Disney 2D Animation Is Back… In An Ad For Givenchy

Pongo, Perdita, and the pups have sold out in a new ad for high-end French fashion chain Givenchy.

The spot, which promotes $700 t-shirts and similar extravagantly priced items, was overseen by iconic Disney veteran Eric Goldberg, who said in a statement:

To have the opportunity to tell a story and create new animation with the characters from 101 Dalmatians, through the imaginative and playful lens of the House of Givenchy, was an absolute dream.

Last year, readers were thrilled to hear that Disney was investing in a new traditional 2d animation training program, high on the hopes that the studio might start putting out feature films the likes of those in decades past. The company however spent much of the last decade gutting its traditional pipeline, including the talent who worked there, and a return to its past 2d glories doesn’t appear to be imminent.

In recent years, output from the studio’s small 2d team included the series of Goofy “How to Stay at Home” shorts that were released on Disney+, several shorts for the studio’s Short Circuit program, and the new “Drawn to Life” stage show for Walt Disney World’s Disney Springs. The team also continues to do animation development tests, draw-overs, and consulting on the studio’s cg features.

Whether or not the studio ever plans to get back into traditional 2d animation features has been the subject of much speculation over the past decade. For those still holding out hope, the best we can offer is another Goldberg quote from a conversation with Cartoon Brew earlier this year:

[T]here are projects coming down the pipeline that absolutely will require hand-drawn animation. You won’t get me on record saying something like, “We’ve got 28 features coming in hand drawn,” but there is a lot of interest in hand-drawn work at the studio.