History DoingItForTheArt / AnimatedFilms

* "Sanrio Animation" (aka "Sanrio Film") was Creator/{{Sanrio}}'s [[ShortRunners short-lived animation studio]] that was not only dedicated to making film and [[Anime/TheRoseFlowerAndJoe short adaptations]], but would also made some animated films (and occasionally live-action) usually referred as "Art Films" in order to be taken more seriously by the general public. Outside of cameo appearances from some popular Sanrio characters (such as ''The Fantastic Adventures of Unico'' and ''Anime/AJourneyThroughFairyLand''), Sanrio Animation explicitly avoided focusing on Sanrio characters in order to be taken more seriously by other animation studios at the time. While the studio was active between 1977 till 1985, it's fondly remembered in Japan for [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids pushing the limits of children's films]], [[AnimationBump decent animation]], and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic memorable musical scores]]. Their film adaptation of Creator/TakashiYanase's ''[[Anime/RingingBell Chirin no Suzu]]'' and both film adaptations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico series]] (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'') are their most beloved works.

* Believe it or not, ''WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatTheMovie'' was an example of this. Say whatever you want about the quality of the movie, but it really was a labor of love by Don Oriolo. The WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat series was all but dead by the time it was released (to where it only had ''one'' license to its name), and his dad, Creator/JoeOriolo (who was the show-runner of the [[WesternAnimation/JoeOrioloFelixTheCat iconic 1960s Felix series]]) was too ill to make a new Felix movie, so Don, who had previously planned to just work in the music business instead of taking a career in drawing, took it on himself to get a Felix the Cat movie made just to carry on Joe Oriolo's legacy (and also the legacy of Felix's creator, Creator/OttoMessmer) and revitalize interest in the character. Even in spite of its helter-skelter quality and [[BoxOfficeBomb box office failure]], it at least succeeded in its goal of getting people interested in the Felix franchise again.

* The 2006 independent animated feature ''WesternAnimation/RomeoAndJulietSealedWithAKiss''. Ex-Disney animator Creator/PhilNibbelink, disillusioned by the "big industry merry-go-round", decided to spend 4 1/2 years of his life to make this film, drawing all 112,000 frames of animation by himself, by a Wacom Tablet onto flash. The voice acting was all handled in a recording studio he built in his own basement. He also deliberately made the film a G-rated kids flick to contrast to the lack of such animated films coming out at the time. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This may have ironically been the film's undoing]], since Nibbelink was so insistent on doing the film himself that there was no one around to assist with the story, resulting in a very messy and [[TastesLikeDiabetes saccharine]] plot and characters and a poor critical reception.

* "Sanrio Animation" (aka "Sanrio Film") was Creator/{{Sanrio}}'s animation studio that was not only dedicated to making film and [[Anime/TheRoseFlowerAndJoe short adaptations]], but would also make some animated films (and occasionally live-action) usually referred as "Art Films" in order to be taken more seriously by the general public. Outside of cameo appearances from some popular Sanrio characters (such as ''The Fantastic Adventures of Unico'' and ''Anime/AJourneyThroughFairyLand''), Sanrio Animation explicitly avoided focusing on Sanrio characters in order to be taken more seriously by other animation studios at the time. While the studio was active between 1977 till 1985, it's fondly remembered in Japan for [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids pushing the limits of children's films]], [[AnimationBump decent animation]], and [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic memorable musical scores]]. Their film adaptation of Creator/TakashiYanase's ''[[Anime/RingingBell Chirin no Suzu]]'' and both film adaptations of Creator/OsamuTezuka's [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico series]] (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'') are their most beloved works.

