Monday, January 25, 2010

Animation is not a genre

Animation is not a genre. It is a medium capable of telling a story of any genre.

I discuss movies with 1 friend of mine quite a bit, and he's decided that he's just not really into most animated films. It's hard for me to fathom, but that's likely because personally I'm mesmerized by just about anything animated. The medium really appeals to me. I think I just feel like so much more care is put into these films, because of the amount of time it takes to make the thousands and thousands of drawings that go into some of the best 2d animated films. With the advent of CGI, people might have thought that 2D animation was dead, but mostly that was because the 2D films that were being released in America at that time just weren't that good.

To me, a movie is good because of its story, its plot, and its characters. Animation is just the way this story has chosen to be told. I came across a quote from Brad Bird this morning, director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. I think Bird is one of the better minds on the American animation scene. He said:

“People think of animation only doing things where people are dancing around and doing a lot of histrionics, but animation is not a genre. And people keep saying, “The animation genre.” It’s not a genre! A Western is a genre! Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. You know, it can do a detective film, a cowboy film, a horror film, an R-rated film or a kids’ fairy tale. But it doesn’t do one thing. And, next time I hear, “What’s it like working in the animation genre?” I’m going to punch that person!”

When photography came about, people didn't quit painting. They're both different ways of expressing the same thing. I guess the big pull to animation for me is that creativity has no bounds. The sky is not even the limit. For the record, my FlickChart has 26 animated films within the Top 100.

That being said, I watched The Iron Giant lastnight, and it was a great story with impressive visuals as well. Watch it, if you haven't.