Pinocchio vs. The Princess and the Frog: Animation

I’ve watched these two movies recently and I noticed a couple differences in animation quality and detail. First of all, Pinocchio (P) was made in 1940 and The Princess and the Frog (F) was made in 2009. So obviously, there’s going to be alot of technical differences. P was made mostly on paper and primitive frame-by-frame drawing. F was made probably on Toon Boon with a mix of Wacom tablets and a bit on paper. I believe backgrounds for both films were painted, probably digitally for F.

Despite this, it appeared to me that human characters had alot less detail in F, and the detail they did have was more subtle. This gave it an overall flat look that I didn’t like. I’d rather the faces have more hard lines than just be flat one-dimensional pieces. P’s characters were more cartoonish, hence more detailed. I also liked the hair better in P (with the exception of the fairy.) I’m not totally in love with the soft glows in F on characters, but it can grow on me. I wish it was situated more based on face structure rather just on the outlines. Also, Tiana’s mom seemed to age REALLY well, but then again this is a children’s movie, so I’m not expecting ‘accuracy’. They obviously wanted to romanticize her parents.

Further, I looked at objects. This was harder to do for F because it was a very character-driven story. P has lots of objects and the animators spent time on each frame with Gepetto’s clocks and music boxes to make them look perfect. Most of the objects in F were inanimate, so they were painted. Look at the roof of the clock and the little doors (moving parts.) You can barely tell a difference. This is very advanced for it’s time. This isn’t consistent throughout P though. There are flaws as the film progresses, but the clocks and music boxes are really magical to me. Especially since there’s so many! They only stay on the screen for 3 seconds at a time. Further down you can see the boat in F. I believe it’s digitally painted and it does move a bit. Once again pretty much flawless integration with the background. I couldn’t find a screenshot but a scene in Mama Odie’s house where she throws something against the wall, it’s very easy to see that the wall is separate from the moving part that’s being through because of the MUCH thicker lines on the animated object. Although – overall, they do very well.

Animal Characters are hard to judge, since each one is often designed and detailed to the extent of it’s importance in the movie. I thought the alligator in F had a fabulous personality but the design was poor and uninspired. Many people said it looks like the Peter Pan Gator. The villainous felines in P have an interesting appeal, although not my favorite anthropomorphic realization.  For animals, detail is added through texture by creating irregular outlines (where hair or wrinkles or joints are). Also, look at Figaro’s ear hairs – they look painted on, and probably are. One thing I didn’t like about F is the use of gradients. I like gradients sometimes, but not paired with thick outlines.

This post is just my opinions and immediate observations. I didn’t plan on doing this, but I watched the movies close together and noticed the differences. Anyway, if you read this entire post and feel like you wasted 5 minutes of your life, here’s something to cheer you up:

When You Wish Upon A Star – Pinocchio Soundtrack