There’s a video on YouTube that draws a lot of disappointment. It shows liberal use of “copy-and-paste” among Disney’s hand-drawn films from decades past. Scene by scene, it quickly cuts between the likes of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Jungle Book, The Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and more, showing how the studio reused basic animations across films. Generally, it seems that the more recent films, from the last thirty years, liberally reuse animations from Disney’s more classic films from the mid-1900s. Here’s the video itself:

It’s disappointing to some because of nostalgia and the belief that all these movies—many of which were watched in childhood—were powered by some portion of magic, like the animators and artists were merely channels for a greater power. This side-by-side deconstruction shows, more than anything, that the films are not magic, but the result of hard work, and that breaks the spell. We’re not It’s not even about the duplication.

Instead, I find the video compelling because of the artistry in convenience. Why wouldn’t these artists reuse old assets if they’re available? Anyone in a creative field knows that reinventing the wheel is a sure path toward failure. Instead of admonishing these artists for their copy-and-paste, I think more people should be enamored at their capacity to adapt.

While Disney’s re-use of animations is not necessarily analogous to the copy-and-paste modern computer users take advantage of daily, I do think it showcases how technological innovation is intended to make our work easier, without sacrificing creativity. The ability to duplicate large—if not near-infinite—amount of text is unfounded in human history, and it allows the flow of information to be expounded at an exponential rate. Just two hundred years ago, books remained an expensive commodity reserved for only a select portion of the higher classes. Now, books are ubiquitous and the Internet is available to large swaths of the public. Literacy rates are climbing ever higher.

I could go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on...

The point is: The easy duplication of data and knowledge in our computing systems is one of the greatest inventions in recent history. When someone can use it to create something spectacular, it should be celebrated. It’s an achievement, not a disappointment.