The Princess and the Frog will be bringing us to something old and something new. The first black “Disney Princess” character will be introduced and it also marks a return to the classical animation style that Disney is so well known for.
News today also shares that this is not a one shot deal and that Disney hopes to produce more classic hand drawn animated features!
Walt Disney Animation Studios visual effects supervisor Marlon West, who has spent the last few years working on Disney’s The Princess and the Frog. While he did share a few short behind-the-scenes videos showing his work in that movie so far, the biggest bit of news to come out of the presentation came during the question and answer session, where West mentioned that Disney is looking to continue making one 2D hand drawn animated movie once every two or so years from now on
I find it interesting that in a world where the technology is redefining the landscape for animated features, that such pioneers like Disney (and in part to their relationship) and Pixar would consider taking a step that some might consider backwards.
I was intrigued to find out that they were producing another classical animated feature, though clearly helped out with less traditional digital methods, but now to find out that they had so much fun going old school that they intend to continue releasing this style of animation.
And why not? Now that Disney and Pixar have kissed and made up, do they really need to have their own 3d animation studio? I figured that Disney would leave the animating up to Pixar and they would focus more on their own live action features but I am really looking forward to seeing what comes out of this.
As for the Princess and the Frog, I haven’t seen much about it aside from the style of animation behind it, so I have no idea if this will herald a return to cinematic gold like Aladdin or Lion King, but hopefully it will mean they will do this instead of direct to DVD sequels.
