Disney’s Wish Could've Been 2D! 

You can HEAR the disappointment, the pain, and confusion in Isaac’s voice.

I think the best homage to the company was Once Upon a Studio.

It’s amazing how studios in Europe and Japan have no issue with making 2D animated films and their audience still really enjoy them (especially the latter).

At least it had watercolor backgrounds. Being fully 2D, it wouldn't have fixed the film's other issues. But at least it would feel a little less generic and more like an homage to Disney.

I think Wish had so much potential, what could have been a wonderful 100 anniversary. Wasted because they were afraid to change their style, they played it safe.

First of all, Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee's mindsets for why it wasn't 2D animated is one of the many reasons why those two NEED to be fired from Disney, ASAP. But also, i hate the idea that the 2D animation represents "Living in the past" there is still so much you can do with 2D animation even up to today, and still so much potential that medium has to offer. Even if they couldn't do it, why not find a middle ground and go a similar route that Spider-verse and The Last Wish did with its animation styles? Whatever, personally, i think Wish shouldve been 2D animated, or at least, should've had a middle ground, A La Puss in Boots: the Last Wish, and the Spider-verse movies/films. Also, Issac, will you be doing videos on some of the scrapped concepts of the film? Such as the Villain Couple and the Starboy (plus his rumored romance with Asha)?

2D Will always be a classic method. So MANY timeless classics done in that way! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I think it's best it wasn't 2D. People would blame its poor reception and performance on it being hand drawn and put another nail in the traditional animation coffin

I think when it comes to Wish's animation they probably wanted to combine the two types of animation that Disney was known for doing and good at 2D and 3D animation

Lee's comments on the camera movement "issues" are especially infuriating when you look at films like "Roger Rabbit." A Live Action movie where the camera movement is constant and fluid and at no point feels restricted for the sake of the hand drawn cartoon characters. The only limit with 2D animation is the artist's imagination. No doubt If Richard Williams heard Lee's comments, he would've laughed and mocked her words endlessly. It was very disheartening when I listened to Mark Henn's post-retirement interview with the Bancroft brothers. On top of him being dissatisfied with the little work he gets, he also mentioned how so often he and Eric Goldberg would bring in ideas and find ways to incorporate 2D into every project (including Wish) only to be denied and disappointed. I hope Disney animation finds its way again as it did in the 80s. But I struggle to have faith in the idea more and more as time goes by.

Honestly, I'm glad they didn't. If it was unchanged in any other aspect, other than being in 2D, the public and critics would still hate it, and Disney would just use it as yet another argument why they will never make another 2D movie

The closest to a legitimate 2D moment in Wish was where Asha was showing a drawing on her sketchbook to King Magnifico and then you see the drawing come to life when she was flipping the pages.

I can’t be the only person so disappointed Wish wasn’t a 2D movie. I really enjoy 3D like Tangled which is one of my favorite Disney movies ever, and other ones like Moana, Raya and Encanto, but I’m sick of Disney reusing the same artstyle for almost every stinking movie. One of the things I always loved about the Renaissance movies was each movie had its own style, but they were also inspired from previous movies produced by Walt himself. Maybe it’s just me but Wish’s animation felt more like an unfinished project than the final product. And I’m sick of this self told lie forced on by different studios 2D animation is stupid, childish and outdated. It breaks my heart the only thing that’s keeping 2D animation alive is basically anime and that’s probably why Hayao Miyazaki keeps coming back to make more movies. I don’t hate 3D animation, but its so sad that the main reason why studios refuse to go back to handdrawn animation is because 3D is cheaper and makes more money and kids don’t care about art, all they do is watch whatever’s on screen. Disney, please go back to your roots before its too late

Jennifer Lee: 2D has too limitations in terms of camera movements. Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Renaissance movies: *Am I a joke to you?*

I was born in '97. I'm glad I grew up during the time when Disney was using hand-drawn films even through they were on the verge of collapsing. Atlantis, The Emperors New Groove, Tarzan and even modern films i.e. The Princess and The Frog were great films that had gorgeous 2D animation. Disney NEEDS to revisit this medium.

being born in 1994 I'm proud to say I grew up in a world where hand drawn animation was still the dominant medium and I think wish being hand drawn would have improved the film in some ways

The fact that Once Upon A Studio achieved the perfect blending and celebration of all the different art styles from every Disney movie in less than 10 minutes compared to Wish not achieving at all with over an hour to do so is still so baffling to me. They achieved the greatness they wanted and achieved nothing at all with 2 totally separate animation projects both meant for the same celebration

"2d anIMaTiON is LiMIteD" The real irony there is that Wish flopped so hard that it lost to The Boy and the Heron, a 2D animated film.

