I hope you don't mind but I'm inviting everyone who cares anything about the animation industry (especially the traditional 2D animation industry) to write to you and let you know how they feel. I don't know if it will do any good of course, but as so many people tell me they miss the animated films 'like Walt used to make' I'm just thinking that it might generate a few good ideas? (And good ideas were what you were really best at after all, weren't you!)
Truth is Walt, the industry's pretty close to the edge of an abyss right now and it needs something drastic to stop it tipping over. Perhaps by us all writing to you like this, you might help us find a way of doing something about it?
You see, gone are the days of the great storylines and meticulous character animation that you made your own. Gone too are the times of the apprenticeships that forged such a strong creative chain through successive generations or artists. Gone also is innovation. Now Hollywood simply makes 80-minute 'commercials' to promote a new marketing line... yep, even the corporation that still bears your name, despite the brave efforts of your nephew Roy.
(Actually Walt, I'm not including the Pixar bit of the equation in all this either. You may or may not of heard of them but they were bought by your guys to show them how to make great movies again! I'm sure you'd LOVE everything they've done!)
Anyway, you know what I think? I think its time you started haunting a few of those Burbank boardrooms for a while! They need a little bit of those chains of yours rattling in their ears, to remind them from whence it all came and from whom it all came from! Without you none of them would be where they are you see. Yet not one of them subscribes to anything you taught us about making great films and making them good enough to delight the audiences of many generations to come! Now it seems it is anything for the quick, short-term buck... and hang the long-term!
Really wishing you were here!
A.D.
(Now its your turn. Click on the 'COMMENTS' link below and post your letter to Walt on this site. There's no stamp costs to worry about and you never know, Walt might just be listening!) :)
Imagine finding a beautiful (and very long) scroll containing your favourite story, and it's written in amazingly intricate script. You read this scroll nearly every day as you grow up, and you treasure it and you know the memoory will never leave you. But then somehow, you mislay the scroll and thus have to make do with the memory.
ReplyDeleteUntil you find a coin-operated machine which has a copy of that very scroll, and it looks pretty good quality. So you pop in your money and out it comes, the copy of your prized scroll. You read it again and certain lovely memories return to you, but the magic has gone, and that edition does not pull at your heart strings or bring a lump of emotion in your throat. Because it's not THE scroll and it's not your childhood.
Well that's how I feel about animated films these days, there seems to be too little love or craft gone in to the 'hand making' of the films any more. There should of course be room for all modern technology and 'improved' animation techniques, but it should not be a the expense of 2D animation.
Robert E., Leeds, England