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Shifted to CGI - TV Tropes

  • ️Thu Jun 29 2017

Shifted to CGI (trope)

In the 2000s traditionally-animated works fell out of fashion due to blockbuster hits like the Pixar films and Shrek along with the simplicity of animating in CGI compared to traditional animation. While 2D style animation is popular in France and Japan (though many use CG elements occasionally, and CGI cartoons are also prominent) and amongst televised cartoons (though they're usually produced through digital animation programs like Adobe Flash or Toon Boom), All CGI Cartoons have been rising in popularity over the years, and Western-produced traditionally-animated theatrical films are rare. Thus many series that used to be done in traditional animation have changed to being CGI over the years.

Naturally, this is highly controversial amongst long-time fans and animation buffs. Many people will invariably complain whenever a franchise switches to CGI.

Compare to the Video Game 3D Leap for a video game counterpart where games went from mostly sprites to 3D models.

Examples:

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Advertising 

  • Zig-zagged with the Energizer Bunny, the American mascot for Energizer Batteries. From 1989 to the early 2000s, the Bunny was a remote-controlled model that ran on the batteries it was advertising. This proved difficult for the company during filming due to how much power the model consumed (40 batteries, all in the drum of the model, were used to power it). In the early 2000's, the Bunny was animated in CGI as part of Energizer's "Do You Have the Bunny Inside?" campaign, in which he would dance inside an Energizer battery. After the campaign ended in the mid-2000's, the remote-controlled model of the Bunny was brought back for commercials. As of the 2010's, the Bunny is animated in full CGI, with an Art Evolution happening in 2016.
  • The end card of commercials for the American carpeting company Empire Today featuring their famous Phone Number Jingle was hand-animated from 1984 to 2004 before becoming computer animated starting in 2005.
  • The mascot to Kid Cuisine has switched to being CGI animated.
  • M&M's commercials were traditionally animated since 1962. In 1994, one year before the first Toy Story movie hit theaters, the M&M's started to appear in CGI, partially so they could interact with real people, and have been depicted as such ever since.
  • In 1998 Tony the Tiger, the mascot of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (Frosties in some countries) cereal, switched from being traditionally animated to being CGI for a while. He was switched back after it was decided he looked better traditionally animated. In the 2010s they revived the concept though.
  • This would eventually happen to fellow Kellogg's cereal brand, Froot Loops in 2013, with the commercials from that point onwards switching to to fully being CGI animated, with Toucan Sam later being switched to full CGI on Froot Loops boxes later on that year.
    • Surprisingly, despite the commercials switching to being full CGI, Toucan Sam remained as a 2D shaded character on Froot Loops boxes from some international countries (like Germany, South Africa, Philippines, Australia (until later switching to CGI Toucan Sam in about the early-2020s) and the Latin Americas, until some Latin American countries started to ban mascots from sugary cereals starting later in the 2010s, which saw Toucan Sam removed from some Latin American Froot Loops boxes as a result).
  • UK-exclusive Kellogg's brand, Coco Pops mainly used traditional animation in its commercials until fully rebooting to be CGI animated in 2011.
  • Chuck E. Cheese was originally human-sized and 2D animated in commercials, but in July 2012 he was given a 3D redesign and changed to the size of a normal rodent.

Anime 

Asian Animation 

  • Balala the Fairies started out as a live action series, then switched to traditional animation, then back to live action for The Mystery Note, then switched to traditional animation again, and then switched to CGI from Ocean Magic Season 2 on.
  • The Pleasant Goat Fun Class season Mighty Goat Squad is the first season of that series, and the larger Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf series it's based on, to be animated in CGI.

Films — Animation 

  • Most of A. Film's 90's and early 2000's movies were 2D, but starting by 2004 they shifted mostly to CGI (pic related in fact, as they're responsible for all Asterix animated movies). Interestingly enough, however, they are still commissioned for 2D animation for other projects; The Red Turtle is a notable recent example.
  • DreamWorks Animation is an entire studio that made the shift. Most of their early hits like The Prince of Egypt and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron were Disney-esque and traditionally animated. With the success of Shrek they stopped making traditionally animated films and refuse to make them anymore. DreamWorks is often considered the reason for the "death" of traditionally animated films in the early 2000s. Notably, however, this wasn't a straight shift: their very first movie released, Antz, was CGI, which was followed by the aforementioned 2D animated movies before the infamous disregard of 2D animation altogether.
  • Disney Animated Canon:
  • Blue Sky Studios' The Peanuts Movie was the first CGI Peanuts adaptation, and was done in a non-traditional style that resembles the old TV specials (I.E animating on irregular intervals like two's), although it's also an early example of Painted CGI, as it also uses 2D elements in Imagine Spot moments, as well as for Pigpens' dustmites, and other miselleneous effects, so as to reference the old comic strips.
  • After eight traditionally animated films since 1967, Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods (2014) was the first Animated Adaptation of the Asterix comics that was entirely made in CGI.
  • Heathcliff: Bad Kitty was an attempt at doing this. It was an All-CGI Cartoon direct-to-video movie about Heathcliff meant to introduce him to newer audiences. It featured Frank Welker (who voices rival Garfield in The Garfield Show) as the voice of Heathcliff. The idea, however, fell through the water. There was a TV show meant to go with the film however it was to be Flash animated, not CG, but that also never came to be.
  • The first three of The Swan Princess films were all traditionally animated. After a Sequel Gap of 14 years, the series was inexplicably revived with The Swan Princess Christmas in 2012. It is completely CGI and features a new voice cast.
  • The traditionally animated Hungarian film Vuk the Little Fox got a 3D CGI sequel called The Fox's Tale several decades later. The poor animation was one of the many reasons the sequel was universally disliked.
  • The two Disney Peter Pan films are traditionally animated while the spinoff series Disney Fairies is CGI.
  • The first Monster High DTV film, as well as early webtoons, were animated in Flash. Starting with the second film, the series shifted to CGI.
  • The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run; while the first SpongeBob movie was 2D animation with live-action portions and Sponge Out of Water has a part near the end that has the characters shift to CGI, Sponge on the Run is fully CGI-animated.
  • Postman Pat had a theatrical movie that was animated in CGI, while the television series was stop-motion. Let's just say that it wasn't as good as the TV series.
  • The Happy Heroes movie series started to utilize CGI in 2022 with the third movie Happy Heroes: The Stones, the previous movies instead being in 2D like the Happy Friends show. To an extent, it shifted back to 2D in the fourth movie, Happy Heroes Multiverse Rescue; while the environments are 3D, the characters are 2D.
  • My Little Pony: A New Generation, a Distant Sequel to the 2D-animated My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, is rendered in detailed 3D animation.
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022): In-Universe, 2D toons can go through a CGI lift to look more modern, like Dale did, and/or in order to be cast into a live-action remake like Baloo did.

Web Animation 

  • The original AstroLOLogy shorts were done in Flash while the later prototypes and final products are in CGI.

Western Animation 

Other 

  • Many topical diagram-like illustrations in various newer nonfiction works, such as cutouts of buildings, will nowadays often be shown in CGI.