The Return of 2D?

[skyler888]

I think an interesting way to bring back some 2D animation is for disney to team up with studio ghibli, I dot mean make disney movies animese but with disneys great music and story telling and studios ghiblis interesting chareters and imagination a joint project between the two could be quite amazing.

[Escapay]

That's exactly the reason I'm going to film school once I've finished college.

I'm going to get my contacts, contracts, and agents in order first. I'm even going to become a member of the screen writers guild before I even submit my first script for review.

I mean, people can do this, its only that you have to talk to the right people, and you have to convince them that the concept can make the company money.

Like you said they won't talk to just anyone on the street, but they also have to be looking for new material, or the industry would go broke!

I'm confident in my abilities, and I won't let anyone tell me otherwise.

That's a great game plan, and I wish you luck in your endeavors.

Hopefully, you wouldn't mind a little more $0.02

I'm sure the script is your baby, right? The one thing that you feel will be your best work, that you've been tweaking and writing and rewriting and RE-RE-WRITING until you've got it down to that perfect draft that you know/hope will just wow them. Well, be prepared for rejection. Lots of rejection. Be prepared for a bigwig to read it, then say, "My granddaughter could have written this slop!". Be prepared to have your work ripped into by whoever you wanted to produce it. Be prepared to make sacrifices. Don't get too married to your characters, your story. Some if it has to go, some has to stay. You'll have to re-write again and again and again. Sometimes the finished product is nowhere near your original idea, and you'll have to accept that.

Don't confuse confidence with ego. It's a wonderful thing, confidence, it helps you keep going. It's your rock when you receive rejection after rejection. It's the driving force, the passion, the energy that you put into your work. When a bigwig rejects your script, calls it trash, spits on it, and you feel offended, that's your ego. Don't start thinking, "What the hell do they know? This script is perfect!". Because they've been reading other people's babies for years. They'll know a lot more. They'll expect a lot more. Every bigwig wants the next animation film to be the next Lion King in terms of money. They'll force you to change things. Don't let your ego say, "Now wait, this is MY script, I think it's fine!". Submit yourself to them every once in awhile. After all, if you storm off in a dramatic exit, they won't come after you begging to come back. They'll just say to the secretary, "Send in the next baby".

Escapay

[Jules]

This is such a heavy topic, I don't know where to start.

I don't know how many Disney animators are still inside the building, but I'm sure Glen Keane still works with Disney.

He is directing 'Rapunzel Unbraided'.

In fact it is becoming known as the 3D film directed by 2D animator Glen Keane.

PS: If Disney are closing DisneyToon Studios then how on earth are they even going to make their DTV sequels?

[castleinthesky]

I think an interesting way to bring back some 2D animation is for disney to team up with studio ghibli, I dot mean make disney movies animese but with disneys great music and story telling and studios ghiblis interesting chareters and imagination a joint project between the two could be quite amazing.

Ghibli is fine on its own, and it dosn't need big money (Disney) to talk for them and corrupt it, nevertheless buying out Miyazaki, Takahata, and Suzuki.

[2099net]

PS: If Disney are closing DisneyToon Studios then how on earth are they even going to make their DTV sequels?

By outsourcing the work to India, China, Tiwan... take your pick. Anywhere cheap. I think the direction and storyboards will still be done in-house though.

[singerguy04]

So this is my question... Did 2D ever leave?

i mean, Cinderella III is supposed to be that last DisneyToon Studios production in Australia right? Then who's making The Little Mermaid III and now The Aristocats II? doesn't this imply that it's not ending and that it's still here?

[2099net]

Over 300 people are to loose their jobs when DisneyToon Studios Australia closes. Of those, who knows how many animators are out of work.

On July 25, 2005, The Walt Disney Company announced that it was closing DisneyToon Studios Australia in October 2006, after 17 years of existence. The closing was attributed to the rising costs of animation production in Australia. DisneyToon Studios plans to produce its animated films, both traditional and computer-generated, primarily through outsourcing in the future.

How it works: Disney announces to the trade they are to make a film - say The Great Mouse Detective 2. They make sure this information is broadcast to all relevant companies, and invitations to tender are requested. Many animation studios respond with initial estimates and generic showreels made up of examples of their previous work. Disney then selects a few, and provides them with model sheets and possibly storyboards. Each studio produces a short animation example, and revises their estimate. Disney picks the best/cheapest (take your pick, but the latter will be a major contributing factor in the decision).

In practice, this means the animation work will be going to places like India, China or South Korea. All of these locations have an advantage of not only having a big group of animators (most TV animation is done in such places) but thanks to exchange rates and local labour laws, can undercut any Western based bid.

2D may still be going post DisneyToon's closure. But it's not happening at Disney.

