Disney Animation, Frozen and the Influence of Pixar

@Disney

A few days ago, I received a tweet from a follower. We had both recently seen Disney's latest animated film, Frozen, and had been singing its praises. It has a strong story with great characters, stunning effects and really good music, for me rivaling the music from The Lion King. One of the tweets in our conversation was:

Do you see how Pixar’s mentality/mindset is creeping into Disney? :)

I was a bit guarded in my response. Yes, since Disney bought Pixar in 2006 and put John Lasseter and Ed Catmull in charge of both Pixar and Disney Animation, we have seen a steady improvement in the films coming from Disney Animation. Besides the first film released after the merger, Meet the Robinsons (which was released in 2007 and was too far into production for the new management to have much impact), all the other films have Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 83% or higher:

Film	Year	Rating
Meet the Robinsons	2007	66%
Bolt	2008	88%
The Princess and the Frog	2009	83%
Tangled	2010	89%
Winnie the Pooh	2011	90%
Wreck-It Ralph	2012	86%
Frozen	2013	85%

For comparison, the last film released by Disney Animation prior to the merger, Chicken Little, has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of only 36%.

So yes, I think it's safe to say that Pixar has had a positive affect on the quality of Disney films, especially in a couple of areas, such as coming up with fully developed stories and focusing on the characters and their relationships, researching the topics and environments of their films, and advancing the technical quality of the films (Along these lines, I think Big Hero 6 is going to be stunning). I also think Lasseter and Catmull have introduced the collaborative, director-led culture that has played such a critical part in Pixar's success.

Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
and Peter Del Vecho

But I don't want to sound like the recent success at Disney Animation is all Pixar's doing. I think the talent and ability was already there at Disney. Folks like Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Lino DiSalvo and Lisa Keene, plus all the other animators, effects artists, engineers and production crew had the passion and energy to deliver quality products, they just needed the spark to release them. So while Lasseter and Catmull have provided the appropriate environment, the artists and animators have stepped into that environment and delivered in a big way. I think we have entered a new Disney Animation renaissance that will last a long time. Combined with the strength of Pixar, The Walt Disney Company has become an animation powerhouse that I don't see any other animation studio being able to compete with.

As an aside, I recently listened to episode 452 of Inside the Magic podcast, where a large portion of the podcast covered Frozen with a number of clips from interviews with the filmmakers. I had a blast listening to the clips; it reminded me a lot of listening to the interviews during a Pixar film press day. It was so enjoyable listening to the directors, producer and artists share their excitement for the film and discuss the research they did by going to Norway, building in themes like the power of happiness over fear, and the technical and artistic challenges of designing and lighting Elsa's castle. If you're into behind-the-scenes details I recommend listening to this episode, and keep abreast of future episodes as it sounds like Ricky has a lot more of these interviews that he plans on releasing.

2012 Animation Awards Season (UPDATED)

2012 was a great year for animation! This can be seen by the number of films that have won a Best Animated Film award from the different critics associations and award organizations. Out of the 60 or so award associations I follow, the following have announced winners for 2012:

Academy Awards: Brave
Alliance of Women Film Journalists: ParaNorman
Annie Awards: Wreck-It Ralph
Austin Film Critics Association: Wreck-It Ralph
British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Brave
Boston Society of Film Critics: Frankenweenie
Central Ohio Film Critics Assocation: ParaNorman (runner-up Wreck-It Ralph)
Chicago Film Critics Association: ParaNorman
Critics Choice Movie Awards: Wreck-It Ralph
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association: ParaNorman (runner-ups Frankenweenie and Pirates! Band of Misfits)
Florida Film Critics Circle: Frankenweenie
Golden Globes: Brave
Houston Film Critics Society: Wreck-It Ralph
International Press Academy: Rise of the Guardians
Iowa Film Critics Association: Brave
Kansas City Film Critics Circle: Frankenweenie
Las Vegas Film Critics Society: ParaNorman
Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Frankenweenie (runner-up It's Such a Beautiful Day)
National Board of Review: Wreck-It Ralph
Nevada Film Critics Society: Frankenweenie
New York Film Critics Circle: Frankenweenie 
New York Film Critics Online: Chico & Rita
North Texas Film Critics Association: Wreck-It Ralph
Oklahoma Film Critics Circle: Wreck-It Ralph
Online Film Critics Society: ParaNorman
Phoenix Film Critics Society:  Wreck-It Ralph
St. Louis Film Critics Association: Wreck-It Ralph (runner-up ParaNorman)
San Diego Film Critics Society: ParaNorman
San Francisco Film Critics Circle: ParaNorman
Southeastern Film Critics Association: ParaNorman (runner-up Frankenweenie)
Toronto Film Critics Association: ParaNorman (runner-ups Brave and Frankenweenie)
Utah Film Critics Association: ParaNorman (runner-ups Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph)
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association: ParaNorman
Women Film Critics Circle: Rise of the Guardians (Best Family Film, tied with Life of Pi)

