Dr. Toon: 2D or Not 2D

With this year's arrival of The Princess and the Frog, Martin Goodman assesses the current CG landscape to ascertain the significance of Disney's highly anticipated 2D return.

The movies have been subject to as much advancement over the years as any other form of media. The first static efforts in the late 1890s gave way to ever-sophisticated changes in techniques such as cuts, fades, zooms and POV shots, devices that we now take for granted. There is a popular myth concerning the famed silent film The Great Train Robbery (1903); audiences allegedly fled the theaters in fear, believing that they were seeing an actual robbery and trains coming directly towards them. While this is untrue, there was a scene at the end of the film in which a nasty desperado fires a pistol directly into the camera. This always seemed to get at least a few patrons ducking cinematic bullets in their seats. After that, filmmakers vied to wow their audiences through the use of spectacular fx and fancy camerawork.

Animation first appeared in the late 1890s and amazed audiences with moving pictures that were drawn by hand. People saw popular comic strips come to life, as well as some original characters that made an indelible impact on the culture itself. Seminal animator Winsor McCay averred that audiences, upon seeing his short How a Mosquito Operates (1912) believed that McCay was manipulating puppets with wires. Although this is highly doubtful, moviegoers were eventually treated to genuine magic such as synchronized sound in 1928 and full Technicolor by 1933, raising the stakes for future artisans.

To be sure, there have been misfires. 3-D movies (aside from a few early experiments) existed at least since 1922, but it was not until the early 1950s that the technique made its way into American theaters in wide release. Observers in the local movie houses reported patrons shying away from objects "thrust" at them, ducking "flying" projectiles and attempting to grab or get their hands behind objects that seemed to float in the air before them. While 3D was a nifty perceptual trick, it did little or nothing to advance the actual art of filmmaking; it was a novelty rather than a progression in cinematic language and representation. In fact, 3D stilted films by purposely setting up shots that emphasized technique over narrative and acting performance.

Computer-generated imagery was a true advancement. By all accounts, CGI first appeared in a mainstream film in 1973 when raster effects were used in the film Westworld. Early wireframe techniques soon followed, but most of the general public was not overtly aware of CGI until the 1982 Disney film Tron. Roughly 15 minutes of full computer animation was featured, and everyone who attended the film realized at some level that a revolution was underway. It was merely a matter of time, training and technological advancement until CGI became a major component in world cinema. Technicians, software engineers, film studios and even some visionary critics secretly wondered how soon a film might be composed of nothing but computer-generated images.

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