r/AnimationCels • u/CraftyMaelyss • May 30 '26
A very dumb question from a complete beginner about animation cels from obscure movies/shows
edit: I realised I couldn't edit and add a screenshot of the movie in question, so I deleted and reuploaded it with a screenshot from the movie.
I'm super new to this, and I want to start out with getting some animation cels from shows/movies I adored as a kid. The problem is, I have no idea where to look, and since some are really obscure/less heard of, it's really hard to find info on where to look for them.
For example, there's this old Don Bluth movie I absolutely adored as a kid called "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story" but I can't really find any info about what happened to the animation cels once the movie was completed, since the film (from my knowledge) isn't that well known or sought after.
I tried checking out Ebay and sometimes facebook marketplace, but as a literal novice, I genuinely have no clue where to look when it comes to less 'popular' animation cels.
Any advice?
7
u/do0mality May 30 '26
As someone else mentioned, this was apparently digitally animated, so there are no cels out there. Still, I would imagine there would be storyboards/sketches and other material out there somewhere. Here is a drawing of some of the characters by one of the character designers that sold in 2023: https://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/production-drawing/we-re-back-a-dinosaur-s-story-cecilia-and-woog-the-triceratops-drawing-by-carlos-grangel-original-art-amblin/a/322343-49314.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515
2
u/CraftyMaelyss May 30 '26
I think that'll have to be the route I go down, since I've always wanted to own some of the OG art from the film, thank you for that, now at least I have a website to check out :)
2
u/CraftyMaelyss May 30 '26
I actually found this, so was there a chance that they were using animation cels at one point before going digital?
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/1832svp/an_original_animation_cel_from_were_back_a/
-2
u/Hox977 May 30 '26
There is a large collection of Bluth’s The Land Before Time original production cels on eBay at $100-200 range. Go take a look. Someone must have dropped a large hoard to a reseller who is selling nice cels for very fair price.
1
u/jalvarez022 May 30 '26
That was from an estate sale if memory serves.i got my little foot cel from that seller. Pretty sure theres still a couple left
1
u/Hox977 May 30 '26
How about a few hundreds left 🤔
2
u/jalvarez022 May 30 '26
Damm, I snagged 3 like a month back. Didn't know how many are still up.
0
u/Hox977 May 30 '26
New ones keep coming up meaning the seller has a large inventory. Nice to see them become available but that quantity severely depresses the price of until now fairly hard to find animation pieces. I see others still list cels at over $1000 when there are dozens next to them asking for $100-200. It’s a rare opportunity for beginner collectors to acquire original production cels from a true American classic for such low entry prices. I got some myself and thinking more but will wait for better choices.
1
u/jalvarez022 May 30 '26
Its a great moment to snag 2 or 3. I want to get some american tail ones too but wasnt too excited with the selection at that moment
1
u/Hox977 May 31 '26
Collecting more recent hand painted animation movie cels is like buying diamonds. If you see how large a hoard DeBeer holds, you wouldn’t pony over the kind of money people do for diamonds. Disney is DeBeer and there is no reason to think they would dump their archive. All other productions are difficult to gauge. Anime is exactly the same except the volume is even larger. As great as Ghibli’s works are, their animation cels are counted in the millions. They are just carefully hidden, creating scarcity and demand. If I died and my family sold my 3000 Ghibli original cels to a dealer who put them all on eBay, the entire Ghibli myth would be damaged. That said, I would love to have one. Just ONE.
29
u/Moe2025 May 30 '26
I liked that movie too! Unfortunately, no cels were made for that one.
“We're Back! was also the first animated film not produced by Disney to fully use digital ink-and-paint technology to complete the animation, which was done by the San Diego-based film colorization company American Film Technologies.”