* Pick a Creator/{{Pixar}} movie, any Pixar movie. They had to tone down the water for ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' because it was ''too'' real-looking. Pixar mentioned that they learned during the filming of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' that the story ''has'' to come first. They had a 60% or 70% finished movie when they sat and watched it... and were revolted. With a deadline looming scarily close, they tore it completely apart and made the amazing movie we know today.
** Speaking of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'', ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' was originally intended to be direct-to-video. But Pixar actually set out to make a movie that was just as good as the first, and Creator/{{Disney}} milked it with a theater release as a result. Pixar is very well-known for this.
*** For [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 the third TS film]], they could have had any actor play the now-grown Andy. Instead, they tracked down the '''''original actor''''', who had basically retired from acting at that point, to reprise the role. In fact, there's nary an [[TheOtherDarrin other Darrin]] in sight in the third film - ''every returning character'' is voiced by the actors who voiced them in the first two, except for Slinky, and even then it was only because his original actor died. Special mention goes to Creator/DonRickles, who was 84 when he voiced Mr. Potato Head for ''Toy Story 3''... and even after his ''death'' just before ''Toy Story 4'' went into active production, allowed his estate to search through ''decades'' of unused recorded dialogue to reprise his character.
** Originally in ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', the story had it that [[spoiler:[[GenkiGirl EVE]] got electrocuted by [[BigBad AUTO]] instead of [[TheWoobie WALL•E]], and WALL•E fixes her while in the Garbage Chamber]]. A preview screening caused Andrew Stanton to realize it didn't fit the emotional flow he wanted to convey. Despite the fact that the scene was ''95%'' complete and the film was only a few months away from release, the animators started from scratch and completely redid the scene, so that [[spoiler:WALL•E was electrocuted, and EVE's motivation was about helping WALL•E, rather than just achieving her directive]], which makes the story better.
** When a director completes a film at Pixar and has finished promoting it, they usually take a year off to relax and perhaps find inspiration for their next film. After ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' was finished, Andrew Stanton took a small team of writers and artists and spent that ''entire year'' planning the general story and working on the design of the characters of ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', simply so he could work without deadlines or pressure.
** In fact, here's something from John Lasseter concerning that:

** For ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', the producers actually flew the animation team to Venezuela, to the mountain range that serves as the inspiration for Paradise Falls in the film. The crew went on an exhausting (and potentially life-threatening) all-day hike up the mountain, but it was worth it for the magnificent views they got at the top, which inspired most of the film's imagery. Then a sudden storm rolled in, and they were trapped on top of the mountain for hours, while strong rains and wind slammed them. Eventually, a helicopter was able to rescue them.
* In a related vein, many animation buffs feel that [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation]] after Creator/JohnLasseter and Ed Catmull took over fall under this trope. They killed the direct-to-video "cheapquels", resurrected hand-drawn animation with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', and noticeably improved the quality of the studio's offerings across the board (compare ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'', and ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' to ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh'', and ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''). In the recent Disney renaissance, the animators at Disney have been pushing the limits of animation and CGI fare beyond what's necessary to just tell the story. Their most recent films are showcases of animating things either considered insanely difficult to do or done with a complexity not previously seen before: hair (''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}''), snow/ice (''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''), cityscapes (built from a complete city design) (''WesternAnimation/BigHero6''), fur (''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''), and water/ocean (''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'').

