Disney draws back from computer age

Funny business: New blockbuster uses old techniques but runs into very modern controversies

The opening of the latest Walt Disney blockbuster, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is being seen in the film industry as a successful riposte by the world's leading animation studio to the hi-tech cinematics now challenging its supremacy.

Disney appears convinced there is still a market for traditional animation, despite the success of Toy Story, with its 3D computer-generated images.

Yet even Disney has a finger on the software pulse. It agrees that its animation techniques are responding to technological innovation. A spokesman for Buena Vista International, Walt Disney's distributing subsidiary, says that for some time now computer effects had been used in their animated features.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame opens across the country tomorrow, but the wonders of computer wizardry are already widespread. The stampede scene in The Lion King, released in Britain two years ago, was computer-generated, and there are numerous examples in the more recent film, Pocahontas. Even five years ago, the techniques were used in Beauty and the Beast.

"Fifty years ago computers weren't around, but they're now involved in all kind of films. Movies have just moved with the times," Buena Vista's spokesman said. "Computers let you do things that maybe you wouldn't have done otherwise. There's a need to make films more spectacular and they allow you to do that. It is pretty magical stuff that you wouldn't have seen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Many film characters, however, are still sketched out by hand, and computers are unlikely to take over completely. "With The Hunchback of Notre Dame it's very much a mixture," he said. "If you use computers for everything, it is more expensive."

The all-round computer approach has been seen in blockbusters where budgets have concentrated on special effects rather than on the cast.

"When you see a pounds 70m movie with a B-list cast, the money is going on computer effects." Ironically, the latest British success is based on the lowest-tech special effect of all: Plasticine. Michael Rose, head of development for Aardman Animations, creators of the award-winning Wallace and Gromit films, said his company was sticking to Plasticine for their first major film project that is now underway and intended for worldwide distribution.

"We're making a traditional model-animated film in the style that we've always used with Wallace and Gromit," said Mr Rose. "In general, the success of any animated film is entirely down to the originality of the idea and originality of the script. I don't think it's a question of either/or.

"Whether you use computer-generated images as in Toy Story or model animation as we do, it's just a technique ... The nice thing about Plasticine is you can see the thumbprints and all ... We like that. You can never get that feeling with computers. But we do use computers in post-production."

Mr Rose agreed with Disney about the expense of high-tech. "Toy Story cost about $40 million. Hi-tech is neither very cheap nor expensive. Computers aren't necessarily cheaper."

He said he did not think animation would die out altogether. "It's been around since the invention of cinema, and it is a wonderfully concise and expressive medium. You can do things with animation that you can't necessarily do with live action. You can tell stories in a way that is quite different and quite magical. I don't think that will ever be replaced."

Review, Section Two