If there’s one film company that everyone’s heard of, that’s The Walt Disney Company. Since its inception in 1923, Disney has been breaking new ground in the American animation industry. Disney broke out into the world of feature film animation in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But despite being groundbreaking at the time, the method of animation used for classic Disney films has become outdated. While Disney is most known for some of their classic 2D animations like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, Disney's last 2D animated films were The Princess & The Frog, released in 2009, and Winnie the Pooh in 2011.

While this departure from hand-drawn 2D animation seemed like the end of an era for some Disney fans — who might, in fact, still want Disney's next movie to be 2D — others were glad to see a total switch to 3D, moving on to make hits like Tangled, Moana, and the ever-beloved Frozen, Disney found their stride in 3D animations, winning multiple awards with their new techniques. So, why exactly did Disney stop making 2D animated movies? Many may think that it simply came down to money, but there are a number of reasons for Disney to change directions, one being simply moving with the times and staying on top of technological advancement. Here are just a few reasons why Disney stepped away from 2D animation.

Update December 1, 2023: This article has been updated following the release of Wish to feature more reasons why Disney shifted away from 2D animated films and what the future holds for the company.

3D Animated Films Are More Profitable

Disney’s first 3D animated film Toy Story was exceedingly profitable upon release, especially compared to Pocahontas and A Goofy Movie, all of which were released the same year. Disney experimented with 3D animation after this point, alongside Pixar, and found that 3D films were more successful, drew more audiences and had the technological aspect to appreciate.

Related: Explained: Disney's Different Animated Eras & The Best Movie to Watch in Each

Pixar films, along with competition from DreamWorks Shrek series and Blue Sky Animation's Ice Age, were drawing big box office numbers while traditional hand-drawn animated films like Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Home on the Range were major box office bombs. It appeared audiences' tastes had shifted from 2D hand-drawn animated movies to CGI animated.

Since Disney has shifted to 3D CGI animated films, their movie box office has skyrocketed. Tangled massively outperformed Princess and the Frog and Frozen became Walt Disney Animation Studios' first film to gross $1 billion at the box office. Zootopia, Big Hero 6, and Moana were also box office smash hits that showed why Disney invested in the new format.

2D Animation Became a Scapegoat

Disney announced it was shifting from 2D to 3D computer animation after the box office disappointment of Home on the Range. The following two films, Chicken Little and Meet the Robinson, were computer-animated movies, and the long-in-development Rapanzuel movie, which would later become Tangled, was shifted to a CGI animated film.

The poor box office performance of animated films like Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire was blamed on being 2D animated films as opposed to other factors like poor marketing and the film's stories. Both those films, as well as many of the other 2D animated films of the era were following the massive wave of success from the Disney Renaissance. While that era was profitable and influential, it also established a formula that audiences grew tired of. The box office performance of the following films had less to do with the medium in which they were told, instead, they were following one of the most influential waves in animated history and sticking close to the formula. Audiences wanted something different.

Related: Disney in the '60s and '70s: The Most Underrated Years

Meanwhile, 3D animated films like Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Shrek, Ice Age, and Madagascar were hits not because they were computer-animated but because they offered something new to audiences. Not just in terms of technology but in the type of stories they were telling. Pixar was becoming more emotionally mature, while DreamWorks embraced a comedic style aimed at older audiences. Yet all Disney saw was the simplest and most basic equation: 2D films flop, 3D films do well, so we need to make more 2D animated films.

Live-Action Remakes

Something that cannot be overlooked is that Disney has been repackaging their classic animated films into live-action movies. So far they have not touched the computer-animated films, but that will soon change with the live-action Moana. Instead, they have used live-action as a way to revive many of their classic 2D animated property that serve two goals. It allows them to cash in on nostalgia from older fans who remember the originals and now are old enough to have kids and want to share it with them while also introducing the stories to foreign markets that did not have access to the original 2D animated film.

Related: Wish Review: An Emotionally Satisfying Love Letter to 100 Years of Disney Magic

There also comes with the live-action remake craze a sort of backhanded that these movies are "real" and meant for a wider audience, which has the unintended consequence of putting the original animated classics as for kids. It feels like they see the live-action remakes as four-quadrant films while the animated movies, both the 2D classics and new 3D films, as just for kids. At a time when filmmakers are highlighting animation as cinema and an art form more than a genre, it does feel weird of Disney to be disregarding this.

Will Disney Ever Do A 2D Animated Film Again?

Asha from Disney's Wish, voiced by Ariana DeBose, wearing a dangling earring with her hair braided and falling to the side, with several princesses and other Disney characters behind her, such as Moana, Jasmine, and Rapunzel. 
Disney

For Disney's 100th anniversary, the studio released Wish. The film was a blend of computer-animated characters into watercolor-painted environment backdrops, a marriage of the old 2D animated ways with the recent 3D craze. While many fans would have wanted to see the film for the studio's 100th anniversary and see a return to the classic format, it was more appropriate to have the film represent the company's wider history.

Disney has been open to the idea of revisiting hand-drawn 2D animation, although the current plans for Frozen 3 and 4 with Zootopia 2 also on the way rule that out in the immediate future. Yet there is always a chance the studio might make a big creative swing. With the company having faced a difficult year in 2023 with many high-profile flops, the studio could be at a major turning point where they need to innovate. With so many films pushing the boundaries of computer animation with films like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, a return to 2D animation might help Disney stand out once more.

Watch our interview with Wish producer Peter Del Vecho and Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones.