| History of animation in the United States |
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Modern animation in the United States from the late 1980s to the early 2000s is frequently referred to as therenaissance age of American animation.[1] During this period, many large American entertainment companies would reform and reinvigorate theiranimation departments following thedark age, and the United States influenced global and worldwide animation.[2]
Many companies originating in thegolden age of American animation experienced newfound critical and commercial success. During theDisney Renaissance,The Walt Disney Company went back to producing critically and commercially successful animated films based on well-known stories, just as principal co-founderWalt Disney had done during his lifetime. Disney also began producing successful animated television shows, a then-first for the company, which led to the creation and launch ofDisney Channel.[3][4]Warner Bros. produced highly successful animated cartoon television series inspired by their classicLooney Tunes cartoons, while also launching theDC Animated Universe.[5][6]Hanna-Barbera ceased production on low budget television series and, through its acquisition byTed Turner, launchedCartoon Network.[7]Nickelodeon, a network owned bythe first andsecond incarnations of Viacom Inc. until 2019,ViacomCBS until 2022, andParamount Global thereafter, rose to fame by creating theNicktoons brand in 1991 which led to various acclaimed programs under the label in the 1990s and 2000s.
Additionally, new animation studios rose to prominence during this period. Most notably,Pixar debuted with the extremely successfulToy Story, the first feature film to entirely usecomputer-generated imagery (CGI).[8][9][10]DreamWorks Animation, freshly spun-out from DreamWorks (later namedDreamWorks Pictures) debuted late in the era, but would become a major competitor and alternative to Disney in the subsequent decade.[11] During this era, the technology used to produce animation would experience revolutionary shifts. Beginning in the mid-1990s,traditional animation usinghand-drawn cels declined in favor of more advanced up-and-coming methods, likedigital ink and paint (a modern form of traditional animation) and3D computer animation.[12] These changes in animation technology led to themillennium age of American animation, which started in the early 2000s and has continued into present day.[13]
At the start of the 1980s,The Walt Disney Company had been struggling sinceWalt Disney died in 1966, and the 1979 departure ofDon Bluth and eleven other associates from the animation department dealt Disney a major blow. Bluth formed a new studio in direct competition with Disney.[citation needed]
Disney's "Nine Old Men", the animators responsible for Disney's most famous earlier works, and their associates began to hand their traditions to a new generation of Disney animators. New faces such asGlen Keane,Ron Clements,John Musker,Andreas Deja, and others came to the studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period that produced such features asThe Rescuers,Pete's Dragon (a live-action/animation hybrid), andThe Fox and the Hound, as well as the featurettesThe Small One (Bluth's only Disney-directed credit) andMickey's Christmas Carol (the first screen appearance ofMickey Mouse since 1953).[citation needed]
At the same time, animatorSteven Lisberger brought to the studio a concept about a computer programmer who is launched into a computerized world. The film would combine live-action sequences with computer animation, which had not yet been used to such an extent. The studio was impressed with the idea; the result was an ambitious $17 million film ($55.4 million in today's dollars)[14] entitledTron. While Disney's stock dropped four percent after a screening for unenthusiastic investment analysts,[15]and despite only moderate grosses at the box office,[16]Tron received enthusiastic praise from film criticRoger Ebert,[17] became a cult favorite and turned out—many years later—to have a greater influence on animation (at Disney and elsewhere) than expected.[18]
In 1984, Disney became the target of acorporate raid bySaul Steinberg, who intended to break up the company piece by piece. At the same time,Roy E. Disney, who had already resigned as President in 1977, relinquished his spot on the Board of Directors to use his clout to change the status quo and improve the company's declining fortune. Disney escaped Steinberg's attempt by paying himgreenmail, but in its aftermath, CEORon W. Miller resigned, to be replaced byMichael Eisner. Roy Disney, now back on the Board as its Vice-Chairman, convinced Eisner to let him supervise the animation department, whose future was in serious doubt after the disappointing box office performance of its big-budget PG-rated feature,The Black Cauldron.[19] The studio's next release,The Great Mouse Detective, fared better in relation to its significantly smaller budget, but it was overshadowed byDon Bluth'sAn American Tail,[20] another film featuring mice characters that competed directly withMouse Detective in theaters.[citation needed]
In1988, the studio collaborated withSteven Spielberg andRobert Zemeckis to makeWho Framed Roger Rabbit, a comedic detective caper that mixed live-action and animation while paying homage to the Golden Age of Cartoons. Disney characters appeared with characters fromWarner Bros.,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,Universal Pictures and other rival studios for the first time in animation history. The film was a huge box-office success, winning fourAcademy Awards, reviving interest in animation made for theatres, and popularizing the in-depth study of the history and techniques of animation. Several ageing legends in the business, such asChuck Jones andFriz Freleng, suddenly found themselves the center of attention, receiving acclaim and accolades after decades of being virtually ignored by audiences and industry professionals alike[citation needed]. Additionally, the release of many older Disney features and short cartoons on home video, and the company's creation of newSaturday-morning cartoons forCBS andNBC respectively (such asThe Wuzzles andAdventures of the Gummi Bears, renewed interest in the studio.[citation needed]
Disney followed upWho Framed Roger Rabbit withOliver & Company in 1988[21] andThe Little Mermaid, an adaptation of theHans Christian Andersen fairy tale, in 1989 with songs byBroadway composersAlan Menken andHoward Ashman.The Little Mermaid was a huge critical and commercial success. It won twoAcademy Awards for its song and score and became the first of a series of highly successful new Disney animated features.[3]
The studio invested heavily in new technology, creating theComputer Animation Production System to be used in tandem with traditional animation techniques. The first film to use this technology,The Rescuers Down Under, only grossed $27,931,461[22] ($67.2 million in today's dollars), not even equalling the take of the original 1977 film.[23]
However, the films that followed,Beauty and the Beast andAladdin, won rave reviews, received multiple Oscars and topped the box office charts.Beauty and the Beast would eventually become the first animated feature to win theGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and to be nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Picture, followed by 2009'sUp and 2010'sToy Story 3.[citation needed]
