If you ask me, Dreanworks should also go back to 2d animation. They could probably bring in a lot of the Disney fans who've been craving 2d animation for so long.

2D is technologically cheaper, and sometimes better visually. Disney can still do 3D, it's just that they shouldn't forget 2D exists.

One thing I miss about 2D animation vs 3D is the unique look of 2D vs the homogenus look of 3D. Example: Hercules' animation is very obviously influenced by Classical Greek pottery paintings and Mulan is very obviously influenced by Chinese watercolor paintings. The 3D movies all look roughly the same kind of style.

I know this isn’t a Disney film but Dreamworks, “Prince of Egypt” is a perfect example of a 2D film that is just visually stunning. Such a beautiful film

Disney needs to realise this isn't the early 2000's anymore and audience's aren't going to be easily impressed with pretty colours and 3D sets. Especially major animation fans, because we are aware just what the medium of animation is capable of. We want to see something new and stylised, something that innovates animation one again. But Disney is no longer pushing any major boundaries, I am surprised Sony of all places has started this new era of animation. Disney animators and artists are immensely talented and it makes upset seeing their potential being wasted.

Also the fact that Disney abandoned their 2D animation studio since Princess and the Frog. It’s so offensive they refuse to do anything with 2D animation.

More than anything Disney is now ashamed of being the "animation studio". There's a reason they are buying all the non-animation franchises. Also note that they are making so many live action adaptations. Disney doesn't care about animation and left it to Pixar for the most part. I call it betrayal of Disney on the medium of animation as a whole.

My dream was to work as a 2D animator for Disney. But by the time I was ready to apply, they had already changed to 3D. And with that my dream died.

The saddest part about the transition from 2D to 3D in the 2000's is just how beautiful movies started to get when they blended the two together. Dreamwork movies like Road to El Dorado or Sinbad were gorgeous.

3D animation always aged like milk. At first, it looks impressive with its graphics and details. As years went by, it began to slip from overly polygonal to creepily realistic. Like you said, the 2D animation feels like the painting comes to life, and I can see the style of other Disney movies since I was very young. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, The Black Cauldron and Night on Bald Mountain segment of Fantasia feel like European gothic illustrations. The Little Mermaid was based on the tropical paintings with the original storyboard by Kay Nielsen. Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan blend well with the realism of the real world and the colorful and cartoony atmosphere of the magical lands by Mary Blair. And And 101 Dalmatians is based on the art style of 1960s Cubism. Even the best-known anime series used watercolor paintings for backgrounds before AI replaced them with hollow ones.

After a while, 3D animation can get a little samey, especially with Disney films. It is impressive how far CGI has come, but traditional animation can pull off a lot more in my opinion.

2D, 3D, and blended animation should all coexist in terms of Disney movies. If this popular demand gets higher Disney may as well bring back 2D films

I will always prefer 2D animation to 3D. There is a fluidity and vitality to 2D that 3D to me can not capture. While 3D could always be pushed to look more realistic there's just gonna be a point where you go "okay, but why not just make it live action then." Besides, I feel that the more realistic something looks the more it becomes bound to the rules of reality. For instance, some character designs would just look absurd when made into a 3D model. But that's not a problem for 2D; it truly is a limitless medium. Not to mention I always felt that the 2D Disney characters emoted much more than the 3D ones. If Disney decides to return to 2D its a step in the right direction. But I'll keep any hope or expectations tempered.

Sadly Disney is now a company that hates its past and legacy. The 2D animation is associated with what they now feel ashamed of and have this hyper fixation to fix what was wrong, most of the time resulting in worse versions of the animated counterparts. Many people including myself wish for Disney to return to that, but the company cannot until it stops this self hatred cycle of trying too hard to not be what they were most known for, most proud of, most creative for.

I prefer 2D because is surreal expressive and it goes very well with fantasy and creative ideas.

Studio Ghibli tried the 3D route with Earwig and the Witch, and in my opinion it was no where near as good as it could’ve been if the kept it 2D

Honestly, the fact 2D has been shelved so much is just plain stupid, and I strongly believe Disney’s refusal to do so is why they’ve been struggling as of late. 2D was shelved under the belief that they were seen as more childish than their 3D counterparts, but that’s just no longer the case and hasn’t been for some time. Disney’s 3D style is now associated with being a generic and childish film, because so many films since Shrek have come and diluted the idea that 3D is meant to be more mature. Now, through a combination of fans wanting to see the older style, the surge of anime fans in the west, and the most critically acclaimed 3D films incorporating a lot of 2D style, 2D is seen as the much more mature and artistic style, and Disney is missing on such a golden opportunity by choosing to make their 100 year anniversary film Tangled 5. It’s just laughable at this point. Disney once again severely overestimated their cultural impact and assumed they can exist forever by coasting. A solid 2D film would do so much in giving people faith in the idea of Disney again, yet they just aren’t smart enough to see it

All you have to do is look at the princesses in 3D in Wreck It Ralph 2. They went from extremely unique to all looking like 15 year old kids.

