Where are WDFA-Orlando's animators going?

[Maerj]

They are starting their own animation studio!

http://www.digitalproducer.com/2004/01_ ... unched.htm

And this is their website: http://www.legacyanimation.net/

2D isn't dead afterall! Good luck guys! We're rootin' for ya!

[Jack]

I expect the same level of quality of films like Brother Bear to continue in this studio, so I definately look forward to their upcoming projects.

[JaYDiSNeY]

im happy that there is still hope for 2D animation but i still wish it would be under the Disney name...thats just me

[Jake Lipson]

As much as it hurts me to say it, the Disney name has been tarnished and doesn't stand for quality anymore. It stands for a mixed bag. And it needs a revival. Just like it did when Don Blueth walked out of the WDFA building 25 years ago and took some of Disney's best animators with him. Their films made Disney sit up and take notice and led to the return to form that resulted in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. I hope that Legacy Animation is a rousing success. It's a wonderful day for animation, and in Legacy's birth I am overjoyed that traditional animation of the upmost quality will continue. Legacy has my full support.

And who knows? Maybe, in a couple years, when Legacy's first feature shows up and wows the world, everyone involved with WDFA will sit up, take notice, and return the house that Walt built to its former glory.

All Hail Legacy Animation! Here, here!

[Loomis]

As much as it hurts me to say it, the Disney name has been tarnished and doesn't stand for quality anymore. It stands for a mixed bag. And it needs a revival.

Hmm. I have mixed feeling about that. I wouldn't so much say the Disney name no longer stands for quality (as the last few film, while being a commercial mixed bag, were all quite good, or at least as good as the stuff other studios were doing. Lilo and Stitch being the obvious example of people digging it). I just think the public perception of what constitutes quality has shifted.

"3D" seems to be the catch phrase at the moment, and the monumental successes of Shrek and Finding Nemo (and that's not to begrudge the succes of either, as I really enjoyed both) is largely the cause of that. Disney doesn't seem to be helping the matter by largely ditching their 2D department, outside the television departments.

I do agree with you on one point: a revival is needed. However, the nature of that revival is what is troubling most people at the moment. It would seem the Disney revival is happening in the live action and 3D front, not in the 2D front.

I don't know - maybe we do all need to learn to adapt to the change. I do regret seeing the style and beauty of the past...forgotten is a bad word because we still have the originals....abandoned would be a better one. Having said that, this new technology may open up doors to animated stuff we couldn't possibly imagine. After all, without technology, films like the Lion King may not have had the same grandeur that they did.