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The hyper realistic style is actually limiting the animators, rather than freeing them. The style makes it much harder to have memorable character designs and good expressions. Real lions don’t need to do things like emote in a way that humans can understand – but characters in a film do. The original movie was more cartoony not due to animation limitations of the time, but because that style genuinely serves the story better.

To show you what I mean, compare these two shots of Simba, from right after Scar says “run away and never return.”

Here is a clear reaction, with a strong beat for us to connect with before the character makes a decision. Even without any dialogue, even without any context, you can understand the emotion there just by the expression and the mannerisms. Is it realistic? No! He’s bright yellow and has eyebrows. But do we empathize with him? Yes!

Meanwhile, here is… a lion. Turning and running. No expression, no beats, no character moments, nothing. He actually can’t express himself because the animators are locked into the realistic style. If they tried to animate a strong expression as warranted for the scene, it would look terrible. Is it realistic? Hell yeah! Look at those textures! Look at that fur! But do we empathize with him? …nah. Not really.

To conclude: when you’re retelling Hamlet with a bunch of animated lions, cartoonish-ness is your friend, not your enemy.

one of the most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen– and easily one of the most realistic in terms of CGI animals– is Guardians of Ga’hoole

now I’m not gonna get into how the movie was adapted or how certain changes may or may not have affected the story/characters, I’m only talking aesthetic and style here

and y’know what this highly realistic style does?

it delivers scenes like this

realism doesn’t just make this scene look real– it punches you in the goddamn gut with the color, framing, and intense zoom-in

and what about the characters? do they show any real emotion?

look at these expressions– these microexpressions! I bet you can easily name every expression here w/o even knowing the context of the scenes! and the realism is absolutely critical here– from the slight pulse of contracting pupils, to a twitch of the cheek. realism shines best in the subtle details

the people animating Ga’hoole clearly had a clear, vibrant vision which they were passionate to deliver. they knew how to bend light and color to grip the audience, they knew how to map gorgeous landscapes and feathered bodies alike, and most importantly they knew where to emphasize owl body language vs. where to emphasize anthropomorphic body language

realism isn’t failing these stories– Disney is 

Disney doesn’t fucking care about these stories. if they did, then we’d be getting more Ga’hoole-esque realism– it’s not like they don’t have the budget for it compared to other studios. they rly don’t have any excuse beyond apathy, b/c ppl are gonna shill out to see any movie Disney’s name is attached to, no matter how shit

“My wife got sick. She was constantly nervous because of problems at work, personal life, her failures and problems with children. She has lost 30 pounds and weighed about 90 pounds in her 35 years. She got very skinny, and was constantly crying. She was not a happy woman. She had suffered from continuing headaches, heart pain and jammed nerves in her back and ribs. She did not sleep well, falling asleep only in the morning and got tired very quickly during the day. Our relationship was on the verge of break up. Her beauty was leaving her somewhere, she had bags under her eyes, she was poking her head, and stopped taking care of herself. She refused to shoot the films and rejected any role. I lost hope and thought that we’ll get divorced soon…But then I decided to act on it. After all I’ve got the most beautiful woman on the earth. She is the idol of more than half of men and women on earth, and I was the one allowed to fall asleep next to her and to hug her shoulders.I began to pamper her with flowers, kisses and compliments. I surprised her and pleased her every minute. I gave her lots of gifts and lived just for her. I spoke in public only about her. I incorporated all themes in her direction. I praised her in front of her own and our mutual friends.You won’t believe it, but she blossomed. She became even better than before. She gained weight, was no longer nervous and she loved me even more than ever. I had no clue that she CAN love that much.And then I realized one thing: The woman is the reflection of her man.If you love her to the point of madness, she will become it.“