From USA Today
Disney Chooses Paper Over Pixels
(USA Today) -- Lilo & Stitch, a campy collage of animé rocket ships and Tiki-hut decor that surfs into theaters Friday, is as different from the rest of the studio's hand-drawn classics as Pat Boone is from Elvis -- especially since six hits crooned by the King himself, including Hound Dog, just happen to shake Lilo's hula-hip world. The rest of this Hawaiian punch of a kiddie cocktail, about a lonely island girl who adopts a foul-tempered ga-lactic runaway as her pet, may be intoxicating enough to get family audiences as shook up about old-style animation as they are about the way-out plots of computerized concoctions such as Disney-Pixar's Monsters, Inc. ''It's interesting that Disney's big pitch for 2-D has a humorous story as wacky as recent 3-D hits, but with enough heart to capture the attention of people who like movies like Shrek and Ice Age,'' says Robert Bucks-baum of box office trackers Reel Source Inc. He predicts that Lilo will have to reach at least $150 million to silence those suspicious minds who predict the doom of traditional 'toons. Blocking the way is such stiff sum-mer competition as the just-opened Scooby-Doo and the upcoming Like Mike, Stuart Little 2 and Spy Kids 2. Disney's last 2-D smash was 1999's Tarzan, which swung to $171 million. Since then, the popularity of con-ventional animation has all too literally fallen flat. The studio's most recent traditional release, the action adven-ture Atlantis: The Lost Empire, was considered a washout at $84 million. Other studios have tossed the pencil for the pixel. Twentieth Century Fox, which shuttered its traditional animation facility in 2000, is concentrating solely on CGI features after Ice Age scored a cool $173.8 million earlier this year. Former Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg, the animation honcho at rival DreamWorks, whose computerized comedy Shrek grossed $267 million in 2001, is focusing his attention on digital cartoons or, at the very least, a blend of 2-D and 3-D, as in the current Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. ''Traditional animation as it existed in the 20th century is in the 20th century,'' he says. ''We're in the 21st century, and we're going to continue to push it into being competitive in today's world. I'm not holding onto something for emotional reasons. What happens with Lilo & Stitch is not relevant to me. We don't make those anymore.'' But ever since Snow White trilled her first note onscreen, the very foundation of the Magic Kingdom has been built upon hand-drawn features. And Disney isn't ready to do any major demolition work yet. Animation chief Thomas Schumacher puts the 2-D vs. 3-D debate in perspec-tive: ''Yes, the future has a great deal of dimensionality to it, but beautiful movies with stories well told and characters you love will always work.'' Adds Andreas Deja, a veteran Disney artist and steadfast traditionalist whose creations include Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Scar from The Lion King and, now, Lilo: ''Some-times, with a computer, the expressions look downloaded. I invent an expression for each feeling. There's an honesty in drawing, an artistry. It's almost as if traditional is the novelty now. I really hope that people redis-cover the magic of moving drawings.''
Lilo's drawing style may be traditional, with hints of CGI employed for props such as surfboards. But its hunk-a-burning attitude is anything but. When was the last time a Disney moppet asked a tattoo-knuckled social worker who threatens to take her away from her guardian teen sister, ''Did you ever kill anyone?'' Besides plot elements, here's how Lilo repaves the much-traveled Disney path:
· Make a splash the old way. Lilo is the first Disney cartoon feature to have its backgrounds drenched in watercolor since the era of Pinocchio and Dumbo 60 years ago. While Lilo may not possess the pop-out pizazz of 3-D animation, it offers an opulent alternative that complements its lush tropical landscapes.
· Create a Stitch of a hero. Stitch, a blueberry-hued fugitive from outer space who is taken in by 6-year-old Lilo after she mistakes him for a dog, looks like a mutant koala and acts like John Belushi on a Twinkie bender (down to the crush-the-can-on-your-head trick from Animal House). If early toy sales and belly-laugh reactions to the long-running trailers, in which Stitch runs rampant through older Disney cartoons, are any gauge, the studio has launched its newest 'toon superstar.
· Discover the secrets of the aloha sisterhood. With their healthy physiques and Hawaiian features, Lilo (Daveigh Chase, now 11) and her 19-year-old sister, Nani (Tia Carrere of Wayne's World babedom), don't just look like real girls. They also fight like real girls. Nani even threatens to put the misbehaving half-pint in a blender and replace her with a rabbit. Lilo sadly notes that Nani is a better sister than she is a substitute mother. As for Lilo, she's not a sugar-and-spice confection like many 'toon tykes, but an eccentric misfit in-fused with a world-weary melancholia that's worthy of a Peanuts comic-strip kid.
Whether or not audiences can't help falling in love with Lilo, the studio plans to return to the traditional drawing board for more features. They include the musical Western Home on the Range (fall 2003) and Bears (sum-mer 2004). ''It's like the 3-D movie fad of the '50s,'' Beck says. ''Computer animation is big now. But I believe traditional style will not die. It may be languishing, but it ain't out.''
