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Description

As I’m sure Illumination’s patently aggressive advertising has told you the new Mario movie is finally out, and me being me it was something of an obligation that I do something for it. Especially since I was also about to hit my hundredth post here on DeviantArt. It took a little while for the right inspiration to strike but I eventually found my idea while browsing the film’s TvTropes page, which referred several times to the changes in Peach’s cinematic design as being Disney like or ‘Disneyeqsue’. To which I say what version?

Presumably that TvTropes writer was thinking of Disney Animation’s more recent CGI animated princess fare, what’s called the ‘Disney Revival’. I tend to disagree personally; Film Peach’s proportions are still a lot more exaggerated than say Elsa’s but the statement got the creative gears in me turning. Because while there’s a lot of reference in online spaces to a ‘Disney Style’ the truth is Disney Animation Studio has gone through a lot of stylistic changes over the century it’s been active, usually sorted into seven distinct eras. So I thought it’d be a fun project to imagine what Princess Peach would have looked like if she had been first created as a Disney Princess in five of them.

The History of Disney cinematic animation begins with the first traditionally animated film in history, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which sparked the Disney Golden Age. (1937-1942) Back then the traditional poufy ballgown look hadn’t developed yet, looser skirts were in vogue. Human characters, especially one’s meant to be conventionally attractive like Snow White or the Blue Fairy relied heavily on rotoscoping, the process of tracing over life action footage in animation. Rotoscoping can be divisive but without its use in the 1930s realistic classical animation would have never existed. Another staple of the Golden Age is the use of traditional art tools like pastels to add texture and a near complete lack of sharp edges.

The Golden Age lasted for five years until the Second World War cut Disney off from most of their lucrative foreign market, the rest of the forties is sometimes called the Wartime Era. (1943-1949) and consisted entirely of package films and anthologies such as Melody Time and Fun and Fancy Free. However, with the war over and Disney’s animation staff’s talents improving the 1950s saw the dawn of the Silver Age (1950-1959) By then though reference models were still used, the raw artistry of the animation staff particularly Disney’s Nine Old Men was at their peak. These men had been animating full time for thirty years at this point and it showed. As far as the Princesses, here began the classic ballgown look. Faces and proportions are more stylised with long hands, tiny waists and more angles to match those curves. This is the look that would go on to define the princess archetype that works for the rest of the 20th century would take inspiration from, including of course Nintendo when designing their famous princesses in the 1980s.

This level of art was unable to last however. The final film of the Silver Age 1959’s Sleeping Beauty ended up nearly bankrupting the studio and Walt Disney nearly closed the department down (The company by now doing far more than only animation) Disney animation studios was forced to downgrade which coupled by the death of Disney himself in the late 60s began the First Dark Age or the Bronze Age (1960-1988). This was the longest era of the company’s history, and was mostly defined by long production times and the retiring of The Nine Old Men. There were of course in hindsight some very good films made in this period but the overall the company was stagnating. There were several CEOs during this period none of which had much in the way of grand goals other than maintaining the stasis quo.

That changed in 1984 when with the involvement of Disney’s nephew Roy jr a trio of outsiders was brought in to head the company for the first time, CEO Michael Eisner, President Frank Wells and chairman and head of motion pictures Jeffrey Katzenberg. Eisner, Wells and Katzenberg early reign saw massive shakeups and upscaling. That coupled with the maturation of The Old Men’s protegees such as Glen Keane and James Baxter ushered in the start of the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999), still today one of studio’s most beloved and profitable eras. Renaissance came in wide variety of races and cultures, though the western ones kept the ballgown as their formal look. There was also a much greater variety in emotions and expressions than past eras. Disney Princesses were now allowed to geek out about things (Ariel) Rebel against their traditional roles (Jasmine) and even on occasion dress in drag, (Mulan) bathe nude with several men (Mulan) and kill hundreds of people (Mulan’s a weird movie). I find it fitting that this Peach came out closest to her usual look, as much of the real character’s design and traits were solidified during this time period in the mid to late 1990s.

The Renaissance came at a time in the United States were monopoly laws were laxing and the major media empires we see today got their shape, including Disney which saw several acquisitions during this period such as the ABC network. In was in this changing face of American media that was planted the seeds of the next era, The Second Dark Age or Post Renaissance (2000-2009) perhaps Disney animations most diverse era in terms of output. After Frank Wells died in 1994 Katzenberg and Eisner had a falling out and Katzenberg left to co-found Dreamworks who, along side Disney affiliated Pixar ushered in a new cinematic animation medium, CGI. Disney Studios under Eisner spent the half of the 2000s pushing back against this trend but were eventually forced to concede. After which their first attempts at CGI were shaky. This different medium came with different limitations, early CGI had difficulties rendering realistic humans without falling into the uncanny valley so a much more stylistic approach to character design was taken. Another thing computer’s struggled to render were free floating textures and fabrics so hair was usually kept short and skirts when they rarely appeared were kept stiff. Animated Film settings were often far more contemporary, and fairy tale princesses were much rarer. For the Peach here I choose to reflect that, rendering less as say Tiana or Kida but more in the style of Meet the Robinsons or Bolt. 2008’s Bolt is probably what I’d consider to be to Disney film that most closely matches the designs in the Mario Film.

