The Golden age of Animation

There was a period in the ‘80s when box-office business for animated films was so bad, the genre was about to become extinct. In fact, not a single animated feature was released in the U.S. in 1984, and the five animated features released in 1985 sold less than $50 million worth of tickets combined.

Then, in a blur of blockbusters that began with "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), we saw Walt Disney’s resuscitated animation division churn out the instant classics "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "Aladdin" (1992), and "The Lion King" (1994), followed by Pixar’s first soldier in the computer-animation revolution, "Toy Story."

In 2001, 10 years after "Beauty and the Beast" became the one and only animated movie ever nominated for Best Picture, the Academy decided to give the animated feature its own category. The first winner: "Shrek."

How healthy are animated movies today? Well, in 2004, the top five animated films sold more than $1.1 billion worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada. The three films nominated for Best Animated Feature that year outgrossed the five live-action nominees, $858.6 million to $401.5 million.

And this year, 22 years after the shutout of ’84, the major studios plan the wide release of at least seven new animated features. Disney just released "The Wild" and will launch "Cars" in June, the latter, a co-production with Pixar. For its part, Warner Bros. is releasing "The Ant Bully" in August, to be followed by "A Scanner Darkly" and "Happy Feet" in November. Not to be outdone, Sony Pictures, a new player in animation, tests the waters with "Monster House" in August and "Open Season" in September.

Where heads were down two decades ago, people in animation today are as cheery as investors in a bull market. "I think people will look back at this period as the Golden Age of animation," says Yair Landau, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "We’re at a moment where we’re reinventing the medium again. Technology is not even a discussion anymore," Landau says. "We have enough qualified, off-the-shelf software to tell whatever story we want. Whatever images we imagine, we know we can make."

While computer animation dominates the field, it’s not the only medium. None of last year’s Oscar nominees were computer-animated: "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," "Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride" and "Howl’s Moving Castle."

This year, we’ll see two movies– "Monster House" and "A Scanner Darkly"–where the computer animation is done over live-action performances, creating images that are both cartoonish and photorealistic.

But, as virtually everyone interviewed for this story agrees, the medium is not the message–the message is.

"Pixar’s CG is fantastic, but their movies work because they know how to tell stories," says Spaz Williams, who directed "The Wild." "Look at ‘South Park.’ It’s the worst animation technique in the world, but the stories are great."

One reason animated movies have a higher ratio of successes to failures than live-action features is the way they’re made. "We have a longer window to get it right," says John Davis, director of "The Ant Bully." "We sketch out scenes and can see how they work before we commit to them. And we can go back and fiddle with them."

On a live-action film, you have actors for a certain number of days, and what you get is what you have to work with. With voice actors for animated movies, they can come back whenever they’ve got the time. If they can’t come to you, you can go to them. "I went to Taos, New Mexico to record Julia Roberts," says Davis.

As you scan the list of animated movies opening this year, you’re struck by the star wattage of their casts.

"It’s great fun for the actors," says Sandra Rabins, who heads Sony Pictures Animation. "It doesn’t take a lot of time. They don’t have to go through hair and make-up and sit around waiting for lighting."

And they can work in front of their kids if they want. "Martin Lawrence has three or four kids, and he brought them to the recording sessions for ‘Open Season,’" says Rabins. "He loves playing up for his children and they love looking up to their dad as his character, this 900-pound grizzly bear named Boog."

Charles Solomon, an author, journalist and animation expert, knows all the cycles of animation’s history and says the only thing new today is the technology. "I’m just old-fashioned enough to think that good stories are what makes good animation movies," he says. "And good animated movies stay on the shelves forever."