Has Animation Lost Its Magic?

Beauty, magic, wonder are the heart of animation. We all love the art and story of animated films. Seeing an animated film is escapism from an adult's hard life and is an extension for a child's imagination. Sitting in a dark theater as the first few seconds begin the adventure, is like loosing all sense of reality, responsibility, and all that makes us angry or sad. We become consumed in the characters, visuals, and sounds-the most wonderful feeling in the world.

It started with Walt Disney. He made movies where each frame had the same care and passion as the last. Some great Disney movies include: Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. Everything was hand drawn in the 40s and 50s except a few tricks with the camera as you can see by watching special features on many double disc Disney DVDs. Let's take Disney's Bambi as an example, the story of the young fawn prince and how he triumphs over his toils and learns about life with his forest friends. This film in particular shows how intense the artistic process is for creating a full-length animated movie. Each background is beautifully rendered and almost reminiscent of Monet. All the movement of the animals is as realistic as the story allows and there is fine detail everywhere on screen. The artists obviously studied live fawns and forest animals to achieve natural character design and movement which was essential to the success of Bambi. As a whole, Bambi is a great piece of artwork and it is one of my favorite films ever made.

Years and years go by and wonderful films are made, but something new came around in the mid-1990s-the Disney/Pixar 3D computer animated film, Toy Story. The same wonderful magic was there; it's already become a classic. This movie broadened animation's limits through its risks. However, there's been a recent trend that seems to be creating more limits for animation. 3D computer animated films (not all of which are Disney) include: Shrek, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Over the Hedge, Cars, and the most recent Kung Fu Panda. These movies are fun, but I assert this 3D trend is getting boring. Is animation loosing humanly heart, care, and passion because computers are taking over the industry?

Even with computers, films need artists and animators. I know people studying 3D animation and they work extremely hard-in fact, they sleep at the studio tons of nights each semester. So it's not that people aren't working really hard to make movies...it's just that the movies aren't as good. The Incredibles, although fun, doesn't come close to the artistry of Bambi. I miss the movies when they had to hire in-between animators who hand drew all the tiny movements for every frame. Animation needs another innovative film (I guess Corpse Bride wasn't enough), one that will hopefully make animation limitless and move it out of its recent comfort zone.