I'm Tired of CGI Cartoons.

Re: I'm Tired of CGI Cartoons.


I think both styles have their pluses' and minus' but the new cartoons do seem to lack that magical effect that the old classics have, or maybe I've just become so old and bitter that there's no wonderment or magic in my soul anymore.

Me too!!!
Yes I like the new films but I long for the old days when a gap in the tv schedule would be filled by a 5 minute gem of a Donald Duck/Sylvester/Droopy etc cartoon.
I realised theres a cartoon channel and they have all gone there.I fear I will never see a part of my childhood again.
Such a shame.

I don't mind the new cartoons as much as live action film that relies so heavily on CGI. That's the true rip-off, IMO.

The computer doesn't create the cartoon animation from out of nowhere. I know some of those guys and they are trained and talented artist as well as computer wizards. They are drawing in three-dimensional conceptions on the computer working from mostly hand-drawn original art. It's really incredible. The old Disney is, true, hand drawn but all by production artists (living computers) who just draw and color each cel on a production line (sorry to burst a myth anyone might have had). It's the production designer who gives the cartoon its look -- like Eyvind Earle who did "Sleeping Beauty," the first of the modernized, wide screen Disney animation films. He left Disney because of low pay and not getting proper credit, went on to produce and create his own animation and eventually to creating his well-known art of the Carmel/Monterey area, especially Big Sur.

Of course, "Snow White" and most of the early Disney is beautifully done, and deserved classics. They are still making films in hand-drawn cels, so perhaps you haven't seen these?

My favorite: "Watership Down." All done with watercolor art.

Ratatouille did it beautifully, really made excellent use of the possibilities of CGI. Shrek 3 was bleh. I don't think CGI itself is the problem, I just don't think everyone is maximizing its potential. (And really, how many maximized the potential of hand-drawn cartoons, either? Some are sublime, some are forgettable.)

I thought "The Incredibles" was incredible.

Thanks LW for breaking things down on computer artistry.

I loved how Les Triplettes de Belleville combined the new and old styles of animation.

I have never seen that. I keep forgetting about it. For years.
Thanks for the reminder.

Cavfancier started a thread on Les Triplettes de Belleville

Nimh posted some great youtube links in it.

Les Triplettes is a fantastic, whimsical animation film. I enjoyed it as much (for what I like to call "alternative animation") as "Princess Monokee" or "Spirited Away." All those films are drawn cels, with, I'm sure, some computer work done on the shaping and shadowing of figures and objects.

Anyway, it really comes down to the story, the script, the voice-overs, the direction, the production design and all the components that make a great movie and not just the way it was executed.

I actually don't really appreciate the "chocolate box" art of "Sleeping Beauty" but some of Earle's fine art paintings are good, a handful are excellent paintings but a lot of it is repetitious graphic art. He did not paint all the background art for the SB himself, but, in fact, a bunch of elves would assembly line finish the work and Earle would come back and embellish, correct or reject the finished piece. He did none of the figurative drawing or any of the animation itself.

I think we have room for both kinds, but the old style may one day be gone altogether. My favorite cartoons mostly fall in the style of Snow White.

Last evening my son and I caught the last third of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" on tv. It was my daughter's favorite when she was little, but I haven't watched it in years.
When it came out it was such a unique idea to blend live action with cartoons - the good old style cartoons. Everyone that was anyone in cartoons was in it, and the premise of course was to save Toontown.
What a great movie!!

"Toy Story" was new when my son was very little and it also was a favorite. I remember seeing it for the first time on the big screen and being amazed at how real everything looked - but it was actually a cartoon (of sorts.)

Unfortunately, computer generated images are the norm these days and kids are bored by the old stuff. A lot of the wonder of movies is gone too because kids (and adults) know that most of what they see is done with computers.
It's sad.

You're right. Computers are the drawing and painting instrument but the human mind creates the art, not the computer. They don't type into the computer, "make me an animation film." The conventional animation is what the kids aren't going to see -- the last several films in that medium didn't do well at the box office. This also means the adults who go with their kids don't seem to be drawn into conventional animation anymore.

BTW, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was the a landmark film in birth of the computer used in animation. The cels weren't all hand drawn and colored, and the shadow modeling was all computer generated.

Bear in mind that there was a long lull in full-length animation until "Sleeping Beauty."

I dunno, my kid's 6 and she likes both. Loved "Snow White," loved "Ratatouille." I don't think it needs to be either/or.

Absolutely -- "Pinocchio" and "Snow White" are from the Golden Age of movies and are classics. Disney's output began to get very tired and trite with "Alice in Wonderland" and "Lady and the Tramp," but kids still like them. It's just that the new animation has storylines and dialogue that even adults can appreciate.

I often see Lady and the Tramp dismissed as light fare. Regardless, I loved it as a child, and also when I took my family to see it in later years. My wife said she had not really wanted to see it, but she thanked me afterward. Said she loved it. I guess it's all in one's perspective, but, it ranks among my top favorites.

Aw, shoot, I actually meant to type "Gay Pur-ee," not "Lady and the Tramp" which does have a certain enticing charm. Even with Judy Garland, "Gay Pur-ee" not only has a silly title (a shameless pun) but was actually boring by half way through the film. I'd watch "Lady and the Tramp" again. Sorry!

I thought Disney let us down on quite a few offerings. I didn't like the script of Sleeping Beauty, and actually walked out of the theater during a showing of Disney's version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Didn't like Dalmatians, Jungle Book, Gay Puree, Robin Hood, and a number of others.

Those were all phoned in -- Disney stopped making feature length animation films for lengthy periods of time because his good artists would all up and quit. The art department at several times in the studio's history was rather of a desert. He was notorious until his death of being a really big cheapskate with employees. As soon as he died and some sensible people took over, Disney studios was revived. Then came the Eisner fiasco -- proving that tacky queens will eventually reveal themselves. Pixar saved Disney and some smart and talented screenwriters, producers, and directors who were no longer interested in churning out childish crap that was so sweet, you had to take a flyswatter with you into the theater.

My friend Graham who was the head of design at Disneyland (actually at that locale) would threaten to quit and some of Disney's direct underlings would convince old Walt to give in with a raise. Walt was an uninteresting, drab and repelling personality in person.