Newer Disney cartoons trace the old ones

[E. Q. Taft]

Not exactly a UL, but an interesting video here shows how some of the newer Disney animated films recycle animation from some of the classics. The animated Robin Hood seems to have used the technique very heavily, drawing from such sources as The Jungle Book, Snow White, and The Aristocats.

[Tootsie Plunkette]

I was going to say most of the 'duplicates' came out after Walt's death, but that's not true for "Jungle Book" or "The Sword in the Stone."

I wonder if Marge Champion got paid anything for "Robin Hood."

[E. Q. Taft]

Originally Posted by Tootsie Plunkette

I was going to say most of the 'duplicates' came out after Walt's death, but that's not true for "Jungle Book" or "The Sword in the Stone."

It looks to me though that they were mostly copying from The Jungle Book (which, IIRC, was the last film to have Walt Disney's personal involvement?).

[Aimee Evilpixie]

As I understand it, Robin Hood was done on a very small budget. You already have all this animation and reference, why not use it? Pretty interesting, though.

[LizzyBean]

You can see it just by watching these movies too. 101 Dalmations also follows the formula of the animation. I wouldn't call those movies the "newer" ones though. When I read newer I was thinking in the last 20 years.

Also, in Robin Hood, Aristocats and Jungle Book the same actor is in all three movies. (Little John, Thomas O'Maley and Baloo.) Disney, in the older days, seemed to have a habit of reusing good tallent.

If it ain't broke, dont' fix it.

[Cervus]

I noticed the similarities and recurring animation scenes in certain Disney movies when I was a little kid, between 7 or 9 years old. At that age I wanted to become an animator, so I studied cartoons and Disney movies very intently. I recognized the voice actors who were used fairly often (Phil Harris, Pat Buttram, and Barbara Luddy had very distinctive voices and did the voices of numerous Disney animal characters in the 60's and 70's) and I noticed that many of the characters were drawn the same way. Robin Hood even reused the same character footage in different scenes; when the boy rabbit's sisters are laughing after Lady Cluck kisses him, you can see the same animation footage used in a brief scene when they're laughing at Little John making fun of the Sheriff at the party in the woods. It always bugged me that the animators "cheated" that way.

[Aimee Evilpixie]

Originally Posted by Cervus

It always bugged me that the animators "cheated" that way.

Speaking as someone who has done some 2-d animation, I'm shocked that they don't "cheat" even more often.

[ganzfeld]

That's a very interesting compilation but not particularly surprising to me. Look at Robin Hood, for example, which was made in 1973. As Lanie pointed out, many of the characters were the same for several movies. The characters that are the same are mostly from the same character artists, who had started in the 1950s. The artists are using their own characters again, not stealing from an earlier generation.

As for the animation, all of the four directing animators on Robin Hood had been with Disney since Snow White or before. So there's a span of well over 35 years in which artists didn't really change much.

As I recall, it was around Little Mermaid or so that Disney started to bring in a whole new set of artists (and this was probably one of the main reasons) so that's actually about 50 years after Snow White, during which the same artists were directing the animation. Most of the character animators were also there for a few decades.

[Mickey is a gyrl]

The one from Beauty and the Beast/Sleeping Beauty is a well-known one. Disney even admits that because of some kind of constraint, they pulled it up to use it. Disney also continues to use the same voices frequently (John Ratzenberger, David Ogden Stiers, Tony Jay, to name a few).

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

As Lanie pointed out,[...]

I meant Lizzy, of course. :o

[LizzyBean]

Originally Posted by Mickey is a gyrl

The one from Beauty and the Beast/Sleeping Beauty is a well-known one. Disney even admits that because of some kind of constraint, they pulled it up to use it. Disney also continues to use the same voices frequently (John Ratzenberger, David Ogden Stiers, Tony Jay, to name a few).

John Ratzenberger does movies for Pixar, not Disney. None that I am aware of that is.

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

I meant Lizzy, of course. :o

I'll forgive you, but just this once.

[Not_Done_Living]

Originally Posted by LizzyBean

John Ratzenberger does movies for Pixar, not Disney. None that I am aware of that is.



I'll forgive you, but just this once.

So;

WALL·E, Ratatouille, Cars , The Incredibles ,Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc ,Toy Story 1/2, and A Bug's Life aren't Disney films?

I will get to work correcting my CD cases immediately.
(Yes i realize that Disney is a Producer of the film, not the creator of the film, all of these movies and their characters are recognized as Disney/Pixar Films and Disney/Pixar Characters.

[chillas]

Originally Posted by Not_Done_Living

So;

WALL·E, Ratatouille, Cars , The Incredibles ,Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc ,Toy Story 1/2, and A Bug's Life aren't Disney films?

I will get to work correcting my CD cases immediately.
(Yes i realize that Disney is a Producer of the film, not the creator of the film, all of these movies and their characters are recognized as Disney/Pixar Films and Disney/Pixar Characters.

The casting of a role is a creative issue. As Pixar alone made the creative decisions, it's inacurate to call them Disney films in this particular context.

[snopes]

Scenes from much-loved Disney cartoons were copied from the studio’s earlier hits, researchers found.

Backgrounds and action sequences were re-used over and again by its animators.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle2386685.ece

[snopes]

It looks like all the examples are taken from a handful of 1970s Disney films (e.g., Robin Hood, The Aristocats), which is hardly surprising given that the company was at its creative and financial nadir during that (post-Walt, pre-Eisner) period.

[bthyb]

On one hand I find it disappointing and lazy. On the other hand, the films were still engaging to me as a child, and the stories are still different - it's not really like one is watching the same film over.

I'm really ambivalent on this.

[Brad from Georgia]

Disney shorts occasionally recycled bits of animation back as far as the thirties; the Fleischer studios did this even more (there's one particular Popeye sequence that shows up in three or four later shorts). It doesn't particularly bother me.

William Shakespeare was known to recycle plots from time to time....

[mouse goddess]

Just after reading this, we bought Robin Hood. My 3 year old recognized the bit nicked from Snow White, all by herself!

[Brad from Georgia]

Found a couple of examples of cartoon recycling.

Disney: "Parade of the Award Nominees" (1932) recopies animation from "Mother Goose Melodies" (1931)

Warner Bros: "Dough for the Do-Do" (1949) recopies animation from both "Tin Pan Alley Cats" (1943) and "Porky in Wackyland" (1938).

Terrytoons: Too many to mention!

There are more. Again, it doesn't bother me that cartoonists occasionally reuse bits of animation. Artists keep "swipe files" of photos and artworks they use as sources for poses, backgrounds, and so on. And one exploit of a certain famous boy wizard contains a plot device and description that is very similar to a scene written by . . . well, modesty forbids.

Brad "but I was flattered" from Georgia

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

There are more. Again, it doesn't bother me that cartoonists occasionally reuse bits of animation. Artists keep "swipe files" of photos and artworks they use as sources for poses, backgrounds, and so on.

There isn't a programmer out there who doesn't use old code for new programs.

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

And one exploit of a certain famous boy wizard contains a plot device and description that is very similar to a scene written by . . . well, modesty forbids.

Brad "but I was flattered" from Georgia

[hijack] OOOh, do tell! Do tell! Did she get permission, or are you going to sue the pants off of her> [/hijack]