I know it's pretty bad on me to necrobump such an ancient thread, especially with a lot happening. It does seem like over the past decade that TV cartoons had a revival and cartoon movies went right for CG, and it's gotten a lot better, we've come a long way since Toy Story. I've also changed a lot since 2008, I'm no longer a dumb emo 12 to 14 year old, and instead a dumb 27 year old... I didn't say I changed for the better mind you, but I really don't want to look at my old posts. I still like Hannah Barbara stuff, yeah, but I'm no longer that old CN fanboy kid.
But One thing I've noticed is that Disney seems to be in an animation slump again, after having it come back after tangled and Frozen being a mega hit (regardless of you're opinions on it, I do appreciate how it seemed to reignite Disney's spark in animation), they seemed to have slumped with their last two movies.
I guess I already said it best in my journal on my Furaffinity a few minutes ago (typed on my phone... ouch), so I'll just repost it here.
Does Disney hate animation again?
Why do I say again? Well, I remember the mid to late 2000s, they didn't do much animation outside of Pixar. Their main product was dumb tween sitcoms and movies, Hannah Montana was more the face of the company than the mouse himself, it was kinda a rough time to watch Disney.
Then Princess and the Frog happened, it was good, but didn't do well commercially... but something about it reignited something in Disney, after that was Tangled, which was 3d cg, but did well enough, and led to Frozen, which did gang busters. Regardless of your thoughts on Frozen, it seemed like Disney went all the way back into animation with it.
But recently, it seems like Disney would rather make soulless remakes and pump their marketing into such, occasionally they'll trickle out an animated movie, but give it next to no marketing. I doubt anyone noticed strange world existed, but... it did, I didn't watch it, but I heard next to nothing about it aside from some guy on /co/ or something saying it's like journey to the center of the earth. Before that was Raya, which I did watch and liked... but again, barely any marketing, Raya and Strange world both did horribly [in the box office].
So my issue with Disney's live action remakes are... many, mainly their colors and lighting make them look soulless and depressing, compared to the originals which looked warm and colorful. Another is... these movies didn't need remakes in live action, many said it was copyright renewal, but seeing as even very recent ones like Moana are getting the treatment, it doesn't seem to be that... or just that. Is it to appeal to the (dare I say) normie audience, who have the thought of "If it were so good, it would be live action, we have computers, no need for kiddy s***"? Does Disney hate animation again and wants as little to do with it as possible?
Is animation dead? Well, the Mario movie was pretty damn good, kicking Disney's ass, pretty embarrassing that Illumination is dabbing on Disney. But yesterday, I watched the new Puss and Boots on 4k under bluray on a damn good TV, and... it exceeded the hype everyone has for it. It was a very, very fantastic animated film. It really was like the type of movie Disney abandoned, it's almost perfect in just about any way I can think of. So I guess that settles it, animation is not dead.
So is Disney going to learn anything from it's competition, make great animated films again and actually put marketing into them? I'm not holding my breath, but I guess one thing we could look forward to this 3rd Disney Dark age is everyone but Disney filling the void with what Disney won't give us, just like 80s brought us Heavy Metal and many Don Bluth films, hopefully DreamWorks,... Illumination... maybe even Sony can bring us quality animation.
So animation isn't dead, even anime is doing pretty all right in American theaters. Like I've mentioned, the new Puss and Boots was fantastic in every regard and the Mario movie was pretty great as well. But it is a shame to see Disney in a slump, considering they were once (well, twice really... or thrice) the leaders of western animation. Seeing the new Puss in Boots, it makes me wonder what Disney could do at their best now, if they were into animation.
Oh yeah, that new Spiderman movie... Isn't that sony? I don't know, I don't really do super heroes, never did.
And I guess TV animation is in an interesting spot, just wished adult cartoons could be more than just random sitcoms and we can get one that will run for a decent length of time, but whatever. I guess the trinity of Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park is still going alright and Bob's Burgers seems to be doing well.
Also children's cartoons, not exactly a fan of their art directions, and honestly I haven't paid much attention to them (I can't really tell the difference between Amphibia and Owl House), but I hear they're alright.
Oh, Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss seem to have really strong followings, not bad for indie cartoons. I still need to give them a look.
