Why Did Disney Stop Making 2D Animated Movies? (And Why I’ll Always be the Fan of 2D Animations)

After 70 years of building its empire through hand-drawn 2D animations, Disney has finally fully dived into 3D animation. 2019 marked the end of decade since the release of Princess and the Frogs, which was Disney’s last full-length hand-drawn animated movie. As the technology evolves, so does the market. The late 80s to early-mid-90s is called Disney Renaissance for a reason. It was the period where Disney produced quality and beautifully made 2D animated movies and formed unforgettable memories to the generation at that time, including myself, through some of their masterpiece including The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin and Pocahontas. However, the success was sustained mostly in the late 90s and early 2000s before 3D animations started taking over the market.

 The shift to 3D animations was even earlier than we thought. Even during the Renaissance period of their hand drawn animated movies, Disney collaborated with Pixar Animation Studio and released Toy Story in 1995. It immediately stole the fans’ hearts. People started showing more interest in movies crafted with computer generated imagery (CGI). When in 2001 Dreamworks released Shrek, it pushed the narratives even further. Toy Story and Shrek marked the period where 3D animated movies started to slowly take over the place of the classic 2D animations. Since then Disney tried to catch up and in just few years, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Chicken Little, The Incredibles and Meet the Robinsons were born.

 When in 2013 Disney finally decided to close their 2D animation studio, it wasn’t hard to guess why. 3D animated movies simply make way more money. Finding Nemo which was released in 2003 made $940 million which was 10x its production budget. Comparing the work between the two, although computer animation is still a major work, it is easier to maintain the quality control or to do some changes because of the ability to reuse the models created in computer. Whereas with 2D animation, it requires huge team of animators and because it is hand-drawn, one mistake can’t be easily changed and the whole scene has to be redrawn.

Although it is understandable why Disney fully shifted to 3D animation, somehow it left a whole in my heart. As someone who grew up in Disney Renaissance time, those 2D animated movies created some of the best memories of my life. I had a dream of becoming a Disney animator and went to design school because of those movies. Looking at those hand-drawn artworks gave me a different feeling. It isn’t perfect but somehow the imperfection makes it unique. The imperfection gives the feeling of human touch compared to digitally rendered animation.

Hand-drawn animation also shows the extent of human talent in creating something so magical. The animator of Tarzan had to study a young chimpanzee in order to figure out Tarzan’s body movement and the animators of 101 Dalmatians had to bring dalmatian puppies to the studio as live models. Studies had to be done in order to create a consistent hand-drawn frames of the characters and it clearly shows the ability of the artists.

In terms of the character’s emotions and expressions, hand-drawn animation conveys more emotion because every pencil stroke, every line and every mistake are born directly through human body: the artist’s hand.  It is born through human’s imagination which translated into the paper. The realism of 3D animation takes away the “human” feeling and creates a character that looks “too perfect”.

Yes, there are limitations to 2D animation. 2D animation can’t achieve the “robotic” and “gamey” movements of Ralph in Wreck it Ralph like 3D animation and it can’t create super realistic image. But that is why 2D animation is special. In its effort to achieve “realism”, it also shows the extent of human ability which makes it look natural and imaginative.