Jim On Film
Page 2 of 5
The new millennium marked new ventures and new numbers. Fantasia 2000 opened strongly in limited release to Imax theaters; however, when it was released to general theaters in the summer, its final take ended at $85 million domestically. That December, Disney released The Emperor’s New Groove, a film which received only a fraction of the hoopla given to the openings of other animated films, and with a box office take of $89 million, the decline in numbers began to weigh heavily on Disney’s ego and stock prices. In June of 2001, Disney released the ambitious action-adventure Atlantis: The Lost Empire, a non-musical with lots of explosions and a PG-rating, but it pulled in a disappointing $84 million when all was said and done.
Shrek (c) Dreamworks
What makes these numbers look even smaller is the take of computer animation, with Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Dreamworks’ Shrek all making millions at the box office, most of them over $200 million. This has brought on the latest wave of insider scoop--audiences love computer animation, and in the wake of these wonderful films, traditional animation is on its death bed. After all, they say, who wants to see 2D characters? In order to survive, say the insiders, Disney is in a fight to the death, traditional animation vs. computer animation.
So, why does all this matter?
In some ways, it’s hard to say. Nobody truly knows what Michael Eisner and other Disney executives are thinking, but their actions are speaking loudly. From articles published in major magazines to Internet gossip from anonymous people inside the Disney organization, trouble is at hand. After the "weak" box office numbers for Dinosaur, budget cuts were ordered in several projects; some of these cuts, it has been speculated, lead to the poor reviews accompanying Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Then after Atlantis: The Lost Empire opened to unspectacular numbers, salary and budget cuts hit the animators, leading to a stream of discontent and resignations from the artists. According to these people, there is no strong executive who champions the animation department, and its head, Thomas Schumacher, it has been claimed, is an absentee executive who will not win any popularity contests with the artists. Rumor even has it that Disney head Michael Eisner, who it has been said wanted to end feature animation when he first came to the company in 1984, wants to get out of it now, in favor of cheaply made straight-to-video features.
(c) Disney
One must wonder what the driving force of Disney animation is these days. Was the decision to produce a non-musical action-adventure made by the artists for artistic reasons, by the artists after listening to Hollywood "insiders," or by second-guessing executives? In an article from The New York Observer, Dave Pruiksma, one of the very talented animators who resigned from Disney, said that executives ordered more action in Atlantis: The Lost Empire while neglecting character development. One must wonder if the PG-rating it received was a marketing decision or an artistic one. With the success of Shrek and Monsters, Inc., many Hollywood "insiders" are predicting that traditional animation is on its death bed, wondering if Walt Disney Feature Animation could ever make another hit. With all this Hollywood speculation and with the Disney company and Michael Eisner taking hits from all sides, some are wondering what the future of the most beloved of all aspects of Disney Enterprises is.
Once again, the "insiders" have it wrong, all wrong. And if the execs at Disney and other studios listen to them, they deserve whatever fate they create for themselves. You see, Disney, traditional feature animation extends far past Hollywood. It lives in all the Nowheresvilles, the big cities, and the places in-between. I live in such a world, a suburb of Minneapolis. And as a person among regular movie viewers, I get the real inside scoop--what the movie viewer is thinking before he/she slaps down the money to watch the movie. As an animation fan, friends tell me their thoughts, parents tell me their thoughts, and I hear things in the theater. And it is using this information that I give you the following analysis, a real insider’s view.