Or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the ROM.
This past March, Disney Pixar released the film Hoppers (2026). If you’re not familiar, it is a 3D computer-animated family film that “follows animal-loving college student Mabel, who transfers her mind into a lifelike robotic beaver to communicate with animals and save their habitat from human destruction, inadvertently sparking an uprising in the process.”¹. While there’s surely a lot to discuss there with how a film like Hoppers interacts with our current cultural moment—specifically with regards to environmentalism, technology, and desire for radical societal change: all things that I am acutely interested in—it more or less passed me by. I barely even noticed it releasing, because, for as good as it may be, it really just looked like every other 3D animated film that has come out of Hollywood in the last 20 years, with a only handful of exceptions (Sony’s highly stylised Spiderverse films leading the charge on that front).
As of writing, I haven’t yet seen it, but I know it did score the highest Box Office opening for any original animated feature in the post-pandemic era,² which seems to be a pretty solid indication of success. Also my cousins who aren’t exactly huge movie people really liked it, and that seems to be exactly where Disney and Pixar want their films to land, so all around applause for Hoppers. On to the next, as far as The Walt Disney Corporation are concerned.
What I have seen though, and what I still find myself thinking about, is a little animated GIF of test footage that was drawn by artist Lorenzo Fresta, and shared by the film’s director Daniel Chong to celebrate the film’s opening weekend. The hand-drawn Studio Ghibli-esque scene is not particularly long or³ complex—it can’t be more than a dozen or so frames—but it is unmistakably beautiful, and it made me wish that that movie existed, if even just so more little GIFs of hand-drawn beavers swimming down tranquil rivers could grace my timeline. It, like so many of the old Disney classics, looked timeless, and I found myself wishing that they made more animated movies like that nowadays.
A few weeks later, my girlfriend and I sat down to watch Dreamwork’s Shrek (2001) (I’m not going to introduce Shrek, you know Shrek) and boy, was I thinking a lot about that little beaver GIF and the concept of timelessness in animation then. While Dreamwork’s first outing is still a certified classic (even dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese, as I found out) there is something to be said about how the visual experience of watching it has changed over the course of its existence, and I’m trying to be generous with the word “changed”. Shrek as a character was always meant to be a objectively ugly and repulsive, living in a fittingly repulsive swamp-home, but it’s hard to shake the sentiment that the entire film is somewhat ugly now. I don’t want to say that it’s harder to watch, because everything fundamentally important about it really holds up: the voice acting is perfect, the juke-box score is still so memorable, and the underlying moral is touching and sincere; it’s just that it really looks a lot worse now than it did in 2001, and something like Snow White (1937) looks exactly the same—if not better—than it did 80 years ago. The forward movement of information technology that birthed Shrek has continued its long march forward, and it seems to have left the Ogre behind.
This is something that isn’t specific to Shrek either. Excluding bad CGI in live-action films, Sid’s dog from Toy Story (1995) makes the rounds online every⁴ once in a while, and I even found myself feeling a similar feeling the last time I caught a bit of Monsters Inc. (2001) in a video essay. It’s not necessarily an “Oh my god that looks terrible” (well, maybe for the Toy Story Dog) but more of an “Oh wow, that hasn’t aged super well”. And it got me thinking: if this is how we see these films now, 25ish years later, what are they going to look like to us in another 25? Are we just destined to squint our eyes and put up with it until we can’t bear to watch it for entertainment anymore? We might be able to say “oh hey, come on, it doesn’t look that bad”, but will the next generation even bother? Might they only watch Shrek because it’ll be seen as historic and/or high-brow, in the same way we make film students watch black and white films now? Even as someone who went to film school and genuinely does enjoy a lot films from the first half of the 20th century, I still find myself reaching for something more modern when movie night rolls around, and that’s just how it is.
If it helps me sound less cynical, I should add that I don’t think Hoppers, or Frozen (2013), or even Kung Fu Panda (2008) will share the same fate—at least not to the same extent. I think once the hump of the mid 2010s was crossed computer technology began to (no pun intended) bear animated feature films that sat more comfortably in the seat of “stylised realism”, and now it’s just a slope of diminishing returns. Stripped from any context, I honestly don’t think I could tell you which of Hoppers or Toy Story 3 (2010) released first in a blind test. I don’t think most others people could either. Maybe my future self is screaming at me right now for being so bold as to throw out some predictions, but I do feel that the last 10-15 years of 3D computer animated films will just always look “pretty good” based on the hard limits and capabilities of the human eye; I think they’ll look “pretty good” in a way that those earlier pioneers of the genre will not, for they have seemingly decoupled from the train of progress, and are falling behind into a different, earlier chapter in the book of animation.
To hazard another prediction, I really don’t think I’d be surprised to open up Twitter or Reddit one morning and see the news that one of these turn-of-our-century films was slated to get a full blown remake either, as is so fashionable in the Triple-A video game industry these days. For the last decade or so, studios across the East and West have been remastering, remaking, and rereleasing their biggest hits from this late-nineties-to-early-naughties period, more or less successfully too. We’ve hit a point in the cycle now where we’re getting remakes of remakes⁵, as if the studios who wrangle these million-dollar franchises cannot conceive of artistic or narrative progress because any form of progress inherently requires some form of risk, which the studios are unwilling to take. While financially successful animated IP has historically been milked through sequels (either as cinematic releases or direct-to-video ventures) I think now it may only⁶ be a matter of time before an executive flicking through the folder of IP decides drop the pretence and commission a ground-up remake of one of these early 3D computer animated classics wholesale.
