Hand-drawn animation in America declined fast. Animator Tony White explains why traditional 2D animation is down but not out, and what artists can do.
The demise of the traditional, hand-drawn animation industry in America occurred quite rapidly in the end. It had taken over 100 years to grow and mature the art form but almost in one terminal swoop of the axe it was suddenly swept away and filed under the ‘antiques’ column. The advent of readily accessible computers and computer animation was perhaps the first nail in the coffin of drawn animation.
But the real collapse occurred when corporate Disney CEO, Michael Eisner, famously closed their amazing 2D animation studio in Burbank in 2002. In all honesty it wasn’t as if the Disney studio was producing great and classic animated films at that time. It most certainly wasn’t! But this wasn’t the fault of the artists or the animators who still did their work to high degrees of skill and integrity. It was more a question of the terrible judgments made by the upper management – i.e. for green-lighting projects that should never have seen the light of day in the first place! Consequently, the closure of the studio was more a veiled admission that the leadership had lost its way and that the vulnerable artists, animators and art form in general were most convenient scapegoats!
What had been increasingly happening at corporate Disney until that point in time was in essence a 180-degree reversal of what Walt had always believed in when he established the studio during its golden years. Walt’s vision was always to create high quality stories for generations to come, not next year’s window of marketing opportunity. But the opposite was now true of the studio that still bore his great name. Also, big savings were to be made in shutting things down and there were most likely a few bonuses to be made in the wake of that decision – that is, if the corporate norm was being upheld. The real problem with the studio closure however was not so much in relation to the Disney studio shutdown specifically, but with the message it sent out to the rest of the industry at that time. This effectively flagged to the world at large a message that said it was an end of all traditional animation, not just failed Disney animation. The fallout proved catastrophic. Traditional 2D animation was suddenly a sinking ship that everyone had to jump off before it went down!
Beyond the USA this was most definitely not the case. Here the traditional animation industry still thrives and remains in comparatively rude health. With initiatives such as the remarkable “Cartoon Movie” event in Europe, the long and continuing tradition of Manga and Anime in Japan and the emergent giant forces in India and China picking up 2D animation’s baton, the picture is so very different! Yet in the USA, all this seems immaterial. It certainly didn’t help that Michael Eisner was widely reported as pronouncing that “2D is dead!” when he closed the studio in 2002! Somehow the notion stuck that he actually knew what he was talking about and from that moment on the Hollywood ‘movers and shakers’ continued to wash their hands of traditional animation – except of course they outsourced the cheap and nasty stuff abroad!
Traditional animators themselves have never given up believing. It is clear we no longer have the support of the Hollywood hierarchy but we know, deep in our hearts, that traditional animation still has so much to offer. Even Disney made a feeble, more recent attempt at reviving 2D with their The Princess and the Frog movie, but this largely unoriginal, unremarkable pastiche of all that was once great at Disney has actually done more harm that good. On the other hand, more imaginative approaches to traditional animation do offer more than a glimmer of hope. Kung Fu Panda for example was outstanding as a film and even proved a bigger success at the box-office. Critically acclaimed films such as Triplets of Belleville, Secret of Kells and more recently, The Illusionist give further signs of hope. (Although it must be pointed out that all of these Oscar-nominated movies were made in Europe!)
As far as the Disney closure was concerned, I had seen the writing on the wall some time before. Indeed, as a gesture of defiance against the inevitability of what was happening, I started to write my second book on traditional animation techniques, “Animation from Pencils to Pixels ~ Classical Techniques for Digital Animators” a couple of years before. It was my own personal effort to keep the knowledge and the principles of traditional animation alive and available. To support this mission I also embarked on a short film that was designed to accompany the book in CD form – “Endangered Species”. Endangered Species was never really designed to be conventional audience material. Its insider, mockumentary style attempted to highlight the amazing rise and fall (and the possible rise again?) of an irreplaceable 2D tradition. I attempted this by replicating some of animation’s finest moments through the film, then writing about them in the book – explaining why I chose the clips I did, how they were created originally and how I replicated them digitally.
I never in all honesty believed “Endangered Species” would attract the interest it has. It somehow seems to have gained momentum with time, not the reverse. I think it hits an itch that no one has been able to scratch. It was actually unfinished when the book first came out but the final version ultimately became a slow-burner in terms of its acceptance. Out of respect for this I later posted a low-resolution version of it on YouTube and now sell (via my blogsite) an online DVD version of it (accompanied by my British Academy Award-winning HOKUSAI ~ An Animated Sketchbook as well as a number of my most respected TV commercials). A book of the artwork and the making of the film are being planned next.
At the recent CTN Expo event in Los Angeles I was totally overwhelmed by all the gestures of support and affection animators from every aspect of the industry have shown me in my defense of the medium. I was particularly struck by the number of general audience members who earnestly tell me they totally miss animated movies – and I am even more surprised by the number of computer animators who actually wish they could trade-in their computers for pencils and paper once again! All this proves to me that the great art-form of traditional animation is not in any way dead and buried just yet, and that a genuine renaissance might be just around the corner.
Corporate Disney may have lost the plot on what is needed long ago but I do believe that the artists and animators they left in their wake still have a loud creative voice, if they are enabled to use it. Traditional animators everywhere wait for a chance to prove themselves once again and my own plans are not in any way deterred by current mainstream apathy. I believe that given one chance, the case can be proven that audiences will still flock to see well-made, imaginative, creatively groundbreaking, traditional animated movies if given opportunity. Let us remember too that traditional animation is no longer just about ‘cartoons’ any more. Renascence artists and animators everywhere have grown out of that notion long ago.
Needless to say, my colleagues and I are sharpening our pencils as we speak! Each of us is developing a number of new and original concepts so that others –specifically, in America – will know what is possible. Through our work we might again attract the financial support to show the world that Michael Eisner was wholly wrong and that traditional 2D animation in the USA is very much alive – and even willing to kick some butt to prove it!
Tony White is an award-winning author, animator, director and educator – currently full-time senior lecturer and program advisor at DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA, where he teaches the ‘Senior Film Project’ class as well as the Advanced Animation for Portfolio class. Tony is also founder and president of Animaticus Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to preserving, teaching and evolving the art from of traditional 2D animation in this digital age. The Foundation’s main success is in hosting the annual 2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival in Seattle – now in its 5th year, with the next one being at the Eames Theater, Pacific Science Center.
Tony’s personal blog can be found at http://blog.animaticus.com.
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