What are you thinking RIGHT NOW?

[Elton John]

Yeah.

It was the movie that slowly killed traditional hand drawn animation at theaters. As good as it was, it killed many careers of veteran animators who couldn’t transition to cgi. In the past 10 years only a handful of movies, East or West were traditional animation. Outside of Ghibli Japan mostly moved on to digital animation for 2D stuff and most 2D features in America like spongebob and teen titans go to the movies were digital. There was Ernest and Celestine which was gorgeous but also the exception, it was done the old way.

Ghibli was the last Japanese studio that still animated the old way when every other anime studio moved on to digital 2D or cgi.

Digital animation has gotten better in the past 20 years but still looks crap compared to Snow White, Bambi, the old Fliescher Superman shorts..

Though, it is unfair to blame it all on Toy Story. Most 2D movies by Disney after The Lion King were not nearly as popular and something like Lilo and Stitch is mainly popular because of Stitch. He sells merch by the truckloads everywhere. If someone argued he was Disneys most popular character worldwide I wouldn’t argue against them.

CGI movies now look utterly gorgeous compared to their start but I think the best of the 2D stuff from Disney, Ghibli, Don Bluth and whatnot topple them.

[Stormy]

While things like Toy Story films and Frozen are beautifully made, something about traditional feels.. better for me. They both take lots of hard work to be done though. So not to take away from CGI of course. But I always knew Toy Story was a bit after LK because I remember the car scene where Hakuna Matata was played as the music in the car. Though I wonder, didn’t Disney take Pixar AFTER Toy Story 1 and 2? Like 2006? So was Disney always included in the original Toy Story product?

[MeerkatOnTheMoon]

Agree with you all on the 2D magic. Those were the golden years of animation. “The Princess and the Frog” was stunningly made and promoted diversity. Too bad it got lost in a sea of 3D and CGI movies. Still a gem, though.

I forgot about the year Disney took Pixar. But their names have always been placed side by side on the posters I think. “Disney and Pixar”. Don Bluth’s 2D films were amazing, including “Anastasia” that combined both 2D and 3D.

[Stormy]

The Princess and the Frog is beautifully animated as a 2D film. Just gorgeous. Wasn’t this the last theatrical 2D animated film released by Disney? I know it definitely wasn’t the last shown, due to TLK being re-released in 2011 for 3D. But actually last made for the year it was released.

Speaking of which, I always wonder if Disney will ever do more theatrical re-releases of their 2D films like they did with TLK two times already. I don’t think TLK will get another, since it has been done multiple times now, and with the remake and a POSSIBLE sequel to the remake, I think they won’t risk getting people sick of the franchise if they haven’t already. but what about the other Disney renaissance films? Are they just too tired out by this point? The more I think about it, it seems extremely unlikely now that Disney+ is a thing.

[DGFone]

Winnie The Pooh (2011) was the last Dinsey 2D animated movie, so a little over a year after Princess and the Frog.

Also, Just noticed today that on my Zootopia DVD/Blu Ray box, it quotes a review as "...the best movie in 20 years..." (from Disney). Funny how when Zootopia came out, if that review claimed '25 years' instead, it would have been covering the period The Lion King came out, thus making the quote wrong. Also, March 4th is going to be when Zootopia came out in the US... 4 years ago. I saw it on release day by pure accident (and what a glorious happy little accident it was!)

[Stormy]

Reminds me of how one of Frozen trailers said “The greatest Disney animated event since The Lion King”. Almost as if they’re denying their animated films after TLK lol. But hey, they weren’t wrong in terms of success. The movie was such a hit. It’s like some say it’s basically The Lion King of this generation in terms of it’s success.
This one in particular at 1:40. https://youtu.be/FLzfXQSPBOg

I actually did not see Zootopia in theaters. I forgot why I didn’t. But when it was available afterwards, (within the same year) one of my friends told me it was a good movie, so I watched it with them and I ended up enjoying it.

[DGFone]

If I remember correctly, Frozen was the first "Disney Renaissance-esque" (musical, grand plot) movie since, well, the Disney renaissance. I think that line in the Frozen trailer had less to do with "The Lion King is the best Disney movie ever and we are comparing ours to it" and far more "look how we are finally returning to form".

Similarly, it's kinda funny reading about Zootopia's marketing since we know how well it did after release. But prior to release, it had all of the warning signs that Disney wasn't all that comfortable with it: March release date (when their less popular movies come out), the first trailer (https://youtu.be/5nP9hU8eUfE) was... terrible. The seconds trailer, while I personally like, I get the impression others were not so impressed by. But nevertheless, in that second trailer (https://youtu.be/jWM0ct-OLsM), you also see Disney pushing the whole "brought to you by the same creators that made Frozen, Wreck-it Ralph..." (and a few other movies I forgot) even though the actual creative team of Zootopia almost had nothing to do with those movies, just the backing financing studio. But hey, those movies did well, and we have no confidence about this one, but those movies you liked, so come and see our new one!

[Elton John]

Disney bet big on Moana being the bigger and more prestigious success, and while it didn’t flounder like Pocahontas did compared to tlk... Zootopia made more money and got more prestige.

Moana had Lin Manuel Miranda behind the music, he was a household name pre release thanks to Hamilton and his fame keeps on growing and growing and growing...

And in spite of Moana not being the Frozen-like success Disney probably wanted they were extremely wise not to burn bridges with Lin.

[MeerkatOnTheMoon]

Very true about Lin Manuel. Disney cast him in Mary Poppins Returns, and now Hamilton will finally be adapted into a movie. He's also writing for the new version of The Little Mermaid.

Agree about Frozen's success being an indicator of Disney's return to form.

[Elton John]

????

Hamilton isn’t being adapted into a movie. We are decades away from that. What is happening is that Disney bought the theatrical rights for a recording of Hamilton from 2016 I think? Disney paid 75 million and it will make 10-20 times that in revenue. That’s just how big Hamilton is.

We are finally getting a movie adaptation of In The Heights and that is a decade old and ended years ago and wasn’t nearly as successful as Hamilton.