on it. Computer animation will never feel as warm and, in a sense, innocent, as old-fashioned cels. Sigh.

Re: I agree

[atpolittlebit.livejournal.com]

Entirely. Completely. Some of the best fun I've had was at the last two Disney Animation Events (2002 and 2003) where we got assignments as teams, planned, storyboarded, presented, and then hand-drew and colored each cel of a 10 second very short short. 10 seconds being 300 drawings at video rates of 30 frames per second. Hand-drawn animation simply allows a range of movement and expression that, quite frankly, is not yet achieved in computer animation without the use of live modeling. Yes, I have to say that Gollum was the most amazing CG character we've seen to date. He was also part of a BIG budget feature film that was practically guaranteed to have a large theater-going audience and had two separate CG teams animating the different parts of his body. To do this as the entire basis of an animated feature film is still plain old not cost-effective in any way. Unfortunately what that means is that we're still seeing 3-D CG human characters with very limited expression.

But rather than getting on what may be my current #1 soapbox, I shall simply say that there are those of us who are not willing (http://www.savedisney.com/) to just let traditional animation, and in particular the animated feature length film, die an ignominious death.

Re: I agree

[oyceter]

Oh wow! That's so cool.

I also really like cel animation and the simplicity of it at times -- I feel while the emphasis on making things look real has a place, I also adore things like Triplets of Belleville and the stylization of anime.

Just pissed off that everyone always seems to think that one medium will somehow replace another! It's like people deciding there's no room for painting or drawing anymore now that Illustrator exists!

Re: Me too, Oyc,

[oyceter]

They are? I'd heard they were thinking about it, but I didn't know they had already made the decision!

ARGH. I have a giant spiel in which I argue that traditional cel animation isn't making as much money because it's stuck in more traditional story mode -- it's the stories! Not the medium! Grrr.

Re: Me too

[atpolittlebit.livejournal.com]

Actually, at Disney it was because 'story' had been taken out of the hands of the storytellers, the animators, and had become driven by marketing and executive 'suggestions'. Unfortunately, it never occurred to the execs that maybe that was why the films didn't do well at the box-office. Pixar, on the other hand is still driven in the 'old way' where a decent story is presented through excellent characterization.

And at Disney, traditional animation is definitely dead as far as feature animation is concerned. The studios in Japan and Paris were closed a while ago, Feature Animation Florida was dismantled a few months back, and inside the relatively new sorcerer's hat Animation Building in Anaheim, all the equipment is gone, sold off on eBay a short while ago.

Re: Me too

[oyceter]

Definitely. Although somehow from the feel of it, I think Lilo and Stitch managed to escape that. Or maybe not. I wish -- I don't know. I wish they had a separate studio for more "indie" animated works or something, because there's just so much potential!