Disappointing Swan Song For Disney 2D...

Some years back I got to visit Disney on business. They graciously gave me a tour of their Burbank CA Animation Studio, and I also got to meet Mr. Glen Keane, the supervising animator on most of Disney's 2D features such as Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, etc.

While I was being given the tour, Both HOTR and Brother Bear were still in production. So I got to see the artists work on the original cells. For an animation fan like myself, it was a real treat.

So it is precisely because I had the opportunity to watch first-hand all the hard work that went into HOTR that I came away so down after I actually saw it.

In short, there is just nothing special about this picture: To start with, the running time is well under 1.5 hours, leaving the viewer with the feeling of " That's It??? ", BOTH in terms of the story, AND the quality of the production itself.

The next issue is the film's rating: PG? What parent would choose to spend their hard-earned money so their child could see an 80-minute film, that included PG-rated material, and which did not even showcase Disney's best graphics or songs!!!

The whole movie has such a rushed and contrived feel to it that you can almost visualize the producers saying to themselves: " We might as well just throw some ideas together and go with our old formula. It doesn't really matter, since this is the end of the line for us anyway...

Even so, audiences have come to expect better Disney feature animation. It's very sad that they ended on such a mediocre note.