Animation has been used to portray the events of a story for over 100 years. Animation as a storytelling device has changed throughout the years, though. The first traditional animation was “Fantasmagorie,” made in 1908 by Émile Cohl.
Traditional, or 2D animation, is the capturing of images held in between two pieces of glass, creating a moving picture when put together. Over time, animation has gone through many changes. Sadly, 2D animation has slowly run its course and has fallen to the wayside with the majority of commercial animation studios opting for the easier 3D, computer-generated animation
I believe that modern-day animation has gotten stale. I would say that the biggest flaw with animation today is how generic everything is. The once unique art styles that every company used to have, have seemingly devolved into easily reproducible corporate slop.
This problem is most common in the Western animation industry with companies like Disney, Illumination and Sony Pictures. These companies have all fallen into the trap of making easily digestible animations with no apparent soul or value.
A prime example of this phenomenon is Disney’s last nine animated movies most notably, “Luka,” “Elementals,” and “Wish.” All of these movies share one thing in common. They all have this simplistic art style that appeals to corporate design instead of embracing the creative vision of the directors.
After examining Disney’s last handful of films, the only two with a different art style are “Moana 2” and “Inside Out 2.” The reason why these two films stand out to me is because they feel more original and artistic. They also happen to be sequels to movies that came out before the artstyle change.
This is not the first time Disney has gone through an art style change either. In 2005, Disney released “Chicken Little,” their first feature length 3d animated film. Six years later, in 2011, Disney produced “Winnie the Pooh,” their last ever fully 2d animated movie.
I do not hate the fully 3D art style as it can be used in many creative ways. This can be seen in films like “Toy Story.” I just feel like in recent years those once creative art styles that were unique to certain companies have all been watered down into something that is easily digestible and requires very little thought to comprehend.
I would love to see a studio such as Disney return to their two-dimensional roots for a future film. I feel a lot of the newer 3D computer animations do not have the same charm as their hand-drawn counterparts.