3D animation is great for when you wanna do world building. Showing minute details in the background, getting little things that would be missed in traditional art is the whole point to it. 2D is more for when you want to show the expressions of characters and make details within the foreground. And that's why Dreamworks has been so good with their 3D where Pixar and Disney are starting to fall flat. Not only are their stories starting to falter, but they never design their backgrounds. Even looking at the few Encanto shots you showed, you can see they don't focus on that. You look at the backgrounds for Dreamworks and you can see every little bauble, every nook in the trees, every parting in the leaves of plants. But they have design that makes the entire scene interesting. Disney doesn't focus like that. And that's not a bad thing, but when you have 3D rendering people's faces, they all look the same. You look at all the princesses in 3D, they all have the same eyes, the same noses, the same cheekbones. It's boring. With hand drawn, you get these little differences, and imperfections, that make the characters. It's more fun, where 3D is more sanitary. They're both great, but for different things, and where Dreamworks and Sony have utilized the best of both worlds in a movie or two now, I feel like Disney's gonna miss the memo.

Nothing would please me more than to see Disney go back to good old 2D hand drawn animation.

This is what I've been trying to say to people but I didn't have the right language for! I really hope animation studios start getting this idea through their thick skulls because they are being their own worst enemy atm

Disney abandoned 2D primally because of cost (the out-of-fashion argument was just the perfect scapegoat), i wonder what changed on the 2D animation space in this almost 20 years in terms of cost and time efficiency. Those changes will determinate if 2D could actually make a come back to Disney. As we all know, money talks for this studio

Having 2D isn’t enough. They need writing that doesn’t suck or is only mediocre.

I prefer 2D from Disney. And I miss it. Disney stopped using the art form that brought them so much success

And Disney has proven they can still do it too cus technically the last time they used that traditional style was last year with Disenchanted. But I'd love to see that style used on the big screen again

Man I missed traditionally hand drawn and 2D animation in old days I wished they would bring back it original glory and prominence before being overtaken and overshadowed by 3D and CGI animation

Past Disney 2D Movies are more better than modern reboots like Disney should've been better than this like where's the magic?

This was a great analysis of Disney's problematic state. I agree that they need to get back to their roots for the 100th anniversary year and bring back the magic that's been lost. Their 2d animation was their identity, but they abandoned the style, so did their credibility as a studio.

I think that when tangled was given a 2d show that changed how everyone saw the designs (I actually think the cgi ones look a little weird now)

I’m glad a lot of people agree with me, 2D is absolutely amazing and it’s so visually pleasing and smooth it’s beautiful.

fortunately, as a filmmaker myself, i have a passion project in mind for disney now that they accept 2d projects and i have been preparing portfolios from think tank, and it shall be inspired by a japanese disney attraction with menken music

If Disney ever did a 2D animated film, I’d like to see them do a fairytale or some other classic story.

Really miss 2D animation- it's honestly so much more interesting. Now one of my favorite Disney movies is Tangled, don't get me wrong, and they actually did so well on it. One of the things thought that I actually like the most about it is the art in it, the art that Rapunzel creates aka her painting and the chalk art-. Hell, if I was able to watched the series, I 100% would because the animation for it is so interesting to me and goes to show the endless possibilities.

Disney should back to 2d. Hand drawn animation in its self is beautiful and feels more personal. In animation in Sleeping Beauty is pretty distinct the way it looks like a moving tapestry.

I’ve been saying it for a few years now like I want 2D animation movies again, 3D is nice and all but I will always love 2D more. It just has that feeling that 3D don’t have, if you know what I mean… 😢😊

I think Disney should do what Dreamworks did in the 90’s to the 2000’s: Be more experimental. When you look at their catalog, we had 3D CGI, 2D Hand Drawn and Stop-Motion co-existing together. The Prince of Egypt, Shrek, Chicken Run, etc. It had something for everyone. Disney should do that after Wish is finally released.