In 1993, Disney releasedThe Nightmare Before Christmas, the first feature-lengthstop-motion animated film. Disney's success peaked in1994, whenThe Lion King grossed $328,541,776 ($697 million in today's dollars) and became the highest-grossing movie of that year. As of 2024,The Lion King ranks as the 22nd highest-grossing motion picture of all time in the United States and the highest-grossing hand-drawn movie of all time.[24] Subsequent Disney films from 1995 to 2000, includingPocahontas,The Hunchback of Notre Dame,Hercules,Mulan,Tarzan, andFantasia 2000 were box office and/or critical successes as well, albeit modestly so when compared to Disney's early-1990s releases.[citation needed]
In 1994, the death of Disney President and Chief Operating OfficerFrank Wells, and the departure of studio chairmanJeffrey Katzenberg to co-foundDreamWorks, left Michael Eisner in full control of the company. At the turn of the century, films such asDinosaur (Disney's first CG animated feature),Atlantis: The Lost Empire,Treasure Planet andHome on the Range failed to meet the critical and commercial expectations set by the 1990s phenomena, despite exceptions such asThe Emperor's New Groove andLilo & Stitch. At the same time, the high level of popular acclaim bestowed uponToy Story, the firstCGI animated film, sparked an industry trend. Based on the commercial success ofPixar's animated movies and other CGI fare (especially DreamWorks'Shrek, which contained numerous jabs at Katzenberg's former workplace and boss), Disney came to believe that CGI was what the public wanted, so it ceased producing traditional animation afterHome on the Range, and switched exclusively to CGI starting with 2005'sChicken Little.[citation needed]
Public rifts grew between the animation staff and management, as well as between Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney. Roy resigned from the board of directors in 2003 with a scathing letter calling the company "rapacious and soulless", adding that he considered it "always looking for the quick buck."[25] He then launched the internet site SaveDisney.com[26] in an attempt to preserve the integrity of the company and to oust Eisner, who resigned in 2005 after public opinion turned against him.[citation needed]
Robert Iger succeeded Eisner; one of his first acts as CEO was to regain the rights to Walt Disney's first starOswald the Lucky Rabbit fromNBCUniversal (Iger did so by offering NBC the services ofAl Michaels, a play-by-play host then under contract to Disney subsidiaryABC Sports, as a trade). After Disney acquired Pixar in 2006, Pixar executive producerJohn Lasseter became Chief Creative Officer at both Pixar and Disney, with a plan to reintroduce two-dimensional animation, starting withThe Princess and the Frog in 2009, but was abruptly halted afterWinnie the Pooh was commercially unsuccessful in 2011.[citation needed]
After 30 years of resisting offers to produce television animation, Disney finally relented once Michael Eisner, who had a background in TV, took over. The first TV cartoons to carry the Disney name, CBS'The Wuzzles and NBC'sAdventures of the Gummi Bears, both premiered in the fall of 1985. Breaking from standard practice in the medium, the productions enjoyed substantially larger production budgets than average, allowing for higher-quality writing and animation, in anticipation of recouping profitably in rerun syndication. WhileThe Wuzzles only lasted a season,Adventures of the Gummi Bears was a sustained success with a six-season run.[citation needed]
In 1987, the TV animation division adaptedCarl Barks'Scrooge McDuck comic books for the small screen with the syndicated hitDuckTales. Its success spawned a 1990 theatrical film entitledDuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp and an increased investment in syndicated cartoons. The result of this investment wasThe Disney Afternoon in 1990, a two-hour syndicated television programming block of such animated cartoon shows as:The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1988-1991),Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (1989–1991),TaleSpin (1990–1991),Darkwing Duck (1991–1993, also airing onABC),Goof Troop (1992–1994, also airing onABC),Bonkers (1993–1994),Marsupilami (1993–1995), thecritically acclaimed andstill-popularGargoyles (1994–1997), andPepper Ann (1997–2000). TV animation also brought some animated feature film characters to Saturday morning, includingThe Little Mermaid (1992–1994),Aladdin (1994–1995),Timon & Pumbaa (1995–1999),Hercules (1998–1999) (the first three onCBS), and laterThe Legend of Tarzan (2001–2003) andHouse of Mouse (2001–2003).[citation needed]
The perennially popular Disney'sMickey Mouse made his comeback and a revival on television with the animated seriesMickey Mouse Works (1999-2000), an animated series paying homage to all the classic Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney cartoons.Mickey Mouse Works was later followed by the Mickey Mouse/Disney character crossover seriesHouse of Mouse (2001-2003), the educational seriesMickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-2016, which aired on Playhouse Disney and thenDisney Junior), andMickey Mouse/The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse (2013-2020, 2020-2023). Additionally, the studio produced animated series forDisney Channel such asKim Possible (2002-2007),The Proud Family (2001-2005),American Dragon: Jake Long (2005-2007),Phineas and Ferb (2007-2015; 2025-),Gravity Falls (2012-2016),Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015-2019),Amphibia (2019-2022),The Owl House (2020-2023) and more recently,Kiff (2023–present), the studio is now a parent company of Disney Branded Television (then Disney Channels Worldwide).[citation needed]
DisneyToon Studios was founded in Paris in the late 1980s to produceDuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, which is not considered by the studio to be part of the Disney animated "canon".[27] The practice of making non-canondirect-to-video sequels to canon films began in 1994 withThe Return of Jafar, a sequel toAladdin. This was a reversal of the long-standing studio policy against sequels to animated films (which did not apply to live-action films); Walt Disney has often been quoted on the subject as saying "you can't top pigs with pigs", a reference to how theThree Little Pigs short managed to get more than three sequels.[28] Because of strong video sales, the studio continued to make these films despite negative critical reaction; 2002'sCinderella II: Dreams Come True received a rare 11% rating from the review-aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes.[29] Under John Lasseter, the studio brought this practice to an end.[30][31]
DisneyToon also produced several non-canon entries thatdid receive theatrical releases, such asA Goofy Movie andThe Tigger Movie. The latter brought theSherman Brothers back to the studio for their first Disney feature film score sinceBedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971.[citation needed]
Don Bluth's company had been driven to bankruptcy twice: once, asDon Bluth Productions, after the disappointing box office take ofThe Secret of NIMH coincided with an animator's strike; and again, as the Bluth Group, after theVideo game crash of 1983—whenCinematronics, in an attempt to cut its losses, charged fees and royalties of over $3 million ($9.08 million adjusted for inflation) to Bluth's company while it was working on a sequel to the laserdisc-based animated arcade videogameDragon's Lair.[citation needed]
Bluth formedSullivan Bluth Studios with backing from businessmanMorris Sullivan. Film directorSteven Spielberg—a long-time animation fan who was interested in producing theatrical animation helped Bluth to produce 1986'sAn American Tail. The film was a hit, grossing $47,483,002 ($136 million in today's dollars).[32] During its production, the studio relocated to Ireland, taking advantage of government tax breaks for film production. Bluth's 1988 follow-upThe Land Before Time was a slightly bigger hit, grossing $48,092,846 ($128 million in today's dollars)[33] and spawning12 sequels and aTV series. Neither Bluth nor Spielberg was involved with any of theLand Before Time sequels; Spielberg produced the 1991 sequelAn American Tail: Fievel Goes West without Bluth.[citation needed]
