Dream on Silly Dreamer (2005) Online

Dream on Silly Dreamer... Since the beginning of civilization the artist has had a tenuous relationship with business. At some point every item in every room in your house has been touched by an artist. Business needs artists and artists need to eat. In Dan Lund's film "Dream on Silly Dreamer" he brilliantly illustrates this point by interviewing artists who have partnered with managers in the cartoon animation business. Dan has focused a bright light on the need for the artist to stay one step ahead of those business partners who have their grip on the rug he stands on to do his art. When Disney Feature Animation decided that it no longer wanted to do hand drawn "2D" films the rug was pulled out from under several hundred artist. The inner feelings of some of those artists that were laid off in 2003 are exposed in Dan's film. From shock, sadness, anger, and bewilderment, the film pulls you into their world and you will be wiser for having watched them share their feelings. Dorse A. Lanpher

For those interested in the history of animation, one of the most riveting chapters was the decline in popularity and success of hand-drawn animation coincided with the rising tide of computer-generated animated films helped with heavy box office receipts, critical acclaim, and earning notable accolades that was once bestowed on the former a decade earlier. The most major and renowned western animation studio to be affected by this turn of events was Walt Disney Feature Animation.

The documentary plays on one of the Disney trends of opening the film with a storybook to help convey the idealized and magical dream of becoming an animator for the Walt Disney Studios. Unfortunately, it reveals to be the opposite. For a movie with a runtime of 40 minutes, the film covers approximately twenty years of Disney feature animation history in a brisk and understandable pace with such events as the relocation of the animation division to Glendale, California, the new leadership team of Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the late Frank Wells, and the revitalization of theatrical Disney animated films during the early 1990s.

Suddenly, the dream goes dark with Katzenberg's brutal departure followed by an exodus of animators to DreamWorks Animation succeeded by the expansion of direct-to-video sequels and the influx of corporate executives into the animation division that stifled creativity, declined employee morale, and tarnished the Disney brand. The animators who remain allegiant to Disney themselves get expensive.

The interviewees are refreshingly not well-known names outside of lead animator Andreas Deja. They are just animators who were employed or recently laid off from Walt Disney Feature Animation. Because of this, it is easier to relate with their experience of working for a company where your work is rewarded, where you work overtime to finish certain tasks, and worry about staying employed in a fragile job market where layoffs and corporate cutbacks are on the horizon.

The sketchbook drawings that detail the events were simplistic at best. However, there is much left to be desired that was touched on, but not discussed in depth such as what notable factors helped make computer-animated films more popular and successful than the traditionally animated ones. How would the animators have confronted issues in their department if they had the upper hand instead of the corporate executives?

It would have been nice if it waited a few more years to see how the cards unfold, and hear the other side of the story from the former animation studio chiefs such as Peter Schneider, Thomas Schumacher, and David Stainton. Nevertheless, by the time the film was being filmed, the writing was on the wall that computer animated films would maintain its place in the theaters while new hand-drawn animation media would fade to television and direct-to-video films.

Directed by Dan Lund (himself a visual effects animator), this is a noble and insightful look at the rise and decline of the Disney feature animation studios though it falls somewhat short in its coverage. If you are interested in viewing the film, you can purchase the film online for less than two dollars.

This is a fascinating and informative documentary on the inner workings of one of the most powerful Animation Companies in the world. It is also some what of a tragedy, showing how The Disney Renaissance came to a sad end and the people who were affected by it. If you are a hardcore Disney fan I don't know if you will like it. Since it paints the Company in a negative light. As a Disney fan I enjoyed it because it offered a clear view of what really goes on behind the scenes of our favorite childhood films. It also made me quite mad.

Here are a few facts about the film.

-This documentary was made on a shoe string budget. So if your looking for great shots of Disneyland, or Disney Studios, or other fancy stuff you are not gonna get it. This is a bare bones talking heads documentary.

