Sunday, November 28, 2004
Disney just isn't the way it used to be.
which is weird because i grew up with hand-drawn cartoon animations. the kind of animation you see in a book when a cartoonist flips the pages one by one in a flurry and you see Mickey come to life within those booklets containing millions of painstakingly hand crafted DIY illustrations.
Colourful personalities, tinged with exaggerated comedic influences. Caricature. fool's paradise, a Visual Feast. a cartoonist's fantastic outlandish imagination, those heartstirring songs, innocent drama and heartwarming storylines, that sense of childlike wonder, no disillusion, just hope and that simple faith in humanity, in love and compassion. these traditional virtues of Disney that we all know of, blended in with the artist's odd notions of fantasy and a pure plain delight in music and laughter.
not that their virtually gone. but you forget the Disney feature animation department that used to boast about 1000 staff. replace them all with CGI. is there anyone who actually picks up a paintbrush or a sharpened lead pencil nowadays? a few blank pieces of paper, a spontaneous artesian pen, a desk, and you can work magic in Disney. but that was old school, now they shove you into box size cubicles armed with a mouse and a computer to work your 3D. a computerized The Little Mermaid anyone?
give me meticulously hand drawn frames and flip books anyday. i don't care for technology and rising labour costs. i shall treasure the animator's art. vivid colours splashed on paper, with beautiful characters that sing, dance, talk and emote on film, that twenty-fourth of a second, preserved on paper, outlined and frozen expressively; forever, in that moment of action.
i don't know about you but i grew up with animations like these. surely you've shared a Disney dream in that once adolescent age of yours. they may seem entertaining trifles to us, but they are living beings to the animators. it's different to have to manipulate an image on a computer, circumscribed by the aberrant wheeling of the mouse and digital pixels and measured 3D lines across the screen. you simply lose the magic, the enchantment of inspiration you capture with primitive tools. to make it so architectonic, so structural, is to lose that traditional Disney magic, that magic you capture on paper as soon as inspiration opens its floodgates. there is no immediacy, no rush of spontaneous joy when impulses and creativity hits; you reach for a pen and paper, and what do you find? an impersonal clinical carefully engineered computer which restricts ur genius and flair.
so this era has come to an end. i re-watch old disney movies everytime exams come to an end. it's an old sentimental habit of mine. be it their exquisite animations or dazzling colours, children like me learnt lessons from cartoons such as these years ago. i'd love to tell my kids one day how Bambi endeared himself to me watching him grow from pre pubescent days to tragedy and adulthood, or how Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast taught me that Love isn't just all about appearances, the teenage angst of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, the awe inspiring Simba frm The Lion King or how Pocahontas showed me that love doesn't always end with a forever ever after. but my kids will probably counter my top of the lists with movies of their own a la "The Incredibles" or Finding Nemo. not that i object, but i always felt that Disney was soul-less without their charming songs. who could forget the iconic Hakuna Matata, or Beauty and the Beast's melting classic Tale As Old As Time?
to be an animator, is to be a bringer of life, to deify them, enrich with songs and leave a permanent legacy. but where's my fantasy, the triumph of eternal truths and the whimsical expression of hope and love now? where's my surreal illusion of life? i want my unbridled invention of a cartoonist, not the sterile graphics of a computer designer. but they don't make films like that anymore. and it is a poignant loss. i have a wonderful past to look back on, through my path unwinding; My Disney Magic. But would the future generations ever comprehend the gentle ineffaceable touch Disney left on us old school nostalgic dopes?
so farewell my luminous effulgent lovely, you always managed to touch my heart with your endearing characters and soulful songs; you always managed to look resplendent in every way. Joyce Lim unzipped at 2:29 PM with 6 comments
Comments:
not to dash any positive feeling about this post, but i don't see what's the deal, except sentimentality and nostalgia. you don't do modern animation films any justice by comparing them to idyllic fairytales. there -is- someting too punchy and snappy about computer animation films, but that is only representative and typical about today's culture.
okay i am rather wary about deifying the past. not that i don't appreciate it, but as with any evolution of culture there are some things gained and some things lost.