To gain further creative control, Bluth parted ways with Spielberg on his next film, the 1989 releaseAll Dogs Go to Heaven. While the film had the misfortune of opening the same day as Disney'sThe Little Mermaid, it fared much better on home video.[34]
The early 1990s proved difficult for the studio, as it released several box office failures. In 1992,Rock-a-Doodle was panned by critics and ignored by audiences; its dismal box-office performance of $11,657,385 ($26.1 million in today's dollars)[35] contributed to Sullivan Bluth's bankruptcy. Bluth's next feature, 1994'sThumbelina fared a little better critically but even worse commercially, whileA Troll in Central Park, also released in 1994, barely got a theatrical release, grossing $71,368 against a budget of $23,000,000 (or $151,405 against $48.8 million in current terms).[36]
Sullivan Bluth Studios closed in 1995. Bluth and Goldman returned to the United States a year earlier to discuss the creation of a feature-animation division at20th Century Fox; the studio's three previous animated films (FernGully: The Last Rainforest,Once Upon a Forest, and the live-action/animation hybridThe Pagemaster) had all failed.Anastasia, a musical remake of the1956 film withIngrid Bergman, did far better than any Bluth film sinceAll Dogs Go To Heaven,[37] but the 2000 release ofTitan A.E., a film far different from the ones Bluth had been making, was a flop.Fox Animation Studios closed soon afterwards; nearly allFox feature animation was produced by itsBlue Sky Studios unit until the Fox Animation Studios imprint was revived, without Bluth or Goldman, in 2009.[citation needed]
After parting ways with Bluth, Spielberg turned to television animation, working with theWarner Bros. Entertainment Co. to bring back its animation department, which it had abandoned in the 1960s. A team ofTom Ruegger-led animators departed fromHanna-Barbera(which ironically would later be purchased by Warner Bros. when it purchased Turner Broadcasting in 1996) fled toWarner Bros. Animation to produce a new seriesTiny Toon Adventures, an animated series that paid homage to the Warner Bros. cartoons ofTermite Terrace. The popularity ofTiny Toon Adventures among young TV viewers made the studio a contender once again in the field of animated cartoons.Tiny Toon Adventures was followed bySteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs and its spinoffPinky and the Brain. Not only did these cartoons bring in new viewers to Warner Bros., but they also captured the attention of older viewers. Warner Bros., minus Spielberg, continued with work such asBatman: The Animated Series.Batman quickly received wide acclaim for its animation and mature writing, and it also inspireda feature film. Combined, these four Warner Bros. series won a total of 17Daytime Emmy Awards.[citation needed]
When Disney's feature animation surged in the 1990s, Warner Bros. attempted to capitalize on its rival's success with animated feature films of its own, without the assistance of Spielberg. Their films—Cats Don't Dance,Quest for Camelot andThe Iron Giant—failed to come close to Disney's success, althoughCats Don't Dance andThe Iron Giant both received critical praise and developed cult followings. The 2001 live-action/animation hybridOsmosis Jones, starringBill Murray, was a costly commercial failure,[38] although its home video performance proved successful enough for the studio's TV animation department to produce a short-lived spin-off series calledOzzy and Drix.[citation needed]
The perennially popularLooney Tunes characters made a comeback. The older shorts continued to enjoy constant reruns and compilation specials (and a few compilation films), and newLooney Tunes short features were made in the 1990s. Inspired by the success of Disney'sWho Framed Roger Rabbit and a series ofNike andMcDonald's commercials teaming the characters with basketball superstarMichael Jordan, the studio produced the live-action/animation comboSpace Jam in 1996. The film received mixed reviews but was a major commercial success.[39] However, another 2003 feature,Looney Tunes: Back in Action, was a box-office flop, grossing about three-quarter of its $80 million budget worldwide ($137 million in current terms),[40] but received more positive critical reviews. Other modernLooney Tunes projects were in a different vein. Unlike the original shorts,Taz-Mania (1991-1995) andBaby Looney Tunes (2001-2006) were aimed primarily at young children, whileLoonatics Unleashed (2005-2007) was a controversial revamping of the characters in the distant future.The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (1995-2000) andDuck Dodgers (2003-2005) were very well-received shows and were relatively more faithful to the original shorts.The Looney Tunes Show (2011-2014) was a modern, more adult-oriented sitcom, andWabbit: A Looney Tunes Production (2015-2020) was a modernized series of Bugs Bunny shorts in theLooney Tunes tradition. However, both shows still received a slightly better reception from audiences thanBaby Looney Tunes orLoonatics Unleashed.[citation needed]
Ralph Bakshi, director of ground-breaking animated films likeFritz the Cat and the originalLord of the Rings film, returned to animation after taking a short break in the mid-1980s. In 1985, he teamed up with youngCanadian animatorJohn Kricfalusi to make a hybrid live-action/animated music video forThe Rolling Stones' "Harlem Shuffle", which was released in early 1986.[citation needed]
The music video assembled a production team at Bakshi Animation whose next project was the short-lived TV seriesMighty Mouse: The New Adventures. Bakshi and company worked on several other projects in the late 1980s, but his biggest project, 1992'sCool World, was a critically panned commercial disappointment.[41] In 2005, Bakshi announced that he would begin working on another feature film,Last Days of Coney Island, which he is financing himself and producing independently. Bakshi suspended production on the film in 2008,[42] but resumed in 2013 after a successfulKickstarter campaign.[43] The film was released in 2015.[citation needed]
The major reason for the increase in the quantity of American animation was the ability tooutsource the actual physical animation work to cheaper animation houses in foreign countries. Writing, character design, and storyboarding would be done in American offices. Storyboards, model sheets, and color guides would then be mailed overseas. This would sometimes cause problems; the final product wouldn't be seen until the completed cels were mailed back to the United States.[citation needed]
While budget became much less of an issue, overseas production houses would be chosen on a per-episode, or even per-scene, basis, depending on the amount of money available at that particular moment. This resulted in obviously different levels of quality from episode to episode. This was particularly noticeable in shows likeGargoyles andBatman: The Animated Series, where at times characters would appear wildly off-model, requiring scenes to be redone to the dismay of their directors.[citation needed]
The older Bugs Bunny and Popeye cartoons made way for first-runsyndicated cartoons such asHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe,Rambo: The Force of Freedom,ThunderCats,Dennis the Menace,My Little Pony,The Transformers,G.I. Joe,Voltron, and reruns ofScooby-Doo,Garfield and Friends andThe Pink Panther, among many others.