* The ''[[WesternAnimation/SinbadLegendOfTheSevenSeas Sinbad]]'' animated film team went to an incredible amount of effort to make sure that the CG models for the ships and cities were accurate to a tee, once again for a film intended for children.
* ''[[http://vimeo.com/12339283 In the Fall of Gravity]]'' is an extremely well-animated short that is made by this trope. The whole film was done by [[OneManArmy one guy]], who did everything from the sets to the figures he's animating. What's more impressive is that he built facial mechanisms never before seen in stop-motion ''specifically for the film'', controlled by cables instead of wires or replacement mouths. it really must be seen to be believed.
* Creator/NickPark's ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' and his ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit'' shorts.
** Also, ''WesternAnimation/ShaunTheSheep''. This is most obvious when you look at [[RecurringCharacter the bull's]] texture.
** Any of Creator/AardmanAnimations' stop-motion projects.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' was a huge artistic undertaking for [[Creator/DreamWorksAnimation DreamWorks]]. For example, there were 1,192 scenes in the movie. ''1,180'' of those scenes featured special effects. And not just things like fire tornadoes or the Red Sea parting (that 7-minute sequence ''alone'' took '''''318,000 hours''''' of rendering), but wind, sand, rainwater, and lighting. The animators also spent two weeks traveling around Egypt to get a sense of the architecture and art style for the film.
** The writers consulted with over a hundred religious officials from varying sects to make sure they got as close to the heart of the story as possible.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''. As if the sheer amount of FridgeBrilliance and {{Foreshadowing}} in the writing isn't enough, apparently the animation is good enough that many uninformed people thought that it was made with CGI.
** For Coraline, they made more than 20 puppets, each one taking months to make. And since it uses puppets instead of clay, they had to make thousands of mouths that they painted individually and replaced between frames.
** The average production speed will typically produce only ''a few seconds'' a day, assuming no mistakes are made. The film is 100 minutes long.
** [[SceneryPorn The garden scene? The mice circus? The theatre with hundreds of Scotties?]] They did all that in stop-motion. The mice circus alone took 2 months to animate.
** Most of the flowers in the garden scene really lit up. It's not digitally enhanced.
** The lady who made the costumes actually ''knits'' them, using the same techniques that would be used to make full-sized clothing but with needles the size of human hairs.
** The hair for the characters had to be "injected" one by one.
** The scene where the Other World "disappears"? They did that in stop-motion too.
** They wanted to shoot the movie in 3D, but the sets were too small to fit 2 cameras side-by-side. So what did they do? They shot each frame twice from different angles with a single camera. The result was a movie with some of the most highly-regarded 3D effects ever.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfKells'', especially since it's all about medieval art in the first place. [[ShownTheirWork And it shows.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'': Dear Lord. Say what you will about how bitter the production ended, but [[Creator/RichardWilliams one]] doesn't spend ''28 years'' trying to get a movie made unless he and his crew are ''absolutely sure'' it'll be worth it.
** The ''Recobbled Cut'', made by a fan, fits this too. It's a close approximation of [[WhatCouldHaveBeen what the original film would have been like]]. It uses the original audio, rediscovered footage, unfinished animatics, and even rough sketches to flesh out the runtime.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', the directors proposed the famous rope bridge fight and were delighted at seeing the animators blanch at the idea. That wasn't because of how hard they knew the sequence's production would be; rather, it was because they knew such a scene had ''never been done before.'' It's ''that'' kind of attitude that helped create the film and made Creator/DreamworksAnimation [[GrowingTheBeard grow its beard]].

* The original plot for ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' was scrapped and reworked from the ground up just 9 months before the intended release date (Nick was the original protagonist). That didn't stop the studio and the dedicated creative team from producing a film with incredible animation or storytelling, though.
* Creator/BlueSkyStudios's original films may not have had much going for them, but the studio almost always put their best foot forward when it came to an adaptation.
** ''WesternAnimation/HortonHearsAWho'' came along after Creator/DrSeuss's widow declared that all future film adaptations of his work would exclusively be animated, as a result of the widely-panned ''[[Film/TheCatInTheHat Cat in the Hat]]'' live-action movie. As such, they worked to adapt Seuss's visuals to animation in a way that also stuck when [[Creator/IlluminationEntertainment Illumination]] took on ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' a few years later.
** ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'' had several of [[Creator/CharlesMSchulz Charles Schulz's]] relatives on board, with his son and grandson being among the writing team. In addition, the animators made the effort to make their CGI look as close to the original television specials as possible, by not utilizing motion blur and giving the movie an overall 2.5-D aesthetic.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' required an entire production studio to be built up from scratch in four months and took over three years to film, utilizing up over a dozen sound stages, a phenomenal amount of space. It was also a technical innovation: a special motion-control camera was created to allow for more sweeping cinematography.
* While ''Animation/NextGen'' is a decent film in its own right, it serves as a testament to the power of Creator/BlenderFoundation's flagship open source animation software. Almost the entire film was created using software that anyone can get a hold of completely for free!