and personally, i enjoy wit and punch more than fairydust. (:
okay i am rather wary about deifying the past. not that i don't appreciate it, but as with any evolution of culture there are some things gained and some things lost.
and personally, i enjoy wit and punch more than fairydust. (:
hand drawn animation takes millions of hours and sketches to form one full blown animation movie. effort, meticulous care is seen through every single illustration and i think the artist genius is captured when his given full scope instead of using the computer, churning out images after images just to make a quick buck. disney's becoming rapacious, the whole idea IS sentimentality.
sentimental enough not to retrench over 1000 of your feature animation artists. sentimental enough to preserve this form of art. there are no more songs, the feature animation department used to be incharge of that, now it's pixar pixar pixar.
comparing them to idyllic fairytales, because that's what they did to fairytales; vivify and idealise them. now it's the incredibles, it's a fun film, but where's the original touch of Walt Disney.
aiyah u.. i know u dun really care for films anyway, much less disney.
sentimental enough not to retrench over 1000 of your feature animation artists. sentimental enough to preserve this form of art. there are no more songs, the feature animation department used to be incharge of that, now it's pixar pixar pixar.
comparing them to idyllic fairytales, because that's what they did to fairytales; vivify and idealise them. now it's the incredibles, it's a fun film, but where's the original touch of Walt Disney.
aiyah u.. i know u dun really care for films anyway, much less disney.
actually i do care. if i don't, i wouldn't have an opinion.
you mourn for the lost art of disney, but i see it as an evolution of pop culture in the area of animation films. you sentimentalize it because you miss that magic and wonder, but i see it as an idyll because these stories will be irrelevant and out of place in current trends. yes, there is a timeless quality about it, but that's nostalgia, and i'm not discrediting your emotional regard for the good old days. i love fairytales and fables as well.
yes, it's art and tradition, but cynically, it's all entertainment. to reverse say's law, demand creates its own supply. the flood of feature animation films may prove to be nauseating sooner or later, but that was how the previous trend became endangered/extinct anyway. we can erect museums, but life goes on.
(and i hope u like it that i don't agree completely with you because i think no one can -completely- agree with anyone on any issue. unless we're referring to gospel truth. no? we may agree largely with collective opinion but personal opinions always deviate somewhat.)
you mourn for the lost art of disney, but i see it as an evolution of pop culture in the area of animation films. you sentimentalize it because you miss that magic and wonder, but i see it as an idyll because these stories will be irrelevant and out of place in current trends. yes, there is a timeless quality about it, but that's nostalgia, and i'm not discrediting your emotional regard for the good old days. i love fairytales and fables as well.
yes, it's art and tradition, but cynically, it's all entertainment. to reverse say's law, demand creates its own supply. the flood of feature animation films may prove to be nauseating sooner or later, but that was how the previous trend became endangered/extinct anyway. we can erect museums, but life goes on.
(and i hope u like it that i don't agree completely with you because i think no one can -completely- agree with anyone on any issue. unless we're referring to gospel truth. no? we may agree largely with collective opinion but personal opinions always deviate somewhat.)
so what is this current "trend" your defending u sure their asking for evolution and change?
they may appeal to the younger crowd but probably because they've never seen an old classic. u like powerpuff girls? i don't. i don't like the modern twist it gives, the name Mojojojo that alludes to all things sexual. but that's you and that's me
i just think some things are timeless. who wouldn't want nice songs in cartoons? they dun even have that anymore. first the art goes, now the songs, what next? this is not evolution. it's a complete deviation from everything that used to be.
but maybe i'm sentimental. but then again that's me. of course i know u dun have to agree with me, but then again u and i both know we'll never convince each other even if the cows come home crying hah
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they may appeal to the younger crowd but probably because they've never seen an old classic. u like powerpuff girls? i don't. i don't like the modern twist it gives, the name Mojojojo that alludes to all things sexual. but that's you and that's me
i just think some things are timeless. who wouldn't want nice songs in cartoons? they dun even have that anymore. first the art goes, now the songs, what next? this is not evolution. it's a complete deviation from everything that used to be.
but maybe i'm sentimental. but then again that's me. of course i know u dun have to agree with me, but then again u and i both know we'll never convince each other even if the cows come home crying hah