Hand-Drawn Animation Dead at Disney

[SWillie!]

Oh for Christ's sake, they've been giving these out for YEARS now, at events all over the place. Someone just happens to get one a few days after layoffs and it's another big conspiracy?

[Avaitor]

Amid Amidi is a massive dick. That is not news.

[SWillie!]

Amid Amidi is a massive dick. That is not news.

Yes he is. Any chance he gets to attack the Mouse.

[Sotiris]

Some thoughts about the layoffs from animation union rep, Steve Hulett.

I've watched the slow fade of Disney hand-drawn animation for a dozen years now. The writing began to etch itself on the wall when the Pixar movies consistently outgrossed the Disney hand-drawn features in the late nineties. Outside of Tarzan and the under-appreciated Emperor's New Groove, Disney's other animated offerings were not huge crowd pleasers. Disney animators got nervous.

And the Animation Guild got busy offering training classes in computer animation. By the turn of the century, the guild was training hundreds of animators and assistants in classrooms in various Disney buildings. At the same time, division head Tom Schumacher held multiple meetings at the hat building, assuring a shrinking number of traditional artists that "You're jobs are safe." That turned out to be at variance with the truth.

There were two waves of layoffs before the hand-drawn crew was gone. It took John Lasseter and his (brief?) enthusiasm for traditional animation to bring part of the old crew back from the wilderness. Sadly, the grosses from The Princess and the Frog (not to mention Winnie the Pooh) weren't high enough to keep his enthusiasm and support intact. A year and a half ago, surviving hand-drawn animation staffers were moved down to the first floor into smaller, darker offices. Animators were told that the company would keep them on for another couple of years, but after that, who knew?

So now nine traditional artists have been handed their walking papers, and others have been informed that wages will be lowered (again), with no long-term assurances positions will be there indefinitely. Walking around the hat building after the layoffs had been announced, I heard lots of speculation about why the downsizing occurred now:

"Wreck-It Ralph didn't perform well enough overseas, so Lasseter decided he couldn't carry the traditional animators anymore." ... "Iger is telling all the corporate divisions they need to cut back. We're not exempt." ... "The hand-drawn features haven't made money like CG has, so hand-drawn is over. Disney wants to maximize profits." ...

The last of the old-line animators have projects they're working on. When those end, I presume that more positions we'll be cut. Not a happy prospect, but Disney isn't concerned about happy. It wants to release high-profit pictures. It wants the stock price to go up. CGI, by the company's reckoning, offers the straightest and most lucrative route to that ultimate goal.

There was a push to do more hand-drawn features when Lasseter and Catmull arrived, but the studio (Iger) didn't want to go all in.

The underperformance of Princess and Winnie the Pooh ... and over-performance of Tangled determined the studio's course. CG is the wave Disney will now ride.

Animators have told me that John Lasseter's enthusiasm for hand-drawn pictures has waned. (He can read box office returns as well as anybody. And he wants to ride winners, not losers.)

John and Ron are working on a CG-hand-drawn feature that looks computer generated. There's a (partial) hand-drawn short in production, but WDAS is not interested in carrying its hand-drawn staff. (They were told last year that their time at the studio was finite.) Added to which, Iger told different divisions to cut back so animation is laying off staff it considers fungible.

Source: http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... -door.html

[DisneyJedi]

You know what? I'm gonna be fucking pleased when that shithead Iger steps down. Because right now, he's coming across as no better- if not, WORSE- than Michael Eisner.

[disneyboy20022]

I'm not that happy with Iger right now. However just because Iger leaves in 2015, doesn't mean the next guy will be an improvement. I'm guessing there won't be a sequel to Wreck it Ralph after all which sucks.

It seems since Roy E. Disney died, hand drawn animation at Disney seems to have went with him.

[DisneyJedi]

... And Roy pretty much represents Cinderella's dearly departed father, hand-drawn represents Cinderella and Iger represents the stepmother (revealing his true and selfish self upon Roy's death) in all this.

[Lnds500]

I would prefer it much more to just let hand drawn die, completely. No rumours, no experimentation, no false hope and promises they don't tend to keep. This situation is awful.

Just let them do their thing, do CGI films or whatever they wanna pass as art these days and let hand drawn alone. They clearly have no idea what to do with it and the artistic side of the equation has gone out of the window in Disney. They have become way too big and way too greedy. Everyone is a suit apparently.

Lest we forget
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca1K3Xj_JPc[/youtube]

[DisneyJedi]

You know, I wish they would realize that the animation medium was NOT the one at fault for a movie being "bad" or underperforming. I mean, honestly, did Princess or Pooh not do Lion King numbers because they sucked?

No! It's because someone at Disney was an idiot for pitting them against Avatar, Harry Potter or whatever. Therefore, management has no one to blame for PatF's moderate financial performance and Pooh's underperformance but themselves. If anything, it's someone in charge of release dates who should be let go, NOT the animators!

[TsWade2]

I'm sorry, but

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6klI5oJfe50

[Disney's Divinity]

The "celebrate" comment was obviously sarcasm.

I thought I was missing something there.

