Go! Animated

'Go! Animated' is the 2000 American live-action/animated comedy fantasy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed and produced by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the film centers on the toon stars Eric and Doodle Bob (both are voiced by the late Joe Ranft) and his friends is worried that their show is cancelled, so they crossover into the reality and teams up with the teenagers and a little girl to snoop on her. But the clues are quickly raised when Mrs. Acme is found dead and Eric is the prime suspect. It's up to the cartoon characters, Rocky Thompson, Mary Thompson and Karen on a hilarious adventure to New York to stop the Noid King (John Hurt), Doom Vercetti (Jodi Benson) and the other noids, save all toons and bring Doodle Bob to justice. Groundbreaking interaction between the live and animated characters, and lots of references to classic animation.

The film was theatrically released in the United States on December 28, 2000 by Walt Disney Pictures. It was nominated for the 2000 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Voice Cast

 * Joe Ranft as Doodle Bob, an anthropomorphic fish who serves as Rocky's sidekick. Ranft also narrates the beginning of the film.
 * David Odgen Stiers as Ren, an anthropomorphic spider who serves as Rocky's partner. He actually has four arms and two legs.
 * Jodi Benson as Holli Would, a femme fatale doodle who wishes to take over all the cartoons. Benson also portrays her in live action.
 * Frank Welker as Doodle Bob, Holli Would's henchmen.

Production
In December 1997, a sequel was announced by Disney, Sony and Pixar under the working title Geo's 1st Movie 2. Following a successful collaboration with the original film, Tom Kenny, the voice of Green Bob, had signed a two-year, first-look production deal with Pixar, where he also signed director John Lasseter to a two-year deal. The film was produced with a US$60 million budget.

Pixar began production of the film in 1998, which was actually before A Bug's Life was even completed. On July 9, 1999, Geo announced that he is working on the script, and that the release date was set for Christmas 2000 instead of its date of December 15, 2000 to avoid competition with The Emperor's New Groove, another Disney film.

The film was originally supposed to be a CGI-animated/traditionally animated/live-action movie, but was scrapped for unknown reasons.

Filming
''Go! Animated is the first feature-length Disney live-action/traditional animation hybrid since Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, though the traditionally animated characters do not interact in the live-action environment in the same method as they did in Roger Rabbit''; however, there are some scenes where live-action characters share the screen with two-dimensional animated characters, for example, a live-action actor and singer Jodi Benson communicating with a cel-drawn Doodle Bob, who is in a television. Lima oversaw the direction of both the live-action and animation sequences, which were being produced at the same time.

Animation
It was the first Disney film theatrically released in America to feature traditional cel animation since Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). This film, although quite different in terms of plot from any previous Disney film, also contained obvious homages to other Disney films of the distant past, such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, Bon Voyage!, and Savage Sam. As most of Disney's cel animation artists were laid off after the computer graphics boom of the late 1990s, the animated sequences were not done in-house but by the independent Pasadena-based company James Baxter Animation, which was started by noted lead animator James Baxter. Baxter had previously worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios, bringing to life many memorable Disney animated characters like Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Rafiki (The Lion King), and Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Live-action
Principal photography began in April 2006 and ended in July 2006. Because of the sequence setting, the live action scenes are filmed in New York City. However, shooting in New York became problematic as it was in a "constant state of new stores, scaffolding and renovation".

Music
The film's score was written by accomplished songwriter and composer Alan Menken, who has worked on a number of Disney films previously. Fellow composer Stephen Schwartz wrote the lyrics for six songs, also composed by Menken. Menken and Schwartz previously worked together on the songs for Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Home media
''Go! Animated'' was released on VHS and DVD on May 6, 2003.

Sequel
A sequel, Go! Animated: Return of the Toons was released in 2004.