The Decline of Traditional Animation
Despite the box office success of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, the failure of their much-hyped Treasure Planet seemed to ensure that there would be major cutbacks at Disney's animation studio. In 2004, Disney released what it announced to be its last traditionally-animated film, Home on the Range. The film received mixed reviews and was not successful at the box office.
That same year, the live-action film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was released. It was notable for being filmed entirely in front of a bluescreen, with the background being completely computer generated; only the actors and some props were real. Robert Zemeckis' film The Polar Express, starring Tom Hanks in five roles, was completely CGI animation, but used performance capture technology to animate the characters. Zemeckis followed The Polar Express with two other motion capture films: Beowulf and Disney's A Christmas Carol.
However, the release of The Princess and the Frog and The Secret of Kells in 2009, both nominated for an Academy Award, marked a renewed interest in traditional animation. In the same year, Coraline and Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox (also Academy Award nominated) renewed interest in stop motion animation.
Read more about this topic: Modern Animation In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words decline and/or traditional:
“The decline of a culture
Mourned by scholars who dream of the ghosts of Greek boys.”
—Stephen Spender (1909–1995)
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)