Disney to animate film by hand Again...

Disney to animate film by hand, not computer
It plans a 2009 movie that will be animated the old-fashioned way instead of by computer.
By Joseph Menn,
Times Staff Writer
March 9, 2007

It's back to the drawing board for Walt Disney Co. Disney plans to release a 2009 movie that will be animated the old-fashioned way, by hand-drawing the images rather than letting computer wizardry do the job, the company announced Tuesday at its annual shareholders' meeting in New Orleans. Although other Disney animated movies will open between now and then, "The Frog Princess" is the first to be conceived since Disney's 2006 acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, the outfit behind such blockbusters as "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," "Finding Nemo" and "Cars."

So why would Disney return to its roots after spending $7.4 billion to buy the pioneer of computer animation, which has since become the dominant form for these movies in Hollywood?

Disney did not return calls Thursday, but industry executives said the move could signal the company's strategy for distinguishing its two animation arms, which remain separate units. Or Disney could be planning to leave the heavily technological animation to its Bay Area sibling.

"We're really proud and excited about this," said John Lasseter, Disney and Pixar chief creative officer, at the meeting, which was held in New Orleans in a show of support for the storm-ravaged city.

"The Frog Princess" will be a musical set in New Orleans, with songs composed by Randy Newman. The central figure, Maddy, will become the first African American among the Disney princesses, the company's collection of heroines responsible for more than $3 billion in annual retail sales.

Disney dropped the hand-drawn animation that made it famous after 2004's "Home on the Range," which capped a series of disappointments in the genre. It turned instead to the now-crowded world of computer-generated imagery, or CGI.

When Disney's CGI efforts failed to capture the public imagination, the company bought Pixar and gave Pixar's Lasseter creative control of Disney's feature-length cartoons.

Full Article...