Would there have been a effective way for traditional animated films from that time to continue more of the early '90s high or at least been successful enough to at least continue rather than be cut off?
To me the situation is really interesting in that by late '90s, early '00s a lot of audiences were really checked out, done with traditional animation from that they had just associated it too much with Disney formala and thought that that had become way too formulaic even though in that time they were at least in ways becoming a lot less formulaic, a lot more inventive, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan being far from standard princess romance, Tarzan being also or more so more of an action-adventure, DreamWorks The Prince of Egypt outright epic drama and then in early 2000s a number of Disney films and other animated films going really more into action-adventure-drama but not doing well, Titan A.E., The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad and with Disney other sci fi Atlantis and Treasure Planet.
It seems like many did like Hunchback, TPoE, Mulan, Tarzan but there was also just cognitive dissonance concern that Disney films were too formulaic (and only for little kids) but also movies like Hunchback were maybe not formulaic enough, a little too non-safe/standard, and that increased a lot later with the films of early 2000s. I thought that while liking sci fi generally Atlantis and especially Treasure Planet felt too weird, the latter especially trying to overcompensate for that Treasure Island was so already known and done. And sci fi generally was losing a lot of ground, attention to fantasy which could have helped more standard Disney but really more mature fantasy from Harry Potter to The Lord of the Rings was what seemed really current and cool. And on the other, third hand, computer animation seemed just so cutting edge and embraced between Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo, Ice Age, those just having much more current and adult-ish though generally not outright offensive senses of humor.
Treasure Planet may have been more noticed, embraced if it came out just 2 or 3 years later, give a little time to miss the style, I also think it definitely would have been intersting if Shrek or Ice Age had been done with traditional animation or if The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had been a traditional animation film but by 2004/2005 that would have probably been too much of an unlikely risk, going too much against the trends.
And if The Prince of Egypt had come out 2 or 3 years later I think that would have gotten much more attention, really not been so overshadowed by Shrek, seen more as other part of new era rather than just pretty small part of end of previous one.
To me the situation is really interesting in that by late '90s, early '00s a lot of audiences were really checked out, done with traditional animation from that they had just associated it too much with Disney formala and thought that that had become way too formulaic even though in that time they were at least in ways becoming a lot less formulaic, a lot more inventive, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Mulan being far from standard princess romance, Tarzan being also or more so more of an action-adventure, DreamWorks The Prince of Egypt outright epic drama and then in early 2000s a number of Disney films and other animated films going really more into action-adventure-drama but not doing well, Titan A.E., The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad and with Disney other sci fi Atlantis and Treasure Planet.
It seems like many did like Hunchback, TPoE, Mulan, Tarzan but there was also just cognitive dissonance concern that Disney films were too formulaic (and only for little kids) but also movies like Hunchback were maybe not formulaic enough, a little too non-safe/standard, and that increased a lot later with the films of early 2000s. I thought that while liking sci fi generally Atlantis and especially Treasure Planet felt too weird, the latter especially trying to overcompensate for that Treasure Island was so already known and done. And sci fi generally was losing a lot of ground, attention to fantasy which could have helped more standard Disney but really more mature fantasy from Harry Potter to The Lord of the Rings was what seemed really current and cool. And on the other, third hand, computer animation seemed just so cutting edge and embraced between Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo, Ice Age, those just having much more current and adult-ish though generally not outright offensive senses of humor.
Treasure Planet may have been more noticed, embraced if it came out just 2 or 3 years later, give a little time to miss the style, I also think it definitely would have been intersting if Shrek or Ice Age had been done with traditional animation or if The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe had been a traditional animation film but by 2004/2005 that would have probably been too much of an unlikely risk, going too much against the trends.
And if The Prince of Egypt had come out 2 or 3 years later I think that would have gotten much more attention, really not been so overshadowed by Shrek, seen more as other part of new era rather than just pretty small part of end of previous one.
