For those interested in the history of animation, one of the most riveting chapters was the decline in popularity and success of hand-drawn animation coincided with the rising tide of computer-generated animated films helped with heavy box office receipts, critical acclaim, and earning notable accolades that was once bestowed on the former a decade earlier. The most major and renowned western animation studio to be affected by this turn of events was Walt Disney Feature Animation.
The documentary plays on one of the Disney trends of opening the film with a storybook to help convey the idealized and magical dream of becoming an animator for the Walt Disney Studios. Unfortunately, it reveals to be the opposite. For a movie with a runtime of 40 minutes, the film covers approximately twenty years of Disney feature animation history in a brisk and understandable pace with such events as the relocation of the animation division to Glendale, California, the new leadership team of Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the late Frank Wells, and the revitalization of theatrical Disney animated films during the early 1990s.
Suddenly, the dream goes dark with Katzenberg's brutal departure followed by an exodus of animators to DreamWorks Animation succeeded by the expansion of direct-to-video sequels and the influx of corporate executives into the animation division that stifled creativity, declined employee morale, and tarnished the Disney brand. The animators who remain allegiant to Disney themselves get expensive.
The interviewees are refreshingly not well-known names outside of lead animator Andreas Deja. They are just animators who were employed or recently laid off from Walt Disney Feature Animation. Because of this, it is easier to relate with their experience of working for a company where your work is rewarded, where you work overtime to finish certain tasks, and worry about staying employed in a fragile job market where layoffs and corporate cutbacks are on the horizon.
The sketchbook drawings that detail the events were simplistic at best. However, there is much left to be desired that was touched on, but not discussed in depth such as what notable factors helped make computer-animated films more popular and successful than the traditionally animated ones. How would the animators have confronted issues in their department if they had the upper hand instead of the corporate executives?
It would have been nice if it waited a few more years to see how the cards unfold, and hear the other side of the story from the former animation studio chiefs such as Peter Schneider, Thomas Schumacher, and David Stainton. Nevertheless, by the time the film was being filmed, the writing was on the wall that computer animated films would maintain its place in the theaters while new hand-drawn animation media would fade to television and direct-to-video films.
Directed by Dan Lund (himself a visual effects animator), this is a noble and insightful look at the rise and decline of the Disney feature animation studios though it falls somewhat short in its coverage. If you are interested in viewing the film, you can purchase the film online for less than two dollars.
The documentary plays on one of the Disney trends of opening the film with a storybook to help convey the idealized and magical dream of becoming an animator for the Walt Disney Studios. Unfortunately, it reveals to be the opposite. For a movie with a runtime of 40 minutes, the film covers approximately twenty years of Disney feature animation history in a brisk and understandable pace with such events as the relocation of the animation division to Glendale, California, the new leadership team of Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the late Frank Wells, and the revitalization of theatrical Disney animated films during the early 1990s.
Suddenly, the dream goes dark with Katzenberg's brutal departure followed by an exodus of animators to DreamWorks Animation succeeded by the expansion of direct-to-video sequels and the influx of corporate executives into the animation division that stifled creativity, declined employee morale, and tarnished the Disney brand. The animators who remain allegiant to Disney themselves get expensive.
The interviewees are refreshingly not well-known names outside of lead animator Andreas Deja. They are just animators who were employed or recently laid off from Walt Disney Feature Animation. Because of this, it is easier to relate with their experience of working for a company where your work is rewarded, where you work overtime to finish certain tasks, and worry about staying employed in a fragile job market where layoffs and corporate cutbacks are on the horizon.
The sketchbook drawings that detail the events were simplistic at best. However, there is much left to be desired that was touched on, but not discussed in depth such as what notable factors helped make computer-animated films more popular and successful than the traditionally animated ones. How would the animators have confronted issues in their department if they had the upper hand instead of the corporate executives?
It would have been nice if it waited a few more years to see how the cards unfold, and hear the other side of the story from the former animation studio chiefs such as Peter Schneider, Thomas Schumacher, and David Stainton. Nevertheless, by the time the film was being filmed, the writing was on the wall that computer animated films would maintain its place in the theaters while new hand-drawn animation media would fade to television and direct-to-video films.
Directed by Dan Lund (himself a visual effects animator), this is a noble and insightful look at the rise and decline of the Disney feature animation studios though it falls somewhat short in its coverage. If you are interested in viewing the film, you can purchase the film online for less than two dollars.
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