[Aladdin from Agrabah]

So this is my question... Did 2D ever leave?

i mean, Cinderella III is supposed to be that last DisneyToon Studios production in Australia right? Then who's making The Little Mermaid III and now The Aristocats II? doesn't this imply that it's not ending and that it's still here?

If you ask me, I think that the Little Mermaid 3 will br released in 2007, since TLM:PE is going to be released this year. Logically, the chronological distance between the original's release and the Trilogy's release can't be long. So, maybe it's going to be realeased BEFORE Cinderella3. As for the Aristocats2, we're not sure if it's actually going to be released. So, yes, maybe Cinderella is going to be the last one.

[Disney-Fan]

How it works: Disney announces to the trade they are to make a film - say The Great Mouse Detective 2.

Do we really have to go there?

[Lord Yupa]

2D may still be going post DisneyToon's closure. But it's not happening at Disney.

True, but you're again forgetting that Disney has been co-producing the 2D films of Studio Ghibli (http://www.nausicaa.net) in Japan since Isao Takahata's "My Neighbors the Yamadas" in 1999 through to Goro Miyazaki's "Tales from Earthsea" and Kazuo Oga's "The Night of Taneyamagahara" this summer. So you could say that the legacy of Disney's traditional hand-drawn artistry has been 'relocated' there, I suppose, but it's really always been there (at Studio Ghibli) since "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" was released in 1984, and possibly even before. Boy, I sound idealistic, don't I? If Disney 'outsources' its animation anywhere, they should hire Studio Ghibli, since they already have a reputation for high-quality animated work.

For those Ghibli fans on this board who might oppose this idea -- Studio Ghibli has already done similar projects, such as designing and animating video games such as "Jade Cocoon" and "Magic Pengel".

[2099net]

How it works: Disney announces to the trade they are to make a film - say The Great Mouse Detective 2.

Do we really have to go there?

But they are making a Great Mouse Detective 2. I've seen the script (Teede emailed it me, after sneaking into DisneyToon studios wearing a long brown mac, dark glasses and a hat and 'liberating' it). It's called The Great Mouse Detective 2: The Hound of the Basketballs and it's about the little known fact that the game of Basketball was invented in the late 19th century England on the windswept moors of Dartmoor by Lord Baskerville. However, Professor Ratigan, recovering from his fall from atop Big Ben is recouperating there while plotting his next attempt at upsurping the Mouse Queen and ruling the Mouse Empire himself. Fearing his discovery he covers his fearsome dog 'Fluffy' in glow-in-the-dark paint and trains him to attack anyone who dribbles a basketball, playing on rumours of a ghostly dog that haunts the area...

As well as that, it features three all-new songs: "I'm A Great Detective (But I Can't Detect The Love In My Heart)" (Sung by Basil has he ponders his relationship with Lord Baskerville's daughter - to be voiced by Lindsay Lohan), "Beware the Balls of Doom" (Sung by The Baskervilles and assorted British working-class strereotypes, warning Basil and Dawson of the ghostly hound) and "Keep Up Dear Dawson" (a quick rapid-fire song summarising the case to date, as Basil deducts the solution). Fans of the original will be pleased to hear Professor Ratigan reprises his "The World's Greatest Criminal Mind" song, but this time with a few words changed so it becomes "The World's Stupidist Criminal Mind" as he acknowledges his plan with the hound "Is a bit silly." There's genuine pathos in the lines "I was once a fearsome Criminal, now I'm a Scooby Doo villain".

All songs are written by Lindsay Lohan and contain subtle (and not so subtle) jabs at Hiliary Duff. "Duff, Duff, Duff, I hate you, Duff!" being the most blatant in "Beware the Balls of Doom", but I must admit it does work in context.

You may scoff, but it's actually thrilling fun-packed ride, and I can say that this will be the best sequel ever. In fact, it will be the best animated film in the whole of history. In fact, it will be the best film is the whole of history.

It's going to be animated by "Hai-Ki-Nah-No" studios in South Korea, who put in a tender bid of $2.36 to animate the whole epic movie. This means the animation will be simply stick figures. Who don't actually move, Because it uses just 8 images which were quickly drawn on the back of a McDonalds napkin. But I see this as a plus, as the film can be promoted as using "highly stylised" animation "in the always popular minimalist style", which should fool a few artsy people, if nothing else.

Or maybe not.

[Disney-Fan]

All UD members, this is a distress call. Code 509.





Red Alert! I repeat. Red Alert!
A well respected member of the community has been posessed with a lethal mind, that will stop at nothing to convince us of unearthly things, aka The Great Mouse Detective II. We must proceed with caution and safety. Do not shoot the intended target unless you are left without options. I repeat, we are in a state of an emergency.


May God help us all.

