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Is Disney trying to do anime? Seems that way to me with the bigger eye's

Um, no?

Then again, all this CG movie stuff looks the same to me these days. Tangled just seemed to be yet another bland Disney Princess flick with no real ties to anime.

It's called "how Glen Keane draws". He was the character designer, writer/producer and animation director of Tangled, and was also an animator and designer on many Disney films [he designed Ariel and Pochahontas]
http://theartofglenkeane.blogspot.com/ I don't know how official this blog is [looks to be fan run- and warning, some artistic nudity], but it showcases some really beautiful artwork he's done related to Disney features.

Really, if you want to make the point disney "stole big eyes" from anime with Tangled's designs, Snow White wants to have a word with all of Japan. Anime fans often seem to misunderstand that anime's "style" isn't exclusive to Japan- the kinds of stylizations it uses are common to animation across the world, just used in different ways. It's an endless feedback loop worldwide of inspirations, going from Tezuka endlessly watching Bambi [read A Drifting Life! It's fascinating], to Frank Miller creating Ronin and doing covers for 80's editions of Lone Wolf and Cub, to Gainax opting for an overly stylized look in Panty and Stocking inspired by the slick designs of animators like Genndy Tartakovsky, Lauren Faust, Craig McCracken, and others. Animators have been inspiring each other for ages and ages

I really loved the movie, it took CG Animation to new places in terms of how humans are animated, making them more expressive and less-puppet looking. The characters were fun, and the animals were a hoot [all the moreso by having them both be silent characters], and the story was surprisingly dark at times [hence the PG-rating] but nevertheless enchanting. It looks to open in Japan in March, hope it's a hit for them- the japanese trailers look to be pretty faithful to the movie's tone, which I guess means Disney's pretty sure it'll do well there, in comparison to the trailers they used here that played a bit of a trick on audiences by playing up the slapstick :) [mind you, given how well it's done compared to other 2000 era Disney Theatrical films, that looks to have worked well for them]

Trivia notes for random amusement-
-Glen's the son of the creator of Family Circus, and the inspiration for Billy. His brother now draws the strip.
-his daughter also works for Disney, and created the paintings in Rapunzel's tower. They modeled baby Rapunzel after her baby.

Anyhoo, BleedingCool just posted an interview with him http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/01/28/disneys-glen-keane-on-tangled-reboot-ralph-and-bringing-old-school-technique-to-cg-animation/ It sounds as if he's working on Reboot Ralph in some capacity, and might be helming another Disney film again in the future. The techniques he used as animation director make the movie's look make sense- it explains how the animators got such a natural look.

EDIT- Dang, even more art here from a show of his art put on in France http://artofdisney.canalblog.com/archives/2010/11/10/19564531.html

editedit-
And looks like he's a Miyazaki fan-
"To what extent do you think the style of Japanese anime has influenced Disney animation over the last two decades or so?

Well, it's hard to ever separate the huge influence that Japanese animation has had on me. I was just in awe of Miyazaki's work, and have emulated his sensitivity, his approach to staging. That had a gigantic impact on our films starting with Rescuers Down Under, where you saw the huge Japanese influence on our work. That's part of our heritage now, which we don't back away from."

http://movies.radiofree.com/interviews/tangled_glen_keane.shtml
It's interesting that the influence Miyazaki had on Disney animators started long before the anime boom, and during the era in which a lot of Miyazaki's classics like Kiki and Totoro were still brand-new [having come out during the production of Rescuers Down Under, all when the vast majority of us posting at ANN were either small children or not even born]

Wait, just having big eyes makes you think it might be anime inspired? You do realize that even American cartoons have been doing this since way before Tezuka lovingly copied Disney's style, right? Big eyes on American cartoon characters is older than Tezuka's influence by far, I don't see why doing now should suddenly make it potentially anime inspired.

classicalzawa wrote:

Wait, just having big eyes makes you think it might be anime inspired? You do realize that even American cartoons have been doing this since way before Tezuka lovingly copied Disney's style, right? Big eyes on American cartoon characters is older than Tezuka's influence by far, I don't see why doing now should suddenly make it potentially anime inspired.

Apples and oranges there. I'm well aware of Disney's influence on anime as we know it, but as mentioned the Japanese assimilated that by themselves and then expanded it to what we see today. What I'm seeing with Tangle is a possible inspiration in full circle. Perhaps I'm putting too much into it, but there we are.

Everyone else in the world stole the "Big Eyes" thing from Betty Boop, lol. Neither disney nor anime did it 1st.

(gawd betty boop creeps me out.)

Soundmonkey44 wrote:

Everyone else in the world stole the "Big Eyes" thing from Betty Boop, lol. Neither disney nor anime did it 1st.

(gawd betty boop creeps me out.)

My Grandmother looked like Betty Boop in the days Wink

Mohawk52 wrote:

What I'm seeing with Tangle is a possible inspiration in full circle. Perhaps I'm putting too much into it, but there we are.

