Okay, I know you guys are emotional because the man left, but are you seriously using Tangled as an example of why he left (Duster I'm looking at you). It might have not been how he originally envisioned, but he seemed fairly happy and proud of the result.
Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Walt Disney Animation Studio, After long and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to leave Disney Animation. I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist it’s siren call to step out and discover them. Disney has been my artistic home since September 9,1974. I owe so much to those great animators who mentored me—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—as well as to the many other wonderful people at Disney whom I have been fortunate to work with in the past nearly 38 years. Over these four decades I have seen so many changes, but the one thing that remains the same is that we all do this because we love it. I am humbled and deeply honored to have worked side by side so many artists, producers and directors during my career here at Disney, and I am tremendously proud of the films which together we have created. I will deeply miss working with you. With my most sincere and heartfelt good wishes for your and Disney’s continued artistic growth and success,
Glen
See? No hard feelings. He's after a new dream, he will be severely missed at Disney, but at the same tie he can't be faulted for wanting to do something else. Now is time for a new generation of animators to step up to the plate and continue the work, they learned from the best after all.
Semaj wrote:Man, remember when Eisner's resignation/Lasseter's promotion to COO (Chief Creative Officer) was supposed to be a huge relief for Disney animation?
What the hell happened?
The studio still barely makes any long-term hits, and the top talents are still being forced out. Now they've lost a modern legend.
Very depressing.
I do think Lasseter has revitalized Disney Animation. The quality of the 5 movies since he came are certainly better than they were directly before, with bad movies such as Home on the Range and Chicken Little being made.
Treasure Planet and Brother Bear do get more flak than they deserve, though.
This is definitely a minority opinion but I think WDAS is actually a little better than Pixar at the moment.
Dream Huntress wrote:Okay, I know you guys are emotional because the man left, but are you seriously using Tangled as an example of why he left (Duster I'm looking at you). It might have not been how he originally envisioned, but he seemed fairly happy and proud of the result.
Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Walt Disney Animation Studio, After long and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to leave Disney Animation. I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist it’s siren call to step out and discover them. Disney has been my artistic home since September 9,1974. I owe so much to those great animators who mentored me—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—as well as to the many other wonderful people at Disney whom I have been fortunate to work with in the past nearly 38 years. Over these four decades I have seen so many changes, but the one thing that remains the same is that we all do this because we love it. I am humbled and deeply honored to have worked side by side so many artists, producers and directors during my career here at Disney, and I am tremendously proud of the films which together we have created. I will deeply miss working with you. With my most sincere and heartfelt good wishes for your and Disney’s continued artistic growth and success,
Glen
See? No hard feelings. He's after a new dream, he will be severely missed at Disney, but at the same tie he can't be faulted for wanting to do something else. Now is time for a new generation of animators to step up to the plate and continue the work, they learned from the best after all.
Tangled was still a good movie, and they did introduce things into CG that hasn't really been done before in terms of getting more organic looking animation, so don't get me wrong, Im not trying to imply he was devistated by what they've done either. The film was successful so he can't have too many hard feelings. I just feel like it had so much more potential.
And honestly do you really think he would be vocal about how disappointed he might be? It wouldn't be very professional of him to make Disney look like the badguy, so I wouldn't doubt that he sugar coats his public statements, and even to those closer to him to an extent. You have to be a team player if you want to keep working an industry like this.
Its not just Glen either, Disney in general likes to dumb down directors visions because too often they don't think its marketable enough. Other studios do this as well, but there's more on the line for Disney so they tend to meddle more.
Kyle wrote:
Its not just Glen either, Disney in general likes to dumb down directors visions because too often they don't think its marketable enough. Other studios do this as well, but there's more on the line for Disney so they tend to meddle more.
Do we know of a post-walt era film where the director was given almost total freedom? I feel like it must've happened once, whether by accident or not. The Little Mermaid comes to mind for me, because i've always thought of it as almost perfection. Not to mention the fact that the studio was in such bad shape, it didn't have much to lose at that point.
Giving the director total freedom isn't necessarily a good idea. Or an author for that matter. "Meddling" is often needed to curb the directors' or authors' excesses.
That is not to say that I approve of dumbing down of material, but other than the addition of pointless comic relief characters in some of their 90s movies, have there really been that many examples of Disney animated films being dumbed down?
qindarka wrote:have there really been that many examples of Disney animated films being dumbed down?
Well, some if it is kind of a subjective thing anyway...Theres more to dumbing a movie down than, I dunno the gargoyals in hunchback. There's more that goes on that is less talked about. Personally most of the time I see concept art I end up thinking it looks better than the final result because somewhere along the line someone decided it was too much. too out there or unconventional. Not every concept piece mind you, theres a of lousy concepts, but a good number of them have more personality than what they evolve into That just how their process works, you get a bunch of concepts, then it's given to another artist they make changes, and so on and so forth until you end up with something that has been toned down enough so that it looks "disney" and "marketable".
What a shame... Glen is in a league all his own, no wonder he feels crippled in style by this once great company. Disney is Disney no more without it's greatest asset. Truly a black day in the history of the house of mouse
When it comes to brains, I got the lion-share,
but when it comes to bruth strength, I'm afraid I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool
Let us hope Glen's daughter will remain at Disney, she did such wonderfull background designs on Tangled.. Quit stifling creativity, that's what needs to be said here..
