Animation’s Weird History With Sequels

Sequels, sequels, sequels... Apparently the mark of creative stagnation. Even more so with animation, even more so with the supposedly too-holy-for-sequels Pixar... The very studio that wasn't allowed by the company they were once in a contract with to make sequels. Oh yeah, did you ever miss those fine details? On how Pixar's original contract …

The Chris Sanders Trilogy

You know what's fascinating? Director Chris Sanders has never directed sequels to his own animated features. In his lengthy career, he has directed three all-animated features total: Lilo & Stitch for Walt Disney Animation Studios (then "Feature Animation"), and then How To Train Your Dragon and The Croods for DreamWorks. His latest feature is a …

Streamation

I have wondered all throughout the spring and summer of this disastrous year if the most recent animated features were all going to go to streaming, and possibly relegate animated features to the small screen only in the foreseeable future. Sometimes the Chicken Little in my head goes off in scenarios like these, because animation …

Adventures into the Past: It Isn’t Nostalgia

Hope you're all getting through 2020 well. I know it's been rough for a multitude of reasons for me, and I've been trying out different ways to destress as the weather thankfully shifts from ludicrously and almost oppressively hot, to a nice and even mix of warm and cool before my favorite season gets here. …

Animation Perception ’20

Before I start, I've been meaning to post this since December. The bulk of it was written then. I fully understand that now isn't exactly the time to talk about the way animation is perceived by a lot of the public. Right now there are far more important things going on in the world, and …

MULAN, and The Ongoing Complications of ’90s Disney Animated Films

The arrival of Disney's new live-action Mulan has opened a few cans of worms, some that definitely relate to Disney's animated adaptation of the Chinese ballad that was released back in 1998... You may know that I've had a history of being very harsh on some of the features released during the esteemed Disney Renaissance period. …

The Typography of Disney Animation Logos #10: Transitional Features

Now we work our way through the mid-1980s, and closer towards Disney's rebirth... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio Fantasia Dumbo and Bambi Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, and Make Mine Music Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of the Ichabod and Mr. Toad Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter …

Spider-Reversal

Is Sony Pictures Animation's 2018 multidimensional superhero masterpiece a reversal of feature animation trends that have been brewing since the dawn of computer animated features? Is it, in fact, a reversal of what's been going on with the features end of the medium since the end of animation's first Golden Age? I think it's a …

Onward, Pixar!

Perhaps I'm breaking my post-graduation tradition here. Back in July of last year, I had ceased writing for my old animation news blog Kyle's Animated World, but I did say that I would still be talking about the happenings in the animation industry in some way or another. A lot of animation news and newly-announced …

Hey, Say Something Nice About DreamWorks!

A friend of mine who is a big fan of DreamWorks and their How To Train Your Dragon film franchise posted one day about how frustrated she is at how people talk about DreamWorks. The idea that they are a bad studio, that they are inferior to the "masters" at Disney and Pixar, that they're …