The Multi-plane System
The video below perfectly illustrates what a multi-plane set up is. In 7mins, Walt Disney explains how the multi-plane camera, an innovation straight out of Disney’s “school of self-improvement”, is far superior to the old nasty cel animation technique.
In the case of “Cane-mation!” however, the planes would not be moving during shots or performing any zooms to give the illusion of depth and perspective shifts. The system would be a fixed multi-plane system, shot on a fixed focal length lens, where the slight depth of field would give the illusion of umm, depth. It would also make it easier to make the animation more complicated, by having layers (planes), separating elements onto different layers to animate them independently without them interfering with each other.