Watching Enchanted, 10:39pm. It's a real good movie. When a world icon like Disney can make fun of itself, and do it with a great picture, you've got something there, kid. The heroine right now is singing A Happy Working Song. Think Whistle While You Work, but more real.

We’ll keep singing without fail
Otherwise we’d spoil it
Hosing down the garbage pail
And scrubbing up the toilet
Ooh!

Disney should, however, fall back on its original feature animation style. Check out the animation in Snow White vs. Enchanted. Pay attention to the character animation. More on this after the videos.



Pigeons are not ok to kiss. . .



One wonders if rabies exists in these animated worlds. . .

The contemporary style found in Enchanted focuses on sharp and dynamic lines, turning the animation into something that looks sleek. And caricatured. One can definitely see the influence from Japanese animation--note the enlarged eyes and elongated features such as arms and legs, the neck, the sharp angle of the face's T-Line (a new vocabulary word I learned from watching women apply make-up. Long story). Whereas the older style looks like there were real actors filmed, and the animators drew over that film. This is called Rotoscopy party people.

In the past, one saw a very different relationship between cultures and animation. It was American animation, namely Disney animation, that influenced other nations. If one were to look at Disney's biography, a definite power emanated from the Disney studio while Walt was himself closely involved in the animation . As the studio became bigger, more staff, more ideas, more in-house rebellion against Walt Disney's vision of animation as art, animation married with realism, he became distant and lost control and thus the animation changed. Take a look at the vast differences between Snow White and the next few features: Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, a difference of only four years. I'd say, the Disney vision ended early, with Fantasia.

Irony: as Walt Disney became more successful and gained more power, Disney quality as Walt himself strived for, and subsequently Walt's power over animation, became something he could no longer control.

Sorcerer's Apprentice