“…In recent years, ever-more-sophisticated computer-generated animation has become the norm for animated films, supplanting the hand-drawn style associated with scores of Disney classics. In 2004, after a string of box-office disappointments — including ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire,’ ‘Treasure Planet’ and ‘Home on the Range’ — Disney abandoned the painstaking art form it had popularized. Executives felt audiences preferred the new 3-D computer animation.

“Pixar Animation’s creative guru, John Lasseter, who had been trained by longtime Disney animators, worked to revive the 2-D tradition when he assumed oversight of Disney Animation Studios following the 2006 acquisition of Pixar. Animation veterans say contemporary viewers — who are accustomed to watching simply drawn cartoons like Disney’s ‘Phineas and Ferb’ on TV, lushly animated classics like ‘Cinderella’ on DVD and more stylized computer-rendered offerings like ‘Up’ in theaters — are indifferent to the filmmaker’s visual style.”