As a child born in the twentieth century, I surely know that much has changed in terms of animation. The days of watching your favourite cartoon character exaggerate every action and take a few moments to look how far up the sky they are before looking into the camera, letting you indentify yourself with what is about to happen, then, as if gravity has just woken from a deep sleep, you see them fall with a sharp scream to the earth below! And you can't but laugh as they pour out tears that form streams in the desert lands, as their pencil drawn bodies change form whichever way will prove to you their current emotion and/ or direction, and as the soundtrack highlights both what is happenning and your reaction to it. Every image as you watched came to life from a piece of paper scanned onto the screen yet drew you into a world where you too could exist., the characters acknowledged your presence on the other side of the screen and you so identified with them, fully understood them that Bugs bunny's tricks were your forte' and you kept shouting 'watch out!' when Mister Maggoo approached a lamp post.
But now those days have been replaced by fast pace, high-tech sound, strong narrative, real life character animation made possible by the digital era. Disney took cinema animation to its height especially with the Pixar partnership with Warner Bros, Dreamworks and 20th Century Fox heating up the competition. Releasing animation films like 'Chicken Little', 'Meet the Robinsons', 'Cars', 'A Bugs' Life', 'The Incredibles'; and from the competition, Warner Bros who themselves are doing a fantastic job with computer animation, 'The Ant Bully' and 'Happy Feet 'with Dreamworks 'Shrek 1,2 and the third', 'Madagascar' and 'Shark Tale' making us laugh.
Before animation was purely for the children but now couples join hands as they walk into a 'Shrek' movie, friends chatting into 'Happy feet' and kids always expectant for another 'Toy Story' that will take them "to infinity and beyond." And that is exactly what digital animation is doing to cinema animation, taking it from glory to glory! However, the pencil still lives on in the hearts of those who knew the 'Mickey and Minnie Mouse', 'Goofy' and 'Woody Woodpecker' of old. And for this reason it shall never die out as even Disney chooses to keep this legendary foundation of animation strong within the existing computer animation platform. My favourite animation films in the year 2007 was ofcourse 'Ratatoulle' and 'Meet the Robinsons' who took us through the world of the future, I absolutely loved it. Though they used real characters, space and characteristics, in 'Ratatouille', the mice were still to me fascinating in that they could adopt human characteristics yet you were constantly aware that they were mice. Even the humans in the movie behaved somewhat cartoonish in that they would completely sag when feeling down. The scene where Remy jumps out of the old lady's kitchen window, then freezes for a moment and gives you time to reminisce the days of old, then suddenly he falls out with a scream!!!, was to me the climax of it being an animation film!
3 comments:
I think it's interesting how animation films, supposedly made for children have increasingly been made to appeal to adults, the parents of these young ones so that they would be able to watch the films with their kids and be able to somach them. I remember watching Toy Story when it was released in 1995. I loved the film then and when I watched again some years later, I loved it even more. The film remained the same but my enjoyment radically increased. This was because I understood the film better than before. The majority of the jokes flew right over my head as a child but later, I understood them.
This is the trend that I have noticed over the years. It's like the animation studios target adults, not children as their primary audiences these days. The children just don't 'get' the films the way adults do. Another film, 'Happy Feet' is a great example of this.
Happy Feet was a good film in all ways, but it was simply way too deep for a child to fully enjoy. The themes involved, especially the global warming concern emphasied towards the end of the film, would be beyond the minds of the children that the films was supposedly made for. This is similar also in the film 'Cars'.
These were all good films, some more funny than others but on the whole thw quality of filmmaking was high. The problem is that the target auduences have changed and the studios are not blatant enough to admit it.
Nice comment!! Although this observation is clearly well thought through, perhaps it would be equally rewarding when taking into account that target audiences (especially for big budget Hollywood movies like those mentioned) are multi-leveled. By that I'd say that the "All ages" rating would mean just that really- ALL ages.
The real focus would come in during the marketing aspect of it. Think of how many toys and memorabilia are sold long after most of these movies have left the circuts. That becomes a defining point in target audiences I'd think. Movies themselves have a special something that will always be indepth no matter what. Think of it as the art of telling a story... that may on one fascinate little minds and simultaneously make a 30 year old cry or be left in amazement.
Perhaps studios don't need to admit anything since it all seems in place
Sach (",)
i think it would be fair to say that animated films nowadays are made originally with the thought of kids in mind but to some degree it is also safe to say that as much as kids are the focal point we and the producers have to take into consideration the fact that the adults are taking these kids to see these films. they too are allowed to enjoy these films on a capacity beyond that of the kids. and taking a look around at the kids of today its only a matter of time that these kids actually catch up and begin to understand these jokes.
ntokozo mntambo
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