It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful an animated picture done right can be. No studio has perfected this art form in the way that the fine folks in the Hat Building have, and although the last decade has seen its string of dissapointments, I don't think it's fair to write Disney off just yet, especially after their last two films, The Princess and the Frog (which may very well be one of my favorite films of all time) and Tangled, and I have no doubt that the new Winnie the Pooh movie is going to be absolutly wonderful. It seems to me the studio may finally be getting its act back together, probably thanks to good ol' Uncle Lasseter). Me being the nerd I am, I recently searched for a Disney Animation montage along the lines of the finale of "The Great Movie Ride", and much to my delight, I found this one (click on the link). It's an AMAZING recreation of the montage used in the short film, Back to Neverland, which could be found in the "Magic of Disney Animation" tour when the the Disney-MGM Studios opened (it must have taken forever to recreate it the way glennwhelan did). Although I never got to see the original animation tour or Back to Neverland, after watching this montage I sure wish I could've had the opportunity. I still have goosebumbs from watching it. In fact, I think I may watch it again before I head to bed.
Update 3/8/11: While rewatching the montage (it's official, I have no life whatsoever) I decided to click on a link labeled "Walt Disney Studios Paris-Art Of Disney Animation", and was very excited to find a recreation of an updated version of the montage above! It's so exciting! (Okay, so maybe I'm over reacting a little, but hey, I figure it's my blog and I'll react how I darn well wanna react so there!). This one has a few clips in French, and includes films up to The Princess And The Frog. There's also ALOT of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (another of my absolute favorites) which I found interesting as I assumed it was one of the less popular films...perhaps the movie was better recieved in Europe due to it's French setting? Also interesting is the lack of CGI films. No Dinosaur, Chicken Little, Meet The Robinsons, or Bolt, which makes me wonder, is Disney trying to forget the last deccade? That seems rather silly as all of those films are at least mildly entertaining. Either way, it's still a fantastic montage...anywho, the updated montage can be found here.
Frankly, I think Disney's been improving since Robinsons. Was the sign that Disney was getting back on track after kicking out Eisner. Shame Robinsons isn't getting much love.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. Robinson's is a wonderful picture full of fun and it definatly gets more than a few laughs from me whenever I have the opportunity to watch it. That said, when compared to a film such as Hunchback or Tarzan, or even Treasure Planet, I feel it lacks something...idek what. It could be I'm just biased against CG animation (unless it's done by Pixar).
ReplyDeleteAnywho, whatever your preferences, I think that both The Princess and the Frog and Tangled have proved that without a doubt WDAS is on the right track and has a very bright future ahead!