SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 29, 2003 — "Brother Bear", the latest animated release from Disney, along with "Home on the Range", is the last two-dimensional animated feature in Disney's pipeline. Does this spell the end of 2-D animation?

The rich, painterly style that has been the foundation of the Magic Kingdom ever since founder Walt Disney invented the feature-length cartoon with 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs continues to teeter on the edge of extinction.

Big-budget 2-D disappointments such as Treasure Planet have led to morale-depleting layoffs, salary cuts for artists and the closing of Disney animation facilities in Paris and Tokyo. The bottom line has been drawn: Brother Bear and next April's Home on the Range, an Old West comedy, will be the last 2-D features from Disney for a while.

Meanwhile, the studio's 3-D partner Pixar, a relationship that began with Toy Story in 1995 and could end when the contract expires in 2005, thrives with each new computer-generated release. The final straw: With a take of $338.2 million, the best of the year so far, this summer's Finding Nemo grabbed the all-time cartoon box-office crown from the long-reigning champ, the 2-D Lion King.

As a result, mouse pads are replacing drawing pads as longtime animators are retrained on computers. Says Ruben Aquino, a Disney artist for more than 20 years whose creations include squid villainess Ursula (The Little Mermaid) and the adult Simba (The Lion King): "We're an ambidextrous studio now. I miss the drawing part, but I still thumbnail out the animation. The important things are the same, though; the acting, the action analysis, no matter what medium is used. It's just a different tool."

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