WI: Disney Renaissance Never Ended

Between 1989 and 1999, Disney went through what is called it's Renaissance; the period where it released highly produced animated films like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin, and Tarzan. The Renaissance ended after box office disappointments following Tarzan, and Disney fell into an age of CGI and Direct-to-Video.

However, what if the Disney Renaissance managed to survive?
 
Disney is partial responsible for its downfall itself.
The did a lot of bad, pointless movies after "Lion King".

If Disney made fresh, (a little) daring movies with stories like Ice Age or Shrek or would have stuck to the traditional sweet childrens stories with awesom music and real emotion?
 
the evil empire of the mouse, my secret weakness

I think that "Tarzan" was the last really good Disney movie for almost a decade (with the possible exception of Stitch), and the downfall attributes to absolutely uninteresting stories (Brother Bear and the movies I didn't even bother to see), too much straying away from the formula (Atlantis - not that bad, but absolutely not a Disney) and aesthetic experiments (Hercules comes to mind, but a lot of stuff afterwards which I didn't even see but the trailers already lacked the look and feel of a Disney film).

I seriously doubt that Disney could have been the first to get into the Shrek-territory of irony and iconoclasm (and I wouldn't particularly like a Disneyfied defused Shrek either).

Only recently, IMHO, Disney gets back on track (IIRC, since Pixar's John Lasseter has taken responsibility). I liked the last three ones (Bolt, Frog, Tangled) quite well though it is interesting how they still struggle to define a new style between the classical Disney look and the possibilities of CGI.

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But back to the challenge. My solution is: manage to let Pixar blossom while getting it more closely associated with Disney- in effect, let Pixar remain a name known to fans while most people regard their films as Disney. Pixar's canon is full of modern classics which are clearly more Disneyish than the films of other competitors in the animation sector.

Let a handful of movies from between 1999-2007 NOT happen: Home on the Range first of all. Disney animation should co-exist with Pixar but serve a different audience and different aesthetics. Again I refer to the most recent three pictures: animals and princesses, bearable music and rather good visuals. A decent "Tinkerbell" instead of the not that brilliant direct-to-DVD one could have started this trend a bit earlier.
 
Disney went astray when they tried to target pre teen boys with movies like Treasure Planet and Atlantis. If they kept to whole-family and little-girls then they probably would have done better.
 
Disney really started to struggle with movies like Atlantis, The Emperor's New Groove, and Treasure Planet. While not all of these movies were bad per se, they were definitely not Disney. What Disney needs to do is revisit classic stories with high quality hand drawn animation. I agree with the earlier poster who said that by trying to appeal to pre-teen boys the quality suffered. Family films are where Disney really shined, and if they kept with that they would be doing better.
 
Unfortunately, most people have come to expect computer animation. One need only see the relatively low popularity of "The Princess and the Frog" compared to other movies. Pixar has done better by contrast, even in films dealing with comparatively difficult topics.
 
Unfortunately, most people have come to expect computer animation. One need only see the relatively low popularity of "The Princess and the Frog" compared to other movies. Pixar has done better by contrast, even in films dealing with comparatively difficult topics.
Pixar was a deathblow to traditional animation as a cinematic medium, and (though hard to to judge exactly) instrumental in computer animation being accepted. You'd have to make Pixar fail horribly first (let them go for uncanny valley, Polar Express type animation, for instance) to give Disney evne a chance at stickking to traditional animation.
 
It's not the style of animation, it's that Disney stopped caring about STORY. They thought they had figured out the magical formula: have a vague idea, write some pop songs, throw in some "kewl moments" and try to string together a story by committee.

They needed strong compelling stories with likable characters that could appeal to all ages. It's what essentially Pixar did. If Disney does that, traditional animation would do just fine.
 
I think by the end of the "Renaissance" most of it's key demographic from that time period were grown up, and Disney tried to cater to them with stuff like Atlantis, Emperor's New Groove and Treasure Planet. And the newer generations were growing up with anime, CGI movies and other shows.

That and they DID kinda run the formula into the ground. Take an established story, tweak it to "Family Friendly/Disney" standards, throw in pop songs from established singers, throw in a wacky animal sidekick (preferrably talking) and voila, Disney Movie.

Anime could've also played a role. It was different, new, and seen as more mature.
 
Anime could've also played a role. It was different, new, and seen as more mature.


While I agree with the majority of your post, I think any attempt on the part of Disney to ape anime would just turn out to be atrocious. Can you name a single successful western attempt to imitate anime? I can't even begin to imagine a Disney style "Akira" or "Ghost in the Machine," or even "Spirited Away" (all superior films to anything Disney has come out with in the last ten years by the way).

As far as going in a different direction with a more "mature" tone, Disney had already tried that in the 1980's with the "Black Cauldon", and it probably left a rather lasting impression amongst Disney Execs: Stick to the Family friendly them, abandon it at your own risk. The problem was that by the 1990's the whole PC trend meant that it was increasingly difficult to tell a straight up fairy tales that had appealed to young children for the last few centuries without being considered sexist. Its not as if there were any shortage of Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales waiting to be creatively exploited.
 
Weird thought of a disturbed mind:

"Disney's The Little Match Girl"
directed by Thomas Vinterberg as the first animated Dogma-film :eek:

LOL. Throw in a faithful adaption of The "Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Shadow" and move an entire generation to either sorrow or depression from an early age, though they might enter their middle years wiser for it.
The films would make the mother's death from Bambi look like the conclusion of Cinderella.

In fact, while we are at it why not have "Bluebeard" to the big screen, directed by Eli Roth! Forget teaching young impressionable girls they can be princesses...show them why they ought to never to marry that dark handsome stranger, or if they do marry, stay out of their man's closet!
 
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