cradle to grave domination by the Mouse

Home, Home on the Range... was a terrible movie.

Funny you should mention it, "The Sweatbox" was just uploaded here a few days ago, but Disney yanked it down before any of us could watch it.

To nitpick, the working title was actually "Kingdom of the Sun", and it ended up becoming "The Emperor's New Groove", which despite what you may think, was a financial success to the point that Disney made a tv series out of it and a direct-to-video sequel. Both which were terrible, mind you.

It's cool to hate Disney anymore, and I won't deny the fact that they did some terrible things over the last twenty years and are a sad shell of their former selves, but they did have made some quality animated films since "The Lion King" that no one will give them credit for these days.

Also, you mean to tell me Tokyo Disneyland still has the Main Street Electrical Parade but California Disneyland doesn't? What the fuck Disney?

Tangled was quite good and Wreck-It Ralph coming out this fall seems pretty interesting, so Disney Animation might be finding its footing.
They outsourced here, because its just a commercial, and they wanted to use an anime studio or something, whatever, you guys are too damned cynical.

I'll miss Glen Keane, but I can't blame the guy. Disney treats its traditional animation division like crap these days. The studio has turned its back on his craft so there's no point in sticking around and waiting for the axe to fall. There's some amazing 2D work being done in Europe so hopefully he'll land at one of those studios.

Oh, I know ENG was profitable. Not disputing that. I'm not even disputing that it was good. My problem with Disney is the way they treat their creatives, their executive meddling and their insane development process.

Beauty and the Beast cost something like 45 million to make, and ended up grossing 400 million. ENG cost 100 million to produce, and grossed 165 million. That's about a 10-year gap, about it tells you a lot. Even if we subtract BatB's head-start on profits, Disney movies are costing more and earning less.

That's because for about 15 years, every asshole in a suit at Disney wanted to be involved in feature animation, especially after "The Little Mermaid" revitalized the department. And their way of being involved was tormenting the creatives. Chucking out years of work because they decided to make an Inca-themed prince-and-pauper story a wacky physical comedy instead... after half the dialogue has been recorded and the film was already partially animated. That's insane.

Glen didn't quit Disney because he thinks they put out crap. I really doubt that. He quit because he couldn't continue to work under those conditions, and I don't blame him. Creator and creative-driven animation is where things like Adventure Time, Samurai Jack and Flapjack come from. It's the good stuff. And Disney hasn't been creative-driven for ages. The execs straight-up do not fucking trust the creatives.

It sounds like Disney, much like every other studio, makes good movies in spite of the assholes in charge, rather than because of them. It's a pity it's bleeding over to Pixar now, as they've come down with a really bad case of sequel-itis.

It might not be the reason it sucked so much on a technical level, but one forum (I think it might have been Fark) had a guy purporting to be a CGI animator at a major studio explaining why the "burly brawl" in the Matrix might have looked as shitty as it did in places. The suits come down to see what "they" are doing and look over an animator's shoulder. The animator is trying to make Neo look as real as possible by adding imperfections, blurs, etc. to the models so he doesn't look like a Ken doll. The suit, knowing jack shit about animation, doesn't like how "bad" the frames look, and orders them to be cleaned up, thereby "doing something" and "earning" his salary.

Well animated? Did you watch the same commercial as me?

Yes, despite that it managed to be both maudlin and tedious in only 30 seconds, the actual animation is high-quality. I'm not sure why you're disputing this.

There's always one jaded person in the group. I thought it was well technically well done.

With that said, I have my doubts Disney as we know it is going to be relevant in 10-15 years. Their work doesn't seem as relevant now as it was in the pre-2K's.

There are still people who reflexively act hostile towards anything remotely anime or Japanese.

Because they're stupid.

That is clearly The Blank, the faceless man from Disney's 1990 film adaption of Dick Tracy.

Except The Blank actually turned out to be a lady in disguise, so really this whole thing is a clever viral ad for Disney's Gay Days.

The identity of her husband does not matter. Disney is her love, her life, and her master.

This reminds me of the scene in After Life where a dead teenage girl thinks that her favorite memory of living is visiting Tokyo Disney. She later changes her mind to something less inane.

Since this is a Madhouse production I'm surprised his face didn't split open to reveal a laser weapon with a shiny lens nestled in amongst cybertech, unleashing a blast at some grotesque beast leaping at them from out of nowhere or something like that.

But that's what gives it character.

It also has fewer Japanese tourists.

bring money

I like Cartoon Brew for trailers and trivia, but more and more of their articles are starting to sound like they're written by a drunken old cartoon fan on his porch in a wifebeater waving a broken bottle at whatever studio just did something they think raped the memory of Chuck Jones.

Cartoon Brew is run by a gaggle of nerds, and I judge them all on their individual merits. Amid Amidi in particular is a total joke; the day I consciously stopped taking CB seriously is the day he simultaneously shat on "Millennium Actress" and passionately defended "Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party."

There's a sub-group of cartoon geeks convinced anything made after the 1960s is irredeemably awful. Amidi is one of them. He would literally rather fawn and squeal over a Flintstones cigarette ad than give Satoshi Kon the time of day. When I see him listed as the author, I scroll past the article.

He must have been given a talking to a year or so ago, because he's a lot less vociferous with his absurd opinions. But the old Amid is there in the comment sections for sure.

Actually, we have 999 happy haunts residing here but there's always room for 1000. Any volunteers, hmmm?

That was by far the best episode of the series (and I'm not even being sarcastic).