[Disney Duster]

But they are making a Great Mouse Detective 2.

Since that obviously took a while for you to write, I'll let you know that was really funny, and smart(regarding the outsourcing leading to even worse animation than the sequels currently have).

You really had me laughing out loud.

[Jules]

WOW! I so enjoyed reading that! (2099net) I laughed mostly in the part of Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff. I've never seen Hilary Duff but I take it from your post that she is a rival of our dear Lindsay!

"Duff, Duff, Duff, I hate you, Duff!
You're so daft you're like er...Duffy Duck!"


(Wow Lindsay, you're such a wit!)

[Jules]

So...um...is anyone gonna post anything else? Or shall we just call it 'THE END'?

[2099net]

It's never the end. There's always the sequel.

[funnykiddy]

I think 2-D is not dead yet. I just read in the May 22, 2006 issue of TIME:

As the new hydra-head of animation, Lasseter may have an uphill journey: not just keeping Pixar on track (Brad Bird's Ratatouille, about a gourmet rodent in Paris, is next, probably followed by Toy Story 3), but also in steering the Mousemobile back to speed. In 1994, when The Lion King capped a series of animation hits, Disney's bright future seemed as sure a bet as Pixar's does now. Then Toy Story came out, and computer animation took over. Before buying Pixar, a despearte Disney had scuttled its traditional animation unit. Lasseter may restore that. "Of all the studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney," he says. "We haven't said anything publicly, but I can guarantee you that we're thinking about it. Because I believe in it."

This is the exact quote from the TIME article featuring Pixar and its latest moive, Cars, along with my own bolding for emphasis.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

I think 2-D is not dead yet. I just read in the May 22, 2006 issue of TIME:

As the new hydra-head of animation, Lasseter may have an uphill journey: not just keeping Pixar on track (Brad Bird's Ratatouille, about a gourmet rodent in Paris, is next, probably followed by Toy Story 3), but also in steering the Mousemobile back to speed. In 1994, when The Lion King capped a series of animation hits, Disney's bright future seemed as sure a bet as Pixar's does now. Then Toy Story came out, and computer animation took over. Before buying Pixar, a despearte Disney had scuttled its traditional animation unit. Lasseter may restore that. "Of all the studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney," he says. "We haven't said anything publicly, but I can guarantee you that we're thinking about it. Because I believe in it."

All I have to say is this: Lasseter better be right!

[2099net]

I think 2-D is not dead yet. I just read in the May 22, 2006 issue of TIME:

As the new hydra-head of animation, Lasseter may have an uphill journey: not just keeping Pixar on track (Brad Bird's Ratatouille, about a gourmet rodent in Paris, is next, probably followed by Toy Story 3), but also in steering the Mousemobile back to speed. In 1994, when The Lion King capped a series of animation hits, Disney's bright future seemed as sure a bet as Pixar's does now. Then Toy Story came out, and computer animation took over. Before buying Pixar, a despearte Disney had scuttled its traditional animation unit. Lasseter may restore that. "Of all the studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney," he says. "We haven't said anything publicly, but I can guarantee you that we're thinking about it. Because I believe in it."

This is the exact quote from the TIME article featuring Pixar and its latest moive, Cars, along with my own bolding for emphasis.

Well, Lasseter is probably just saying what he knows some people want to hear it. If you analyse his statement, its like that of a politician - it doesn't commit to anything, but doesn't reject anything either.

But I think even the god-like Lasseter is going to have trouble attempting to change the flow of this Disney river.

Disney didn't pay over $7bn to purchase a state-of-the-art CGI company to revive a different method of animation that they've already rejected. That's just common sense. Not for the immediate future anyway. Do you have any comprehension of how much $7bn actually is? And what it was for?

Regardless of what Disney and Pixar may actually say, more than anything it was to eliminate a potential rival. It's the Microsoft method of buying companies. Take out the opposition before they get too big. Arguably, Pixar was too big already. If they did go with another distributor as they constantly threatened, it could literally more than half Disney's motion picture division's revenue.

The fact that at the same time, Disney can benefit from Pixar's skills is a added-value bonus.

Regardless of this, even if Disney wanted to do 2D animation again, they would need to build up a studio from scratch, hire animators (a good 40-50 previously skilled animators are required for a movie) and do the same for the various support departments - inking, in-betweening etc. Of course, most of the people ideally suited for these tasks have been shafted by Disney in the past, so would have - one would expect - second thoughts about going back.

I'm sorry, but I just can't see it happening in the next decade or so.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

My "common sense" tells me that an animation studio (in this case a "traditional" one") is not built up over night. It was somewhat devastating, then, that Disney sold off all that equipment and, in effect, tore it down over night... Hey - 900th post...