From Saturday morning cartoons to full-length feature films, the medium of animation has long been a part of American culture. Disney animation is among the most popular and my favorite, by far. While Walt Disney revolutionized animation as an art form in terms of storytelling and creative visuals, the animation company continues to set standards with digital art in the entertainment world today.
Technology has long been a part of film, but as digital media became prevalent in the 1990’s, animation studios like Disney were quick to adapt and continue to learn how to establish a marriage between traditional animation and the digital platforms that have recently developed. One of the most significant changes that digital media has had on Disney animation can be seen in the 1991 film, Beauty and the Beast, which earned an Oscar nomination for best picture aided by its appealing storyline and exceptional animation, particularly in the scene below.
The ballroom scene shows the effectiveness of digital animation, while also foretelling the future of animation in regards to digital media with the influx of computer animation.
The success of Beauty and the Beast and its predecessor, The Little Mermaid, marked the beginning of the “Disney renaissance”, in which several successful musical films were produced, aided by the advancements of Digital media. Disney’s Aladdin showcases one of the first CGI characters in a full length animated film while also relying heavily on the CAPS program which allows for computer color filling in hand drawn images. The first three minutes of the following clip serve as an excellent example of the use of digital media in the film as Aladdin’s attempted escape from the Cave of Wonders on board the computer generated carpet showcases the new technologies used.
The animation studio continued to be successful throughout the early 1990’s with its combined use of digital art and traditional animation. Digital media continued to be helpful in expediting the process of filmmaking and enabling new angles and technologies to be used in film. However, with the introduction of Pixar and the revolution of completely computer-animated films, the Disney studio began to suffer throughout the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, producing a scanty line of relatively unsuccessful films, while its Pixar counterparts lead the industry (which will have to be discussed in different blog post). However, with the recent release of The Princess and the Frog it seems as though the studio is finally finding it’s place and perhaps finding a way to blend the digital arts with the traditional animation values in a way that will garner positive audience reaction and maintain the studio’s reverence as a leading producer of animated films.
Here are a couple links to some interesting websites pertaining the Disney animation, including the Walt Disney Studio website.
The History of Disney Animation
Walt Disney Pictures
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