In 1987,The Walt Disney Company tried its luck at syndication;DuckTales went on the air that September and lasted 100 episodes. The success ofDuckTales paved the way for a second series two years later,Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. The following year, the two shows aired together under the umbrella titleThe Disney Afternoon. In 1991, Disney added another hour; the block aired in syndication until 1999.
These cartoons initially competed with the nationally broadcast ones. In the 1980s, national TV only airedSaturday mornings, not competing with the weekday and Sunday blocks of syndication aired by local independent stations; however, by the 1990s, Fox and then WB started airing weekday afternoon blocks. By the end of the 1990s, both syndicated and national TV ended up losing most of their children's market to the rise ofcable TV channels likeNickelodeon,Disney Channel andCartoon Network, which provided appealing children's entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours.
The late 1980s and 1990s brought enormous changes in the Saturday-morning landscape. By now, the once-prosperousHanna-Barbera Productions was beleaguered by several factors. Other studios' shows broke its dominance over the networks' schedules, and onceThe Smurfs was cancelled by NBC in 1989, Hanna-Barbera had no other hit ongoing series on the air. Additionally, its ability to successfully exploit older characters likeThe Flintstones andScooby-Doo with new shows was coming to an end;Scooby-Doo would end a near-continuous 22-year first-run after its most recent juniorized version,A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, ended its run in 1991. The 1990 theatrical release ofJetsons: The Movie was a success for the fading studio, which earned $20 million ($48.1 million in today's dollars).[44] In 1987,Great American Insurance Company ownerCarl Lindner Jr. became the majority shareholder of Hanna-Barbera's parent company,Taft Broadcasting, renaming it Great American Communications.
Great American wanted out of the entertainment business, and Hanna-Barbera was sold to theTurner Broadcasting System in 1991. Ted Turner had expressed that he mainly wanted ownership of the studio's back catalog; its launch ofCartoon Network on October 1, 1992, provided a new audience for Hanna-Barbera and Warner Brothers cartoons, both old and new.
In 1989, producerTom Ruegger had led an exodus of Hanna-Barbera staffers to restartWarner Bros. Animation. At first, the studio was constantly under threat of closure.[45] However, underFred Seibert's guidance, Hanna-Barbera's new staff (whose ranks includedCraig McCracken,Genndy Tartakovsky,Butch Hartman andSeth MacFarlane) created a new generation of Hanna-Barbera cartoons in the 1990s such as2 Stupid Dogs,Dexter's Laboratory,Johnny Bravo,Cow and Chicken,I Am Weasel andThe Powerpuff Girls. Alongside these Hanna-Barbera cartoons, shows from other companies also premiered on the channel, such asSpace Ghost Coast to Coast,Ed, Edd n Eddy andCourage the Cowardly Dog.
Time Warner acquired Turner in 1996, and thus inherited the rights to all of Hanna-Barbera's creative properties. This allowed Cartoon Network to begin airing all of the classicLooney Tunes shorts as well (previously, Turner had owned only theLooney Tunes shorts produced before August 1948, which had become part of the MGM/UA library).[46] Cartoon Network's success with original programming led them to move the reruns of old Hanna-Barbera andLooney Tunes cartoons to their spin-off channelBoomerang.
In 1997, Fred Seibert left Hanna-Barbera to foundhis studio.[47] In 1998, Hanna-Barbera moved to the same building as Warner Bros. Animation; the use of the Hanna-Barbera name for new productions ended with William Hanna's death in 2001. Hanna and Barbera continued to work as Time Warner employees and consultants until their respective deaths in 2001 and 2006; the name is still used for productions based on properties created during the Hanna-Barbera era.Cartoon Network Studios now handles most original animation for the network.
In 1991,Nickelodeon introducedThe Ren & Stimpy Show as the first of three installments inNicktoons brand.Ren & Stimpy was a wild and offbeat series that violated all the restrictions of Saturday morning cartoons, instead favoring the outrageous style of the shorts from the Golden Age period. The series' creator,John Kricfalusi—aRalph Bakshi protege—was largely influenced by the classic works ofBob Clampett. Despite the show's popularity, it was beset by production delays and censorship battles with Nickelodeon, which fired Kricfalusi in 1992. The show continued under the production of the network-owned Games Animation company until 1996, though many animators departed with Kricfalusi.TNN revived the show ina more risqué form in 2003, with Kricfalusi receiving more creative freedom, but it only lasted six episodes.
From the early 1990s to the late 2000s,Nickelodeon Animation Studio andParamount Animation also gave birth to many other hit animated series such asDoug,Rugrats,Rocko's Modern Life,Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,Hey Arnold!,KaBlam!,The Angry Beavers,The Wild Thornberrys,CatDog,SpongeBob SquarePants,RocketPower,Invader Zim,The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius,The Fairly OddParents,My Life as a Teenage Robot,Danny Phantom, andAvatar: The Last Airbender. Many of these shows spawned successfulmultimedia franchises, most notablyRugrats,SpongeBob SquarePants (both franchises having three theatrical films and TV movies), andAvatar: The Last Airbender (which garnered both asequel series and alive action series).
Disney had hit animated series from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s such asAdventures of the Gummi Bears (1985),DuckTales (1987),Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1989),Darkwing Duck (1991), andGargoyles (1994). These aired on syndication, theDisney Afternoon programming block, and theDisney Channel (at the time a pay-cable channel).
