It's Don Bluth. I don't think we have to worry about him doing a crap job or outsourcing everything. As for not going along with whatever the trend in Hollywood is, it seems like that's kinda the point. Frankly, the lowest points in his film career would be an improvement over a lot of what we get right now, so I say bring it. My only concern is that Bluth has always had terrible business sense. His productions are extremely expensive and if they aren't a smash hit like An American Tail, they lose money. His career is a history of studios going bankrupt. I'm not sure what's to keep that from happening this time.
Funniest part is how bad most Anime artist get paid or their work compared to American Animation Industry Union workers. There's been a lot of articles over the past handful of years about how badly the average Japanese animation worker has it. If the main way we get animation is buy shortchanging animators around the world, maybe we just don't deserve to have animated anything.
Yea, as much as I love animation, I don't need it at the expense of causing those who make it to suffer. The problem is that is exactly what I suspect he'll do. He'll follow those trends. Since, that is what he did during the 90's. Since that is what the majority of the other animated studios do. Just follow the trends set by Disney and Dreamworks. Animated Musicals at the expense of higher quality storytelling, with famous actors in the place of voice actors. If all he's going to do is change the method animation uses to tell stories, and nothing else, then he's not going to solve anything.
And bad luck. Secret of nimh was going to be this big hit. To make sure they stuck it on the same day as this other movie that everyone in hollywood knew was going to bomb. They knew it would so much m&m forced them to remove their candy from the film making them change it to reeses pieces. That et movie would be no trouble! Then et was a blockbuster and crushed nimh like a bug! Talk about bad luck! Ironic thing is the guy who killed nimh is the same guy who helped him get a big hit with an american tail!
2D animation is becoming rarer than diamond these days. I miss the feeling of an actual hand-drawn cartoon and not done by computer. I’d love to see this happen just do I can feel like a kid again.
Whatever happened to the Dragon's Lair film he tried to crowdfund? 2D animation is a wonder to watch when it's done well. It always impresses me more than 3D for some reason. Perhaps it's knowing how many fewer shortcuts there were back then or how those older techniques/methods could produce such beautiful shots. I know the animation folks at Disney still do research and try to put out the best looking film they can (questionable motives, story, and characters aside). That hasn't changed. It's just a matter of preference. But I don't think the penny pinchers at Disney will spring for 2D. It's just not on their radar. It's more expensive and 3D is doing just fine for them outside of the delays. Plus I'm sure they prefer to push out another remake no one asked for but still does well... Bluth has said something to this effect before. Trying to top each other on making the human characters realistic has him question why at some point they don't just hire humans to play the roles in the end.
I didn't hate it either, but it was nothing particularly special, either. A bit tonally confused, but entertaining nonetheless. Doesn't change the fact that it was an utter bomb.
The problem is... Even if you want a 2D look it's in general cheaper to emulate it with 3D. So far it looks very artificial and you can easily tell when something's a cell-shaded 3D pretending to be 2D... But it's only a matter of time before it'll be perfected. There's simply a financial incentive to go further into this direction.
Going right to netflix with deadpool playing dirk. Dragon’s Lair movie coming to Netflix, with Ryan Reynolds starring
People have been saying that for the past two decades if not more. I don't really see the financial incentive at this point when 2d animated features are few and far between, and don't generate large revenues. There's no shortage of technology and computing power available nowadays. It's not a matter of time or technology, it's about the people pushing the buttons. Besides, there are far more interesting things that can be done with 3D animation than recreating a facsimile of an existing artform. Look at that Secret of Nimh trailer. There are so many organic qualities to that image that no one is going to create with cel-shading. It would be madness to even attempt. The only way that would be possible would involve even more work than it took in the first place. The advantage of 2d animation is that a 30 second sketch can instantly have more life to it than hours of work pushing polygons. The follow-through of hand-drawn animation is labor intensive, but so is high-end CG animation. Cel shading is something that can be done to a high standard and might make sense on occasion for computer games or tv animation. But accept it for what it is. It's not a matter of 'perfecting it'. It will never be hand-drawn 2d animation.
The advantage of 3d animation is that a 3d asset can be reused multiple times, but a 2d animation can be reused only as a background or a stock footage. It's not a matter of preference, but how much the "people pushing buttons" will be wiling to pay for it. For short animated forms and single movies it will make sense to keep using 2d, but for serialized works or ANYTHING that requires frequent reusing or making continuation... It's going to be 3d. Unless, the 2d will be much more simplified than it used to be. It's already happening, even if with modern tools 2d animation also becomes faster to make and cheaper. Hence the 2d cartoons get more and more streamlined designs. There's no stepping back from this trend. It'll only go further. It's only going to be faster the more the new audience is less and less familiar with detailed hand-drawn animation.
Though I don’t expect Bluth to succeed based on his track record, I’m pulling for him anyway. Really depends on what he’s gonna release first and frankly I’m too old for a singing dog movie. I’m actually surprised Hollywood isn’t diving headlong into animation right now. You can animate digitally, email “dailies” and you can record voice work without being in the same room. Talk about a work from home business. Hollywood has no idea how it will be able to make a post COVID rom-com at the moment (which is a staple of their quick buck movie making strategy.) And for the immediate future all bets are off. Could be a golden age of animation around the corner. “Heeeey Mom, Dad! It’s meeee your son! Good Cop! Yeeeeeeay.”
