He basically didn't see a reason to reinvent the wheel.

He's not the only one to utilize the reuse of animation, but he's best known for it. These Disney films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s can trace their recycled animation primarily back to one director–Woolie Reitherman. But there are lots of well-known examples, including 'The Aristocats' reusing scenes from '101 Dalmations,' and 'Robin Hood' stealing scenes-and even parallel characters-from 'The Jungle Book' (Ever notice how similar Little John and Baloo are?) and other Disney films. The practice of reusing scenes continued, with 'The Sword in the Stone' and 'The Jungle Book' in particular snagging lots of scenes from previous Disney projects. He was focused more on the big picture and not so concerned with the technical processes of the animators. According to Floyd Norman, Walt Disney himself probably never even knew or noticed that animators were recycling scenes. The main reason was purportedly to save time and money. That's when Disney really got started with resuing animation. 'Dumbo' was a success, but then WWII hit. 'Snow White' was a surprise box office hit, but follow-up films 'Pinocchio,' 'Bambi,' and 'Fantasia' went way over budget and were considered losses for the studio. This video by Cartoon Hangovers shares various recycled Disney scenes and explains why they were reused, showing how it all began with animators tracing over live footage of real actors to create more realistic animation in Disney's first full-length feature film, 'Snow White.'Įvery Recycled Disney Shot & Why - Snow White, Frozen, Toy Story, Moana and More - Cartoon Hangover youtu.beĭespite the eventual mega-success of the Disney empire, the company's beginnings were not so rosy. We're looking back to the 1960s and 70s when people weren't thinking how films would change, how media would change, and how people would be able to look at these various films and compare one film against another.' It would've been easier to just sit down and animate a new scene than to go back and try to retrofit all this old stuff to something new. Although I don't think it saved much time and I don't think it saved much money because it was much more of a hassle to go dig this old footage out of the archive. 'It was done probably to save time, save money. Floyd Norman, a veteran Disney animator who has worked on Disney films as far back as Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and as recently as Mulan and Toy Story 2, weighed in on the reason for reusing animation sequences, saying: But how? And why?ĭisney has actually been recycling its animation for various movie scenes since it created Dumbo in 1941.

Watching that 'Jungle Book' and 'Winnie the Pooh' sequence, there's no denying it's exactly the same animation template, just with different backgrounds and characters.

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