A History of Animation

2000 – 2009 · 12 events

The 2000s

Animated features became a recognized awards category, simulation solved hair, cloth and crowds, and digital tools revived the oldest dimensional technique.

What changed in this period

The creation of a dedicated Academy Award for animated features in 2001 formalized what the box office had already established. It also, over time, widened the range of work receiving mainstream attention, including hand-drawn and independent features from outside the United States.

Technically, the decade belonged to simulation. Hair, cloth, fluids, fur and crowds ceased to be animated by hand and became physical systems solved by computation, which made large casts and complex environments practical.

Stop motion, widely assumed to be obsolete, was instead transformed by digital tools: frame-accurate capture, motion control, rapid prototyping of replacement faces and invisible digital rig removal. The handmade look survived precisely because the surrounding process was modernized.

A Japanese feature won the Academy Award in 2003, and international animation began to circulate far more widely, aided by a home video market and, by the end of the decade, by streaming.

The record

Every documented event, 2000 – 2009

Listed in order, with context, technique, sources and related events shown in full.

  • 2001 July 11, 2001

    Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within attempts photorealistic humans

    A feature built around computer-generated humans intended to be indistinguishable from photographed actors, with individually simulated hair and detailed skin shading, failed commercially.

    Japan 3D computer animation Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Hironobu Sakaguchi, Square Pictures
    Country or region
    Japan

    Historical context

    The production was extraordinarily expensive and ran for four years, with a dedicated studio established in Hawaii for the purpose.

    Why it mattered

    It is the clearest test case for the limits of photorealism in animated characters, and its reception is a standard reference in discussions of viewer discomfort with near-human figures.

    What followed

    Studios largely retreated from photorealistic human protagonists in animated features, favoring stylization, while the hair and skin research it produced entered wider use.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2001 July 20, 2001 Full record

    Spirited Away wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature

    A hand-drawn feature about a girl working in a bathhouse for spirits became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history and, in 2003, the first non-English-language animated feature to win the Academy Award.

    Japan Cel animation Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli
    Country or region
    Japan

    Historical context

    The film was made largely by hand with restrained digital assistance, and it won the Golden Bear at Berlin before its American release.

    Why it mattered

    It established that a hand-drawn, culturally specific film made outside the United States could win the industry's principal animation award on its own terms.

    What followed

    International animation gained sustained access to American distribution and awards consideration, and the studio's earlier catalog was widely re-released.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2001 2001 (awarded March 24, 2002)

    The Academy creates a Best Animated Feature category

    A dedicated competitive award for animated features was introduced and first presented to a computer-animated comedy, with hand-drawn and stop-motion films among the nominees.

    United States 3D computer animation Award and recognition
    Artist or studio
    Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    The category was created after a decade in which animated features had become a consistent commercial force without a route to competitive recognition.

    Why it mattered

    It gave animated features permanent standing in the industry's principal awards and, over time, brought international and independent work to mainstream attention.

    What followed

    The category has since recognized hand-drawn, stop-motion, documentary-adjacent and independently produced films, broadening the definition of what counts as a major animated feature.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2002 December 18, 2002

    Performance capture produces a leading digital character

    An actor's recorded body movement was used as the foundation for a fully animated digital character, refined by animators and given facial performance keyframed by hand.

    United States 3D computer animation Technique and tools
    Artist or studio
    Weta Digital, with actor Andy Serkis
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    Motion capture had been used for background figures and games; applying it to a principal dramatic role required new cleanup, retargeting and facial workflows.

    Why it mattered

    It resolved a long argument about whether captured performance is animation, and established the hybrid practice — captured base, hand-animated performance — still used today.

    What followed

    Performance capture became standard for digital characters in live-action features, and the credit and awards status of capture-based performances remains contested.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2004

    American studios close their hand-drawn feature units

    After a run of underperforming drawn features, the largest American studios converted or shut their traditional animation departments and moved feature production entirely to computer animation.

    United States Cel animation Studio and institution
    Artist or studio
    Major American animation studios
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    Executives attributed the box-office gap to technique rather than to material, a reading many artists and historians have since disputed.

    Why it mattered

    It ended roughly seventy years of continuous American hand-drawn feature production and displaced a large body of specialized craft knowledge.

    What followed

    Hand-drawn feature animation continued in Europe and Japan and returned to American screens only intermittently, while drawn techniques survived in television, independent work and hybrid rendering.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2004 November 5, 2004

    The Incredibles solves hair, cloth and human characters

    A feature with a cast of stylized human characters required simulated hair, muscle deformation, cloth and skin shading at a scale not previously attempted in computer animation.

