I work in video gaming, and I went to school for 
Computer Animation.  In this line of work, you 
get to meet a lot of cool people, and also go to 
a lot of great conventions.  We went to Siggraph 
last year, and I think we are going again this 
year.  You learn how and what they use to make 
these extravagant scenes like in Tarzan and 
Beauty and the Beast.  A lot of it, youd be 
surprised at how simple it is, like the texture 
mapping for the vines in Tarzan, I know how to do 
that stuff, same with the water in Road to El 
Dorado, it was a 3D particle effect, made custom 
for them to use, where you could apply 2D foam 
and water textures, animated, to the particles, 
and animate those in turn.  Looks really cool, 
but it's all smoke and mirrors.  I do 3D and 2d 
for my company, and while 2D is definately my 
stong area, 3D is all tricks, like magic!  It all 
has to do with how much you know about faking out 
your audience, without them knowing it.  It's 
very cool stuff :)