*** For [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 the third TS film]], they could have had any actor play the now-grown Andy. Instead, they tracked down the original actor, who had basically retired from acting at that point, to reprise the role. In fact, there's nary an [[TheOtherDarrin other Darrin]] in sight in the third film - everyone is voiced by the actors who voiced them in the first two, excepting for Slinky, and even then it was because his original actor died. Special mention goes to Creator/DonRickles, who was 84 when he voiced Mr. Potato Head for ''Toy Story 3''.

** When a director completes a film at Pixar and has finished promoting it, they usually take a year off to relax and perhaps find inspiration for their next film. After ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' was finished, Andrew Stanton took a small team of writers and artists and spent that year planning the general story and working on the design of the characters of ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', so he could work without deadlines or pressure.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' was a huge artistic undertaking for [[Creator/DreamWorksAnimation DreamWorks]]. For example, there were 1,192 scenes in the movie. ''1,180'' of those scenes featured special effects. And not just things like fire tornadoes or the Red Sea parting (that 7-minute sequence ''alone'' took ''318,000 hours'' of rendering), but wind, sand, rainwater, and lighting. The animators also spent two weeks traveling around Egypt to get a sense of the architecture and art style for the film.

** The average production speed is only seconds a day, assuming no mistakes are made. The film is 100 minutes long.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'': Dear Lord. [[Creator/RichardWilliams One]] doesn't spend ''28 years'' trying to get a movie made unless he's sure it'll be worth it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', the directors proposed the famous rope bridge fight and were delighted at seeing the animators blanch at the idea. That was because that meant that such a scene had ''never'' been done before and it's that attitude that helped create the film and made Creator/DreamworksAnimation [[GrowingTheBeard grow its beard]].

* Creator/BlueSkyStudios's original films may not have much going for them, but the studio almost always puts their best foot forward when it comes to an adaptation.

* Creator/WaltDisney himself as quoted on the main page. Despite not being actually talented enough to draw, he did push the technology and art of animation to new levels, such as making the first synchronized sound cartoon and first Technicolor cartoon. His debut feature film ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' was considering extremely risky at the time for being the first ever animated feature film in the United States (though not the first animated feature film in the ''world''-- that title goes to Quirino Cristiani's 1917 work ''El Apóstol''); people thought it would be a huge failure and that animation couldn't be long enough for a feature-length film. ''Snow White'' became a huge box office success at the time, which gave Walt enough money and success to produce ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', all three considered classics that still hold up today for the intense amount of detail in the animation, high artistic merits (especially ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'') and the impressive special effects for the time. However, those films did not make enough money to keep the Disney Company financially afloat, so they had to make {{wartime cartoon}}s for the United States in World War II, as well as ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', a much safer film. Walt never made another movie as ambitious as ''Fantasia'' again (though ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' was close). If ''Fantasia'' had been an economic success, who knows what else Walt would have done.

*** For [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory3 the third TS film]], they could have had any actor play the now-grown Andy. Instead, they tracked down the original actor, who had basically retired from acting at that point, to reprise the role. In fact, there's nary an [[TheOtherDarrin other Darrin]] in sight in the third film - everyone is voiced by the actors who voiced them in the first two, excepting for Slinky, and even then it was because [[AuthorExistenceFailure his original actor died]]. Special mention goes to Creator/DonRickles, who was 84 when he voiced Mr. Potato Head for ''Toy Story 3''.