How I miss the days of traditional hand drawn animation, it needs to make a comeback. Some of my favourite animated films are hand drawn; The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Black Cauldron, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Treasure Planet and Atlantis The Lost Empire

2D is very popular in the modern day because of how amazing it is to many people, and many industries, for example, as someone who wants to be a vtuber, 2D is very popular by both the Vtuber modeling industry for its cheaper cost compare to 3d but also to it being popular because of its expression and something that is unique and everyone of them can be unique in their own way. People love it!

Disney didn't just drop 2D randomly. In video games and in movies, when 3D got momentum there was a wierd general feeling at the time that anything that wasn't 3D but was done in another art style was considered "lesser" or "cheap". It might have just been the critics, but they had more power back then. This push happened in different ways in different times. Video games had this in the late 90's. I remember distinctly all the game mags panning Curse of Monkey Island for being traditionally animated, and it was GORGEOUS. Grim Fandango was buggy and rough looking but was 3D so it was praised. Disney doing 2D animation was seen as the last holdout, and not in a good way, when every other animation movie company was doing 3D. Now we look back on the 2D games and movies made during that "push for progress" time and praise the style, beauty, and personal touch, but back then those films/games didn't get that praise. Also, I think 3D might also be cheaper to produce when the models don't need to be changed up. So if you're in the same areas with the same costumes and hair styles with fewer characters, all that work that's frontloaded to make something 3D can then be just animated however you want for as long as you want quite easily. 3D is easier to keep characters on model. 2D is better for more dynamic stories, where the costumes, places, and people are more diverse. If done in 3D, Princess and the Frog definitely would not have all those beautiful costumes. Honestly, if history played out without that 3D bias we might have reached a nice balance where the type of animation used was decided by what story was being told. I'm so frustrated because I never agreed with the push for everyone to adopt 3D. Traditional animation, GOOD pixel art, all of those "out of fashion" art styles are so beautiful, they've always been my favorite. I miss old school Disney's beautiful animations full of class, personality, and life. I miss traditional animation too, but sadly there actually was a reason for it's abandonment. Just not a good one.

Thank god for Spider-Verse popularizing 2D again.

I DEFINITELY 100% agree with everything you said in this video. The only difference being that I wish we had a perfect balance of both 2D and 3D animated movies coming from not only Disney but also all the other companies who work on animation: Dreamworks, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bro., etc.

They need to make an Arthur action adventure film

The hard parts of 2D animation is to get consistency of the art work that done by bunch of artists. And that make 3D animation feels more efficient because 3D animation could reach 100% consistency easily, because of the nature of the 3D animation production. And that's the reason studios choose 3D animation because it is easier to produce

I am honestly more annoyed how when they use cgi they go on like "Here we spent over 300 hours trying to accurately do the hair of a character" and the character has the usual (huge bug eyes, small nose, and tiny lips) while their clothes and hair look so real. When I see the 2D characters it manages to be more realistic than their cgi.

Not just Disney, but alot of mainstream studios should try doing 2D films more often. Not just because we want 2D back, but also for variety. But as for Disney themselves, they need another Renaissance.

Disney: We build our company on 2d drawings. Also Disney: We hate 2d drawings.

You know, I remember a time when Disney was more or less the king of 2D animation. To the point where most people assumed practically anything 2D animated was done by Disney. In fact, while writing this I had to go look up 'The Road to El Dorado' to remember that it was made by Dreamworks. And then they bought Pixar - the king of CGI animation and the second pillar of movies - and now all they do is CGI. Edit: An advantage 2D has is that, unless it's the really cheap stuff, it never feels outdated. Compare something like Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmations to something like Toy Story. The 3D stuff looks very dated compared to today, whereas the 2D works hold up so well I keep being shocked to find out that the examples I mention are up to 80 years old; I used to think they had come out when I had seen them, and I was born in the 90s. These films are around 50 years older than me.

It makes me upset that this form of 2D isn’t getting much attention. I feel like they should have this is tv shows as well, not just movies. Cuz a LOT of 2D shows are usually animated by using limited techniques like copy and pasting body parts and puppeting characters and rigging, which is something I personally don’t like. I want to incorporate the hand drawn 2D animation into my own work as well, and regardless of art style, I encourage people to use it in animation as well.

Who remembers Spirit ? Man dat was awesome

You should totally do more videos about various Disney Channel shows!

Hey I was talking about Wish 2D Opportunity with my friend. Wish in 3D looks a little awkward and stale.

2D was recently a couple of years ago proved once again how amazing it looks when it was shown I'm a hybrid relationship with 2d and 3d in arcane omg I loved that series it's a masterpiece

Totally agree. The stories of new new movies are good (most of them), but I also liked the different styles of the past - Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations, Hercules, Lili & Stitch, and Hunchback of Notra Dame.

