Courtesy of Laughing Place.com
"In terms of what happened at Disney it happened about three years ago now, when all the salary cut-backs and layoffs started. It was about three years ago now, which was before ATLANTIS came out, before SHREK came out, before MONSTERS INCORPORATED or FINDING NEMO. And I think people kind of forget now that when originally they were doing all those salary cuts and they were doing all those layoffs it wasn’t because 2D was not special, and it wasn’t because 3D was doing so much better, it was primarily because 2D had become too expensive – way too expensive. I think the original impetus, I think, of everything was not to eliminate 2D. The original impetus was to get it … to do it at a more reasonable cost, which I think absolutely needed to be done."
"But in a certain ironic way if you really look at it, and this may come out wrong, but what destroyed 2D animation is really not like ATLANTIS or TREASURE PLANET, it’s ALADDIN and THE LION KING. (Musker laughs) That’s sort of what destroyed 2D animation in that the success became so phenomenal and it was a success that could not be maintained as you say, but yet drove every studio to want to get in to this business. It created Jeffrey leaving and DreamWorks starting. And ultimately, in its own weird, ironic way, it is the phenomenon. If it had only been sort of modestly successful, and each film had done a little better, and some not doing as well…"
"In terms of what happened at Disney it happened about three years ago now, when all the salary cut-backs and layoffs started. It was about three years ago now, which was before ATLANTIS came out, before SHREK came out, before MONSTERS INCORPORATED or FINDING NEMO. And I think people kind of forget now that when originally they were doing all those salary cuts and they were doing all those layoffs it wasn’t because 2D was not special, and it wasn’t because 3D was doing so much better, it was primarily because 2D had become too expensive – way too expensive. I think the original impetus, I think, of everything was not to eliminate 2D. The original impetus was to get it … to do it at a more reasonable cost, which I think absolutely needed to be done."
"But in a certain ironic way if you really look at it, and this may come out wrong, but what destroyed 2D animation is really not like ATLANTIS or TREASURE PLANET, it’s ALADDIN and THE LION KING. (Musker laughs) That’s sort of what destroyed 2D animation in that the success became so phenomenal and it was a success that could not be maintained as you say, but yet drove every studio to want to get in to this business. It created Jeffrey leaving and DreamWorks starting. And ultimately, in its own weird, ironic way, it is the phenomenon. If it had only been sort of modestly successful, and each film had done a little better, and some not doing as well…"