It’s a strange realisation — there’s now a whole generation that never grew up watching traditional 2D Disney animation. They didn’t hit pause on a DVD and watch Ariel’s hair glitch in mid-flow or see Aladdin freeze with half a smirk. That slightly imperfect, hand-drawn charm is what once made Disney a household name, and now, after more than a decade, it might just be making a comeback.
Last fall, Jennifer Lee handed over creative reins to Zootopia (2016) and Encanto (2021) co-director Jared Bush, who stepped in as chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios — a role widely regarded as the most influential job in animation today. And while he’s steering Disney into the future with upcoming releases, Bush also has one eye firmly on the past.
“I love 2D,” Bush said at the Annecy animation festival, adding with a wink, “Right now we have 2D artists who are doing some bonkers amazing things. I’ll leave it at that.”
If there was ever a signal that Disney’s hand-drawn roots might return to the big screen, this is it. The last fully 2D Disney movie — 2011’s Winnie the Pooh — was brilliant but underseen. Now, Bush has even brought Ron Clements, the director behind The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, out of retirement to mentor the next wave of animators.
“Our movies have to be giant movies. That’s the kind of movies I love.” Bush said. “I want to go and eat a giant bucket of popcorn and be entertained. And I want to go through all the emotions. I want to feel a deep connection. I want to cry, I want to laugh, I want to be excited,” But that doesn’t mean everything has to be photoreal or hyper-rendered. Sometimes, the purest emotions are best served with a pencil and paper.
Bush’s approach blends ambition with storytelling integrity. He said calls the audience smart, saying, “If they feel they’re just getting different for different’s sake, versus it’s a filmmaker’s vision or that story needs to be another step, that’s critical.” What Disney seems to be chasing now is something that feels both fresh and familiar — not just a throwback, but a revival with purpose.
In the world of ever-advancing CGI and AI-assisted production, bringing back 2D is radical. But maybe that’s what Disney magic needs right now: a return to the strokes that started it all.
