Breaking Down the Later Disney Renaissance, Part 3

Was it possible that the very directors who played a big part in the launching of the Disney Renaissance would be the ones to save it? I'm talking about Ron Clements and John Musker. They joined Walt Disney Productions in the mid-to-late 1970s, getting their kicks on features like The Rescuers and The Fox and …

Breaking Down The Later Disney Renaissance, Part 2

Before I go on about the latter half of the Disney Renaissance, I'd like to talk about an element that characterized the earlier Renaissance that you don't see very often these days in the land of theatrical animation. This element, I feel, faded away with the very feature I'll be reviewing today... Start with Beauty …

Breaking Down The Later Disney Renaissance, Part 1

Much like the so-called "Dark Age" of Disney Animation that occurred from the late 1960s up until the mid-1980s, the second half of Disney's beloved Renaissance tends to get quite the write off. Like the transitional times of the 70s and 80s, the latter half of the Renaissance and its flaws are due to many …

Photographic Animation

Nearly three years ago, an animation legend weighed in on the state of mainstream American feature animation. The legend in question was Gene Deitch, known for his work with the UPA in the 1950s, the Tom & Jerry cartoons that he was tasked to make in Czechoslovakia after MGM jettisoned their animation studio, and his …

Better To Not Know

Summer 2013... Much like what I do now, I was clawing in the dirt for animation news and the word on the street. Walt Disney Animation Studios seemed to be on some kind of cusp, this was months before the release of Frozen. The Burbank studio only had two legitimate box office hits under their …

‘Borrowed Time’ and Frustration…

Borrowed Time has been shown at various film festivals since October of last year. It was directed by Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj, two Pixarians who made the short through one of the company's special programs that allowed them to use their pipeline. Five years in the making, Coats, Lhadj and a team that included …

Sea of Hype(rbole)

Moana is a little over a month away. It's Walt Disney Animation Studios' 56th feature, and we're all hyped! Some of us have been on board the raft since June of 2013, when information on the film was leaked. Long before the Mouse House themselves officially announced it. Some, including myself, were there the minute …

A Better Beast?

The 2017, Disney-made live-action Beauty and the Beast remake is only happening for one reason, and it rhymes with honey. Disney's animated adaptation of Beauty and the Beast is still loved 25 years after its 1991 theatrical debut, and is often called one of the greatest animated films. Of course Disney wants to mine from …

2016’s Animated Oscars… Hard to Predict?

The Oscars... The Best Animated Feature category... Who is in the running? I think this year, we don't have too many definite answers. This is a bit premature, because four more major animated features are left, one of which comes from the on-a-roll Walt Disney Animation Studios. The features are Warner Animation Group's high-flying comedy …

The Animation Box Office Crown

This summer's Finding Dory, interestingly enough, broke the record for highest grossing animated film in the domestic market. For 12 years, the crown was held by DreamWorks' Shrek 2, which was actually one of those rare sequels that outgrossed its predecessor by a wide margin. Finding Dory of course got to that point due to …