After Katzenberg left Eisner’s grip over Disney slowly became more Totalitarian and without other people to bounce off of some of his grand scheme started to bomb. Finally by 2005 Eisner was deposed in a corporate Coup once again organized Roy Jr. In Eisner’s position was given to one of the proteges he’d acquired in the ABC purchase, Bob Iger. Iger’s time at Disney brought balanced but exceptional grown, leading to the era we’re arguably still in today, The Disney Revival (2010-Present) though there is a growing case made that we’ve recently left the Revival era and are now in the Post Revival or Third Dark Age. Revival era saw Disney Princesses make the jump to CGI, a shift reflected in the designs of this era. CG technology had improved enough for flowing skirts, cloaks and hair though gowns had by now fallen out of fashion in favour of narrower hems much like the Golden Age. Having a set CG rig for a character instead of redrawing them every frame meant more details were able to be added to clothing. The thin waist was present at the start of this era but this seemed to have been its swan song, as it’s since been replaced by a far more natural figure. Since people are already comparing Peach to Elsa, I decided for this era to lean into a Arendelle look, particularly the digital concept art done for the film and its sequel.

While I know I’m a little late to the buzz I greatly enjoyed this project. Attempting different art styles is always a fun challenge. Hopefully I didn’t scare anyone off with the long Disney history lesson. I could without any sense of exaggeration write a book about the topic. For all it’s influence 2D classical animation is a relatively tight knit culture. Every animator since the 1930s has been influenced by Disney in some way, even those consciously trying to subvert their tropes. I went to school for classical animation, some of the teachers had worked on the Disney Renaissance and we would even on occasion be visited by people like James Baxter or Tony Bancroft. It was a fun time, and doing deep dives into studying Disney animation always makes me feel a little nostalgic.

Description

As I’m sure Illumination’s patently aggressive advertising has told you the new Mario movie is finally out, and me being me it was something of an obligation that I do something for it. Especially since I was also about to hit my hundredth post here on DeviantArt. It took a little while for the right inspiration to strike but I eventually found my idea while browsing the film’s TvTropes page, which referred several times to the changes in Peach’s cinematic design as being Disney like or ‘Disneyeqsue’. To which I say what version?

Presumably that TvTropes writer was thinking of Disney Animation’s more recent CGI animated princess fare, what’s called the ‘Disney Revival’. I tend to disagree personally; Film Peach’s proportions are still a lot more exaggerated than say Elsa’s but the statement got the creative gears in me turning. Because while there’s a lot of reference in online spaces to a ‘Disney Style’ the truth is Disney Animation Studio has gone through a lot of stylistic changes over the century it’s been active, usually sorted into seven distinct eras. So I thought it’d be a fun project to imagine what Princess Peach would have looked like if she had been first created as a Disney Princess in five of them.

The History of Disney cinematic animation begins with the first traditionally animated film in history, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which sparked the Disney Golden Age. (1937-1942) Back then the traditional poufy ballgown look hadn’t developed yet, looser skirts were in vogue. Human characters, especially one’s meant to be conventionally attractive like Snow White or the Blue Fairy relied heavily on rotoscoping, the process of tracing over life action footage in animation. Rotoscoping can be divisive but without its use in the 1930s realistic classical animation would have never existed. Another staple of the Golden Age is the use of traditional art tools like pastels to add texture and a near complete lack of sharp edges.

The Golden Age lasted for five years until the Second World War cut Disney off from most of their lucrative foreign market, the rest of the forties is sometimes called the Wartime Era. (1943-1949) and consisted entirely of package films and anthologies such as Melody Time and Fun and Fancy Free. However, with the war over and Disney’s animation staff’s talents improving the 1950s saw the dawn of the Silver Age (1950-1959) By then though reference models were still used, the raw artistry of the animation staff particularly Disney’s Nine Old Men was at their peak. These men had been animating full time for thirty years at this point and it showed. As far as the Princesses, here began the classic ballgown look. Faces and proportions are more stylised with long hands, tiny waists and more angles to match those curves. This is the look that would go on to define the princess archetype that works for the rest of the 20th century would take inspiration from, including of course Nintendo when designing their famous princesses in the 1980s.

