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The arrival of Ice Age coincided last week with Disney's announcement that it would lay off 265 animation employees and retrain some of its artists on computers. This underlined a nagging notion that traditional animation is becoming extinct. More likely, though, we'll be seeing a marriage of the old and the new. DreamWorks co-owner Jeffrey Katzenberg concedes that "if we stayed stuck in the 20th century with the same look and style, it would be rejected--and it has been rejected." But he doesn't blame the audience; he blames Hollywood. Tarzan, he says, referring to Disney's 1999 hit movie, "was the last really great story done in 2-D." He's hoping to change that with Spirit, a horse adventure opening May 24 with both hand- and computer-drawn images. Plus, it should be noted, there is a scene in which the hero's tongue gets stuck to the ice.
