LO1 Task 1: Analysing Existing Animations

 Chosen Animation Company - The Walt Disney Animation Studios

a) Company Structure
The Walt Disney Animation Studios is the leading film company to be owned by the conglomerate Walt Disney Studios company. It is the largest film production company owned by Disney and has a close partnership with DisneyToon Studios, another animation company created for/by the Disney company.

 b) Media Applications
The Walt Disney Animation Studios are recognised for its animated full-length motion pictures and shorts, but they have also supplied the animation for other Disney projects (e.g. animation in live action films and for rides and attractions at the Disney resorts).

c) Types of Animation

The Walt Disney Animation Company specialises in a wide variety of animation types and styles. Walt Disney himself started with hand-drawn 2D cel animation, creating the iconic Mickey Mouse cartoons. He also worked on live-action and animation crossovers in shorts such as his Alice Comedies, which would feature a real child actress in a world or animated animals.

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The Walt Disney Animation Studios would continue to regularly use 2D cel animation in their films and shorts for many years. The concept of live-action and animation crossovers would also be used in some of Disney’s other films, such as Mary Poppins and Bed-knobs and Broomsticks. However, whilst The Walt Disney Animation Studios helped to supply these films with animation, the films were not produced under this company to keep its status as an animation company as opposed to a general film company.

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Although most of Disney’s films used 2D cel animation, the animators would sometimes struggle to animate certain physical aspects, so the company resorted to rotoscoping to help the animation technique and reduce the risk of error. This involved live actors playing out certain scenes for the animators to trace over. Animators would also use scenes from their previous films and trace over those to reduce the cost of ink and again avoid any errors whilst animating; this technique was heavily used in their adaptation of Robin Hood, which used scenes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats.

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In the 60’s, the animators also turned to xerography to cut down on cost and man hours; this technique was especially successful with their film 101 Dalmatians as it helped to duplicate the amount of animated puppies on screen and give the film it’s own interesting art style. Film critics also complimented Disney on it’s use of the animation technique for the film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, saying that it helped the characters look more like book illustrations as they were intended to be.

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In later years, the rise of computer technology inspired the animators to find new ways to animate. The Black Cauldron, although mostly created using 2D cel animation and xerography, was the first animated Disney film to be aided by computers. The computers were used to create some of the cauldrons and special effects for the film. Throughout the 90’s, Disney continued to make 2D animated films, but computers were used to make the animation look sharper and neater and were also used for some assets and visual effects such as the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast and the Hydra in Hercules.  It was through the development of this technique that the concept of 2D digital animation was introduced and used more frequently on animated projects such as The Princess and the Frog.

In 2000, Disney released Dinosaur, which was heavily inspired by the success of Jurassic Park and its ground-breaking use of realistic CGI technology. Dinosaur, whilst featuring some live-action sequences for the scenery, was made mostly using CGI.  Disney returned to 2D digital animation for a while, but then started to create full length CGI films in order to compete with other successful animator companies like Dreamworks, which ditched 2D animated films to impress larger audiences with the new effects of CGI. Disney followed it’s example and started creating 3D computer animated films like Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. These films were not successful financially or critically, but the company soon appointed John Lasseter, of Pixar fame, as Chief Creative Officer for their future film projects. Lasseter was responsible for some of Disney's most successful films in recent years, supporting films such as Tangled, Wreck It Ralph, Big Hero 6 and the multi-award winning Frozen, the highest grossing animated film of all time. Frozen,whilst using computer animated technology, even had new pieces of equipment and technology developed for production of the film, including a simulator to create unique snow flake designs so that each flake of snow in the film would be different. Frozen also opened with a short film titled Get a Horse! which starred Walt Disney's original character Mickey Mouse; this short was made using CGI and 2D cel animation in the style of Disney's original art style. This short was created to pay homage to Disney's classical animation and also show far animation techniques had developed.

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 d)Regulatory Bodies
Disney specialises in family-friendly films, so before they are released they must be checked and analysed by the MPAA to check that it is appropriate to show to everyone (U rating) or if parental guidance is required (PG rating) or if it needs an age restriction, although this is rare for Disney animation. Due to Disney's colourful, up-beat and family-friendly approach, it isn't usually necessary for an age certificate to be put in place, although Disney have had to make some of their films PG. For example, Big Hero 6 was rated PG as it depicted scenes of violence, death, and implied mature content.

The Rescuers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit were released on video tape and, with the introduction of new technology features, viewers were now able to rewind, slow-down and pause the films, allowing them to see things they might not have seen before. Both films included inappropriate scenes of nudity that when played at normal speed would occur too quickly so that they wouldn't register with most people. These moments of nudity were missed by the censors, the MPAA and cinema audiences and were not discovered until released on video. Both films had to be recalled upon discovery and modified before re-release, with Disney removing the inappropriate scenes/sections from future re-releases to avoid complaints from the MPAA or future audiences.

Meanwhile, the Disney movie Song of the South has never been released onto video or DVD, and probably never will. This is because it includes out-dated scenes that depict slavery and many critics consider these scenes to be racist. Disney have not encountered issues with any regulatory bodies about releasing the film, but the company have decided not to release it on video/DVD to avoid causing any further controversy or offence. Though many people have complimented Disney's choice to not re-release the controversial film, some have sighted that Disney could release the film as long the attached a disclaimer in the same style that Warner Bros. released original Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry cartoons onto DVD with a disclaimer on the case and another video disclaimer hosted by TV personality Whoopi Goldberb.