This level of art was unable to last however. The final film of the Silver Age 1959’s Sleeping Beauty ended up nearly bankrupting the studio and Walt Disney nearly closed the department down (The company by now doing far more than only animation) Disney animation studios was forced to downgrade which coupled by the death of Disney himself in the late 60s began the First Dark Age or the Bronze Age (1960-1988). This was the longest era of the company’s history, and was mostly defined by long production times and the retiring of The Nine Old Men. There were of course in hindsight some very good films made in this period but the overall the company was stagnating. There were several CEOs during this period none of which had much in the way of grand goals other than maintaining the stasis quo.

That changed in 1984 when with the involvement of Disney’s nephew Roy jr a trio of outsiders was brought in to head the company for the first time, CEO Michael Eisner, President Frank Wells and chairman and head of motion pictures Jeffrey Katzenberg. Eisner, Wells and Katzenberg early reign saw massive shakeups and upscaling. That coupled with the maturation of The Old Men’s protegees such as Glen Keane and James Baxter ushered in the start of the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999), still today one of studio’s most beloved and profitable eras. Renaissance came in wide variety of races and cultures, though the western ones kept the ballgown as their formal look. There was also a much greater variety in emotions and expressions than past eras. Disney Princesses were now allowed to geek out about things (Ariel) Rebel against their traditional roles (Jasmine) and even on occasion dress in drag, (Mulan) bathe nude with several men (Mulan) and kill hundreds of people (Mulan’s a weird movie). I find it fitting that this Peach came out closest to her usual look, as much of the real character’s design and traits were solidified during this time period in the mid to late 1990s.

The Renaissance came at a time in the United States were monopoly laws were laxing and the major media empires we see today got their shape, including Disney which saw several acquisitions during this period such as the ABC network. In was in this changing face of American media that was planted the seeds of the next era, The Second Dark Age or Post Renaissance (2000-2009) perhaps Disney animations most diverse era in terms of output. After Frank Wells died in 1994 Katzenberg and Eisner had a falling out and Katzenberg left to co-found Dreamworks who, along side Disney affiliated Pixar ushered in a new cinematic animation medium, CGI. Disney Studios under Eisner spent the half of the 2000s pushing back against this trend but were eventually forced to concede. After which their first attempts at CGI were shaky. This different medium came with different limitations, early CGI had difficulties rendering realistic humans without falling into the uncanny valley so a much more stylistic approach to character design was taken. Another thing computer’s struggled to render were free floating textures and fabrics so hair was usually kept short and skirts when they rarely appeared were kept stiff. Animated Film settings were often far more contemporary, and fairy tale princesses were much rarer. For the Peach here I choose to reflect that, rendering less as say Tiana or Kida but more in the style of Meet the Robinsons or Bolt. 2008’s Bolt is probably what I’d consider to be to Disney film that most closely matches the designs in the Mario Film.

After Katzenberg left Eisner’s grip over Disney slowly became more Totalitarian and without other people to bounce off of some of his grand scheme started to bomb. Finally by 2005 Eisner was deposed in a corporate Coup once again organized Roy Jr. In Eisner’s position was given to one of the proteges he’d acquired in the ABC purchase, Bob Iger. Iger’s time at Disney brought balanced but exceptional grown, leading to the era we’re arguably still in today, The Disney Revival (2010-Present) though there is a growing case made that we’ve recently left the Revival era and are now in the Post Revival or Third Dark Age. Revival era saw Disney Princesses make the jump to CGI, a shift reflected in the designs of this era. CG technology had improved enough for flowing skirts, cloaks and hair though gowns had by now fallen out of fashion in favour of narrower hems much like the Golden Age. Having a set CG rig for a character instead of redrawing them every frame meant more details were able to be added to clothing. The thin waist was present at the start of this era but this seemed to have been its swan song, as it’s since been replaced by a far more natural figure. Since people are already comparing Peach to Elsa, I decided for this era to lean into a Arendelle look, particularly the digital concept art done for the film and its sequel.

While I know I’m a little late to the buzz I greatly enjoyed this project. Attempting different art styles is always a fun challenge. Hopefully I didn’t scare anyone off with the long Disney history lesson. I could without any sense of exaggeration write a book about the topic. For all it’s influence 2D classical animation is a relatively tight knit culture. Every animator since the 1930s has been influenced by Disney in some way, even those consciously trying to subvert their tropes. I went to school for classical animation, some of the teachers had worked on the Disney Renaissance and we would even on occasion be visited by people like James Baxter or Tony Bancroft. It was a fun time, and doing deep dives into studying Disney animation always makes me feel a little nostalgic.