Disney Chooses Paper Over Pixels
(USA Today) -- Lilo & Stitch, a campy collage of animé rocket ships and Tiki-hut decor that surfs into theaters Friday, is as different from the rest of the studio's hand-drawn classics as Pat Boone is from Elvis -- especially since six hits crooned by the King himself, including Hound Dog, just happen to shake Lilo's hula-hip world. The rest of this Hawaiian punch of a kiddie cocktail, about a lonely island girl who adopts a foul-tempered ga-lactic runaway as her pet, may be intoxicating enough to get family audiences as shook up about old-style animation as they are about the way-out plots of computerized concoctions such as Disney-Pixar's Monsters, Inc. ''It's interesting that Disney's big pitch for 2-D has a humorous story as wacky as recent 3-D hits, but with enough heart to capture the attention of people who like movies like Shrek and Ice Age,'' says Robert Bucks-baum of box office trackers Reel Source Inc. He predicts that Lilo will have to reach at least $150 million to silence those suspicious minds who predict the doom of traditional 'toons. Blocking the way is such stiff sum-mer competition as the just-opened Scooby-Doo and the upcoming Like Mike, Stuart Little 2 and Spy Kids 2. Disney's last 2-D smash was 1999's Tarzan, which swung to $171 million. Since then, the popularity of con-ventional animation has all too literally fallen flat. The studio's most recent traditional release, the action adven-ture Atlantis: The Lost Empire, was considered a washout at $84 million. Other studios have tossed the pencil for the pixel. Twentieth Century Fox, which shuttered its traditional animation facility in 2000, is concentrating solely on CGI features after Ice Age scored a cool $173.8 million earlier this year. Former Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg, the animation honcho at rival DreamWorks, whose computerized comedy Shrek grossed $267 million in 2001, is focusing his attention on digital cartoons or, at the very least, a blend of 2-D and 3-D, as in the current Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. ''Traditional animation as it existed in the 20th century is in the 20th century,'' he says. ''We're in the 21st century, and we're going to continue to push it into being competitive in today's world. I'm not holding onto something for emotional reasons. What happens with Lilo & Stitch is not relevant to me. We don't make those anymore.'' But ever since Snow White trilled her first note onscreen, the very foundation of the Magic Kingdom has been built upon hand-drawn features. And Disney isn't ready to do any major demolition work yet. Animation chief Thomas Schumacher puts the 2-D vs. 3-D debate in perspec-tive: ''Yes, the future has a great deal of dimensionality to it, but beautiful movies with stories well told and characters you love will always work.'' Adds Andreas Deja, a veteran Disney artist and steadfast traditionalist whose creations include Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Scar from The Lion King and, now, Lilo: ''Some-times, with a computer, the expressions look downloaded. I invent an expression for each feeling. There's an honesty in drawing, an artistry. It's almost as if traditional is the novelty now. I really hope that people redis-cover the magic of moving drawings.''
Lilo's drawing style may be traditional, with hints of CGI employed for props such as surfboards. But its hunk-a-burning attitude is anything but. When was the last time a Disney moppet asked a tattoo-knuckled social worker who threatens to take her away from her guardian teen sister, ''Did you ever kill anyone?'' Besides plot elements, here's how Lilo repaves the much-traveled Disney path:
· Make a splash the old way. Lilo is the first Disney cartoon feature to have its backgrounds drenched in watercolor since the era of Pinocchio and Dumbo 60 years ago. While Lilo may not possess the pop-out pizazz of 3-D animation, it offers an opulent alternative that complements its lush tropical landscapes.
· Create a Stitch of a hero. Stitch, a blueberry-hued fugitive from outer space who is taken in by 6-year-old Lilo after she mistakes him for a dog, looks like a mutant koala and acts like John Belushi on a Twinkie bender (down to the crush-the-can-on-your-head trick from Animal House). If early toy sales and belly-laugh reactions to the long-running trailers, in which Stitch runs rampant through older Disney cartoons, are any gauge, the studio has launched its newest 'toon superstar.
· Discover the secrets of the aloha sisterhood. With their healthy physiques and Hawaiian features, Lilo (Daveigh Chase, now 11) and her 19-year-old sister, Nani (Tia Carrere of Wayne's World babedom), don't just look like real girls. They also fight like real girls. Nani even threatens to put the misbehaving half-pint in a blender and replace her with a rabbit. Lilo sadly notes that Nani is a better sister than she is a substitute mother. As for Lilo, she's not a sugar-and-spice confection like many 'toon tykes, but an eccentric misfit in-fused with a world-weary melancholia that's worthy of a Peanuts comic-strip kid.
Whether or not audiences can't help falling in love with Lilo, the studio plans to return to the traditional drawing board for more features. They include the musical Western Home on the Range (fall 2003) and Bears (sum-mer 2004). ''It's like the 3-D movie fad of the '50s,'' Beck says. ''Computer animation is big now. But I believe traditional style will not die. It may be languishing, but it ain't out.''