I will keep this list updated as more awards are announced.

Here is a count of wins for each film:

Brave	4
Chico & Rita	1
Frankenweenie	6
ParaNorman	12
Rise of the Guardians	2
Wreck-It Ralph	9

There are a couple of surprises here. The first is that the New York Film Critics Online gave the award to Chico & Rita, a film I am not at all familiar with. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature this year at the Oscars, and has an 86% rating on RottenTomatoes so I am happy it is getting some award recognition from the critics. The other real surprise to me is a film missing from the above list: Brave. On one hand this saddens me as I think it's a great film and very worthy of some recognition. On the other hand, I think this goes to show how strong the animation industry has become. Look at the studios represented by these films - Laika, DreamWorks, Sony (Hotel Transylvania has been nominated for awards, and the studio co-produced The Adventures of Tintin last year), in addition to Disney and Pixar. And last year's Academy Award winner Rango came from ILM. This is a good sign for the animation industry!

I'll keep this count up-to-date as award season progresses. If you're interested in seeing what awards Brave has been nominated for and has won, check out the Pixar Wikia Brave Award page.

UPDATE (12/31/2012)
I've updated the list above with 9 more award organizations. ParaNorman continues to lead in the awards with Frankenweenie and Wreck-It Ralph close behind. Rise of the Guardians received another win, and Brave did receive runner-up recognition from the Toronto Film Critics Association, but it still has no wins. Likewise, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association gave a runner-up nod to Pirates! Band of Misfits. I don't remember a previous year where 3 films seemed as equally likely to win the major Best Animated Film award. It will be very interesting to see which films take home the award from the major award organizations, which will heat up in January! Stay tuned!

UPDATE (1/11/2013)
4 more critic organizations announced winners - the Alliance of Women Film Journalists (ParaNorman), the Critics Choice Awards (Wreck-It Ralph), the Houston Film Critics Society (Wreck-It Ralph) and the Online Film Critics Society (ParaNorman). That makes 26 organizations having made their winner announcements.

We're also getting closer to the top-tier nominations and winners. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced their nominations for the year on the 9th, which included Brave, Frankenweenie and ParaNorman. It is really a shame the BAFTA treats animation as a second class entity - it is the only category that has 3 nominations (the other categories all have 5). This means great films like Wreck-It Ralph and Pirates! Band of Misfits do not get the recognition they deserve. The Academy Award nominations were announced on the 10th and included the 3 BAFTA nominations plus Wreck-It Ralph and Pirates! Band of Misfits. Congratulations and good luck to all the nominees! All of these films are deserving of the Best Animated Film award, it will be exciting to see which one takes it home!

UPDATE (1/28/2013)
The Producers Guild of America gave the Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures award to Wreck-It Ralph!

FINAL UPDATE (2/27/2013)
What a roller coaster of an awards year it was! Both ParaNorman and Frankenweenie started off strong but fell off at the end. Conversely, Brave started slowly but ended up winning the majority of the "major" awards including the Best Animated Feature awards from BAFTA, the Golden Globes and this week, the Academy Awards! Wreck-It Ralph also did great, winning a number of Annie Awards, including their Best Animated Feature Award.

For a full list of all the awards Brave was nominated for (and won), please check out its wiki page.