Heart at Disney still

I just saw an animation that made me want to hug my daughter close and tell her that I love her; it made me sad that my wife was not right beside me and yet happy that she will be beside me soon; it made me fall in love with my wife again.  What surprised me was that it came from Disney.

Ever since the insipid "Home on the Range", Disney films have held no appeal for me until the acquisition of John Lasseter as Creative Director at Disney.  During this same period, Disney abandoned 2D animation as a thing of the past and shut down or sold off most of their 2D animation department.  From then on all Disney films were polished CG models with no personality and no heart.  It was a desperate move of desperation when Disney purchased Pixar from Apple as Pixar's distribution contract with Disney near its termination.  Pixar had found, even in their trademark 3D style, the heart and feeling that Disney had lost.

After acquiring Pixar and under the creative direction of John Lasseter, Disney began searching for the emotional connection it once had.  Unfortunately, old habits die hard and we were given two "princess" movies to expand Disney's merchandising.  Don't get me wrong.  I've enjoyed "The Princess and the Frog" and "Tangled" immensely and would consider purchasing them to watch again.  It was certainly more flavorful fare than "Chicken Little" (I've never seen this one.) or "Bolt."  But as I watched those films, I could clearly see the creative team fighting with the business office.

"We want to tell a really good story," says the creative team.

"It has to have a princess,"  says the business office, "to add to our 'pantheon.'  And she has to have a prince to marry so that we can bring in the date night crouds.  And there have to be a few talking animal sidekicks to increase the merchandizing."

"But what about our good story?" wails the creative team.

"Stories aren't as important as selling stuff."

In "Tangled" Disney did a little better than in "The Princess and the Frog."  The sidekick didn't exactly talk and the prince didn't actually start out as a prince.  I haven't seen Disney's latest animated feature, "Wreck-it Ralph" but I have been mildly interested as it also involves the pixel art video game style of my childhood.  Then today I saw the ultimate compelling reason for seeing this film.  It was shown with a short--a unique ocurrence for a modern Disney film in spite of John Lasseter's insistence that animators should continue to produce them.  In those roughly 4 minutes of animation, I saw all the beauty and emotional connection that Disney has lacked for nearly 10 years.

So now I want to have a date with my wife.  And I know what we will watch.

*EDIT: Sorry. Blogger has done it to me again and cropped the video. You can watch the thing properly here.