The Renaissance Age of Animation: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

[[File:Renaissance_6935_6462.jpg|frame|A sampling of influential animation from this era.<ref>In order: Fievel from ''[[An American Tail]]'', Ariel from ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'', Butthead and Beavis from--take a guess--''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'', Buster Bunny and Babs Bunny (no relation) from ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'', Unit 01 from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', and Buzz and Woody from ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''.</ref>]]

 

The return of animation to a point of artistic respect. At first [[The Dark Age of Animation]] persisted -- [[Limited Animation]] was still the rule on television. The [[Disney Animated Canon]] came close to ending for good when ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'', intended to be the stunning debut of a new generation of animators, didn't impress just-arrived company executives Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg; they recut it and it proceeded to tank at the box-office. [[Merchandise-Driven]] shows/specials such as ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]'', ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'', ''[[Care Bears]]'', and ''[[The Transformers (animation)|The Transformers]]'' ruled 80s television animation and had parents' groups up in arms about children watching glorified toy commercials (commercials that were extremely split between gender lines at that).

 

Fortunately, things got better.

 

Outside of TMS, Disney defector [[Don Bluth]] started making movies with 1982's ''[[The Secret of NIMH]]'', pushing for a return to the rich classical style of [[The Golden Age of Animation]]; while it was not a blockbuster, it quickly became a [[Cult Classic]]. It attracted the attention of no less than [[Steven Spielberg]], which led to Bluth's directing the successful ''[[An American Tail]]'' and ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' for Amblin Entertainment. Don Bluth would both rise to prominence and [[Fallen Creator|fall]] during this period, but his collaboration with Steven Spielberg proved to be the first real challenge Disney had ever faced in the animated film department, at least since the [[Max and Dave Fleischer|Fleischers]] were in business.

All in all, this era did a good job of at least brushing away the worst aspects of the Dark Age. [[Parental Bonus]] was back, quality had soared, and profits were high. [[Anime]] also found headway in the U.S. in this period with ''[[Robotech]]'' becoming a cult favorite with its audacious flouting of contemporary North American TV animation conventions to present a sweeping military SF saga that made homegrown fare like ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' look so timid and vapid. After that ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' began to make their presence on TV and home video. In theatres, anime made its own splash with the harrowing cyberpunk ultraviolence of ''[[Akira]]'' and while the Western world finally was presented with the genius of [[Hayao Miyazaki]] with his classic films like the intelligently charming ''[[Kiki's Delivery Service]]'' and the grand, profound fantasy drama ''[[Princess Mononoke]]''.

 

 

Depending on who you ask, the deterioration of this era began somewhere towards the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s. The seeds may have been sown in 1995, when Disney distributed [[Pixar]]'s ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''. It was a huge hit both critically and commercially...but Disney's traditionally animated entry for the year, ''[[Pocahontas]]'', did well enough financially but also disappointed many viewers. Disney's increasingly formulaic approach to feature storytelling -- [["I Want" Song]]s, wacky sidekicks, [[Anachronism Stew|pop culture jokes]], etc. -- in the wake of its early-'90s hits, resulted in films that strived to include more adult themes/stories yet couldn't lift themselves out of the worst aspects of the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] when it came to content. [[Disneyfication]] became a dirty word as critics accused them of whitewashing/dumbing down history and classic literature/mythology. (The increasing amounts of merchandise tied into these films didn't help matters.) That said, while these films were considered inferior to their predecessors, only one, the aforementioned ''Pocahontas'', was a critical failure - at a mediocre 56% on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], it's the only real critical failure of the Disney Renaissance. Meanwhile, the entries that were relative box office failures - ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' and ''[[Hercules (Disney film)|Hercules]]'' - were modestly well-received by said critics (at a decent 73% and a good 83% on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], respectively), who considered them improvements over the preachy and pretentious ''Pocahontas'' - ''Hunchback'' has even been [[Vindicated by History]] recently to the point that it's a Dark Horse candidate for the [[Magnum Opus]] of the Disney Renaissance. ''[[Mulan]]'' and ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'' were even viewed as coming close to the earlier works (at 86% and 88%, respectively). Rival studios' Disney-esque efforts were usually pale imitations at best—consider Don Bluth's work post-''[[All Dogs Go to Heaven]]'', ''[[The Swan Princess]]'', etc. -- and often even worse when it came to [[Disneyfication]], culminating in ''two'' Italian animated features that turned the ''Titanic disaster'' into [[Happily Ever After]] musicals. The absolute nadir of the trend, at least as far as wide release animated films go, was Warner Bros. ''[[Quest for Camelot]]'' - sadly, this film outdid far superior works by Warner Bros. such as the [[Animation Age Ghetto|Ghetto-busting]] ''[[The Iron Giant]]'' and ''[[Cats Don't Dance]]'' financially, even as critics savaged it. One could even pin ''Quest For Camelot'' as being one of the films that led to the eventual downfall of the Renaissance Age.

 

For this era's successor, see [[The Millennium Age of Animation]].

 

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