Different Styles Of Disney Animation: Best / Worst ?

[jeremy88]

I thought that picture of Pocahontas was beautiful...anyways.

I think my favorite style of animation would have to be...

The animation in the 1950s. Especially Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, something about them I don't know what but they've always looked the best to me...I also really LOVE the animation in Sleeping Beauty...as DisneyKid said...every movement is calculated to the fullest. It just flows so well together, its amazing! Honestly I think that showcases Disney animation at it's finest.

[Jules]

'Aladdin' is also a fine example of the animators choosing a style that compliments and is complimented by the animation. As we know, the line-work here is very Hirschfeld-influenced, and it works perfectly. The design of the characters, particularly the Genie and Jafar, shows that the animators relished the use of smooth, calligraphic lines to describe both form and movement.

Do you think Hirschfeld influenced the design of every character of the film? To my eyes, the Genie and Jafar have those smooth flowing lines as you describe. However, would I sound stupid if I said that other characters (e.g. Aladdin, Jasmine and Iago) are designed in the more traditional Disney style (i.e. balance between a realistic and stylized look)? And if so, is there anything wrong with this? Or should all character designs limit themselves to one style? I'd like to know what you think.

As we know, though, "Walt hated lines" and much preferred the style we see in most of the films before '101 Dalmatians'.

I don't understand why Walt didn't do something during production of 101 Dalmatians regarding the Xerox-y lines if he despised the said lines so much. The most logical explanation to me would be that he had no choice because of the rising costs of animation (after all, that's why Ub Iwerks invented the Xerox process in the first place - to eliminate hand inking and save money). Then again, if he had no choice, why would he refuse to speak to Ken Anderson for a year after Dalmatians (since he was so miffed about the design)? It's not like Ken was to blame ...

'Aladdin' seems to be the first time, however, that the new generation of animators decided to give each film a style of its own.

That's interesting. I remember Disneykid saying that in his opinion, Aladdin was the first Disney film from the new breed of animators to have consistent-looking animation (with no off-model stuff).
Some connection, maybe?

EDIT, after seeing post length: And if you read through all that rigmarole, you deserve points for stamina.

Allow me to say that I loved reading your post, word for word.

[MagicMirror]

Do you think Hirschfeld influenced the design of every character of the film? To my eyes, the Genie and Jafar have those smooth flowing lines as you describe. However, would I sound stupid if I said that other characters (e.g. Aladdin, Jasmine and Iago) are designed in the more traditional Disney style (i.e. balance between a realistic and stylized look)? And if so, is there anything wrong with this? Or should all character designs limit themselves to one style? I'd like to know what you think.

I think you're right; all the characters in the film follow the Hirschfeld style. I'm thinking of Aladdin's scenes particularly when he's zipping about in the 'One Jump' sequence - the lines and the forms seem very Hirschfeld-y to me. The reason I picked out Jafar and the Genie was that they are the most obviously Hirschfeld-inspired to me, where one single sweeping line describes Jafar's side from his toe to his shoulder, and from Genie's tail to the top of his head. But all of the characters follow the aesthetic of the film really, really well. It's a really satisfying film to watch.

I don't understand why Walt didn't do something during production of 101 Dalmatians regarding the Xerox-y lines if he despised the said lines so much. The most logical explanation to me would be that he had no choice because of the rising costs of animation (after all, that's why Ub Iwerks invented the Xerox process in the first place - to eliminate hand inking and save money). Then again, if he had no choice, why would he refuse to speak to Ken Anderson for a year after Dalmatians (since he was so miffed about the design)? It's not like Ken was to blame...

I think by the time he got to '101 Dalmatians' Walt was more interested in the theme parks and had lost interest in the films to an extent. The directors were hard pressed to get him to attend story meetings for 'Sleeping Beauty' and in '101 Dalmatians' he was even less involved, and basically left the job to Bill Peet and Ken Anderson, who "had (Walt) lined up (for meetings), but he kept ducking me." In other words I think Walt saw very little of the film (due to his lack of involvement) before it was too late to change. Though the xerox process was the only way the animated films could continue for the time being, Walt accepted but disliked it - I think where he took umbrage was the way the lines are not only used in the animation but also the backgrounds (the film is really the first Disney feature that actually 'embraces' the lines rather than tries to hide them). It's also thought by some that his anger partly stemmed from jealousy of a team which could make a successful film without him! I agree that he seems to have been a little irrational in his hatred of the film, at any rate.