When it comes to brains, I got the lion-share,
but when it comes to bruth strength, I'm afraid I'm at the shallow end of the gene pool
REINIER wrote:What a shame... Glen is in a league all his own, no wonder he feels crippled in style by this once great company. Disney is Disney no more without it's greatest asset. Truly a black day in the history of the house of mouse
Semaj wrote:Man, remember when Eisner's resignation/Lasseter's promotion to COO (Chief Creative Officer) was supposed to be a huge relief for Disney animation?
What the hell happened?
The studio still barely makes any long-term hits, and the top talents are still being forced out. Now they've lost a modern legend.
Very depressing.
I do think Lasseter has revitalized Disney Animation. The quality of the 5 movies since he came are certainly better than they were directly before, with bad movies such as Home on the Range and Chicken Little being made.
Treasure Planet and Brother Bear do get more flak than they deserve, though.
This is definitely a minority opinion but I think WDAS is actually a little better than Pixar at the moment.
He still has yet to keep his promise (if he did) at keeping hand-drawn alive. Yes, The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh are REALLY recent examples of hand-drawn films, but those are the only recent ones so far. C'mon, John! You promised us and it feels like you're not completely going through on that promise!
REINIER wrote:What a shame... Glen is in a league all his own, no wonder he feels crippled in style by this once great company. Disney is Disney no more without it's greatest asset. Truly a black day in the history of the house of mouse
This does seem rather hyperbolic.
I don't think you quite understand the effect that Glen had on Disney. It wasn't just his work. He has served as a huge inspiration for hundreds of artists, and has trained much of the new generation of animators. He really was Disney's greatest asset.
SWillie! wrote:I don't think you quite understand the effect that Glen had on Disney. It wasn't just his work. He has served as a huge inspiration for hundreds of artists, and has trained much of the new generation of animators. He really was Disney's greatest asset.
Plus, the innovative CG animation we saw in Tangled was Glen's doing.
SWillie! wrote:I don't think you quite understand the effect that Glen had on Disney. It wasn't just his work. He has served as a huge inspiration for hundreds of artists, and has trained much of the new generation of animators. He really was Disney's greatest asset.
Plus, the innovative CG animation we saw in Tangled was Glen's doing.
Definitely. He really seemed like a force for pushing animation to be the very best that it can be.
I mean, yes, of course Disney will get along and survive without him. But it really is the end of an era (although with Eric Goldberg still there, I suppose that era is holding on by a thread).
I do appreciate his work and consider Tangled to be his crowning achievement. Yet it seems strange to think of him as irreplaceable when Tangled is the only recent movie that he has been involved in. The bulk of his work was in the late 80s and 90s. WDAS has shown they can make good movies without Glen Keane.
Also, there is no real proof to back up claims that he left because Disney is stifling his creativity. Certainly the man himself has never mentioned anything to that effect. We can speculate all we want on what might have been but I wish we could appreciate the movies that have been produced rather than assuming that alternate versions would necessarily be better.
qindarka wrote:
I do think Lasseter has revitalized Disney Animation. The quality of the 5 movies since he came are certainly better than they were directly before, with bad movies such as Home on the Range and Chicken Little being made.
Treasure Planet and Brother Bear do get more flak than they deserve, though.
This is definitely a minority opinion but I think WDAS is actually a little better than Pixar at the moment.
He still has yet to keep his promise (if he did) at keeping hand-drawn alive. Yes, The Princess and the Frog and Winnie the Pooh are REALLY recent examples of hand-drawn films, but those are the only recent ones so far. C'mon, John! You promised us and it feels like you're not completely going through on that promise!
2 of the last 3 movies have been handdrawn. I know that the other rumored projects are all in CG but so far, only Wreck-it-Ralph and Frozen have been confirmed. Let's say that after Frozen is released, 2 of the last 5 Disney movies would have been handdrawn which isn't really that bad. Lets not worry about the other projects as of the moment since they could be changed or cancelled at any time.
I know that you are a great fan of hand-drawn animation so I've been wondering if you tried to look outside Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks for hand-drawn films. There are still plenty of them being released though not many are in the public consciousness.
qindarka wrote:I know that you are a great fan of hand-drawn animation so I've been wondering if you tried to look outside Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks for hand-drawn films. There are still plenty of them being released though not many are in the public consciousness.
There are no hand-drawn films produced by Hollywood. There are only foreign hand-drawn movies which rarely see the light of day in the U.S.
I don't think you quite understand the effect that Glen had on Disney. It wasn't just his work. He has served as a huge inspiration for hundreds of artists, and has trained much of the new generation of animators.
And you know what, he probably will continue to be. His teachings have been passed down for them to teach others. He did have a great influence and that won't change. If its true that he'll be working for Dreamworks or some other studio then he'll likely have an influence there as well. Just imagine, more movies (or tv shows, shorts whatever he moves onto) with his sensibilities. Competition is healthly after all and now he'll be able to teach and work with people outside of just Disney.
Disney will be fine. He was/is talented but he was hardly the only one left.