Further successful cartoons appeared in the late 1990s to early 2000s withRecess andPepper Ann(1997),The Weekenders,Teacher's Pet(2000),The Proud Family (2001), andKim Possible (2002) airing on Disney Channel (which switched to basic cable in 1997) andABC'sOne Saturday Morning (later ABC Kids). Around the same time, Disney launchedToon Disney, a channel specifically intended for animation.
Disney continued launching successful cartoon series in the late 2000s to 2020s, such asPhineas and Ferb,Gravity Falls,Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the 2017DuckTales reboot,Big City Greens,Amphibia,The Owl House, andThe Ghost and Molly McGee. Toon Disney rebranded toDisney XD; cartoons continued airing there, as well as on Disney Channel and Disney's streaming platformDisney+.
Throughout the 1990s, the "Big Three" networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) were no longer a three-wayoligopoly. Oncable TV,Cartoon Network,Nickelodeon, andDisney Channel all grew to a point where they were and are still competitive with the broadcast networks around the world. The fledglingFox network launched theirFox Kids programming block on weekdays and Saturdays in 1990, whileThe WB joined the competition with a kids' programming block shortly after the network's 1995 launch.
When NBC compared the success of the live-action youth sitcomSaved by the Bell to the paucity of their animated hits, they stopped airing cartoons in 1992, instead concentrating on live-action teenage shows with their Saturday-morningTNBC block.ABC was purchased by Disney in 1996, and Disney transformed ABC's Saturday schedule into a series of Disney-produced animated cartoons collectively namedOne Saturday Morning.CBS was never able to come up with any new hits once the shows that anchored its late 1980s/early 1990s Saturday morning lineup—Muppet Babies,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,Garfield and Friends, etc.—ran their respective courses. When CBS was purchased byViacom, which also owned Nickelodeon, Viacom repurposed much of theNick Jr. lineup—in addition to adding a Saturday edition of the CBS morning-news programThe Early Show.
As a result of years of activism byAction for Children's Television and others against shows they believed blurred the line between entertainment and advertising, theChildren's Television Act was passed in 1990. It was strictly enforced starting in 1996. TheFederal Communications Commission began requiring three hours a week of educational and informational programs intended explicitly for children, at times when children were awake. Since this required three hours to be "off-limits" to programs aimed at the general public, the networks naturally chose to air them on Saturday morning, when children were already watching. As a result, almost every Saturday-morning network show is required to contain some educational content. Fox and The WB worked around this problem by airing short one-hour weekday children's blocks instead of morning news shows; however, those weekday blocks no longer exist (with the notable exception of PBS, which continues to have large weekday children's programming blocks as of 2010). Nonetheless, there were still a few toy-based children's programs in the 1990s, particularlyPower Rangers andPokémon.
Cable networks were not subject to these—or most other—FCC requirements, which allowed their series to have more leeway with content than network shows. The impact of the new regulations was almost instantaneous: by 1997, Nickelodeon had rocketed past its broadcast competitors to become the most-watched network on Saturday mornings.[48]
The 1990s marked the beginning of a new wave of animated cartoon series, primarily targeted at adults and teenagers, following a decade of little focus on such age groups.
In 1987, "The Simpsons", an animated short cartoon segment ofThe Tracey Ullman Show, debuted.Matt Groening's creation gained its ownhalf-hour series in 1989, the first prime-time animated series sinceThe Flintstones. Although 70 per cent of thefirst episode's animation had to be redone, pushing the series premiere back three months, it became one of the first major hit series for the fledglingFox network.The Simpsons caused a sensation, entering popular culture and gaining wide acclaim for its satirical treatment of American culture, families, society as a whole, and the human condition.
The show has won dozens of awards, including 24Emmy Awards, 26Annie Awards and twoPeabody Awards.Time magazine's December 31, 1999 issue named it the 20th century's best television series; it had also named characterBart Simpson inTime 100: The Most Important People of the Century, being the only fictional character to appear on the list.[49]The Simpsons Movie grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide.[50] On February 26, 2009, Fox renewedThe Simpsons for an additional two years, "...which will secure its place as TV's longest-running prime-time series."[51] Its 21st season began on September 27, 2009, breaking the 20-season record it once shared withGunsmoke.[51]
The success ofThe Simpsons led Fox to develop other animated series aimed at adults, includingBob's Burgers (created byLoren Bouchard),King of the Hill (created byMike Judge),Futurama (also by Groening),Family Guy,American Dad! andThe Cleveland Show (all created bySeth MacFarlane).King of the Hill was an instant success, running 13 seasons. BothFuturama andFamily Guy were cancelled by the network; after strong DVD sales and ratings in re-runs, both returned to the air—Family Guy on Fox, andFuturama on Comedy Central, nowHulu.[52] On March 20, 2019, Disneyacquired21st Century Fox, which integrated20th Century Fox Television intoWalt Disney Television as part ofDisney Television Studios[53] In December 2020, Disney announced that20th Television Animation would be relaunched as a standalone unit from the live-action studio.[54]
In 1989, a festival of animation shorts, organized by Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble (known as "Spike & Mike") and originally based inSan Diego, began showcasing a collection of short subject animated films. Known as theClassic Festival of Animation, it played in theatrical and non-theatrical venues across the country.
The collections were largely made up of Oscar-nominated shorts, student work from theCalifornia Institute of the Arts, and experimental work funded by theNational Film Board of Canada. Early festivals included work byJohn Lasseter,Nick Park,Mike Judge, andCraig McCracken. Judge's piece,Frog Baseball, marked the first appearance of his dimwitted trademark charactersBeavis and Butt-head. McCracken's shortThe Whoopass Girls in A Sticky Situation featured the introduction of the trio of little girl superheroes that would later gain popularity under their new moniker,The Powerpuff Girls.
The festival gradually became a program of films calledSpike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, an underground movement for adult humor and subject matter.
In 1994, the American cable television networkCartoon Network approved a new series entitledSpace Ghost: Coast to Coast. In a particularly postmodern twist, this show featured live-action celebrity interviews mixed with animation from the originalSpace Ghost cartoon. It was the beginning of the now common practice of using old Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters for new edgier productions, such as the surrealisticSealab 2021, based on the short-lived early 1970s environmentally themed cartoonSealab 2020.Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law was about a lackluster superhero, Birdman—originally the star ofBirdman and the Galaxy Trio—who has become a lawyer. His clientele, as well as most of the other characters on the show, are made up entirely of old Hanna-Barbera characters.