They say 2d is outdated. Hollywood has always looked down on 2d animation. Meanwhile. European and Asian market is thriving making 2d animation and they’re expanding and experimenting more and more on it every year. Lull in the sea is my favourite slice of life that was made in the late 2010s and it’s gorgeous throughout while telling an interesting and fun story. 2020s fruits basket. Too.

In summary, they fired the artists who can do it and the higher ups don't want to do it. The artist who have the skills are considered unnecessary and the higher ups think that what they have are better. In other words, they don't like their past and try to stay away from it as far as they can. Wish is a movie that was essentially forced out of them. They are forced into something they don't want: go back to the old Disney. "Style that was uniquely Disney" - I consider Wish's style to be uniquely Disney, but Disney as it is now, not the Disney that you know in the past.

This is an important subject to talk about. The LAST Disney Film we had so far (not counting the Disney DTV Sequels, Once Upon a Studio or any Disney Channel Animated Series) was the Princess and The Frog 15 Years earlier.

Isaac, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for sharing your takes in such an optimistic and kind way while not holding back with the very valid points of criticism and what ifs. It keeps my hopes up while also addressing my concerns rather than try to hide them. I - and a lot of other people with me I'd wager - have been very disappointed by a lot of choices in direction made by Disney leadership in recent years. Growing up with such gorgeous works of art that is Disney 2D animation - which I to this day can find new charming details in - and then see it so disrespectfully dismissed is nothing short of heartbreaking. I truly hope Disney can take after the style experimentation trailblaze set by movies like Spiderverse and the Last Wish because that style combined with classic Disney magic ought to be an absolutely mindblowing wonder. I don't dislike Wish even if I am convicned it could have been so much more (personally I enjoyed the art book as much if not more than the movie). I don't dislike 3D Disney, I have equal respect for different forms of art. But it's saddening to see them being treated with such vastly different levels of care and respect by the company that ought to understand the pros and cons of different art forms better than most. Anyway, that's my wall of text, thanks for your hard work and take care!

That’s kinda the whole reason I didn’t watch the movie, the style looked like a half finished product in my eyes. Felt like they were still working on it honestly

I will always be baffled by how they didn't replace the motion blur with smears. Sure yeah you can have the slower more delicate moments be with no smears and no motion blur, but the fast snappy parts absolutely suffer without it. Having the smears be hand drawn would have also contributed significantly to the 2D 3D blend that the movie was going for.

