Which Disney animated feature was the first to be entirely digitally composed using CAPS?

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The Disney animated feature first entirely digitally composed using CAPS was The Rescuers Down Under.

Released in 1990, the film was the first Disney feature to use the Computer Animation Production System for its complete ink-and-paint and compositing workflow. Artists still created traditional animation drawings, but those drawings and the painted backgrounds were scanned, colored, layered, and photographed digitally rather than transferred to hand-painted cels.

CAPS was developed by Disney and Pixar in the late 1980s. The Little Mermaid had already used the system experimentally for a single shot, but The Rescuers Down Under was the first full-scale feature production to rely on it. The process also enabled complex camera moves, multiplane effects, and the integration of computer-generated elements.

A common mix-up is calling the film Disney's first computer-animated feature. It was still a traditionally drawn 2D film; Toy Story, released in 1995, was the first major feature made entirely with 3D computer animation. The CAPS breakthrough instead marked the end of Disney's traditional cel-based finishing process and shaped the studio's Renaissance-era films.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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