* In a related vein, many animation buffs feel that [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation]] after [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Lasseter and Ed Catmull]] took over fall under this trope. They killed the direct-to-video "cheapquels", resurrected hand-drawn animation with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', and noticeably improved the quality of the studio's offerings across the board (compare ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'', and ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' to ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh'', and ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''). In the recent Disney renaissance, the animators at Disney have been pushing the limits of animation and CGI fare beyond what's necessary to just tell the story. Their most recent films are showcases of animating things either considered insanely difficult to do or done with a complexity not previously seen before: hair (''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}''), snow/ice (''WesternAnimation/Frozen2013''), cityscapes (built from a complete city design) (''WesternAnimation/BigHero6''), fur (''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''), and water/ocean (''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'').

** ''WesternAnimation/HortonHearsAWho'' came along after Creator/DrSeuss's widow declared that all future film adaptations of his work would exclusively be animated. As such, they worked to adapt Seuss's visuals to animation in a way that also stuck when [[Creator/IlluminationEntertainment Illumination]] took on ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' a few years later.

* While Creator/BlueSkyStudios might be infamous for the number of ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'' films they have produced, it's guaranteed that whenever they adapt a beloved property, it will turn out great.

** ''WesternAnimation/ThePeanutsMovie'' had several of Charles Schulz's relatives on board, with his son and grandson being among the writing team. In addition, the animators made the effort to make their CGI look as close to the original television specials as possible, by not utilizing motion blur and giving the movie an overall 2.5-D aesthetic.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'', both the short film ''and'' the long film. The short film's CG looks rather rough, but it's still clear that Shane Acker put a great deal into it. The feature film's [[ComputerGeneratedImages CGi]] is equal to, if not better than, that of ''WesternAnimation/WallE''. [[SceneryPorn Everything has detail.]] [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome Everything looks convincingly real]], ''especially'' the monsters. However, many film critics accused Acker of doing it ''too'' much for the art and not enough for the story, though Acker has stated multiple times that the film has a ''very big'' emphasis on [[ShowDontTell "showing, not telling"]]. He and others who worked on the film also note in the DVDCommentary that they didn't care if anyone else didn't like it; they were making it for themselves and that was that. Whether or not this worked for the film is up to the viewer.

* In a related vein, many animation buffs feel that [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation]] after [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Lasseter and Ed Catmull]] took over fall under this trope. They killed the direct-to-video "cheapquels", resurrected hand-drawn animation with ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', and noticeably improved the quality of the studio's offerings across the board (compare ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'', ''WesternAnimation/HomeOnTheRange'', and ''WesternAnimation/ChickenLittle'' to ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh'', and ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph''). In the recent Disney renaissance, the animators at Disney have been pushing the limits of animation and CGI fare beyond what's necessary to just tell the story. Their most recent films are showcases of animating things either considered insanely difficult to do or done with a complexity not previously seen before: hair (''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}''), snow/ice (''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen}}''), cityscapes (built from a complete city design) (''WesternAnimation/{{BigHero6}}''), fur (''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''), and water/ocean (''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'') and [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome they have succeeded magnificently.]]

* In a related vein, many animation buffs feel that [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation]] after [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Lasseter and Ed Catmull]] took over fall under this trope. They killed the direct-to-video "cheapquels", resurrected hand-drawn animation with ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', and noticeably improved the quality of the studio's offerings across the board (compare ''Disney/BrotherBear'', ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'', and ''Disney/ChickenLittle'' to ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', ''Disney/WinnieThePooh'', and ''Disney/WreckItRalph''). In the recent Disney renaissance, the animators at Disney have been pushing the limits of animation and CGI fare beyond what's necessary to just tell the story. Their most recent films are showcases of animating things either considered insanely difficult to do or done with a complexity not previously seen before: hair (''Disney/{{Tangled}}''), snow/ice (''Disney/{{Frozen}}''), cityscapes (built from a complete city design) (''Disney/{{BigHero6}}''), fur (''Disney/{{Zootopia}}''), and water/ocean (''Disney/{{Moana}}'') and [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome they have succeeded magnificently.]]
* Creator/WaltDisney himself as quoted on the main page. Despite not being actually talented enough to draw, he did push the technology and art of animation to new levels, such as making the first synchronized sound cartoon and first Technicolor cartoon. His debut feature film ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' was considering extremely risky at the time for being the first ever animated feature film in the United States (though not the first animated feature film in the ''world''-- that title goes to Quirino Cristiani's 1917 work ''El Apóstol''); people thought it would be a huge failure and that animation couldn't be long enough for a feature-length film. ''Snow White'' became a huge box office success at the time, which gave Walt enough money and success to produce ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' and ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'', all three considered classics that still hold up today for the intense amount of detail in the animation, high artistic merits (especially ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'') and the impressive special effects for the time. However, those films did not make enough money to keep the Disney Company financially afloat, so they had to make {{wartime cartoon}}s for the United States in World War II, as well as ''Disney/{{Dumbo}}'', a much safer film. Walt never made another movie as ambitious as ''Fantasia'' again (though ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' was close). If ''Fantasia'' had been an economic success, who knows what else Walt would have done.

