Werner Werman recruitment poster
Last night I had a dream that Studio MDHR (the studio that made Cuphead) had created a fantasy stage musical that I would describe as “Alice in Candyland”.
The main thing I remember is that the villain was the king of “candyland”, who had a box of candy for a head, worn as a costume, with a projected animated face not unlike some Disney animatronics. Not only that, but the costume was able to transform into things like clocks and Humpty Dumpty, and the character flew around the stage (which went around the room at 180 degrees) on a wire as he sang.
There was also a character who was a dog with an ottoman for a head, an a permanently grumpy face.
Anybody who thinks you can’t have a successful career as an old school cartoonist is woefully unaware of two wildly successful franchises, which are proof that audiences are still very much keen on older cartoon styles: Cuphead and Bendy and the Ink Machine. There’s also a lot of excitement being generated about Disney’s Legend of The Three Caballeros, which uses a 1940s style of drawing.
But most of all, if you don’t think an old school cartoonist can make it these days, then you don’t realize that a CG animated movie still requires people who can draw in 2D extremely well to design the characters and environments. A movie like Zootopia started out with two-dimensional concept drawings and model sheets.