I really wish wolf walkers came to cinemas. It’s an absolutely gorgeous 2D animated film

If Disney did 2d again and it was a success, it would probably prompt all the other industries to try putting it in the mainstream again. Maybe start another renaissance? I'm not sure now, but back in the day people would follow Disney's lead.

2D Forever! And i mean REAL 2D, not CGI 2D & not Flash-animation. Todays movie & tv industries rely TO MUCH on CGI & computers nowadays when making animated movies & tv-shows. Not to mention that they overuse them when making special effects. LOVE this video, nice job. 👍💙

Thank you so much for this video I was always so heartbroken that Disney stop making 2D animated films in theaters. If Disney start making 2D, animation films films in theaters again it may help the company more ways than one

This is why I believe in variety of animation, because today's animation, no matter if it's from Disney, Dreamworks or any other studio, doesn't feel the same like it used to in the past. Let's hope they replace the current executives, so the new ones will take their place and finally bring back the true beauty of animation in general, acting, story-telling, voice acting and even music. Let's not forget the life lessons and values as well 'cause animation which exist only for commercial, political or humorous purposes is no masterpiece at all.

Disney's 2D animation is true art with it's distinctive drawing style. 3D is nice but I see it but like good craftsmanship than true art. Real art is handmade and what Disney put out even way back in the 1940s puts anything coming out of Japan or any other country to shame. They just had that certain touch you can't replicate.

My thoughts are effectively that, like. As a 2D animation fan, I'd of course love to see major western studios explore 2D animation again. Some of my favorite films are 2D animated and make brilliant use of the medium - Wolfwalkers in particular stands out to me for its shifting art styles adding to the narrative, representing different characters and parts of its world. But I don't necessarily think that unique, expressive, narrative-enhancing styles like those Have to be 2D, or at least exclusively 2D? Like, Spiderverse is an obvious one, with characters like the Vulture from Gwen's opening, or Hobie's collage style, but when you discussed the classical Chinese-inspired Artstyle in Mulan, my immediate thought actually drifted to a 3D animated work - Not a film, granted, but a video game. Okami, all the way back on the PS2, created an Entire Game in a style reminiscent of sumi-e, rendered and played in 3D, with character and setting designs to match, centered around a fitting concept of a world of Japanese mythology and folklore. And it, especially in its HD rereleases, remains gorgeous to look at To This Day, as far as I'm concerned. Highly unique and stylized 3D animation has been around for ages - It's just a matter of when film studios actually choose to put in the effort to take advantage of it on a wider scale.

I miss the days of western animation where 2d wasn't just for dumb shows to dumb down children.

Disney just loves taking the easy way out and making movies in CGI

We'll never go back to 2D in this era unless we time travel

As a early 2000s baby who once had lots of DVDs to choose from, used to watch TV and grew up with some of the Disney Renaissance (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan as well as their at the time a few years old like The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantas, Lilo & Sitich, Treasure Planet, and even Brother Bear), as well as Osmosis Jones, The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad, Anastasia, and a surprising one Eight Crazy Nights…..and of course some of the theatrical movies based on cartoon shows (Rugrats, Wold Thornberries, The Powerpuff Girls, SpongeBob) + some other ones, also watched most of these on DVD and the other portion via TV, I miss 2D Theatrical movies so much I wish they would make some theatrical 2D animated movies again (besides Anime), even SpongeBob movies ain’t going back to 2D anymore. That said there is some CG bangers like Kung Fu Panda, HTTYD (which I watched recently, alongside finished the 3 I never finished cause of scratched up DVDs), Wreck-It Ralph, and GOATs The Lego Movie and Spiderverse

God, I hope someone freaking uses 2D again. I miss it.

Atlantis is a visually stunning film

Do what Klaus did 2D animation with newer technology like shadow or what American The motion picture movie did ❤🎉

Disney needs 2D, and I wish the New Villain..... please stay is a villain.

On the bright side Disney’s Wish is bringing back the 2D formula, so that’s at least something.

This is an excellent video.

As an adult, I still very much enjoy 2D animation shows and movies. I like adult swim cartoons and anime and generally prefer them over live action adult shows. I just watched the season premiere for the new Superman cartoon last night and loved it! I wish 2D animation wasn't written off as something just for kids or irrelevant in this day and age.

Let Pixar handle all 3D animation and have Disney do the 2D.

yep disney and dreamworks need to go back to hand drawn animationm if only

To me the last studio head to understand Disney was Michael Eisner cause he knew what made Disney Disney by keeping 2d animation while exploring 3d animation and the company shouldn’t have abandoned 2d animation but adapted to were they could release 2d and 3d animated movies it would keep the animators creative

Hard agree. There's something special with 2D that 3D can't do. For your next video, maybe you should do a video on the flawed genius of the Star Wars prequels.