* The original plot for ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'' was scrapped and reworked from the ground up just 9 months before the intended release date (Nick was the original protagonist). That didn't stop the studio and the dedicated creative team from producing a film with incredible animation or storytelling, though.

* The 2006 independent animated feature ''WesternAnimation/RomeoAndJulietSealedWithAKiss''. Ex-Disney animator Creator/PhilNibbelink, disillusioned by the "big industry merry-go-round", decided to spend 4 1/2 years of his life to make this film, drawing all 112,000 frames of animation by himself, by a Wacom Tablet onto flash. The voice acting was all handled in a recording studio he built in his own basement. He also deliberately made the film a G-rated kids flick to contrast to the lack of such animated films coming out at the time. [[TropesAreNotGood This may have ironically been the film's undoing]], since Nibbelink was so insistent on doing the film himself that there was no one around to assist with the story, resulting in a very messy and [[TastesLikeDiabetes saccharine]] plot and characters and a poor critical reception.

* Pick a Creator/{{Pixar}} movie, any Pixar movie. They had to tone down the water for ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'' because it was ''too'' real-looking. Pixar mentioned that they learned during the filming of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' that the story ''has'' to come first. They had a 60% or 70% finished movie when they sat and watched it... and were revolted. With a deadline looming scarily close, they tore it completely apart, and made the amazing movie we know today.

---> "Yes, we worry about what the critics say. Yes, we worry about what the opening box office is going to be. But really, the whole point of why we do what we do is to entertain our audiences. The greatest joy I get as a filmmaker is to slip into an audience for one of our movies anonymously, and watch people watch our film. Because people are 100 percent honest when they're watching a movie. And to see the joy on people's faces, to see people really get into our films... to me is the greatest reward I could possibly get."
** For ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', the producers actually flew the animation team to Venezuela, to the mountain range that serves as the inspiration for Paradise Falls in the film. The crew went on an exhausting (and potentially life-threatening) all-day hike up the mountain, but it was worth it for the magnificent views they got at the top, which inspired most of the film's imagery. Then a sudden storm rolled in, and they were trapped on top of the mountain for hours, while strong rains and wind slammed them. Eventually a helicopter was able to rescue them.

* Creator/WaltDisney himself as quoted on the main page. Despite not being actually talented enough to draw, he did push the technology and art of animation to new levels, such as making the first synchronized sound cartoon and first Technicolor cartoon. His debut feature film ''Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' was considering extremely risky at the time for being the first ever animated feature film in the United States (though not the first animated feature film in the ''world''-- that title goes to Quirino Cristiani's 1917 work ''El Apóstol''); people thought it would be a huge failure and that animation couldn't be long enough for a feature length film. ''Snow White'' became a huge box office success at the time, which gave Walt enough money and success to produce ''Disney/{{Pinocchio}}'', ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' and ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'', all three considered classics that still hold up today for the intense amount of detail in the animation, high artistic merits (especially ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'') and the impressive special effects for the time. However, those films did not make enough money to keep the Disney Company financially afloat, so they had to make {{wartime cartoon}}s for the United States in World War II, as well as ''Disney/{{Dumbo}}'', a much safer film. Walt never made another movie as ambitious as ''Fantasia'' again (though ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'' was close). If ''Fantasia'' had been an economic success, who knows what else Walt would have done.

