Following the success of the live-action adaptations of animated classic films like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “Cinderella,” Disney quickly took advantage of this by making more live-action versions. However, over the past few years, Disney has received a lot of negative feedback regarding its decision.

But at one point, after the huge success of the original “Toy Story” movie, according to John Musker, who directed many Disney animated films like “The Great Mouse Detective,” “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Hercules,” “The Princess and the Frog,” and “Moana,” and was speaking with El Pais to promote his new short film, “I’m Hip” at the Animayo International Summit in Gran Canaria, Spain, revealed that Disney executives had considered remaking their 2D animated films into 3D.

“After Toy Story, they proposed that we convert all the classic films into digital animation. I told them I’d commit harikari first”.

Even before the creation of “Toy Story”, digital graphics were being used in some movies like “The Lion King” and “Beauty And The Beast”, but those still maintained the look of the hand-drawn 2D animation style. 

Almost thirty years later, it’s hard for younger animated films to imagine the impact “Toy Story” had when it came out, since up until that point, every movie and show was in 2D.    The film revolutionised animation and set it onto a different path, especially visually, as Disney rarely releases 2D animated movies, such as “The Princess And The Frog” and, most recently, “Wish”.   

While the original “Toy Story” is one of the greatest animated films ever, now, almost thirty years later, you can see how the visual effects are much more dated than you might notice with hand-drawn animation

Roger’s Take:  Thankfully, Disney didn’t decide to carry out this plan, and I’m really hoping no executives at Disney see John’s comments and get the wrong idea from it, since, no doubt, I’m sure it’s been brought up on many occasions, as it would likely be a much easier sell within Hollywood for a 3D animated version of “The Jungle Book” or “Sleeping Beauty”, to reach the next generation.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually happened, but I doubt it’s on the cards for a few more decades.

Would you like to see 3D versions of Disney’s classic animated movies?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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