Why is Animation Dominating?

No Clips, no links, just a thought. It would be easy for us as animators to sit around patting ourselves on the back for the way animation is doing so well on the big screen these days. We could think things like, "its about time people realized how great animation is, I knew it all along!" or "All we needed to do was make some good stories and people were bound to come running." But here is a thought (and I'm afraid it ain't a cheerful one), is it any wonder people are flocking to see animated movies when you consider the apparent drought of new ideas coming out of the Hollywood live action scene at the moment. Here are some upcoming Hollywood titles, “Get Smart”, “The Greatest American Hero”, “Knight Rider”, “21 Jump Street”, “The A-Team” and “Hawaii Five-O”.

A pic from the original and fantastic Get Smart

I mean some of these are shows that I loved when they were on the TV, but come on. Maybe the only way you can see a remotely new story these days is by going to see animation (how ironic is that), not that all the animation coming out is what I'd call original (ie Shrek3).

I think these things ebb and flow over time, I remember when Beauty and The Beast came out and was nominated for the best film Oscar, I thought animation was going to rule the world. Over the following years it continued to strangle its self to death. So the advice from this old fart.....

Make Hey While The Sun Shines People!