* ''[[http://vimeo.com/12339283 In the Fall of Gravity]]'' is a extremely well-animated short that is made by this trope. The whole film was done by [[OneManArmy one guy]], who did everything from the sets to the figures he's animating. What's more impressive is that he built facial mechanisms never before seen in stop-motion ''specifically for the film'', controlled by cables instead of wires or replacement mouths. it really must be seen to be believed.

* Creator/DonBluth was always all about doing it for the art. He probably wasn't expecting to make much off of ''WesternAnimation/BanjoTheWoodpileCat'' when he began the side project from his garage while still working for Disney and barely had the budget to cover its production, and his mission while making ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' was to bring the quality animation from [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation the golden age]] back to the cinema. He succeeded... for awhile at least.

* The 2006 independent animated feature ''WesternAnimation/RomeoAndJulietSealedWithAKiss''. Ex-Disney animator Creator/PhilNibbelink, disillusioned by the "big industry merry-go-round", decided to spend 4 1/2 years of his life to make this film, drawing all 112,000 frames of animation by himself, by a Wacom Tablet onto flash. The voice acting was all handled in a recording studio he built in his own basement. He also deliberately made the film a G-rated kids flick to contrast to the lack of such animated films coming out at the time.

* Creator/NickPark's ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' and his ''Franchise/WallaceAndGromit'' shorts.

* The 2006 independent animated feature ''WesternAnimation/RomeoAndJulietSealedWithAKiss''. Ex-Disney animator Phil Nibbelink, disillusioned by the "big industry merry-go-round", decided to spend 4 1/2 years of his life to make this film, drawing all 112,000 frames of animation by himself, by a Wacom Tablet onto flash. The voice acting was all handled in a recording studio he built in his own basement. He also deliberately made the film a G-rated kids flick to contrast to the lack of such animated films coming out at the time.

* In a related vein, many animation buffs feel that [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney Animation]] after [[Creator/PixarRegulars John Lasseter and Ed Catmull]] took over fall under this trope. They killed the direct-to-video "cheapquels", resurrected hand-drawn animation with ''Disney/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'', and noticeably improved the quality of the studio's offerings across the board (compare ''Disney/BrotherBear'', ''Disney/HomeOnTheRange'', and ''Disney/ChickenLittle'' to ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'', ''Disney/WinnieThePooh'', and ''Disney/WreckItRalph''). In the recent Disney renaissance, the animators at Disney have been pushing the limits of animation and CGI fare beyond what's necessary to just tell the story. Their most recent films are showcases of animating things either considered insanely difficult to do or done with a complexity not previously seen before: hair (''Disney/{{Tangled}}''), snow/ice (''Disney/{{Frozen}}''), cityscapes (built from a complete city design) (''Disney/{{BigHero6}}''), fur (''Disney/{{Zootopia}}''), and water/ocean (''Disney/{{Moana}}'') and [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome they have succeeded magnificently.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}'', both the short film ''and'' the long film. The short film's CG looks rather rough, but it's still clear that Shane Acker put a great deal into it. The feature film's [[ComputerGeneratedImages CGi]] is equal to, if not better than, that of ''WesternAnimation/WallE''. [[SceneryPorn Everything has detail.]] [[VisualEffectsOfAwesome Everything looks convincingly real]], ''especially'' the monsters. However, many film critics accused Acker of doing it ''too'' much for the art and not enough for the story, though Acker has stated multiple times that the film has a ''very big'' emphasis on [[ShowDontTell "showing, not telling"]]. He and others who worked on the film also note in the DVDCommentary that they didn't care if anyone else didn't like it; they were making it for themselves and that was that. Whether or not this worked for the film is up to the viewer.