I recently played the two Dragon’s Lair games and, besides how hard they could be, I was mesmerised by the beautiful 2D animation. The game ended up making me hungry for more Don Bluth animation and I recently ended up watching All Dogs Go to Heaven and have ordered several more Don Bluth films that I was lacking in my collection. However, watching these films as well as looking at the history of Don Bluth and his passion for 2D animation has made me realise how I really miss Western traditionally animated films.
I should clarify that I’m referring primarily to the American animation industry when I talk about Western 2D animated films. The Japanese animation industry is still primarily animated in 2D and has seen many box office successes such as Your Name and Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. There are also a lot of 2D animated films produced in other countries such as the films of Cartoon Saloon, French animated movies etc. (although I’d question the popularity of these films due to low box office grosses). However, while many of these films are unquestionably good, these movies lack the grand scale and set pieces that American animation possessed.
After the end of the Disney Renaissance in 1999 with the release of Tarzan, the American animation industry began to go through a seismic shift. Don Bluth Productions had gone bankrupt in 1995 due to a string of box office bombs and the new studio headed by Don Bluth, Fox Animation Studios, was shut down in 2000 after the catastrophic box office failure of Titan A.E. Dreamworks Animation themselves were also undergoing a transition, struggling with several 2D animated box office bombs before achieving massive success with the Shrek series and abandoning 2D animation. Warner Bros. Feature Animation was also shut down in 2003 with box office bombs such as The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Even Disney themselves were not immune to this shift with many of their 2D animated films at this time either underperforming at the box office or being outright bombs. At the same time, the films of Pixar were doing incredibly well at the box office and Disney seemingly gave up on 2D animated films after the box office failure of Home on the Range. Five years later, Disney gave 2D animation another chance with The Princess and the Frog and, while the film performed well at the box office, Disney themselves were not satisfied with the result and, besides a 2011 Winnie the Pooh film, Disney has not released a 2D animated theatrical animated film since.
While it’s true that this period of animation history saw 2D animation either underperform or fail at the box office, it’s also worth noting that the world is a very different place from then. Tastes in entertainment have continued to shift and I truly believe that 2D animation is poised for a comeback. Ignoring the enduring popularity of anime, most of which is traditionally animated, 2D animation has thrived on television with success stories such as Rick and Morty, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Steven Universe, Castlevania etc.
This is not to mention an interesting recent success story when it comes to Western 2D animated films. In 2019, Netflix released Klaus, a 2D animated film directed by Sergio Pablos, a Spanish animator who has worked on Disney films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan and Treasure Planet. The film was critically well received but, more importantly, Klaus was also financially successful with an estimated 30 million unique views in its first month as well as “High repeat viewing”.
This shows that there is a demand for 2D animated films and it’s my hope that the man with whose films I’ve recently been so fascinated by can take advantage of that. Last year, it was announced that Don Bluth had founded a new animation studio called Don Bluth Studios and are working on both a series of short 2D animated films called “Bluth’s Fables” as well as overseeing a live-action adaptation of Dragon’s Lair. I can only hope that this new animation studio finds success and eventually begins releasing 2D animated feature films. It’s also worth noting that Disney themselves have stated that they are open to the possibility of releasing a 2D animated film in the future even if it does seem unlikely in the near future.
I really miss Western traditionally animated films and I hope that we eventually see some American studios take a chance on hand drawn animated films and be rewarded for it. Let me know your thoughts on how I really miss Western traditionally animated films, your thoughts on the events leading to American animation studios abandoning 2D animation, whether you would also like to see traditionally animated films return and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!