Zenimation

Welcome to another (mini) Disney Friends Blog Hop! This month’s topic is Disney+ and my post is about the new collection of shorts called Zenimation. Once you’ve finished reading this post, click on the next button at the bottom to make your way through the loop.

I have to be honest in that I had no idea what Zenimation was until I started watching it. From the display picture, I assumed it was a documentary about the beauty of animation.

Nope. That is not even close to what it is.

Created and edited by David Bess, the official description of Zenimation off the Disney+ website is: “Unplug, relax and refresh your senses for a moment of mindfulness with Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zenimation.  Whether it’s baby Moana being called by the ocean, Anna and Kristoff walking through an icy forest, or Baymax and Hiro Hamada flying over San Fransokyo, these iconic scenes become an aural soundscape experience like no other.” Zenimation currently consists of ten episodes, each four to seven minutes long. Each is a montage of different clips from Disney’s classic animated films based around a theme and each theme is meant to be calm and relaxing.

The ten episodes are titled: “Water,” “Cityscapes,” “Discovery,” “Flight,” “Explore,” “Night,” “Nature,” “Serenity,” “Water Realms,” and “Levity.” There is no dialogue or Disney music in Zenimation, and the majority of the sound isn’t even from the original films. It’s more like synchronized white noise set to the animated clips.

Some of my favourite episodes are “Water” (which features a lot of footage from Moana, Frozen II, and The Little Mermaid,) “Cityscapes” (which has a lot of New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog, San Fransokyo from Big Hero 6, Atlantis, and Zooptopia), and “Flight” (which features The Rescuers Down Under, Hercules, Aladdin, and Peter Pan.) There aren’t a lot of chips from movies that were released before The Little Mermaid, and there does some to be a concentration on films like Frozen and Frozen II, Zootopia, Moana, and Big Hero 6.

Each episode ends with the quote: “Zenimation is a tribute to the visual and sound artists who have created Walt Disney Animation Studios’ legacy of films.”

Have you watched Zenimation on Disney+? Which episode is your favourite?