Good News/Bad News: The Last 2D Animators at Disney are Doing Projection Mapping for Walt Disney World

The Good News: Legendary Disney animators Mark Henn (Tiana, Jasmine, etc.), Eric Goldberg (Genie, Phil, etc.), and Randy Haycock (adult Simba , young Hercules, etc.), are animating characters from Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Moana, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, etc. USING THE CLASSIC, HAND-DRAWN METHOD for an upcoming Walt Disney World show, Happily Ever After, scheduled to debut May 12.

Besides the usual fireworks and pyrotechnics, Happily Ever After will feature the now de rigueur projection mapping on Cinderella’s Castle – only it will be done in glorious hand-drawn animation! What a wonderful way to keep kids aware of this now pretty-much-extinct Disney tradition!



The Bad News: Disney is wasting these legends on temporary theme park shows, when they could be using them to train a brand new generation of animators in the fine art of hand-drawn animation! Traditions like this MUST be passed down from one generation to the next, or else the intricacies and subtleties of the art form will be lost. Textbooks and video tutorials can only capture a fraction of the knowledge that these ‘old Masters’ have to share. It would be a shame if this knowledge died with them.

GIFs: Tiana animated by Mark Henn, Ursula animated by Eric Goldberg, Aladdin + Jafar animated by Randy Haycock