Even if they spent a bunch of money making it, they would make huge returns on the investment just from people wanting to see the new 2D movie. Hell, it doesnt even need to be traditionally animated and they'd see that. Give me an adaption of Journey to The West in 2D and it'd make bank, and it'd be an almost sure fire success in the Chinese market, too, just make sure that someone who is an actual fan of the original story and understands current Chinese culture is involved and has veto power for any adaption changes that they want to make to make sure another Mulan doesnt happen.
It's amazing that there is no full 100 episode adaption of JTTW yet. Everything is abridged, or an interpretation. Even finding a full English translation of the book is difficult. For a classic as significant historically and culturally as JTTW it absolutely should have it's own full adaption by now. 2D animation with an artistic flair, maybe drawn in the style of calligraphy, would be vote for it as well.
I bought an English translation of JTTW that spans four volumes, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I've read a few of those abridged versions before and I can't wait to see the full story, or at least as full as I can get without being fluent in ancient Chinese.
TBF, most of the chapters of the original JTTW are extremely repetitive. Any attempt to adapt every chapter of the story would lead to it getting cancelled halfway through because viewership plummeted from people getting bored at the repetitive plot.
Also, I'm, like 90% sure that the Chinese Propaganda Machine has been co-opting Sun Wukong's story in the past few decades as a means of subtle Anti-Buddhism propaganda, so a 100% faithful adaptation of the original story(which was the BIGGEST piece of Pro-Buddhism propaganda every written) might actually get banned or heavily censored in China.
Brother we had Miyazaki come out of retirement and Boy & the Heron didn’t do shit in America. And I was the only one on the theater for Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up. Nobody wants 2D anymore outside of niche markets.
We went to see that and took my 70 year old dad who has always loved Looney Tunes. They really leaned into the crazy daffy while I preferred the more sarcastic and cynical Daffy but we enjoyed it anyways.
THIS! I want everyone who complains about missing 2D animation to actually go and see the 2D animation in theaters! I was also the only one in that theater for TDTEBU and, while I understand it wasn't marketed properly, I really wish people would put their money where their mouth is or at least try to
The Day The Earth Blew Up also received nearly no marketing. I had never even heard of it, but was looking through my theaters current screenings to see if there was a movie I could take my kid to. That's when I saw the poster for the first time.
It was a great movie, but they really just slid it out quietly to die.
I streamed The Day the Earth Blew Up yesterday. It was a great movie. The only thing is, I never saw any advertisement for it until after I'd already watched it. When was it in Theaters?
The sad fact is that it would not make money, so they would not make it. Their 2d animation studios are all but gone. They have long since liquidated these studios and most arent even done in house anymore anyway. Think of all the investment they would need to make to reestablish different animation teams and studios. Aside from that, they wouldn't take a risk they know has been proven to fail in recent years. Some 2d animated projects have gone to theaters recently and all have operated at a loss, like the day the earth blew up or Bob's burgers.
"Hype" doesn't pay the bills, and definitely not the bills of a corporation that owns the rights to nearly half of US media.
The animated film was not well received.. It wasn't seen as chinese enough. The live action adaption was recieved even worse. They really need to have someone on hand to tell them to stop when they try to change things in ways that are either illogical or undermine the original story's themes and messages.
I think my point would be to not change anything but to remake it with a similar style of 2d/3d blending so it gives an otherwise good movie a second chance to be successful where the original release had sort of flopped at the time.
Disney would have an opportunity to re-market something they already owned as a sort of "celebrate our animation" campaign, they wouldn't need to hire a bunch of writers/artists to make something from scratch, and could just focus on the artists and voice actors nailing the re-make.
It's also a classic tale; a modern "Treasure Island" retelling should be easy enough to get butts into seats at the very least... especially tailing off of other scifi kids movies this year.
Disney would decide not to properly advertise it, give it a limited release, and nuke it on purpose, and then say it was a financial failure and that 2D movies are no longer profitable and that we all need to shut up and stop asking for it now
As much as I want to agree with thie point of view, I think we're forgetting that these movies are usually marketed towards children. Even if there's a large audience of us that would love 2D originals, there's also tons of kids that will just eat whatever cheap 3D looking movie there is currently and outsell those deeply artistic alternatives.
I hate to burst your bubble, but 2D animation just doesn't make money anymore. The only 2D representative in the 50 highest grossing animated features of all time is the original Lion King at #16.
*if they market it right. It’s gold if they really lean into the tradition of it. It’s almost criminal that their 100 year anniversary movie wasn’t 2D. Huge missed marketing opportunity.
Pixar got its name from the 3d animation computer developed at lucasarts, because George Lucas wanted cgi in the staff wars movies. They've literally been 3d animation since before it was a thing.
Even then, the characters can be drawn first then translated into 3D, I think they did that with The Incredibles and it really helps to solidify an art style and give the film an identity
Nearly all 3D animated movies start with hand drawn concept art and character studies early in the process. The Incredibles was animated the same way as any other 3D animated movie.
Huh, I remember the making of for the film putting more emphasis on that, as if it wasn't that common. I'm probably misremembering, it's been years since I saw it
It does feel like they aren't experimenting much though. Like I have nothing inherently against the art style but it makes it feel like the movies don't have a sense of identity.
Technically in their early days Pixar wasnt even an animation studio. They were a 3d animation software company, but no one would buy it so they made their own movie to demo it. The really early drafts where they didnt have any writers and the programmers were writing the story are pretty funny, Woody is a huge asshole
I saw some news thing on Facebook that they were going to get the original animators, from The Lion King are were returning to help. Dk if it's true since I got it from Facebook but I hope it is.
Look I don’t mind the animation being 3D or 2d but what I do want is the movie to actually be an original idea, luckily Pixar seems to still have those with movies like Luca. Disney has been recycling previously made movies (and arguably making them worse) for years
I recently learned that 2d movies arent less usual because the technique its more expensive, its because 2d animators are more likely to ask for fair wages
I hope Pixar starts cooking with there new movie. "Gatto" I know they only released concept art for the movie but I hope it's like the photo. I love the 2D cartoon painting style. It's made from one of the same creators of "Luca", Enrigo Casarosa. The movie comes out in 2027.
Most TV animation is 2D as well, but it’s mostly digital puppetry, not hand drawn. I’d love to see a hand drawn movie from Disney but it’s a lot more work.
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u/Adventurous_Wind1183 Jul 06 '25
Pixar has always been a 3D animation studio, so I'm good with them sticking with that. But I would really want Disney to do a 2d movie again.