I’m going to edit my comment as I go along with what I want to say. But truthfully, I think too many people are diminishing how good the animation in Wish looked. I was really impressed with how the film looked like a CGI watercolor storybook/painting. I’d say it was a better decision to have the film be a hybrid animation in favor of purely hand drawn or CGI animation. I’m glad they didn’t back out into having Wish just be 3D just because “they couldn’t make it work for their other movies.” And it’s for the 100th anniversary of Disney. Combining both helps honor all of Disney’s years. Which includes its 2d and 3d projects. I disagree with the characters not fitting into the rest of the world. Because the whole screen has a watercolor paper texture that’s on the background, foreground, and even the characters that gave it a consistent appearance. Also the whole thing of “watercolor backgrounds” is in part false, because it’s mostly made up of the same stylized CGI like the characters. You can see this in moments when characters touch something in the background, or when there’s a different camera angle, and the same consistency of placement is shown in the scene. It’s apparently just really convincing as 2d. (What I’m trying to say is that they didn’t just put a flat image of a watercolor painting and called it a day) If anything I would say Wish’s animation looks like a highly detailed 2d animation. Even the foreground is the same. I’d say that the line art actually helped give each character more of a 2d look apart from the texture I mentioned above. Wrinkles in their faces were unique depending on the character, and it looked like it was drawn too. I can give examples from the sparkly outlining of Star. To Asha’s eyebrow wrinkles. The dimples on some of the characters. Sabino’s wrinkles to match his age, the outlines that are around each character, the markings of fur for the animals, and a lot more. The colors were also really vibrant. A lot more than other parts of the internet would allow it to be due to compression issues. Which brings me to why a lot of people thought the animation wasn’t good. They apparently forgot compression is a thing, and assumed that’s what the film looked like. When there are quite literally videos of Wish’s trailers in 4k Ultra HD revealing a lot more detail than other sources allow it to have. And Wish looks amazing on a huge TV on Disney plus. But the Dolby Vision version looks good as well. That’s how I knew about all of the details I’ve mentioned above. But I do blame Disney for not giving a better resolution online themselves, but people seemed to know what compression was before I did. So I think some people should have known better by seeing when it was obviously a compressed image. I actually understand and can agree with what the crew said about limitations. It was said in this video they didn’t have all the resources they would have needed. Production for Wish started back in 2018. I’d say they’d need way more time to make a hand drawn frame by frame film, than a stylized CGI animation. Because they couldn’t just release Wish whenever. It had to be on 2023 for the 100th anniversary. And the camera angle limit is fair, because the backgrounds in lots of the classic movies are obviously flat, and don’t even rotate most of the time. Because they are drawn, and have no depth. Unless you really wanted to animate a detailed background, frame by frame, and lose more time than you already are on the frames for the characters and other objects. Two of the examples of rotating angles in Beauty and the Beast and Tarzan have confirmation that they used some CGI for the trees, and the ballroom scene, in order for the camera angles to be easily done with added depth. Overall I don’t think a lot of the criticism over the animation is very fair. And that’s why I wanted to comment rather than let this go by. Like I said, I’ll probably edit my comment later to clarify more things, but I’m done for now.

I miss the old animated Disney 😭 Disney just isn’t the same anymore as much as I loved wish

It would be neat if Disney had a separate studio to make 2D films like how Pixar is their second feature animation studio.

It's honestly pretty sad that the studio is like this now. Hopefully change can come soon, so the potential for future projects isn't as stifled as with Wish. I can feel your frustration with these excuses that were given. I hate the idea that the Disney Animated Canon will be stuck only making movies that look a very, very specific way. We know they can do better.

There are some movies/shows that work in 3D or 2D, I think Wish could've been a great film had they made it hand drawn through computer animation to show best of both worlds of Disney animation. What they've done through Wish had tarnished the legacy that Walt Disney had made.

The excuse of "hand-drawn animation is too expensive" doesn't fly anymore - not when their live-action drivel has astronomical budgets that far exceed many of what the 2D films took to make, even with inflation factored in. It's not an expense issue - it's a talent issue.

Animation Directors:oh 2d is limiting when it comes to camera moving. All legendary 2d animators: Am I a joke to you?

The fact that a talking lizard movie being better than Wish is quite shocking.

Whether it's 2D or 3D or basically any other animation style, with that story and the songs itself, it wouldn't have make it any better 🤷

JealousLuck0, an animator on reddit, explained, in relation to news that filmmakers considered making Wish a 2D movie, why studios prefer 3D even with a sizable audience asking and asking for 2D. It was a long post I couldn't quote here, but the most interesting paragraphs were these- "the reason why you'll see more 3D films these days has nothing to do with talent or easiness... it's because due to the nature of the programs used, you can simultaneously work on modeling the character, animating the character, designing their clothes, framing the shots, modeling the set... all at the exact same time. You can hot-swap these things in and out, whenever you need, as they're worked on. You might work on a shot in the morning, and the character's got hair by the evening. That's kinda exaggerating a bit but you get what I mean. You can move cameras on the fly, change lighting on the fly, and every artist works on something at the exact same time." "so my point here is this: 3D animation became defacto because it was faster to produce, but that is no longer the case. I believe the issue here is that meddling by committee decision is something they expect to be able to do for 3D films and don't like 2D ones because they can't go in and change things as they focus test and cannot commit to anything. They hate that creatives are, in the end, the decisionmakers, and must be for the film to be made. The inability to tweak and tweak and change up until a week before release annoys them. They hate gambling and want as much control over its profit as humanly possible.... and 2D just doesn't allow it." But knowing that they didn't want audiences to think it was 2D, I remember in 2014 asking some students if they've seen The Lion King, and they said "No, that looks old!" I can only imagine this outlook is more prevalent a decade later. The animation test looks beautiful! It's a shame that there are these films that people think just needed more time, only for it to be revealed that these movies had great ideas that were squashed later in production.

