Anyone with half a brain should realize there is no 2D versus 3D. Folks have been trying to stir the pot since the mid 80's of the last century. The computer is a tool; plain and simple and in the context of animated films - it's an ARTISTIC TOOL. People can fool themselves all they want. They need 2D to do 3D AND they need to draw and develop - it's what the industry wants. Folks who try to "get over" by depending on their boxes are doomed to reside in them - forever. Thanks.

CGI will not kill drawn animation for the simple reason that it is only another style of animation. In the same way plasticine (Chiken Run) Cut-outs (South Park), paint on glass (Old Man and the Sea). It has to do more with the script, guest voices and the quality of the artists who work on the film.

AWN Comments Mr. Goodman does make some very good points, but he leaves out a very critical one: That is that just because American feature animation doesn't die, that doesn't really mean it lives either. American animation has yet to break through and make a truly adult feature that's both a mainstream success and because of that success leads to the production of more films like it. Ralph Bakshi's features came close, but they weren't successes on the scale of, say, the Godfather films, and there really hasn't been much of any influence by them in the two decades since. Prince of Egypt was a more mature version of what Disney's already made, but since then Dreamworks hasn't produced anything like it, and it appears that they don't plan to either. Look at the past two or three top ten lists from major critics. Go ahead and try to name as many animated films of equal quality. I'll make it harder. Don't mention any anime. Restrict yourself to mainstream American films. Don't name any musicals. You can't just blame animation's smaller numbers for the dearth of great feature animation. In several years are we to be grateful that there are still animated feature films if the target audience is six years old? If that's all drawn feature animation gives us, then isn't that a type of "living death", some sort of coma or purgatory? Hollywood has never given animated features outside of Disney and "Disney" much of any chance and given the box office of drawn animation outside of Disney/"Disney" are they suddenly going to? The mouse seems determined to not make anything of a truly adult nature. (despite being perfectly able to through Miramax and Touchstone) If they intended to, wouldn't they be living up to the promise of their Miyazaki deal? Just the past year has shown big hits from CGI films for kids & families (Shrek, Monsters Inc.), failures of drawn animation (Atlantis, Osmosis Jones), and studios have pulled the plug on some promising films (Fox's Fathom will be live-action I'm afraid.) or even closed shop altogether. This downward trend may not be a steady one, but it will continue. It was only a few months ago that I came to a very sobering conclusion, one I'd been avoiding for a few years but finally made myself admit: While drawn theatrical animation won't completely die, it won't ever mature and "break through" as I've been hoping for so long. CGI is too big and can do too much for drawn animation to compete, and it will only get better. Hollywood and mainstream audiences won't show the patience to allow drawn animation to build up to the same level of acceptance and find its audiences. The loss of animation, not of films that failed to be seen, but over the course of decades were simply never made or even thought of is staggering. Call me crazy, but I even quantified it, setting the totality of live action film - as flawed as it may be - as the top of the scale at 100%, I estimate that drawn animation, including anime, has only seen 2 to 10% of it's critical potential realized, and maybe 10 to 25% of it's visual. The loss is as big as if the majority of great live-action films had never been made, but most animation fans pretend everything's been fine over the years and animation's history is something to be proud of. That's not a criticism of what good work has been made, but I bemoan the loss of all that could have been instead. At this point there are a few possible hopes for American theatrical drawn animation: Anime through video and TV may be popular enough to someday produce more than just successes from Pokemon movies. Increasing maturity of anime theatrical releases or a breakthrough hit like a Yoshiaki Kawajiri/Madhouse studio film might be enough of an incentive to warrant production and release of more like them. Possibly a successful animated feature based on a popular comic? Kids films like Powerpuff Girls might push enough in an anti-Disney direction to allow production of animated action adventure films targeting teens, then adults. Comic book films also look attractive here. CGI is only going to grow, and despite naysayers, it will eventually be able to produce a reasonable facsimile of drawn animation. By the time it can do this it's possible that no one would be interested in making the drawn look, but should they be, I'll welcome it. I for one don't care how it's made, just so long as the visuals I want are delivered. Drawn animation will be dead, but if the "replacement" is truly just as good then I won't care. All these scenarios require a precise set of circumstances and a great deal of luck. I'm not going to count on any of it, and I'm reminded of how promising things seemed in the mid 90's. Look at where we are now. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm being too cynical. But for the time being, I can only see theatrical drawn animation continuing to go nowhere fast for the next several years, then quietly fading away into extinction.

Very well written article. Logical and reasoned arguments. Nice to see this type of thinking come to the fore.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! The contents of your article have been in dire need of public digestion for the past decade. In our society of new trends and movements that must be classified and given a catchy name,each new advance ends up being cast as the mortal enemy of its immediate predecessor. As artists we should acknowledge and respect all of the tools at our disposal, and be aware that they are here for us to be creative with- traditional or digital.....

Another good piece, Dr. I might add that another reason for the success of Shrek, Toy Story, Antz, Monsters Inc, might be in small part because of its vocal actors. How much of Shrek's success was owing the star presense of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy? The same goes with Toy Story (Tim Allen and Tom Hanks). I don't believe it's a major reason behind their success, but I wonder if Shrek, for example, would have reached the same success with minor voice actors.