Sad news: Disney has announced they no longer have plans to make any more hand drawn animated films. I adore hand drawn animation and how far Disney has pushed it over the years. Their art has been a large part of many childhoods, including my own, showing us how to convey great stories, great characters, and great art through animation. They have helped us grow, learn, and imagine beyond what we thought we could imagine. I connect these words to the end of any great artistic phenomenon, “I’ll be back when you call me, no need to say good bye.”

Now that Disney seems to be putting in the final nails into the 2d studios coffin I would like to point out something that might be of some good news, I think that the success of Paperman might well give all the 2D artists within Disney a chance to move into the 3D space, “Papermans” achievement is in allowing an artist to add animation on top  of existing 3d models to give the characters a more hand drawn look. Using “Meander” (a excellent article is on this subject and Papermans making of is here in FXGuide ).

It might in some respects be seen as little more then an artist doing filler work, but watching that animation I hold out hope that they will make more films using that look. The other issue is that a lot of animation these days are done in 3D or flash, giving it a particular look about it that the younger generation feels comfortable with. People such as myself who were there at some of the first 3d animations were being introduced (Young Sherlock Holmes “Knight scene” anyone? ) to Tron (sudo 3d but not really) to the eventual appearance of Pixars Toy Story could probably see this was something that was going to come about eventually. Disney reputation for making 2D animation in the past was tarnished by the way it treated its animators before and after the death of Walt Disney and the success of the Lion King, (a old but great documentary is that of Dream on silly dreamer for those interested in seeing what I mean).

I was lucky enough to meet a few of the greats that worked in those studios and still keep my posters of their signed works cherished on my walls. Seeing Eric Goldberg at Animex 2011 and seeing the reaction of the crowd on his final closing talk was one of the most memorable moments Ive ever seen.  He literally was in tears at the amount of people who remembered his characters and appreciated all he had done through his life.

Now we are in a generation of animators in front of keyboards. We will still need our 2D artists to give us the spark and imagination to create these characters, but we also now have much more fluid abilities to create characters in 3D as well.

It is a sad day, but we still have the memories and a hope that those that were working on 2D projects can make the transition to 3D and carry on trying to inspire the future generations.

As Doug mentioned on behalf of the 2D Disney animators “I’ll be back when you call me, no need to say good bye.”

Laters all.