That's interesting. I remember Disneykid saying that in his opinion, Aladdin was the first Disney film from the new breed of animators to have consistent-looking animation (with no off-model stuff).
Some connection, maybe?

I think so! When they have a clear style to follow the animators and their assistants are all referring to the same thing. When they're on a film where the style isn't clearly dictated they aren't all 'on the same plane' and tend to produce an inconsistent result.

[Disneykid]

That's interesting. I remember Disneykid saying that in his opinion, Aladdin was the first Disney film from the new breed of animators to have consistent-looking animation (with no off-model stuff).
Some connection, maybe?

I think so! When they have a clear style to follow the animators and their assistants are all referring to the same thing. When they're on a film where the style isn't clearly dictated they aren't all 'on the same plane' and tend to produce an inconsistent result.

Yup, I completely agree (Kudos to Julian for remembering I said that). The more stylized something is, the easier it is to copy and mimic. This is why most of the princesses tend to look off-model in various pieces of clipart and artwork while other characters like Peter Pan, Hercules, and Tarzan tend to be replicated fairly accurately.

When I went through my Platinum Editions a couple of weeks ago in preparation for The Jungle Book, I purposely looked for off-model scenes in Aladdin, yet the only time that occurred was during "Friend Like Me" because of Aladdin's last-minute design change. Whereas with Beauty and the Beast, I didn't even have to look. Belle and the Beast's appearances kept changing in virtually every scene, particularly Belle.

[Kyle]

does anyone know what disney films were rotoscoped? I know sleeping beauty used it a lot, but I'm not sure how much it was done later. Im guessing a lot of the more realistic ones, but Id hate it if I heard some of my favorite disney stuff was. (such as Aladdin) another rotoscoped film, albeit not disney, was Anastasia.

rotoscoping is a huge animation pet peeve of mine. it almost never looks like it should, and it just comes off as lazy. at least when it comes to main character performances.

[leuchtmuschel]

I like most the style of Disney animation from:

The three Caballeros
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
These films have the typical classical style of Disney animation. I love the colors from the Artist Mary Blair.

Aladdin
I like the curvy drawings of the characters influenced by Al Hirschfeld. They have made a fair use of Arabian art with a clear statement that this fairy tale is made from a western company. This film is pure fun. Although this film is a funny Disney version of Arabic world it shows the richness of a culture from we get a lot: Our Arabic numbers, scientific results…

Sleeping Beauty
I like the details in the backgrounds very much. And the changing of colors in the dress of Briar Rose made from the fairies.

“OK, pink!”

Beauty and the Beast
I like the colors in this film very much.

Pocahontas
The style of Pocahontas is a very realistic presentation of a model. I like the use of colors to tell the story. Red stands for danger.

“Blue!”

101 Dalmatians
I prefer the old hand made inking. The xerographic process was new in the time this film was made. Although we see the original drawing from the clean up artists, the film suffers a little bit in drawing style from my viewpoint.

Hercules
This film has a neo-greco-Disney-scarfian style. This bold style fits well to the theme and story of this film. But I feel the stress of production. The changing of animation drawing style was indeed a shock for the team of artists.

The little mermaid
This film goes back to the classical Disney style. I love the huge eyes of Ariel. The artists have done a good choice to give Ariel red hair. Other colors like yellow are unfortunately with the color scheme under the sea, because they always tend to be gray or brown in this situation. The color changing of red hair is much easier to handle and gives more fun to the audience.

“Pink!”

Tarzan
We see the results from the successor of the multiplane camera: The deep canvas process.

Treasure planet
I like the 3-D-animation from John Long Silver (Glen Keane). He shows us how to move a 2-D-character with this new technology.

“No, blue!”

Fantasia 2000
The 3-D animation of the fire bird was completely done with 2-D-animation! It shows us the possibilities of the drawing board.

"Pinkbluish!"

glowing clam: Stop this please! Right now! I’m writing an article into UltimateDisney! You mess it up! Oh fairies...

