Disney’s forthcoming movie , Enchanted (which released in the US two weeks ago), is a tale of a traditional fairytale princess who finds herself magicked away to a modern day New York.

It’s a well-trod premise with the comedy pulled from that inevitable clash of her knights, castles and daydreams outlook on life with the grime and liberal bustle of contemporary American coastal city.

As if to further spell out the narrative mix-up of traditional and modern the film is also a mixed media project, starting out in the 2D animated style by which Disney made its name in the last century before slipping into a live-action and CG aesthetic for those parts of the film set in New York.

The last new-IP 2D animated feature that Disney made was the mediocre Home on the Range, a film that marked the end of this artistic tradition for the studio, who were now supposedly moving wholly into the 3D CG animation made popular by Pixar’s movies.

The decision was reportedly made by Michael Eisner, Disney Studios head, who argued that 2D cartoon-style animated films were no longer viable, before laying off all of the 2D animators at the studio and selling off all their associated equipment.

This act of wrong-headed stupidity (at least from an artistic point of view, perhaps from a business point of view it was a sound call) reinforced in the public mind the idea that 3D CGI is the natural successor to 2D animation.

How utterly depressing. As if 3D CGI is somehow the 2D form evolved; as if Shrek is more beautiful and expressive than Fantasia; as if photographs are watercolors all grown up.

But that was 2004 and this is 2007 and apparently people think there might actually be room for both forms of animation. Redfaced, Disney has had to outsource all of the ( beautiful) drawn elements to the film to an external studio (James Baxter Animation), an animation agency staffed by many ex-Disney emplyees.

If Enchanted demonstrates Disney dipping its toes back into the 2D form (and let’s not forget that the film’s central message is essentially ridiculing the 2D fairytale world of the lead character as being outdated and laughable when set alongside (post)modernity) it will be interesting to see how long it is before they find their future lies in their past after all.

Meanwhile, the first Street Fighter 4 image leaks onto the Internet: 3D models, 2D gameplay…

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