Why 3D Animation Rules the Day
June 18, 2004 | Levent OZLER
Once made only for children, animated features have moved into the mainstream. Alexa Moses explains why animation is booming.
The animated feature film is experiencing a renaissance not seen since the glory days of Disney. That's backed up by the $37 million box office returns for Finding Nemo, which made it Australia's highest earning film last year. Shrek II (which opens today in Australia) is already the top-grossing animated film of all time in the US. Why is the fully animated feature film, usually pitched at families, pulling such crowds? Directors, producers, animators and a critic have come up with a few theories.
Before the 1990s, most commercial animation was two-dimensional. Toy Story, the first three-dimensional (3D) computer-animated feature was released in 1995, and suddenly animated characters had depth ... and that's more than just a bad pun. Toy Story was followed by films like Shrek, Antz, and Ice Age. If Pixar could do it, so could everyone else.
Illawarra animation producer Tim Brooke-Hunt, who has worked on 2D animations, including Blinky Bill, believes 3D has played a big part in the revival of the animated feature.
"We know that 2D is beautiful and no one proved that better than Disney," he says. "But I think it [3D] makes it more real."
The downside is that the market is now 3D-oriented.
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