I find myself occasionally thinking back to the year 1989, interesting given that I wasn’t born until 1993. So then, why does 1989 have any relevance to me then? The answer is rather simple, that being that I consider 1989 to be the year when Western animation finally made its comeback! Why? Good thing you found this article then because I’m going to go over the issues Western animation had prior to 1989, what the significance of that year was and the impact it has had ever since!
Prior to 1989, Western animation was in rather poor shape. In fact many now call that era the Dark Age of Animation! The box office failure of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty in 1959 along with the death of theatrical animated shorts and the rise of television, which necessitated cutting costs in order to be profitable and a pivot towards children who were more receptive to the simpler animation than adults, resulted in animation becoming disregarded as an art form. Of course, it’s important to mention that this term applies primarily to American animation as animation was thriving in Japan during this era and many other countries such as the UK and the Soviet Union were producing plenty of critically acclaimed animated media. Additionally, I also want to point out that there were still creative talents in the American animation industry at this time such as Don Bluth and Ralph Bakshi but even they struggled with financial issues and people’s distaste for animated works.
