I think the likes of "Despicable Me" nod back to an older tradition by the way.

Thinking back to classic cell animations, like Tom and Jerry, for example... the backdrops tended to be painted, often, sometimes, in a fairly realist style... I'd say... certainly quite a different style to the character animations. But stylistically, I think, it does somehow still gel.

Obviously an entirely different set of artists tended to work on the background / environment paintings... to those who did the character animation and cell overlays.