[Jules]

does anyone know what disney films were rotoscoped? I know sleeping beauty used it a lot, but I'm not sure how much it was done later. Im guessing a lot of the more realistic ones, but Id hate it if I heard some of my favorite disney stuff was. (such as Aladdin) another rotoscoped film, albeit not disney, was Anastasia.

rotoscoping is a huge animation pet peeve of mine. it almost never looks like it should, and it just comes off as lazy. at least when it comes to main character performances.

I'm always confused about this topic. According to Disney, they never rotoscoped anything. They used live-action reference, but never succumbed to simply tracing over the figures.

So, are Disney lying or are they telling the truth? Miyazaki claims that Cinderella is rotoscoped. *harumph* And I remember that on the bonus features of an animated film, 'Heavy Metal', the makers keep saying how they rotoscoped certain parts, and then, as if to defend themselves, they say that "Disney used to do it aswell."

How nice.

[MagicMirror]

Most of the live-action reference used was not rotoscoped but just used as a guide.

In general it was frowned upon but in some instances rotoscoping was used; the Prince in Snow White, the Blue Fairy, and some scenes of Snow White herself (by some of the lesser animators; lead animators Grim Natwick and Ham Luske didn't approve of or use rotoscope). But most of the time they didn't simply trace the live-action footage. I don't know about the characters in Cinderella - I think the poses are from the live action (albeit exaggerated) but the 'personality animation' is mostly from the animator.

Some of the characters in Sleeping Beauty do move in a rather stilted way but I don't think they were directly traced from the live-action footage - perhaps the Prince and Princess, but certainly not the fairies.

Thinking about it again, Milt Kahl (who did all the Princes, Peter Pan, Wart and so on) was very disapproving of using live-action reference and was an excellent draughtsman, so probably didn't use it very much. I know that he referred to no live-action footage for Medusa or Shere Khan, which always amazes me.

Some of the older Disney films had a lot of live-action reference shot - every humanoid character in 'Pinocchio', I think, including Jiminy and Foulfellow - but the animation tends to look better, as with Stromboli, Hook and Cruella, when used sparingly.

[gregmasciola]

Interesting topic. I would have to say that my favorite Disney animation would be the style used in Peter Pan. It had very detailed backgrounds and colorful lines.
In movies like One Hundred And One Dalmations and Sword In The Stone when they used the xerox process, the lines are pretty much all solid black. Then there's also the fact that in these films they used more abstract backgrounds as well, which makes the movies look a little bit flat. (I still like them, though).
The Jungle Book also used the xerox process, but the backgrounds were beautiful and full of detail, so I think the method worked better in this film than Dalmations and Sword In The Stone.
I thought the animation in Aladdin was fine, I just think they used a little too much CGI. Like when Aladdin needs to dig through the snow to free Carpet from under the tower, the tower looks a bit too real, which kind of makes you forget that it's an animated film.
But I still think it's cool to see so many different styles of animation from different periods. I still think that the style of the '50s was the best.

[Cordy_Biddle]

I imagine it's incredibly hard to draw and realisticly animate a human figure. In the special features for "Cinderella" they explore the extensive live-action reference work which was done to help the animators, but many refused to be bound by that footage, preferring more freedom to explore their characters.

I don't think Disney ever did a movie in which the human figures were heavily rotoscoped from live-action reference. In Don Bluth's 1997 "Anastasia" it's very obvious, in the way the figures move and interact through scenes, that computer animation and rotoscoping live action footage was the main creative decision.

[Jim's Jewel]

I'd have to go back and watch some of my Disney movies before deciding on which era I prefer the animation, but some of my favorites (animation-wise) would have to include:

Cinderella
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians (I kinda like the sketchy look of it.)
The Little Mermaid
Beauty & the Beast
The Lion King (I like the coloring in this movie.)
Pocahontas
Treasure Planet (I like the 2-D and 3-D animation together.)

As for WORST animation, I never really liked the animation in any of the newer sequels, (with the exception of the Lion King ones.) They're just way too cartoony for my taste, especially Return of Jafar and the Sleeping Beauty segment of the Enchanted Tales. (Even though Enchanted Tales is technically not a sequel, but you get my point.)

[JohnnyWeir]

Kyle, how could you think that the animation in Pinnochio is "bland"? Pinnochio is definitely one of, or maybe even THE most detailed Disney movie!