Top Ten Disney Numbers in No Particular Order:
1. Under the Sea- The Little Mermaid
Tinkerbell, my other spirit animal. One of my dream rolls is to play her.
(Shut up, I know she’s usually played by a light. Let me dream.)
World’s cutest baby? I think so.
The last three where he goes back to save his teddy bear always get my in the heart. (Maybe its because I’m 17 and still sleep with my stuffed bunny?) Still. Undeniably cute.
I will never get over how stunning I find the animation in front of the clock. The shadows, the lights, the size. Everything was done perfectly.
Except these gifs. These gifs are actually kind of shitty. But the original animation was stunning.
Top Ten Disney Numbers in No Particular Order:
3. You Can Fly! -Peter Pan
Top Ten Disney Number in No Particular Order
5. Whistle While You Work- Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs
Top Ten Disney Numbers in No Particular order:
7. The Dawn Patrol -The Jungle Book
(Version two, because how cute were these two?)
I saw “Tangled” for the first time yesterday late to the party I know I know, and followed that up with a trip to the theatre to see “Rio” [which isn’t Disney, I know, but its animated]. They were both good, Tangled kept me pretty entertained and I laughed a lot, and the way the end, when everyone was in trouble, was animated really hightened the sadness. So that was that.
But then I came home and noticed that I had the full “Peter Pan” and “Little Mermaid” on my dash. I was THRILLED, and I totally started watching them, and that lead to a mass Youtube of “classic” Disney. And I realized how much more I like those movies than the ones I’d just seen, and I started wondering why…
Growing up, we weren’t a HUGE Disney family. I heard/loved a lot of the songs and I had a ton of sing-a-long videos, but I didn’t see “The Lion King” all the way through until after I’d see it onstage circa age 11, I first saw “Aladdin” all the way through in French, and I still don’t think I’ve seen “Beauty and the Beast” start-to-finish in one sitting. Which isn’t super important, its just to prove that my feelings for these movies isn’t pure nostalgia.
So I’m thinking “why why why are we more connected to older Disney?” And I have an explination; the animation style. The classic, old school, simple-but-beautiful 2D hand draw animation is why these movies are so moving.
Think about it; we love these movies because they’re beautiful and magic. These stories are about everything from talking cats to flying boys to mermaids to hunchbacks. They’re full of long-ago-and-far-away places. The 2D animation adds to those feelings. It makes you use your imagnation. When you add 3D to the mix, something is lost in my opinion. It brings these pure fanticies back a little too close to real life. Whats so special about these movies is that they’re set so far away from us and about things so different but we still relate.
I’m sad that all new animated movies these days are done with computer generation and in 3D. I’m not saying that they aren’t really cool, or that I think technology is bad, or that I’m not excited to see how it can be used, or that I didn’t cry like a baby for a very long time after I left “Toy Story 3”. But the beauty of 2D animation is being lost, and its truly an art form. This isn’t like upgrading to techniacolor to high def. This isn’t just some technical thing. Saying that 2D hand drawn animation is outdated would be like saying oil paint is outdated because we have acrylic paint now. That just not how it works.
I hope that people realize this so that we get beautiful, artistic, heart-capturing, magic movies again. Until then, I’m rewatching “Peter Pan” for the third time in 24 hours =]
