It’s a wierd realisation — there’s now a complete era that by no means grew up watching conventional 2D Disney animation. They didn’t hit pause on a DVD and watch Ariel’s hair glitch in mid-flow or see Aladdin freeze with half a smirk. That barely imperfect, hand-drawn appeal is what as soon as made Disney a family title, and now, after greater than a decade, it’d simply be making a comeback.
Final fall, Jennifer Lee handed over artistic reins to Zootopia (2016) and Encanto (2021) co-director Jared Bush, who stepped in as chief artistic officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios — a job extensively thought to be probably the most influential job in animation at the moment. And whereas he’s steering Disney into the longer term with upcoming releases, Bush additionally has one eye firmly on the previous.
“I like 2D,” Bush stated on the Annecy animation competition, including with a wink, “Proper now we now have 2D artists who’re performing some bonkers wonderful issues. I’ll depart it at that.”
If there was ever a sign that Disney’s hand-drawn roots would possibly return to the large display, that is it. The final absolutely 2D Disney film — 2011’s Winnie the Pooh — was sensible however underseen. Now, Bush has even introduced Ron Clements, the director behind The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, out of retirement to mentor the subsequent wave of animators.
“Our motion pictures must be big motion pictures. That’s the sort of motion pictures I like.” Bush stated. “I need to go and eat a large bucket of popcorn and be entertained. And I need to undergo all of the feelings. I need to really feel a deep connection. I need to cry, I need to snigger, I need to be excited,” However that doesn’t imply all the pieces must be photoreal or hyper-rendered. Typically, the purest feelings are greatest served with a pencil and paper.
Bush’s method blends ambition with storytelling integrity. He stated calls the viewers sensible, saying, “In the event that they really feel they’re simply getting completely different for various’s sake, versus it’s a filmmaker’s imaginative and prescient or that story must be one other step, that’s essential.” What Disney appears to be chasing now could be one thing that feels each recent and acquainted — not only a throwback, however a revival with function.
On this planet of ever-advancing CGI and AI-assisted manufacturing, bringing again 2D is radical. However perhaps that’s what Disney magic wants proper now: a return to the strokes that began all of it.