They should have been more honest and said. We would need to hire a bunch of 2d artists instead of using people already on the payroll.

It appears that some of Disney's worst decisions were made in 2012 and 2013 (buying Lucasfilm, dismantling their 2D animation department, etc.). The last time a Disney original production resonated with me was Wreck-It Ralph, which was coincidentally released in 2012. But I wouldn't categorize it as part of Disney's 2012 decisions, because it was primarily produced during the prior years. I'm just pointing out how original Disney content has seemingly lost all its magic following 2012. And Disney proceeded to make terrible decision after terrible decision, without even once learning from their mistakes from 2012 onward.

This is was rhe team EXPERIMENTING a new style to them. It's a remarkable style they experimented with and achieved. It sucks that their attempt to try something new gets harassed by the animation community. Imagine trying a style you liked and tried to work with and you get backlash for it. I feel for these animators who are proud of what they did and got credited for

0:44 First animated movie to use cells in its medium and the first one to be made in America.

Frozen also could have been 2D (which Disney told people it was going to be early on), before ultimately pushing it out as a 3D movie and then hearing that more of the hand-drawn animation we were promised was being shut down for a second time at the studio. That's how you prove to people that 3D computer animation has just become another biased corporate agenda for studios to want to push against having any more traditional 2D movies, and it's how you get people like myself to lose any appreciation for the medium whatsoever. Has Disney been proving anything to the contrary lately with stuff like that Once Upon a Studio short? I'd want to confidently say yes, but after the way things went down in the last decade for Disney and 2D movies they're only going to have to prove themselves even harder now than they would have if they had continued to let more 2D movies come out from them. They may tease 2D here and there, but they need to do more than that.

So sad that the Disney company couldnt be bothered to hire people to make a 2d animated movie. Oh well, at least we have an actual suscessor to Walt's legacy in Tangled.

So the animators wanted to push the boundaries and do something unique and experimental, but once again the studio shut them down. Tis a shame.😔

At least we got the short once upon a studio

I know you’ve done videos on Disney, Pixar, Illumination, and DreamWorks, but have you considered doing videos on some of the Don Bluth classics? I know that they were before your time, but you seem to have interest in old school animated movies.

If wish is suppose to represent there future then Disney is doomed to fail

Wish would be pretty and nice in 2D.

The TV show Sofia the First also has that same stylized CGI animation similar to Paperman

I haven't seen wish yet

Hey Issac I couldn’t help but notice that your video on the Mufasa trailer is now gone which a part of me is kinda glad that it is. I mean I myself am pretty iffy on the movie but still all the negativity and hypocrisy going on within the Disney fandom is something that I’m just tired of….

Hopefully Wish underperforming is the kick in the pants that Disney needs to be initiative again.

I wish Wish was in 2D

Making Wish feel more like a insult to Walt's legacy in film making and the history of hand drawn especially how computer animation became over saturated in the last 2 decades because it was a new form and cheap to make which still bugs me alot

While I still haven't seen Wish yet, I saw the movie as a great way to reignite animation for Disney. However, even with so much potential, the movie failed capture a new style for itself. As it was said you could have blended 2D and 3D to make a beautiful movie, but the art style that Tangled started is now the default. I'm sad to see this as so many companies tried to capture Disney's spirit in the past. Now the company has lost that, and new blood has taken that old feel to heart.

