Joseph Gilland.

Well animation artists, writers, fans, (and executives, you guys and gals, listen up please!), here we go into the next animation renaissance.

With Disney actually making a new animated 2D feature, after the baffling and absurd decision to ditch their 2D studios completely back in that sad, sad, early-21st-century era of CGI obsession, we may see something really special develop in the animation industry in the next few years.

We have seen it happen before. In the late '80s, after a string of relatively dismal feature films, Disney pulled its head out of its rear and in 1991 released Beauty and the Beast, the first animated feature ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. With the hugely successful Aladdin being released a year later, and Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney to form DreamWorks Animation just as The Lion King became the highest-grossing classically animated film in history, the animation renaissance of the early '90s was on.

Well, sort of. We did witness an incredible surge in feature animation production, and some memorable films were made in the following years. Problem was, this little "renaissance" was driven by corporate greed, not creative integrity or far-reaching creative vision. And so instead of upping the ante and making better and better films, both Disney and DreamWorks went with extremely aggressive production schedules, in an attempt to cash in, in the short term. Moderation, good taste, and the all-important timing of release dates were seemingly ignored. At the same time, several other feature animation studios were hastily thrown together, both in America and internationally, and before we all knew it, animation artists around the world were making unheard-of amounts of money, and the market became saturated with cookie-cutter formulaic feature films that just got worse and worse as the '90s progressed. We know the story all too well and, to a certain degree, the industry is still reeling from the effects of that massive, misled resurgence.

Fortunately for us, though, while Disney was creating the lukewarm and ultimately forgettable (although admittedly I sorta liked it) Pocahontas, a little studio called Pixar was creating the phenomenon that was Toy Story.

With the incredible box office success of that film, another mad corporate knee-jerk, jump-on-the-bandwagon reaction ensued, and soon every Tom, Dick and Harry in the animation industry was rushing to make the next big CGI feature. That created a kind of secondary animation renaissance, but, regrettably, it was based on the sadly mistaken idea that the CGI technique was all-important and of course, once again -- as earlier in the '90s -- good old shortsighted corporate greed.

While it did lead to a flurry of activity in the industry, and some decent films came out of it, it ultimately went the exact same way as the previous 2D renaissance. Too many films were made too quickly, formula ruled over originality and, regardless of the successes along the way, the market was once again saturated with half-baked remakes of the industry's last successful formula.

Toy Story spelled doomsday for the classical animation industry, or so the execs in the Mouse House seemed to think! © Disney and Pixar.

And how amusing was it to watch DreamWorks bang out the lackluster Antz in record time, in an effort to beat Disney's A Bug's Life to the punch? As an industry, we were tragically drawn into Mr. Katzenberg's pathetic little game of ego, resentment and retribution with his former employer -- and a few years later? Well, while the Shrek films continue to pull in incredible (sick) amounts of money at the box office thanks entirely to clever writing and highbrow poo-poo humor, and Pixar's offerings are still looking pretty strong, we have watched the market once again become saturated with mediocre content, and animation consumers and critics have grown sick and tired of the same old films, rehashed over and over.

Oh yes, it would be wise, of course, to mention Europe, where, around the same time that Disney's Mulan and DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt were being released, an interesting and unique 2D film called Kirikou and the Sorceress was being released. What followed in Europe was very similar to what happened in America, and was sometimes referred to as the "Kirikou Effect." As Phillippe Moins wrote in his AWN column of December, 2003:

A "Kirikou Effect"?
What has really happened in Europe in recent years? In France there has been much talk of the "Kirikou Effect." Michel Ocelot, previously known for his short films, alongside his producer Didier Brunner, battled for years to get financing for an unusual story and a personal graphic style for the animated feature film Kirikou and the Sorceress. After many ups and downs, a long and complicated process, which meant the physical production being spread out over several geographical locations, the film was released in French cinemas in 1998. The film was an unexpected success in cinemas, compounded by its triumphant video release. Two million Europeans finally saw the film in cinemas and the film was also sold to many other countries in several continents.