Coyote gently discarding the catapult that launched him into a cliff. When film after film failed to connect with an audience, even people who were deeply committed to the art of animation began to doubt the viability of the feature-length cartoon.Īfter the indifferent performance of “Heidi’s Song” (1982), Hanna-Barbera quietly shelved plans for a series of theatrical features, like Wile E. The live-action films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg had usurped both the family audience and the fantastic worlds that had once been Walt Disney’s exclusive domains. In 1982-83, the total domestic gross for “Rabbit Tales,” “Fantastic Island,” “Fire and Ice” and “Twice Upon a Time” was less than $2 million. The animated feature was really close to extinction.”Ī spate of artistic and financial disasters in the early ‘80s that included “Hey Good Lookin,’ ” “Twice Upon a Time,” “Fire and Ice,” “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back,)” “1001 Rabbit Tales” and “Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island” had given animation a reputation as box office poison. There wasn’t a lot of money to be made in animated films and there wasn’t a lot of interest in them. “When we left Disney in September of ‘79, feature animation wasn’t doing very well,” says John Pomeroy, a former Disney animator who is now a partner in the Ireland-based Sullivan Bluth Inc., which made “An American Tail” and “The Land Before Time.” “I think ’81 or ’82 was the low point for the entire industry. The magic of classical animation had been diluted and degraded by Saturday morning cartoons, and the the costs of labor-intensive cel painting raised animated features into the high-risk category for studios and investors. Special effects was the marvel of the ‘80s, and the legacy of “Star Wars.” What kids wanted to see were optical illusions- laser swords, animatronic aliens, computer-generated pyrotechnics and strange worlds inhabited by real people. Few films were being made, few young artists were studying animation and few people seemed to care very much whether they were made or not. Ten years ago-even five years ago-the art of film animation appeared to be going the way of 3-D.
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