Animation take-off

CGI animation films like The Incredibles are soaring to the dizzy heights of Hollywood stardom.

16:10 07 December 2004

The recent success of The Incredibles in the box office and the news this week that Shrek 2 has been nominated for no less than six People's Choice awards is an indication of just quite how successful the new CGI-animated genre has become.

Mega-money spinning hits like the superhuman family The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and the Shrek franchise have cast the relatively fledgling genre into the glitzy limelight of the Hollywood big-time.

Almost all the leading Hollywood studios have now signed up to the growing market, from the obvious choices like Disney and Pixar to the more mainstream studios such as Warner Bros and Stephen Spielberg's DreamWorks.

According to media researchers Screen Digest, the phenomenon is still largely the preserve of the United States, but films such as Belleville Rendezvous suggest that European animators are not lying down without a fight.

The animation scene was pioneered by Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, but slumped in terms of box office success in the late 80s and early 90s. However, it appears to be making a comeback.

2-D hits like Aladdin, The Lion King and Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away have put up a valiant fight, but it is in the now fully realised CGI animation features that the future of cinematic animation appears to lie.