Disney: 2D animation is too time consuming and nobody likes it anymore (˘･_･˘) Ghibli: We physically cannot stop this man from making 2D animated movies (⊙_⊙;) Swoops in and took the Oscar too lmao 😆 🤷‍♀

If they could accomplish a movie through the Who Framed Roger Rabbit Movie, then they could've accomplished greatness through Wish.

Inside Out 2 by Pixar is now the Highest Grossing film this year kicking Dune Part 2 out of the TOP SPOT. Making billions of dollars. 3D Animation has come a long way and i'm here for it. I believe we as people should learn how respect and love different kinds of Animation styles even if its Hand-Drawn/Traditional, Computer CGI, Stop-Motion, Anime, Claymation etc. At the end of the day Animation is a exquisite form of art and medium. In terms of Wish i think the Animation is quiet good but i think the biggest downfall of it is its music and Characters in general. ☺️☺️👌👌

I wonder if Jennifer lee's comment on hand drawn animation, considering she's the head of Walt Disney animation, is similar to what Zack Synder commented on Batman's no kill rule. " You're making your God inrelevent." All i know is THIS IS THE SAME COMMENT! BATMAN DOESN'T KILL AND I WOULD KNOW!

I’ve never actually seen the _Wish_ yet, but I might give it a watch at some point despite the flaws it has.

Short answer:because 3D makes more money

While I don't think the movies needed was some of the original concepts like others have been constantly trying to hammer in I'm glad you able to tell this stuff as nonbieased as possible, it really sounded like your opinion on it comes from a place of respect for these older movies, and not trying to criticize the style of the time👊

good thing that i have personally a passion musical hand drawn alan menken project for disney animation, inspired by a japanese disney ride, at least hopefully the goals dont go in vain

0:42 First cycrinized sound cartoon.

Thank you for posting the video.

8:36 Are you f(BOING!) kidding me, Disney? That concept was awesome, why it was discarted?

I blame the greedy corporations for this problem 😐

Star does look 2D but They’re 2d. I think the film looks beautiful. 2:52 Don’t Forget the Ballroom in Beauty and The Beast is completely Hand drawn. 8:37 THIS LOOKS BEAUTIFUL!💜😍😍😍 10:39 My Eyeballs are pleased.💜💜💜💜 Also The Scene was Inspired by Tony hawk.

Songs Lik there's gotta be something better then this are from characters who live 💩 holes or only abusive relationships but barley have concept of more mutual loving relationships . But the Island in wish is prosperous. Beautiful diverse. So the song I make this wish to had so much then all that. Really makes everyone seemed spoiled. He's the villain because he wouldn't grant every wish. What about different having incompatible wishes what wishes for someones 💀 the jini wouldn't grant every wish. . Should he put everyone in their own simulation. And I mean he could remove all consequences of wishes using the same magic. Then nothing has meaning. In both achieving and consequence. No quest nore consequence. . A lot of the wishes didn't need magic 🪄. Being a leader being a Taylor. Being the Best.

I hope 2D comes back, it could save Disney from failure because that’s what the people want

the scences you mentioned rocked

Sounds like 2D animation and 3D animation wanna hang out but they're not allowed.

I wonder if the reason why they didn’t go with 2D is because they have to pay those artists more. To be able to draw 2D animation takes a lot of patience and work.

i like the movie alot but honestly fo a centenial celbration it as way under my expectations. i was hoping for something like the once upon a studio short.

This movie is a trainwreck. There is so much that could have been done had it not been for the layoffs.

Love your videos Isaac!❤❤❤❤

Its the hugher upz fault not the production team

Any reason why you haven't covered The Fox and the Hound?

People now: “Oh Wish sucks” 10-20 years or so later: “Oh Wish is so underrated why doesn’t it have more praise and attention?!” Atlantis, Treasure Planet and Brother Bear to Wish: “First time?”