I think inspiration is the better word to phrase the comments you kicked the thread off with- and as I pointed out above, Keane points to Miyazaki's influencing them well over 2 decades ago during the making of The Rescuer's Down Under, which was made around the time of The Little Mermaid, both movies arriving during the kickoff of the big Disney revival of the 90's. So yeah, full circle is indeed the case, but it didn't just suddently happen on Tangled, it's been there in every Disney movie we've seen in the past 20 years, given Keane's comments [and how many of them he's worked on]

Also, Tangled's just about past the 450 million mark worldwide, and it hasn't even opened in Japan yet, which is a big market for Disney. Looks like they've made themselves a big player again with this movie, which is good news for Animation fans- the tech developed for it will be used on future movies, and it's lead to a lot of new movies getting greenlit or having work sped up.
Looks like we'll be getting a great variety-
- Reboot Ralph- Keane's apparently one of the animators on this, which is a video game fantasy of some sort
- King of the Elves- got taken out of development then shortly put back in, based on the Phillip K. Dick short story. Last I heard, CGI animated.
-Mort- still very early word, but apprently the directors of The Princess and the Frog are doing an adaptation of the Terry Pratchett novel about Death taking on an assistant in Discworld. Supposedly, 2d animation
- Winnie the Poog- 2D animated Smile

There's also a number of films underwraps [Tangled's directors have a new film greenlit] and stuff like The Snow Queen that's been shelved for now but possible later on.

Soundmonkey44 wrote:

Everyone else in the world stole the "Big Eyes" thing from Betty Boop, lol. Neither disney nor anime did it 1st.

(gawd betty boop creeps me out.)

Well, Betty Boop certainly helped and eventually was one oif the first popular human cartoon characters with big eyes but Mickey's Steamboat Willie was from 1927 and the First Betty Boop cartoon was from 1930 and at the time you could say Fleisher was still slightly imitating Disney (as everyone else was) since she premiered as an anthropomorphic Poodle-headed girl.

And big-eyed Felix the Cat- which Mickey copied (but with sound)- had his origins in 1919.
Before that were the first Krazy Kat Silents (1916) and I bet I could go further.

Big eyed cartoons have a loooong history. Basically as long as animation history itself.

American CG movies are so generic anymore, that I can't stand to watch them.

Aoi_Sakaraba wrote:

American CG movies are so generic

A bit like anime.

Seriously, I love anime but you gotta admit it can get a bit generic.

Han Solo wrote:

Aoi_Sakaraba wrote:

American CG movies are so generic

A bit like anime.

Seriously, I love anime but you gotta admit it can get a bit generic.

Quoted for truth. But arguably the majority of modern media is fairly genaric. Which is understandable, we have pretty much used up the majority if not all of the good ideas out there. Its pretty much just trying to do a better version of whats been done nowadays.

Mohawk52 wrote:

Is Disney trying to do anime? Seems that way to me with the bigger eye's

No, I have seen no evidence to support that the large eyes was a specifically picked style meant to be reminiscent of anime. It's true that the Pixar staff are well known for being fans of anime but there is nothing saying that they are copying anime's "anime style" (fyi that term is a load of bs). I think it was just something that happened to come out the way it did. I doubt the creators were sitting around thinking "you know what I really like about anime, it's not the styories, direction style, or animation work, its the big eyes. That's what we need to do."

Soundmonkey44 wrote:

Han Solo wrote:

Aoi_Sakaraba wrote:

American CG movies are so generic

A bit like anime.

Seriously, I love anime but you gotta admit it can get a bit generic.

Quoted for truth. But arguably the majority of modern media is fairly genaric. Which is understandable, we have pretty much used up the majority if not all of the good ideas out there. Its pretty much just trying to do a better version of whats been done nowadays.

Wow, three comments in a row that I couldn't disagree with more. I really don't see how films like Up and Wall-E are considered "generic". They are quite innovative for the American animation industry (though I admit that there are quite a few awful ones too). Also I don't see how anime as a whole could be considered generic.

Soundmonkey44, this is not only insulting to artists today who devote their lives to innovating their medium but also to the human race. Saying that we "used up the majority if not all of the good ideas out there" is like saying that mankind only has a set number of accomplishments possible before we become obsolete creatures, which isn't true.

Han Solo wrote:

Aoi_Sakaraba wrote:

American CG movies are so generic

A bit like anime.

Seriously, I love anime but you gotta admit it can get a bit generic.

Except American CG movies are far more generic. 'Family comedy' stuff is about all there is. Even if you want to argue anime being generic, there's still more than one type of 'generic' anime being made Laughing

Mushi-Man wrote:

They are quite innovative for the American animation industry

"For American animation" being a key words there. And really, Up was just another generic Pixar 'Wacky Adventure' movie outside the first ten minutes, which really isn't that impressive anyway. You see better drama in a kid's shounen anime.

Incredibles, Toy Story, Monster inc, sponge bob, the classic Tom and Jerry, Goofy...big eyes they have been doing for a while now fyi

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