[TsWade2]

This calls for a funeral music. Let's have a moment of silence.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ym6dG-BLfc[/youtube]

[Lnds500]

You know, I wish they would realize that the animation medium was NOT the one at fault for a movie being "bad" or underperforming. I mean, honestly, did Princess or Pooh not do Lion King numbers because they sucked?

No! It's because someone at Disney was an idiot for pitting them against Avatar, Harry Potter or whatever. Therefore, management has no one to blame for PatF's moderate financial performance and Pooh's underperformance but themselves. If anything, it's someone in charge of release dates who should be let go, NOT the animators!

I don't buy that anymore. Something is wrong with the medium, or something is wrong with what the medium represents for the public.

Tangled made nearly double the money PatF did. I can't blame it on marketing or the name change, these couldn't have been that huge factors. Winnie the Pooh was doomed to fail 'cause it's Winnie the Pooh. You limit your audience immensely. I've known 10 year olds who thought Winnie is for "younger kids". The fact that they pitted it against HP8 had nothing to do with it - how many people were interested in both? They shot themselves in the foot with Winnie. They clearly wanted to commit to the "1 hand drawn film per year" plan but they lacked the creativity to do so.

I am starting to think that the public has grown tired of Disney's animated style. And that hasn't changed, not even with Paperman. They went to all this trouble, they invented a whole new technique to produce what?? Something we've seen before? Maybe they needed to try a completely different style.. for once.

[DisneyAnimation88]

There was a push to do more hand-drawn features when Lasseter and Catmull arrived, but the studio (Iger) didn't want to go all in.

Says it all about Iger, the man has no creativity, no appreciation of the heritage of the company he is in charge of and no faith in those who do have those things.

It's sad it's reached the point it has but it isn't a surprise.

Looking forward to Iger being gone, hopefully his successor won't be Tom Staggs or Jay Rasulo.

[SWillie!]

John and Ron are working on a CG-hand-drawn feature that looks computer generated. There's a (partial) hand-drawn short in production, but WDAS is not interested in carrying its hand-drawn staff. (They were told last year that their time at the studio was finite.)

I wish he'd elaborate on his wording here. When he says they aren't interested in carrying its hand drawn staff, is he referring to the partial hand drawn short, as the beginning of that sentence would allude? Or is he referring to the entire hand drawn staff, including those on Ron and John's film? If they're only just now getting started on a film, they have at least a few years yet. I'm a little confused by that part.

[TsWade2]

There was a push to do more hand-drawn features when Lasseter and Catmull arrived, but the studio (Iger) didn't want to go all in.

Says it all about Iger, the man has no creativity, no appreciation of the heritage of the company he is in charge of and no faith in those who do have those things.

It's sad it's reached the point it has but it isn't a surprise.

Looking forward to Iger being gone, hopefully his successor won't be Tom Staggs or Jay Rasulo.

Yeah, I hear Tom Staggs is an nostalgic hater!

[TheValentineBros]

Says it all about Iger, the man has no creativity, no appreciation of the heritage of the company he is in charge of and no faith in those who do have those things.

It's sad it's reached the point it has but it isn't a surprise.

Looking forward to Iger being gone, hopefully his successor won't be Tom Staggs or Jay Rasulo.

Yeah, I hear Tom Staggs is an nostalgic hater!

I guess you never learned my lesson that you should calm down and not to go apeshit on hand-drawn animation and put overused reaction videos.

[TsWade2]

I guess you never learned my lesson that you should calm down and not to go apeshit on hand-drawn animation and put overused reaction videos.

I can't help it. I don't want Disney to lose hand drawn again.

[DisneyJedi]

There was a push to do more hand-drawn features when Lasseter and Catmull arrived, but the studio (Iger) didn't want to go all in.

Says it all about Iger, the man has no creativity, no appreciation of the heritage of the company he is in charge of and no faith in those who do have those things.

It's sad it's reached the point it has but it isn't a surprise.

Looking forward to Iger being gone, hopefully his successor won't be Tom Staggs or Jay Rasulo.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Iger is no better than Eisner. If anything, he's WORSE! He doesn't give a damn about quality or the people who put all their sweat, blood and tears into anything they make. All he cares about is profits and I'm pretty sure those are the ONLY reasons he got Marvel and Lucasfilm, to squeeze every last cent out of them.

I know big name companies need money to survive, but....

Fuck Bob Iger! Fuck him and his lack of creativity!

[DisneyAnimation88]

Yeah, I hear Tom Staggs is an nostalgic hater!

It's not about nostalgia, it's about having a CEO who has at least some creativity and has a vision to build the company from within rather than buy things from the outside. If you're a Disney shareholder I'm sure you would be delighted with Iger, if you're purely a Disney fan then I think it's hard to be entirely on board with the direction he has steered the company in. He has done good business deals but Disney is a company steeped in creativity and he has moved it in another direction away from that.

It ended badly for Michael Eisner but for a time it was amazing to see some of the things the company was doing. He had great creative instincts and was determined to improve the company by getting the very best out of all the assets at his disposal. It started to go wrong when Frank Wells died, we all know that, but I would love to see someone with Eisner's best qualities in charge of the company, someone with a clear vision to grow the company from within.

I don't hate Iger but he has limitations and I think he's reached the end of the line in terms of what he can bring to Disney. That's my opinion on this anyway.