Hey Isaac, you wanna make responses (or “rant-sponses”which Whiny Gamer (played by ExoParadigmGamer, a gaming RU-vidr you kinda look like like) does, or used to do in the mid-2010s but can soon come back to doing it like with a Super Mario World hack like “Why The Second Reality Project Reloaded is the WURST GAME IN THE WURLD!!!”, and eventually “Why Pac-Man and the University of Pac-Land SMELLS LIKE PEE!!!” take for instance, via Frigid Fire/SteveGreeneComedy & James Maslow Productions’, “The Kieran Glen Harris Stark Show”) to ElectricDragon505’s reviews including but not limited to a scathing review on Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (and VeggieTales in general) and Disney’s modern movies (including but not limited to the ones directed by Chris Buck who also amazed us with Tarzan and Surf’s Up which as a far-leftist, even if he may like them, he’d likely be harsher towards/less justifying of what he finds to be flaws in them as they are older movies but I think they’re more timeless mainly because of stronger writing that makes it feel less AI-generated), but that was back then)? Here, I’ll give you examples of videos I was talking about. m.ru-vid.com/group/PLmu3hhmRiEwFYNrhllplP0dlCeDofCrnV m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UDni1U31B68.html&pp=ygUjdGhlIHNlY29uZCByZWFsaXR5IHByb2plY3QgcmVsb2FkZWQ%3D m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iw73MW7OTSY.html&pp=ygUTam9uYWggYW5pbWF0IHJldmlldw%3D%3D m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yWni9hzh5qM.html&pp=ygUYRWxlY3RyaWNEcmFnb241MDUgRnJvemVu m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BFso_CTjfG8.html&pp=ygUYRWxlY3RyaWNEcmFnb241MDUgRnJvemVu m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lzu_uozzuoQ.html&pp=ygUWRWxlY3RyaWNEcmFnb241MDUgV2lzaA%3D%3D

I’m pretty sure the main motivator for and against what this film could have become was $$$. *Play ABBA here*

Everything I’ve ever heard of about this movie just makes me so glad I never watched it. Bad art style, bad plot, just bad everything.

You forgot some of the parts in the movie Beauty and the Beast and the Cave of Wonders and the Magic Carpet in the movie Aladdin.

Just Like Netflix Christmas 🎄 2019 movie Klaus. 💕 is a great example as well.

“2D has limitations on camera movements” IS THE STUPIDEST thing i’ve ever heard. If anything its MORE free to do whatever you want with angles, movements, squash and stretch, etc. PLUS THE RENAISSANCE ERA OF DISNEY PROVES DYNAMICS MORESO THAN ALOT OF THE 3D MOVIES.

they could have use blender 2d 3d animation like the peanut movie or Garfield movie

Man bad business move and story too

Money, and they have driven off all the 2D Masters.... That hard to understand?

Hey Issac, can you do a video on the fan theory that Rapunzel is Anna and Elsa's cousin?

They could remake the movie in hand drawn when they get the budget. How is that not allowed? They would at least rewrite the story

This is one of the reasons why *Wish* feels so disrespectful to Walt's legacy, they had the opportunity to make the feeling of a older Disney film, but instead it feels just like any other animated musical they have made in recent years. So corporate. And it is one of the reasons why I hate modern Disney so much.

Interesting take Isaac.

Disney just needs to try experimenting with their films again, not play it safe as usual...

As an animator myself, I have always appreciated the style of Wish and the studios attempt at experimentation. That i feel was the point of the style, and they achieved it so well. It sucks that us in the animation community expect certain proejcts to meet their high expectations to the levels of movies like Puss and Boots or Spiderverse. When other studios were just having fun trying something new and they get backlashed for it

Given that roughly 25% of Disney's repetoire is 3D, making "Wish" fully 2D ignores a big part of Disney's legacy. I'd prefer if it was 2D with 3D elements or vice versa.

Netflix Arcane proves that Paper man could have worked.

The current problem with Disney Animation is not executive meddling. It is just bad creative leadership. The leadership of the creative team is bad at their jobs, and this shows.

I had a lot of Hope for wish but when I saw the film it didn't really deliver it's not a bad film though

I would go for Tranditional Animation!

Make a video about Descendants: The Rise of Red

Wow! Great video Isaac. I think Jennifer Lee needs to be replaced

They did it to save money short and simple

💔