Manfred Ragossnig | Character Animator

Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - Studio Briefing - 19 December 2006
Disney Returning To 2-D Only, Says Report
John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are planning to return the Walt Disney Co.s studios in Burbank to its roots as a “traditional” hand-drawn animation company exclusively, while Pixar will continue to turn out computer-animated CG features, Disney watcher Jim Hill reported on his website www.jimhillmedia.com today Tuesday. In doing so, Lasseter, the chief creative officer for Disney Animation, and Catmull, the units president, will be reversing Disneys efforts over the past three years to, in Hills words, “retrain that studios staff as well as to change Disney Feature Animation into a state-of-the-art CG operation.” Hill observed that the plan has not yet been “entirely embraced” by Disney CEO Robert Iger. One result of the about-face, Hill noted, has been the cancellation of Disneys plans to produce the computer-animated American Dog, a movie conceived and supervised by Chris Sanders, who ironically was responsible for Disneys last big hand-drawn hit, Lilo and Stitch.

Welcome back. And Yes, I think this is great news. Although I feel for my (Animationmentor Classmates) friends (and CG Animators) in Burbank who’s Dell’s are going to be replaced with lightboxes. But they’ll find work, we all somehow do © Kenny Roy.