-This is a unauthorized Documentary. Which means that the Walt Disney Company had no involvement. So if your expecting Disney Executives or Disney Family members to show up it ain't happening.

• Its pretty clear that every animator that was interviewed for this Documentary just wanted to keep their jobs and keep on animating. Just a sad situation overall.

I saw this at comic con 2006.

This is a good (but not great) doc about the demise of Disney's traditional 2D animation division.

Lots of sketchbook art given simple animation ( I expected better- especially since its all about how there's a lot of unemployed animators now).

Why not one good clean shot of the house hat animation building?

There's a drawing of it and a shot of some fireworks near it...

is it still there?

what would the cartoonists have preferred?

no interviews with Walts relatives?

No examples of fine 2D vs 3D? I understand about copyrighted images- but aren't you allowed to use short sample of copyrighted stuff for criticism and review?

I was hired at Disney as a lead (which I never asked for) and negotiating was like talking to children , like it was Disney and you should work for nothing. Finally they hire me, then one of the people who has been there for years starts whining he wants the lead, , "Do you have a problem with that " the producer says, I say "No, I think Im just as good a follow up , fine". Well it turns out that lead is emotionally insecure and not only doesn't want my help but are afraid that you might be good. He condemns me to 8 months doing nothing. Zero!

In an accidental self outing he says "There are these two great artists coming on from Pocahontas who are really good, we have to make sure they don't get any good scenes" Suddenly realizing I'm in the room he says "Oh but I doesn't mean you". What follows is a fun festival of stuff that doesn't work till they hire someone named Brian Stiff to clean up his work and make it stiff. It was like having your drawings RAPED! Gutting anything artistic! I quit the character and went on to do some of the best work I had ever done on another character in the film.

I am a very dynamic worker, I have run entire productions by myself and still do. Sitting for 8 solid months doing nothing was like sheer torture. I spent those month bored out of my head. Other Disney artists were horribly jealous because I got hired , straight as a lead and I was making decent money without doing the time. The system is made to be self hating as Walt planned to use one artists in competition but this was whining.

If I wandered the studio to see what they were doing they were angry I was not happy doing nothing and called me a "whiner " for not being happy that I was just hired by Disney. They would insult anyone who wasn't crazy about doing crowd scenes. Which is hilarious because by the time I was near he end of my 8 months in solitary at Disney I was stealing crowd scenes off other peoples desks and letting them claim the footage. Still, the group of them couldn't believe the audacity of this person entering Disney as lead.

I did this scene for this other lead on his character. he said "Wow, now I know why they hired you!". I said "Thanks , I liked doing them I'd love to do more ! " Suddenly this lead wheels around and says "SHUT UP! WE ARE TIRED OF HEARING YOU WHINE! ". The psychotic atmosphere at Disney was hard to believe but it was real. Underneath any pleasantry is this absurd fear that someone wants your job. People were angry and bitter That's why he flipped out, having done good job they thought I wanted this character now.

This kind of nonsense is endless there. Little cliques that kiss each others behinds until they back stab each other. A lead from Pocahontas wrote he most horrible work report for his best friend. His best friend cornered him in his office and made him change that report.

Ironically the directors offered me the lead on two other characters in the film and I said "No!". I had been bullied enough! I am good enough knew I could be a powerful secondary I told them a friend wanted those leads and they gave them to the very artist that had been betrayed by the Pocahontas lead, and he did terrific. For that I will always be grateful.

So how do I feel about Dreamer ? I feel no empathy whatsoever with a dream so small. I wanted to be an animator, not just a Disney animator. There are hordes of artists who want to be Milt Kahl or Ollie Johnson. Why ? Be yourself, do your own stuff. Disney was not magical, it was the collective that was magical. Without it it is just another dead place. Dumbo was not a greatly animated film but it was my favorite. The world will not miss another Disney princess. They long ago stopped leading. Move on like the tens of millions of Americans that got replaced by the slave countries.