Adult Swim, a scheduling block of adult-oriented cartoons appearing on Cartoon Network beginning after primetime, premiered in 2001. Originally limited to Sunday nights, as of 2018, Adult Swim remains on the air every night until 6:00 a.m. Eastern time. Animated series produced exclusively for Adult Swim includeThe Brak Show,Aqua Teen Hunger Force,Sealab 2021,Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law,Squidbillies,The Venture Bros.,Perfect Hair Forever,Stroker and Hoop,Tom Goes to the Mayor,Robot Chicken,Rick and Morty,Metalocalypse andSmiling Friends. In addition to American animation, Adult Swim also runs popularanime series such asCowboy Bebop,Ghost in the Shell,Eureka Seven, theFullmetal Alchemist series,Bleach, andMy Hero Academia.
Other TV networks also experimented with adult-oriented animation.MTV produced several successful animated series especially for its adolescent and young adult audience, includingLiquid Television,The Brothers Grunt,Æon Flux,Beavis and Butt-head (and its spin-offDaria),The Maxx,Cartoon Sushi andCelebrity Deathmatch. They would continue experimenting with animated series into the early 2000s with shows such asClone High,Spy Groove, and3-South. Their original animated programming slowed to a halt by the end of the decade.USA Network'sDuckman, starring the voice ofJason Alexander, found a cult following.Premium cable also experimented with original animated series, such asSpawn.
Another successful adult-oriented animated series wasTrey Parker andMatt Stone'sSouth Park, which saw its beginnings in 1995 with the short cartoonThe Spirit of Christmas. LikeThe Simpsons,Beavis and Butt-Head andSouth Park were given the big-screen treatment asBeavis and Butt-Head Do America andSouth Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut both of which met with box office success.
CartoonistBill Plympton transitioned from print to animation in the late 1980s and has continued to make adult-oriented shorts.Don Hertzfeldt began in animation in the 1990s and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2001 forRejected.
Feature-length films likeCool World andBebe's Kids helped establish a market for adult animation films.
The 1990s saw major growth in the use ofcomputer-generated imagery to enhance both animated sequences and live-action special effects, allowing elaborate computer-animated sequences to dominate both. This new form of animation soon dominatedHollywoodspecial effects; the filmsTerminator 2: Judgment Day andJurassic Park includedOscar-winning special effects sequences which made extensive use of CGI. After decades of existing as related but separate industries, the barrier between "animation" and "special effects" was shattered by the popularization of computerized special effects, to the point where computer-enhancement of Hollywood feature films became second-nature and often went unnoticed. TheAcademy Award-winningForrest Gump (1994) depended heavily on computerized special effects to create the illusion ofTom Hanks shaking hands with PresidentsJohn F. Kennedy andLyndon B. Johnson, and to makeGary Sinise convincingly appear to be a double amputee, winning a special-effects Oscar. The filmTitanic used computer effects in nearly every scene of its three-hour run time; one of the film's 11 Oscars was for visual effects.
While Disney made the filmTron—which extensively mixed live-action, traditional animation, and CGI in 1982, and introduced theCAPS system to enhance traditional animation in 1990'sThe Rescuers Down Under, a completely computer-animated feature film had yet to be made. In 1995, Disney partnered withPixar to produceToy Story, the first computer-animated movie. The film's success was so massive that other studios looked into producing their ownCGI animated films. Computer-animated films turned out to be wildly popular, and animated films returned the highestgross margins (around 52%) of all film genres in the 2004-2013 timeframe.[55]
Computer animation also made inroads into television. The Saturday morning animated seriesReBoot won a large cult following among adults; it was the first of several CGI animated series, includingBeast Wars,War Planets, andRoughnecks. The quality of the computer animation improved considerably with each successive series. Many live-action TV series (especiallyscience fiction TV series such asBabylon 5) invested heavily in CGI production, creating a heretofore-unavailable level of special effects for a relatively low price.
The most popular and successful competitor in the CGI race.Pixar originated in 1979 whenGeorge Lucas’Lucasfilm was able to recruitEdwin Catmull from theNew York Institute of Technology to start the Graphics Group of its special-effects division. In late 1983, Catmull was able to bring in as a freelance independent contractor a Disney animator,John Lasseter, not long after Lasseter (then unbeknownst to Catmull) had been fired by theWalt Disney Company for his vigorous advocacy of computer animation; Lasseter was hired as a full-time employee about a year later.
Lucas experienced cash flow issues after his 1983 divorce, and in 1986, Pixar was spun off from Lucasfilm as a separate corporation with $10 million in capital fromApple Computer co-founderSteve Jobs. At that time, Pixar primarily developed computer animation hardware, but Lasseter helped the company make a name for itself by creating acclaimed CGI short films such asThe Adventures of André and Wally B. (1984). After the spin-off, he would go on to produceTin Toy (1988), which won anOscar. The company transitioned into TV commercial production and projects such as theComputer Animation Production System for Disney. After the success ofTin Toy, Pixar made a deal with Disney to produce feature films. The first of these films, 1995’sToy Story, was a smash hit, which in turn led to additional successful films such asA Bug's Life andToy Story 2. By then, Jobs had become the owner of Pixar by keeping it alive with additional investments over the years; he had often considered selling it, but changed his mind afterToy Story.
Pixar’s string of critical and box-office successes continued withMonsters, Inc.,Finding Nemo,The Incredibles,Cars,Ratatouille,WALL-E,Up andToy Story 3 all receiving rave reviews, earning huge profits, winning awards, and overshadowing Disney’s in-house offerings untilCars 2 in 2011 ended the streak when it proved a critical disappointment, albeit still a commercial success. Disney produced a CGI/live-action feature film of its own without Pixar (Dinosaur), but the film received a mixed reaction, despite its financial success. During the later years of Michael Eisner’s management, friction between Disney and Pixar grew to the point where Pixar considered finding another partner when they could not reach an agreement over profit sharing.[56] When Eisner stepped down in 2005, his replacement,Robert Iger, arranged for Disney to buy Pixar in a $7.4 billion all-stock deal ($11.9 billion in today’s dollars) that turned Steve Jobs into Disney’s largest individual shareholder.[57] The deal was structured so that Disney Animation and Pixar Animation would continue to operate as completely separate studios under the Disney corporate umbrella; Lasseter was placed in charge of greenlighting all-new animated films for both studios in his new role as Chief Creative Officer, a position he had held for 12 years.
