(Right up to The Princess and the Frog controversy)

When last weekend’s box office results came in, movie buffs saw an interesting phenomenon: behind big blockbusters like New Moon and 2012, at #18 at the box office, appeared a new film in very limited release: Disney’s traditionally 2D animated feature The Princess and the Frog.

Perhaps you think #18 at the box office doesn’t justify a special mention. But the limited release was in only 2 theaters, and the movie grossed $393,000 per theater, making it the 3rd highest theater average ever.

We have yet to see whether this movie will become an instant Disney classic like The Lion King, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid, but these initial results point to nostalgia for good old 2D animation among cinemagoers.

This moment - which will probably have major influence on American animation in the coming years – is a good opportunity for us to examine animation’s past landmarks and achievements.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

One movie, so many “firsts”: first full-length cel-animated feature in history, first animated feature produced in America, the first produced in full color and, naturally, the first of Walt Disney’s animated classics. Despite the fact that it’s over 70 years old, it is still considered a true masterpiece and was ranked among the American Film Institute 100 greatest American films of all times – the only traditionally animated film on the list.

With the revenue from this film (which is the 10th highest grossing film ever when adjusted for inflation), Walt Disney financed the studio’s headquarters in Burbank and the production of more feature-length movies. It is safe to say that without the success of this film, the world of animation, family films and general cinema as we know it would look completely different.

Castle in the Sky (1986)

When this movie was first released, probably no one guessed that it would have such a major influence on the world of animation. And indeed, the movie in itself was not as great as what signified: The first movie by Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, a name that is now world-renowned for complex, captivating, visually beautiful animated films.

The studio is synonymous with Miyazaki’s name (although there are some others directors working in it, including Miyazaki’s son) and is considered a great influence over contemporary animation artists – Pixar animators, for example, admit wholeheartedly that Miyazaki’s films are a major inspiration.

It’s hard to imagine the current world of animation without films like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle – and Castle in the Sky is the one that started it all.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

Two important things happened with the release of this film: first, the art of combining animation and live action was incredibly improved and perfected. The interaction between animated characters and live actors looks very realistic, much better than in previous films of this kind. The second thing was the nostalgia that contributed to the Disney renaissance (more about that in a moment). The success of the film encouraged other studios to produce similar-looking titles such as Cool World, Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but none were as successful as Roger Rabbit.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit also remains the only film ever where Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny appear on screen together. I guess that could be considered a groundbreaking animation achievement in itself!

The Little Mermaid (1989)

The 80s were not a good time for the Disney Corporation. It suffered a string of critical and financial failures, and audiences started to believe the magic of classics like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty might be lost.

It was also a time of change in the higher management of the company that stimulated a change in the animation and film departments (intrigued readers might want to try and catch the new documentary on the subject, Waking Sleeping Beauty, which is supposed to be released April 2010.

The Little Mermaid marked the beginning of the Disney Renaissance: a combination of breathtaking animation, appealing story and great music. Disney went from one success to the next with Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King etc. The standard in great family entertainment, Disney’s characters from that era are popular and well-loved by audiences to this day.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Stop motion animation goes back a long way. The first stop motion movie was the German The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926. But the film that introduced this technique to the modern animation world and showed that it’s only for kids’ TV was The Nightmare Before Christmas.

With its very distinctive look and feel, this is one of the greatest stop motion films ever and gained a cult status. Each year on Christmas the movie is re-issued in 3D.

Its success film spawned more stop motion not specifically intended for children (and sometimes not intended for them at all) such as Chicken Run, Corpse Bride, Coraline, Mary and Max and Wes Anderson’s new Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Toy Story (1995)

When we take a look at contemporary popular animated films such as Ice Age, Madagascar, Shrek etc, it is clear they owe it all to Toy Story and Pixar.

Pixar took animation to a whole new level when they released Toy Story, the first CGI animated feature film. Back then Disney ruled the market and CGI seemed nothing more than a passing trend. But the success of this movie enabled Pixar to continue their vision, and a couple of years later studios like DreamWorks, Blue Sky and Sony Pictures joined the celebration.

Today CGI animated films rule the market, and traditional animation has all but vanished (hopefully The Princess and the Frog will change that). None of this would have happened if Toy Story wasn’t such an endearing film, with appeal to grown-ups and children alike. The sequel was considered even better that the original, and a 3rd installment is soon be released in June 2010. The first films were re-released as a double feature earlier this year in 3D, and the 2 week run was extended due to its success.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

Not all groundbreaking films were also successful upon release. Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within, for example, was a complete flop. It didn’t cover its expenses and got very mediocre reviews (44% on RottenTomatoes.com). Nonetheless, this was the first movie that attempted photorealistic rendered 3D animation, and with quite a lot of success.

Before the movie was released, people speculated that there would be no more need for human actors, as CGI characters would look just like humans and do everything a human actor can. This proved to be dead wrong, as it turned out that no CGI character can have the emotional depth and expression human actors have. However, with time CGI characters indeed get more and more like human ones, and perhaps sooner or later this obstacle will be removed too. So at least in the technical sense, this movie was important and the first in a trend that’s still unfolding.

The Polar Express (2004)

Since 2004, director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Cast Away) has had one craze: motion capture animation. In this type of animation, the actor’s physical performance is captured digitally, then turned over to animators who change the character’s appearance. That way you can get one actor (Tom Hanks in Polar Express) to play several roles, each physically different from the other: a child, an elderly man, a fat guy… maybe someday a woman!

The Polar Express was the first movie done entirely with motion capture, although many films use that technique in specific scenes. Since then Zemeckis also made Beowulf and the recently released A Christmas Carol, and in each of them the motion capture animation became more accurate, more realistic and more appealing to the eye. Zemeckis’ vision is that some day actors won’t have to give up roles they want because of their physical appearance. With motion capture a pregnant actress could still play a beauty pageant contestant, and James Bond could be portrayed by the same actor as long as he is capable of doing the action scenes, without worrying about the declining hairline or loose muscles.

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

The very essence of animation and documentary films seem to collide. While documentary films try to capture reality, animation is completely based on the careful planning of each and every small, invented detail in the frame.

Yet Waltz with Bashir proved that the two genres can also be combined to haunting effect, both realistic and fantastic, that can help describe what many people cannot even imagine.

Waltz with Bashir was the first feature-length film to combine these two genres, and for that artistic innovativeness it won many important awards including the Golden Globe, the French Cesar and many more.

The Princess and the Frog (2009)

The Princess and the Frog is Disney’s 1st 2D animation feature since 2004, when they shut down their traditional 2D animation department in favor of focusing on the more popular 3D animation. This new feature is their attempt to find out whether this kind of animation still has enough fans.

And in order to do so Disney Studios took out some heavy weaponry: First, the main characters are black, which is a first for Disney and has stirred both interest and controversy. The directors are Ron Clements and John Musker, who brought us unforgettable classics like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, and the music will be by Randy Newman, who composed for some of Pixar’s favorite films such as Toy Story 1 and 2, Monsters Inc. and Cars.

Personally, I hope this movie will succeed and give us back some of the old Disney magic. There is no reason why good 3D and traditional animation films cannot co-exist peacefully: In today’s world of diverse animation that appeals to all audiences, there is enough room for all the different techniques.

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