A Degree in Animation is a Degree in Absolutely Everything

To be honest, when I first found out about the Digital Arts program at my university, I thought it might have been just all fun and games in a really laid back industry. After all, how could the entertainment industry truly be difficult? All you are doing is making things that make people happy! In some respects, I was right; animation is indeed fun. Though, for the most part, I was dead wrong.

I find that when I tell people I am in school studying animation they have one of two reactions; either they react like my Fantasyland attractions trainers at work last week with a shocked and excited look and start yelling out a thousand questions about animation with a, “Wow! Oh wow! How cool! You can draw then? Do you want to work at the studios??” or they react like most people at my school when they see me wandering around on main campus with my animation table. They think it’s useless and pointless and the easy way out (and I’ve been blatantly been told by a random girl I should major in something ‘practical’ like business).

Last week famous Disney producer, Don Hahn (who produced such films like Beauty and the Beast, Who Framed Rogger Rabbit?, and The Lion King) came to our school to speak. He brought up an interesting point that I can’t really stop thinking about. He said that animation, in its entirety, is the highest form of art. It’s the culmination of every aspect of being human.

The Disney Princesses have just sung their last song. Is this the end of a legacy?

Here’s a little bit of Disney movie trivia for you. Did you know that every single Disney Princess has sung an “I Want” song? It’s true. Each princess has had an elaborate animated musical number singing about her deepest hopes and desires. Still don’t believe me?

• Ariel wanted to be human in “Part of Your World”
• Aurora sang to herself in “I Wonder” when she realized everyone has a ‘someone’ but her
• Pocahontas debated which course she should take in her life in “Just Around the Riverbend”
• Tiana establishes that all she wants is her restaurant in “I’m Almost There”
• Snow White famously sang to her critter friends about her hope of love in “Some Day My Prince Will Come”

The list goes on and on, and if you think about it, even Simba has an “I Want” song (“I Just Can’t Wait to be King” anyone?). But why would I be bringing all of this up (aside from the fact I am a little bit too obsessed with Disney)? Well, because in case you haven’t heard, the royal line of Disney Princesses have just sung their last “I Want” song. Disney has decided to silence them.

Pencil or Wacom tablet? That is the question.

The class started out as predictable as all of the others I had taken at college. It was normal, except for the woman in the bright red kimono in the back of the room. She didn’t look like an undergraduate student and was seemingly out of place in her glaring red attire. I looked around the room at my peers and I seemed to be the only person who was actually surprised by her wardrobe choice. Our professor entered the room and motioned for the woman in the kimono to come up to the front. And the thing that happened next still shocks me to this day–she dropped her kimono. I was pretty sure Intro to Animation wasn’t a nude figure drawing class, but apparently I read the course description wrong. I quickly averted my eyes in a mix of horror and embarrassment. I couldn’t believe it. Why was I here? Wasn’t this supposed to be a Digital Arts class? What did this have to do with animation?

At the time, I was no artist. I had never taken fine arts class before. And in all honesty, there was a reason…