So, it seemed settled in my head: Shrek and Toy Story are the modern versions of Da Vinci’s great deteriorating masterpiece The Last Supper, both incredible and important achievements in art, alas destined to crumble over time because they ran too far ahead of the curve and now must pay the price of progress; destined to one day be remade and reproduced with “New and Improved” stickers slapped on. A shame really, because in my opinion they are undoubtedly some of the best (I even have one of the Toy Story aliens tattooed on my shoulder). If anything, I find myself wondering why some of Pixar’s more lukewarm, recent features couldn’t have been the ones to break in the RAM so to speak—I don’t think I’d be as melancholic if The Good Dinosaur (2015) was (aptly) lost to time. Then again, I don’t think we would have even gotten The Good Dinosaur if it wasn’t for the incredible success of Toy Story et al. in the first place, so it’s a real catch 22. Either way it seemed a settled matter. Rest in Peace Shrek and Toy Story, you had a good run. Thanks for all the memes, see you in the inevitable remake on Disney+.
And yet, something didn’t sit right with me about that comparison either. These films aren’t actually tangibly deteriorating like old frescoes, and—objectively at least—they’ll look exactly the same in 50 years as they do now; they’ll look exactly the same as long as there are hard drives to store them (which may actually be less than 50 years at the rate things are going). If anything, their “shortcomings” are now the things that make them interesting. There’s a reason I can go on and on about the visual presentation of Shrek and Toy Story in ways that I can’t about a similarly well written and produced Wall-E (2008) because there’s nothing to say beyond “yeah, it looks good.” It is this element of imperfection that seems to change these films over time, and it’s still changing them, still inexplicably bringing me back to them.
So what’s the comparison then? If Snow White and Dumbo (1941) look exactly the same now as they did back then, subjectively and objectively, that’s one thing. Soulful, sweet hand-drawn animation has seemingly destined them to not age at all, like honey. They’ll be as good tomorrow as they were coming out of the Great Depression, and without a doubt they’ll be there next Christmas.
And If Shrek and Toy Story are changing in ways that look to be undesirable then it seems that the metaphor stands to reason that it’s more apt to say they’re moulding, going slightly green behind the milk in the fridge of culture. We remember loving them when they were new, but good luck getting kids to give them a chance.
So maybe it’s more appropriate to say that this specific era of 3D computer animation was like a pre-Pasteurian era, before we’d advanced the technology enough to nail down preservatives. To some that might sound repulsive, but when I think about it like that, I don’t know. Personally I kind of like fermented cheeses, the ones that are a little out more there; a little alive. They have a history and tell a story that the pre-sliced, long life and fortified cheddar in your fridge doesn’t. Maybe they’re not everyday staples, but they’re the ones you remember, and I like that.
While I don’t foresee any of the big studios producing animated films that emulate these specific visual shortcomings, I do think the imprint of this era is already showing up in the media that people are creating at a grassroots level. If you’re familiar with the Lo-fi and/or analogue horror resurgence(s) you’re already aware of how a medium’s limitations can add to its artistic potency, when done right. You might also already by familiar with a Brian Eno quote that states it better than I could, which I am academically obligated to provide:⁷
Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty
about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD
distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-
bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as
they can be avoided.
And in that light, I do think this funky, undercooked-looking style of 3D computer animation will find a home. Maybe in horror, just like staticky VHS scan-lines have with the likes of Shudder’s Skinamarink (2022), and A24’s forthcoming The Backrooms (2026); and maybe in other places. I don’t think it’s wild to speculate that it might even have a broad appeal, given enough time. Really, who knows how culture develops, both inside and outside the fridge. To return to the food analogy, maybe the small-batch fermented cheese won’t be flying off supermarket shelves anytime soon, but I know I like it, and I’d love to come across some at a farmer’s market, especially if I knew I had good honey at home.
So yeah—maybe the suits want to remake Shrek because it looks a little funky now, but if anything I think it’s adding to its charm; and yes—maybe Hoppers would be more to my taste if it was (re)drawn by hand, but at the end of the day kids need regular cheese for regular sandwiches, and honey is only as delicious as it is rare. Maybe the best thing to do is just let animated things look the way that they look, without knowing how they’ll age, and find some space in the fridge of culture for both. “Variety is the cheese of life”, or whatever Oscar Wilde said.⁸
Harry James Forkan is a Writer, Photographer, and Illustrator who does actually appreciate pre-sliced cheddar for what it is. You can find more of his work @h_forkan_ on instagram, or right here on Scribbled.
Footnotes
1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoppers_(film)
2
https://deadline.com/2026/03/box-office-hoppers-the-bride-opening-projection-1236743025/
3
https://x.com/threebarebears/status/2030787968538177726
4
Suitably named “Scud”, as I found out writing this. https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Scud
5
Halo Studio’s forthcoming Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the 2001 classic which was already (albeit poorly) remastered in 2011’s Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.
6
This is to say nothing of the live action Disney remakes, a dead horse which has been well and thoroughly beaten.
8
He did not say that.