WhenJeffrey Katzenberg left Disney to become a co-partner of Steven Spielberg andDavid Geffen in the new studioDreamWorks Pictures, the studio naturally became interested in animation. Its first film, ‘’Antz‘’, did not do as well as the Disney-Pixar releases but was a critical success. However, DreamWorks succeeded in its partnership with the Britishstop motion animation studioAardman Animations with ‘’Chicken Run‘’ in 2000, and later the Oscar-winning ‘’Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit‘’ in 2005.
Furthermore, DreamWorks finally had success in 2001 with thecomputer-animated feature film ‘’Shrek‘’, a gigantic box-office hit that overpowered Disney’s summer release for that year, ‘’Atlantis‘’. After winning the firstAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature, ‘‘Shrek’’ established DreamWorks as Pixar’s first major competitor in CGI animation. DreamWorks’ commercial success continued with three ‘‘Shrek’’ sequels, ‘’Shark Tale‘’, ‘’Madagascar‘’, ‘’Over the Hedge‘’, ‘’Kung Fu Panda‘’, ‘’How to Train Your Dragon‘’, ‘’Megamind‘’, ‘’The Croods‘’, ‘’The Boss Baby‘’ and ‘’Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken‘’. DreamWorks Animation eventually became a separate company from its parent; it is now owned byUniversal Studios through its parent companyNBCUniversal/Comcast as of 2024.
In 2003, noting the growing success of studios that relied on computer animation, includingPixar,Blue Sky Studios, andDreamWorks Animation, Walt Disney Feature Animation announced it would be converted into a CGI studio.[citation needed]
Two years later, ‘’Chicken Little‘’, the first fully computer-animated film from the studio, was released to moderate success at the box office and mixed critical reception. On January 24, 2006, Disney announced that it would be acquiringPixar (the deal successfully closed that May),Eller, Claudia (January 26, 2006)."Deal Ends Quarrel Over Pixar Sequels".Los Angeles Times. RetrievedFebruary 21, 2013. and as part of the acquisition, executivesEdwin Catmull andJohn Lasseter assumed control of Walt Disney Feature Animation asPresident andChief Creative Officer, respectively."Disney buying Pixar for $7.4 billion".NBC News. AP. January 1, 2006. RetrievedFebruary 28, 2013. Lasseter later acknowledged that there had been discussions back in 2006 about closing Feature Animation as redundant since Disney now owned Pixar, which he and Catmull flatly rejected (“Not on our watch. We will never allow that to happen.”); they resolved to try to save Walt Disney’s creative legacy by bringing his animation studio “back up to the creative level it had to be”.Barnes, Brooks (March 4, 2014)."At Disney, a Celebration That Was a Long Time Coming".New York Times. RetrievedApril 5, 2014.Wloszczyna, Susan (October 31, 2012)."'Wreck-It Ralph' is a Disney animation game-changer".USA Today. RetrievedApril 5, 2014.
To maintain the separateness of Disney and Pixar (even though they share common ownership and senior management), it was outlined that each studio remains solely responsible for its own projects and is not allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other.Bell, Chris (April 5, 2014)."Pixar's Ed Catmull: interview".The Daily Telegraph. RetrievedApril 5, 2014.Zahed, Ramin (April 2, 2012)."An Interview with Disney/Pixar President Dr. Ed Catmull".Animation Magazine. RetrievedApril 5, 2014.
In 2007, the studio released ‘’Meet the Robinsons‘’, which experienced a poor response at the box office despite the lukewarm critical and audience reception. The following film, 2008’s ‘’Bolt‘’, had the best critical reception of any Disney animated feature since ‘‘Lilo & Stitch’’, and became a moderate success, receiving an Academy Award nomination. An adaptation of theBrothers Grimm‘s “Rapunzel” tale entitled ‘’Tangled’’ was released in 2010, earning $591 million in worldwide box office revenue, and signified a return by the studio to fairytale-based features common in the traditional animation era. This trend was followed in 2013’s global blockbuster hit ‘’Frozen‘’, a film inspired byHans Christian Andersen‘s ‘’The Snow Queen’’ tale, which released to widespread acclaim and was the first Disney animated film to earn over $1 billion in worldwide box office revenueBarnes, Brooks (March 4, 2014)."At Disney, a Celebration That Was a Long Time Coming".The New York Times. RetrievedMarch 5, 2014.Zuckerman, Esther (November 4, 2013)."Is 'Frozen' a New, Bona Fide Disney Classic?".The Atlantic Wire. RetrievedDecember 20, 2013."Box Office Milestone: 'Frozen' Crosses $1 Billion Worldwide".The Hollywood Reporter. RetrievedMarch 2, 2014. surpassing Pixar’s ‘‘Toy Story 3’’. ‘‘Frozen’’ also became the first film from Walt Disney Animation Studios to win theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.Richwine, Lisa."Disney's 'Frozen' wins animated feature Oscar".Reuters. RetrievedMarch 3, 2014. They also had critical and commercial success with Oscar winners ‘’Big Hero 6‘’, ‘’Zootopia‘’ and ‘’Encanto‘’ alongside (following in Pixar’s footsteps) their own animated shorts ‘’Feast‘’ and ‘’Paperman‘’; the latter was shown before ‘’Wreck-It Ralph‘’.
Other studios attempted to enter the CGI game. After Don Bluth left20th Century Fox Animation in 2001, the company released its first fully computer-animated feature, a hugely successful CGI-animated feature in early 2002 entitled ‘’Ice Age‘’, as the first full-length feature film underBlue Sky Studios. In 2001,Paramount offered ‘’Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius‘’,TWC offered ‘’Hoodwinked!‘’ in 2005, and Columbia produced ‘’Open Season‘’ in 2006.Warner Brothers had a major success in 2006 with the Oscar-winning film, ‘’Happy Feet‘’, whileSony produced films underSony Pictures Animation including ‘’Open Season‘’ in 2006, ‘’Surf’s Up‘’ in 2007, and the successful film franchises ‘’Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs‘’ and ‘’Hotel Transylvania‘’ which began in 2009 and 2012, respectively.Universal Studios attempted several times to become a viable participant in the market, finally achieving the goal in 2010 with ‘’Despicable Me‘’, the first feature film fromIllumination Entertainment, which provided more hits for them within the following decade. In 2013, Dallas, Texas–basedReel FX released their first feature filmFree Birds, which was a moderate success, a year later, they released ‘’The Book of Life‘’ which was a huge success and was nominated for a golden globe for best animated feature.
