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[BunnySlippers]

I think of animation as being a good thing.

[GSlob]

Well, the animation studio is somewhat peripheral to MSM. MSM could be defined as a propaganda machine with its technological base now increasingly obsolescent. Now, movies could be propagandistic, and many of them are, but Disney animated ones are not the prime suspects in this regard.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Animation - isn't that the path to Fake But Accurate?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Does this fall under Dinosaur Media Deathwatch? A lot of animated Disney movies are great films.

[denydenydeny]

Traditional hand-drawn line animation is all but dead, that's what this story is about. Pixar-type computer animation is the name of the game today, unfortunately. I say unfortunately because the great hand-drawn Disney animation features are true classics in a way that the Pixar films and their imitators will never be.

[Jack Black]

My reply above was meant to be to you I think.

[napscoordinator]

Gosh the endless Dinosaur Media Death Watch is amazing considering that the movie industry will make more money than last year. In order for the Media to die we are going to have these threads until the end of every FREEPERS life for sure (even the youngest one out there). I just don't see the media going anywhere anytime this century.

[Conan the Librarian]

I don't think Disney has anything to worry about as long as I keep paying our Disney Vacation Club dues. That's enough to keep a few annimators going.

[Cicero]

Eisner wrecked Disney.

For animation fans, I would recommend almost any of the productions of Studio Ghibli, some of which have been picked up by Disney. The best ones are by Hayao Miyazaki. He seems to be both a pacifist (having suffered in WW II as a child) and an environmentalist, but frankly that doesn't matter, his stuff is so extremely good.

"Spirited Away" may be his most famous, but I strongly recommend "Porco Rosso," "Castle in the Sky," "Totoro," or any of his other films. Great stuff for the family. Brilliant animation and story telling.

You can find the details at the Studio Ghibli web site, or look up Miyazaki at Amazon and check the reviews.

[Richard Kimball]

What surprises me about this is that I thought Disney eliminated their animation department after "Home on the Range." Pixar has become the animation face of Disney, and Buzz and Woody, Sully and Mike, the Incredibles, etc., are as popular as most of the old Disney characters. Disney animation went great guns under Katzenberg, until Eisner ran him off. Katzenberg went on to create Shrek, although most of his other ventures were lame. Pixar has, I believe, studiously avoided politics in their animation, and the Incredibles was downright conservative. Katzenberg ran Disney during the years they created the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the Lion King. After he left, they did Hunchback, Home on the Range, Lilo and Stitch, etc.

As to laying off some animators, I think that's probably because of the greater time for production, and the fact that even traditional animation is largely done on computer now, eliminating the need for much of the labor.

[R.W.Ratikal]

Disney is toast. Walt must be saddened to see his once great family-oriented empire turned into a politically-correct leftist cesspool.

[chiefqc]

Walt Disney Co. will price themselves out of the market soon and all that will be left is the queer day.

[miliantnutcase]

Being an animator myself I can see why these people are being cut. They've been cutting since the late 90's because of the mismanagement under Eisner. Disney's in house animation was wasted on rehashed direct to video stuff that was done to recoup lost profits from their box office flops.

The animators who cannot/will not be trained in 3d computer animation are the ones being cut. Sad to see this, but you need to keep yourself marketable or you lose your job. =-(