  John Lasseter |
NEW YORK — There is only one answer to the burning question at The Walt Disney Company: Who saved the studio’s traditional, hand-drawn animation from oblivion?
“There is only one reason it was saved,” says Disney veteran Mark Henn. “His name is John Lasseter!”
For Randy Haycock, another senior animator, reviving the tradition was crucial. “We could and we should and we are,” Haycock says of creating movies the old way.
Lasseter once told me he cherished the beauty, grace and storytelling possibilities of hand-drawn animation, even though he pioneered digital animation at Pixar. Once he took over the animation departments at both Pixar and Disney, Lasseter put his plan of revival into action. Disney had phased out hand-drawn movies after 2004. Lasseter brought it back with The Princess and the Frog.
“Even though John is the king of digital animation at Pixar,” says Disney animation director Ron Clements, “he loves hand-drawn animation. He very passionately loves hand-drawn animation!” Clements co-directed The Princess and the Frog. Both Henn and Haycock served as supervising animators, with Henn focused on Princess Tiana and Haycock on Prince Naveen.
John Musker co-directed the movie, which debuted on DVD and Blu-ray this week. He went to animation school with Lasseter, one year ahead of Tim Burton.
“Had he not been there,” Musker says of Lasseter’s return to Disney when it merged with Pixar, “it would not have happened. He had the clout to do something like this and he had to kind of fight against certain ... whatever ... it was an upstream battle because they had stopped making it. But he loved it. We loved it. And he felt that audiences would still attend the film and get caught up.”
Audiences did. The Princess and the Frog was a $222.5 million worldwide success, less than Pixar’s films but still strong. This week’s Blu-ray combo pack is expected to be a big seller and extras on the Blu-ray show how the animators did their old-fashioned work.
Clements says there is room in the marketplace for all styles. “The Academy Awards was really a good representation this year of a number of really high quality films in many different styles.” Two nominees were stop motion animation: Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Two were hand-drawn: The Princess and the Frog and The Secret of Kells. One, the Oscar winner, was a Pixar digital creation: Pete Docter’s Up.
If a hand-drawn film is executed properly, it generates a different mood than digital animation, Haycock explains. “It’s all about the art form. You have an emotional response. Each has its own strengths and weakness, if you will. But, with each one, you get a completely different reaction.”
For Henn, all filmmaking has changed dramatically. When Disney animated Tarzan, no live movie could have duplicated what this Tarzan did “the way he swings and surfs the trees.” Today, with special effects, anything is possible. “The question comes down to: What is the vision of the artist?”
Musker’s and Clements’ vision for The Princess and the Frog was a jazz-infused period piece set in New Orleans. Hand-drawn animation allowed the filmmakers to be both lyrical and cartoon-themed. Now the team is ready for more. While other Disney animators have already plunged into a new hand-drawn Winnie the Pooh saga, the Musker-Clements team has fresh ideas to add to their own credits, which range from The Little Mermaid to Aladdin.
“We have something that we are pitching to John in a few weeks,” Musker says. “It’s Hollywood so I never look too far down the road. But, for the foreseeable future ...”
“We love it and John Lasseter is very committed,” says Clements of the revival. “So it’s looking very hopeful.”
