I get bored when I realize that I’ve seen this before either in a Star Wars flick or something like Spiderman. The Incredibles comes to mind as one Pixar film that does this.

With a team of highly talented minds, such as those at Pixar, shouldn’t we be seeing not only technical advancement but, also stories that expand the medium?

Animation whether drawn or computer generated is a fantastic medium for the imagination of the artist. I don’t see any limitations! Yet, most of what reaches my local theater screens often disappoints me.

Personally I find that Pixar is pushing Animation far beyond what has been achieved in the past. Sure the old Disney films are beautiful, but the medium has clearly peaked. It’s a shame yes, but look what is now growing from it’s strong foundations. I don’t talk about other studios, but Pixar is always trying new things. It seems highly unfair to bitch about this not being as good as 2d. That’s YOUR personal preference. What Pixar is doing is pushing the medium forwards and trying new ways of telling stories. They know their limitations and each film cleverly tackles what would have been impossible before. How is this any different to Disney and his team inventing new techniques such as the Multiplane Camera, Xeroxing, or using Rotoscoping? Without the Multiplane Camera we would never have seen the fantastic opening sequence from Pinocchio - and without the aid of the Computer we would have never had the rich insight into the world of Scary Monsters in Monsters Inc.

In his post he quotes illustrator Austin Briggs who offered the following wisdom about the benefits of working with the restrictions imposed by line:

“Line … is the most limited medium…. [I]t’s necessary to know the limitation one is dealing with in order to use its positive qualities to the fullest advantage….[O]nce we know what drawing cannot do, we are on the way toward expressing [a subject] in the marvelously simple way a line can function….[I]ts real shape reveals itself because we must speak with such limited means.”

This expresses exactly why I love hand-drawn animation and always will.

On the other hand I disagree with the idea that “the animation of machines is only special effects animation” as applied to films like Wall-E . I thought the character animation in Wall-E was excellent. I have some problems with the overall story structure, but let’s not dump on the great animators at Pixar who are excellent at bringing all kinds of characters and objects to life.