I kind of wish disney’s ~weird period~ had lasted longer. Like all of a sudden we were getting these films like lilo & stitch and Atlantis and the emperor’s new groove and treasure planet and they were so fun and DIFFERENT. Just thinking about what the pitches for those movies had to have been like is so surreal?? A little blue criminal alien crash lands on a Hawaiian island and gets adopted by two sisters dealing with social services that teach him about the value of family. An Inca emperor gets turned into a llama and john goodman helps him get back to his palace and one of the bad guys talks to squirrels. Treasure island but in SPACE. Like, on the surface, the premise for these films seem so random but they all TOTALLY WORKED IN REALLY GREAT WAYS??? idk I just really miss that early 2000s spark of offbeat creativity in Disney’s timeline.
Okay but the history behind this is so interesting?
All these movies came from the Florida studio, which for a long time was a backup animation studio that did work the main Burbank studio didn’t have time for.
Then in 1996 Disney decided to focus all their energy on transitioning to 3D animation. They acquired Pixar and started working on A Bug’s Life.
They basically told the Florida studio (their only remaining full-time 2D animation studio) – “Eeeeeeh, do what you want.”
And the Florida studio, for the first time, got to produce feature films:
Mulan (1998)[27]
Tarzan (1999)[28]
John Henry (2000)[29]
The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)[30]
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)[31]
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Brother Bear (2003)
Then in 2004 Disney decided to stop producing 2-D feature films altogether. They closed down the Florida studio and laid off all the Florida Studio animators.
Many of whom then got hired by Dreamworks.
That. Explains. Everything.
Can we appreciate that 6/7 of the movies made by the Florida studio had non-white leads? Throughout the history of Disney, only 12 animated feature films (13 if you include Moana) have had people of color in leading roles. In the Florida office’s short time producing films, they produced about half of the Disney animated movies with leads of color.