Despite all its success, computer animation still relies on cartoon and stylized characters. 2001 saw the first attempt to create a fully animated world using photorealistic human actors in ‘’Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within‘’, which met with moderate critical success but did not succeed at the box office.
In 2004, the live-action film ‘’Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow‘’ was released. It was notable for being filmed entirely in front of abluescreen, with the background being completely computer-generated; only the actors and some props were real.Robert Zemeckis’ film ‘’The Polar Express‘’, starringTom Hanks in five roles, was a completely CGI-animated film but usedperformance capture technology to animate the characters. Zemeckis followed ‘‘The Polar Express’’ with two other motion capture films: ‘’Beowulf‘’ andDisney’s ‘‘A Christmas Carol’’.
The use of CGI special effects in live-action film increased to the point whereGeorge Lucas considered his 2002 film ‘’Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones‘’ to be primarily an animated film that used real-life actors. A growing number of family-oriented films began to use entirely computer-generated characters that interacted on the screen with live-action counterparts, such as Jar-Jar Binks in ‘’Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace‘’,Gollum in ‘’The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers‘’ and the title character of ‘’Hulk‘’. While computer-generated characters have become acceptable to moviegoers, there have yet to be any fully animated films featuring virtual human actors, or “synthespians”.
The late 1990s saw the rise ofFlash animation—animated films created using theAdobe Flash animation software—produced in the U.S. and elsewhere, and distributed through theInternet.Waldron, Rick (November 20, 2000)."The Flash History".Flash Magazine. Archived fromthe original on August 2, 2018. RetrievedApril 1, 2008.
Some popular Flash animated cartoons include ‘’Joe Cartoons‘’, ‘’Weebl and Bob‘’, ‘’Happy Tree Friends‘’, ‘’Homestar Runner‘’, the ‘‘Brackenwood’’ series, ‘’Making Fiends‘’ and ‘’Salad Fingers‘’.
Historically, despite the continuation of the Best Animated Short Subject category, animated films seldom received much recognition from theAcademy Awards for anything other than musical scores and songs. The unprecedented nomination of Disney’s ‘’Beauty and the Beast‘’ for Best Picture and five other awards changed things, even though it won two Oscars for its song and score while ‘’Toy Story‘’ became the animated film forBest Original Screenplay. Animation had become so widely accepted by the beginning of the 21st century that, in 2001, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences introduced a newAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature.
The three contenders for the award were: ‘’Shrek‘’, by DreamWorks, ‘’Monsters, Inc.‘’, by Disney/Pixar, and ‘’Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius‘’, by Nickelodeon and Paramount. The award that year went to ‘‘Shrek’’. Films passed up that year included the acclaimed adult-oriented film ‘’Waking Life‘’ and the photorealistic CGI film ‘’Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within‘’.
Hayao Miyazaki‘s critically acclaimed ‘’Spirited Away’’ won the Oscar in 2002. Disney/Pixar’s ‘’Finding Nemo‘’ received the 2003 award, defeating nominees ‘’The Triplets of Belleville‘’ and ‘‘Brother Bear’’. Since then, Pixar has won the most awards in this category with the current exceptions being ‘’Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit‘’ in 2005, ‘’Happy Feet‘’ in 2006, ‘’Rango‘’ in 2011, ‘’Frozen‘’ in 2013, ‘’Big Hero 6‘’ in 2014, ‘’Zootopia‘’ in 2016, ‘’Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘’ in 2018, ‘’Encanto‘’ in 2021, ‘’Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio‘’ in 2022, ‘’The Boy and the Heron‘’ in 2023 and ‘’Flow‘’ in 2024.
In 2013, the March 7 issue of ‘’The Hollywood Reporter‘’ magazine published the ballots of eight different Oscar voters in the Academy.Feinberg, Scott (February 26, 2014)."Oscar Voter Reveals Brutally Honest Ballot".The Hollywood Reporter. RetrievedJanuary 22, 2015. Of those eight, four voters abstained in the Best Animated Feature category due to inadequate knowledge of the subject. They admitted to not having seen all of the nominations, with one person stating “that ended when I was 6.” Such disregard for animated films by the voters themselves is often criticized by American animators, who claim that “Hollywood doesn’t care or know the first thing about animated films.”Amidi, Amid (March 3, 2014)."Definitive Proof That Academy Voters Are Ignorant About Animation".Cartoon Brew. Cartoon Brew, LLC. RetrievedJanuary 22, 2015.
TheAnnie Awards are presented each February by the Hollywood branch of theInternational Animated Film Association for achievements in the fields of film and television animation in the United States. Originally formed in 1972 to celebrate lifetime contributions to the various fields within animation, the awards started to honor animation as a whole, including current offerings.
Seven animated features, ‘’The Little Mermaid‘’ (1989), ‘’Beauty and the Beast‘’ (1991), ‘’The Nightmare Before Christmas‘’ (1993), ‘’The Lion King‘’ (1994), ‘’Toy Story‘’ (1995), ‘’Shrek‘’ (2001) and ‘’WALL-E‘’ (2008) plus two animated shorts from Pixar ‘’Luxo Jr.‘’ (1986) and ‘’Tin Toy‘’ (1988), were each inducted into theNational Film Registry.Brief Descriptions and Expanded Essays|Film Registry|Library of CongressNational Film Registry: ’Apollo 13’, ‘Home Alone’, ‘Terminator 2’, ’12 Years A Slave’ Among 25 Titles Added This Year - DeadlineToy Story Added to National Film Registry|Animation World Network
Studio Ghibli‘s ‘’Spirited Away’’ (2001) and four Pixar films (2003’s ‘’Finding Nemo‘’, 2007’s ‘’Ratatouille‘’, 2008’s ‘’WALL-E‘’ and 2015’s ‘’Inside Out‘’) were included onBBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century poll.100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century: BBC Surveys Global Critics|IndieWire
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