It may be time for Disney to return to 2D animation and there are great reasons for it!
There's been a long debate among Disney fans about whether the company should go back to traditional hand-drawn 2D animation. They had tried in 2009 with The Princess and the Frog but that movie's underperformance at the box office meant sticking to CGI.
Disney has seen a lot of success since adapting to 3D animation. However, it's also seen failures like 2024's Wish. They've had to rely on Pixar and change Moana 2 from a planned TV series to a feature film. Which is why maybe it's a great time for Disney to seriously consider going back to 2D animation and there are some excellent reasons it can work!
1. It just comes off more magical
As much as we love the likes of Tangled or, Frozen or Zootopia, one can't help but wonder what they'd look like as classic hand-drawn animation. There's something about a hand-drawn movie that comes off as more real than CGI, more heartfelt.
In the old days of animation, specific animators would work on certain characters and bring in their own personal touches. Watching the Blu-Ray bonuses on the making of The Lion King, Aladdin, or others, you see those animators really get into it, and their personal touches made the characters stand out.
There was also how they'd use special models, including going off the voice actors themselves to help forge the characters. That made them feel like truly great and vibrant characters compared to the impersonal CGI of today.
Honestly, too many of today's Disney movies have characters too much alike when the hand-drawn era made them distinctive individuals, even the animals. We need that back, along with the gorgeous backgrounds and other elements (hand-drawn fire is always better than computer-generated).
Mix that with the usual songs (imagine "Let It Go" in hand-drawn form) and 2D was always better for the classic Disney formula. That style is a lost art (literally) that should be brought back.
2. It's proven to still work
One thing pushing this new take on 2D animation is the new Looney Tunes movie The Day the Earth Blew Up. While Warner Bros seems ready to completely drop the iconic characters (a discussion in itself) and dumping this in theaters with little promotion, the movie has a huge audience score and is slowly building up buzz for a sleeper box office take.
That proves there's still an audience for hand-drawn animation. Another example is the recent Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim movie as the hand-drawn style fits this amazing fantasy world perfectly.
Then, of course, there's the Japanese influence. Anime is still insanely popular around the world and boffo box office overseas. It also gets Oscar attention, as proven by the Best Animated Feature win for The Boy and the Heron.
In other words, as much as Disney (as well as DreamWorks) insist audiences want 3D animation, the audience seems just as interested in hand-drawn and a return to that could still win folks over.
3. The budgets will be smaller
It's no secret that budgets nowadays can be a bit out of control. Wish was a huge flop for Disney as it cost a reported $200 million. That's a huge risk that Disney should minimize with other films.
Hand-drawn animation wasn't exactly cheap, but still far less expensive than a typical computer-generated project. The big issue for Disney would be paying to create a new studio for these projects yet the cost could balance itself out with lower-budget but still great movies.
Disney could start it small, not a huge epic production, but smaller films with lower budgets for more profits. Then, they can work their way up to a bigger film for a bigger splash. Either way, going back to 2D animation could save Disney some bucks in the long run.
4. It will make Pixar more distinctive
What made Pixar stand out in the mid-1990s was being the CGI stars amid the 2D field. A Pixar movie felt more special because of that and why those early efforts are still the best. When everyone else went to computers, Pixar seemed to lose that magic.
This would be a great way for Pixar to once more be distinctive. Disney can create traditional 2D animated features for Walt Disney Pictures and let Pixar create the 3D stuff. Pixar can once more be allowed to seem fresh and exciting, a bold vision, while Disney's 2D efforts can retain that old magic. Thus, moving back to 2D can help Pixar as much as Disney.
5. We can bring back the classic Studios attraction
This is more a personal wish, but a return to 2D animation would be good as it could revive one of the best original Disney-MGM Studios attractions in the Magic of Animation. It's ironic the Studios opened just months before The Little Mermaid kickstarted the Disney Renaissance, and thus, guests got in on the ground floor of a new era.
The building was great, from the lobby that would shift to show preliminary artwork and models for upcoming Disney films to the wonderful "Return to Neverland" movie with Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite. That was followed by a tour of the animated studios, explaining the process and seeing animators at work.
Bringing back this attraction would be lovely not just for modern Disney movies but a look back at the great stuff of the past. It'd be a lot better than some character meet and greet and show how Disney is serious getting back to animated magic.
6. It can be more inspiring to young animators
So many of the Disney Renaissance animators were inspired by the classic Disney films of the past. Likewise, the Renaissance inspired many of today's animators. But will tomorrow's animators be as inspired?
Growing up in a world of Disney and DreamWorks' 3D movies won't have the same effect on some future animators. They'll be following that template of computer effects and often uniform styles of animation. They need to approach things more traditionally and hand-drawn animation is better at that.
Inspiration from Japanese anime is good, but Disney's classic animation always seems better than anything else. While there's still great animation out there to draw on (no pun intended) for inspiration, a full return to 2D animation can create a new wave of animators that Disney and the industry itself can use to build for the future.
7. It pays tribute to Disney's history
At the end of the day, the key reason for Disney to return to 2D animation is simply because that's how they started. From Steamboat Willie to Snow White to the 1990s, hand-drawn animation is what built the company, and it's felt that they lost sight of that spirit with the move to computers.
Wish had a lot of problems but chief among them was a movie intended to honor Disney's 100th anniversary that lacked that old hand-drawn magic. A Disney animated movie used to mean true quality you couldn't see elsewhere, not the type of computer graphics you'd spot from its numerous copycats.
It's tricky to see if Disney could truly return to this bygone era, yet from money to just how well it works, a return to hand-drawn animation would be a boon for the company and much needed for Disney and the animated industry itself.