Hand Drawn Animation in 3D

[Jimmy Smith]

In response to recent reports that The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast getting 3D Blu-Ray releases in 2011 I have to wonder how 3D will work for hand drawn animated movies. Computer animation exists in a 3D computer space which makes it easy for a stereoscopic 3D version created by re-rendering the original digital files at a slightly different angle. Even life action conversions even if a 3D version is digitally created from 2D video files the conversion artist is basing the added depth on the depth the real world inheritly has. The same can't be said for hand drawn animtion. Hand Drawn animation, an artform over 100 years old now, are simply flat drawings on flat paper and have no existing depth other then the depth the viewer imagines. Which makes it seem like an artform not suited for stereoscopic 3D. Ive never seen a hand drawn movie in 3D before. I will await the conversions of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King with interest at the same time I see no reason to hold off on the 2D version of Beauty and the Beast and have low expectations for converting this artform to 3D.