Why I hate Disney

If you were used to watching Manga movies you may remember the old intro that those movies used to have:



It still gives me a boner...
And that is in essence why I hate Disney. If you look at this trailer that was made sometime in the late eighties, early nineties, you still get a sense of how awesome these Manga (japanese animated movies/series) are. Their understanding of animation is just a medium with which they can tell any fantastical story. Their genre isn't limited in any way which is why they still appeal to me today. I have watched my share of Manga's and though I'm far from being an expert on the issue I know what they are capable of.
This trailer made me always think as a teenager "wow, someday soon people in the West will understand the power of animation and begin a wave of awesome movies". Now, a decade later I look back and see that it never happened. Stories that couldn't have been told with a film because they were simply too fantastical were no problem for animated films. Animation gives you the ultimate freedom of telling a story. Now that the special effects (cgi) have reached a decent level, that becomes the solution. James Cameron told an interviewer that he waited for many years (10 years I believe it was) to make Avatar because the "technology" wasn't in place to make such a movie at the time. My point is, with animation it could have been done. That is what the Japanese realized a long time ago but still hasn't caught on here.

Our tradition with animation has been left to Disney. And they own everything that is related to animation (ok almost everything). The only genre we (in the West) still understand animation to be is - kids/comedy. Sure you have adults going to see these Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks movies, but they are made for kids (because then you cater to the full spectrum of age which equals more dineros). Animation is in such considered kid's stuff - and that just makes me mad. Plus, to me it doesn't get creepier than an adult telling me how much they just looooove the Lion King and have watched it more than 10 times... (get chills).
Sure, in the last few years these movies have had their humor sometimes more geared for adults and you see gentle first steps with subjects that are not the most common as stories for children.
But we are still sooooo far away from the possible mind-blowing awesomeness that could be achieved. For some time it was my goal to become an animator for that very reason.

That's why that old intro got so many memories flowing back.