    United States 3D computer animation Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Brad Bird, Pixar Animation Studios
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    Earlier computer-animated features had avoided humans as protagonists because the required simulation was unsolved.

    Why it mattered

    It demonstrated that computer animation could carry stylized human performance convincingly, removing the last major subject restriction on the technique.

    What followed

    Simulation departments became standard, and human protagonists ceased to be a technical obstacle in computer-animated features.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2005

    Online video opens direct distribution for animators

    Free hosting and playback of user-uploaded video allowed individual animators to publish work to a global audience without festivals, broadcasters or distributors.

    United States Multiple techniques Distribution and streaming
    Artist or studio
    YouTube and comparable video platforms
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    Broadband penetration and cheap storage made streaming video practical at consumer scale for the first time.

    Why it mattered

    It removed the last structural barrier to independent distribution and created a viable audience for short-form animation outside the festival circuit.

    What followed

    Independent series developed audiences large enough to sustain production, and platforms became a recognized recruiting ground for studio and streaming commissions.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2005 September 23, 2005

    Corpse Bride is shot on digital still cameras

    A puppet-animated feature was captured entirely on digital still cameras, allowing animators to review each frame immediately rather than waiting for film to be processed.

    United Kingdom Stop motion Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, Laika Entertainment facilities and Three Mills Studios
    Country or region
    United Kingdom

    Historical context

    Stop motion had depended on film cameras and overnight processing, which made errors expensive and slowed the work substantially.

    Why it mattered

    Immediate frame review transformed the practice of stop motion, improving accuracy and allowing more complex performance within the same schedule.

    What followed

    Digital capture, frame-grabbing software and motion control became standard in stop motion, and the technique's revival in the following decade depended on them.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2006 January 24, 2006 (completed May 2006)

    A distribution partnership becomes an acquisition

    The largest traditional animation company purchased the computer animation studio that had distributed through it, and placed that studio's leadership in charge of both units.

    United States 3D computer animation Studio and institution
    Artist or studio
    The Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation Studios
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    The two companies had been in a difficult contract renegotiation, and the acquisition resolved it by merging the businesses.

    Why it mattered

    It marked the formal transfer of creative authority in mainstream American animation from the traditional studio system to the computer animation generation.

    What followed

    Both feature units were reorganized around a director-led development model, and the acquisition became a standard case study in creative-company integration.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2007 May 2007

    Persepolis brings graphic-novel authorship to the animated feature

    A largely black-and-white autobiographical feature about growing up during and after the Iranian revolution premiered at Cannes and shared the Jury Prize.

    France Cel animation Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
    Country or region
    France

    Historical context

    The film was adapted by its original author from her own graphic memoir, retaining the flat, high-contrast drawing style of the printed work.

    Why it mattered

    It demonstrated that animated features could carry first-person political memoir, and that a strong graphic style could be preserved intact from page to screen.

    What followed

    Adult, author-driven animated features gained festival and awards traction, opening a route for documentary and memoir work in the following decade.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2009 February 6, 2009

    Coraline uses rapid prototyping for facial performance

    Thousands of replacement faces were three-dimensionally printed to give puppets a precise range of expression, in a feature also released in stereoscopic 3D.

    United States Stop motion Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Henry Selick, Laika
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    The studio combined nineteenth-century replacement-animation logic with additive manufacturing and digital rig removal.

    Why it mattered

    It gave stop-motion puppets a facial range comparable to computer animation while retaining the physical texture that distinguishes the technique.

    What followed

    Printed face libraries became standard in feature stop motion, and the studio built a body of Academy-nominated work on the method.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

  • 2009 December 18, 2009

    Avatar combines performance capture with stereoscopic exhibition

    Head-mounted facial capture, a virtual camera allowing the director to frame digital environments in real time, and a wide stereoscopic release together made animated characters and worlds the substance of a live-action production.

    United States 3D computer animation Feature film
    Artist or studio
    Weta Digital and Lightstorm Entertainment
    Country or region
    United States

    Historical context

    The production developed its capture and virtual-camera systems specifically for the film over several years.

    Why it mattered

    It demonstrated virtual production — directing inside a digital environment as though on location — which reshaped how both animated and live-action projects are planned.

    What followed

    Virtual cameras, real-time previsualization and facial capture rigs entered general use, and stereoscopic exhibition briefly became a standard release format.

    Sources consulted

    Related events

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