I hope Bluebeard gets confirm and become the next feature after wish they said that this film will bring back hand drawn animation

Disney and Dreamworks both abandoned 2D animation because Pixar completely destroyed it with Toy story Only for pixar themselves declining in the box office with staying in their own comfort zones

I want disney to do a blend with 3d and 2d before going completely to 2d.

Disney must go back to its roots and use 2-D animation to reclaim its own identity!

8:26 shout outs to this scene in the disney plus version because in the original version lilo is hiding inside of a dryer, while in the disney plus version its changed to some weird shelf thing with a pizza box? its like this so then children dont get the idea to hide inside of a dryer because thats obviously dangerous

2D animation ages so much better than 3D animation. Compare Snow White, a nearly 90 year old movie and Shrek, a 20 year old movie. Which one looks better?

I'm hoping that Wish bring the hybrid 2.5D is a sign that Disney will move forward in a better direction that brings back 2D animation AND uses all animation styles in general. 2D, 3D, 2.5D, Stopmotion, just all styles is something we of all ages deserve to see. NOT ONLY ONE STYLE!

They used to have actual composition in their old movies. Any frame from an older one of those films has at least a handful of the rules of art somewhere within. Texture, line weight, rule of 3, complementary colors, the list goes on. It's not like these can't be recreated in 3D, but it's inherent to hand drawn art. The charm and skill is on full display in 2D. Disney doesn't make art anymore though, they make money.

2D will always be better than 3D

disney needs 2d animation back because I missed it while I do like 3d animation but I miss 2d animation.

Treasure planet is a great movie of blending 2D and 3D. They left that movie to die 😔

Now that pen tablets are becoming more common, animation should become easier than ever. I say "become", since there's a learning curve to it, and the old guard are often more productive with the traditional pencil and paper method.

3D used to be an interesting gimmick. Now it is just bland. It’s possible to do distinctive styles in 3D, but Disney isn’t taking advantage of that for their feature films.

Things are never gonna go the way they will in the public domain era

I'll take a good 2D movie over any live action film any day of the week. It's where the studio can really let their imagination shine and express their vision without limitation. Anime is now popular for the same reason. 2D just has soo much freedom to do what it's wants and thus you can elevate any scene from a 10 to 100

Movies like "Klaus" and "Wolfwalkers" or even "My father's dragon" are proof of just how unique and absolutely stunning 2d animation can be. For me at least aside from puss in boots and spiderverse, all 3d movies seem like they are ashamed of being animated and want to be real with all that hyperdetails and stuff. Kinda ruins the magic of animation

Even if Disney's traditional animation managed to come back from the grave, they still wouldn't be able to win me back seeing how corrupt, and hypocritically racist, hateful and bigoted they've become, I have a feeling they're only saying "We're doing this?!" just to get our hopes up. Like what one comment said, it's probably just to try to get their stock back up and get views back for Disney- (adverts for that and its logo make me want to go on a kaiju rampage every time I see them).

Disney (or Dreamworks) should go back to 2d animation because it saves them a lot of money than 3d or live action. 2d animation is hand drawn so it’s easy to make facial expression than in a computer.

🙌 they listened, on May 16th 2023 the big D company they're hiring for 2D animator, research it for yourself ((youtube keeps deleting my post, lol))

It’s not just Disney, it’s all studios.

I'm still mad disney abandoned 2d artwork for the popular trend of 3d. I don't hate 3d, but to toss away the uniqueness that made disney, well, disney.. is just sad. If anything look at anime. How much of a juggernaut THAT is. And how now the west is all "oh shiitt the public likes that japanese stuff..??"

Your gonna blow up one day

I honestly think we're in the "next" Dark Age of Disney. That Rennaissance lasted through Frozen. They've had their hits, but also a string of misses. I think we'll continue to see this for another 10-20 ish years. I think Pixar is the only thing keeping Disney animation afloat. Marvel had it's run, but that's pretty much done. Don't get me wrong, I love films that aren't your typical "hero v.s. villain" but those films still require full investment... and Disney just hasn't committed. Notable examples done correctly, include everything from "Fox and the Hound" , to "Lilo and Stitch" , and "Encanto"... But yeah, Disney is in a dark place right now. They need to embrace storytelling and innovation again.

Teen titans go to the movies was the last 2D movie I’ve heard of

miss 2d