Neil Gaiman’s Twitter feed led me to an interesting link this morning: examples of Disney films completely reusing previous animation. There’s a 2 and a half minute clip and it’s pretty intriguing. (More from me after the clip):
I am not a big cartoon guy, but I have to say that this clip leaves me feeling… like it’s not a big deal. First of all, the clip leaves no room for homage; that Beauty and the Beast scene may not be a swipe but a reference. Even if there are no homages, what’s the big deal? Almost all of the clips are from the pre-digital age, when animation was even more painstaking than it is today. If animators reused existing elements to make their jobs slightly easier, that seems fair. Of course a true Disney fan might know whether or not the original animators subsequently got credit when their work was re-used (I suspect not).
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