Do you remember the moment in Dumbo, the original film and not the Tim Burton remake, where he hallucinates and we see pink elephants dancing and playing music. This was a moment where I believed animation could actually be a form of art. Now art has many meanings, but what the moving image? The interpretations are endless, but should animation be considered as a higher form of art? Well, let’s have a look at how animation is currently evolving.
Recently on Netflix there has been an anthology series of animated shorts designed by the combined minds of Tim Miller and David Fincher. This anthology is titled Love, Death + Robots, and each short is designed for a more adult audience. I know they’re not in a film format, but something as crazy and experimental as this show deserves a look into the depths of animation. The brilliance of this show is that each short showcases a different form of animation; whether it’s cel shading, classic 2D animation or even animé inspired animation. This format allows an older audience to realise that animation is not just for kids, it’s a more expressive way of communicating stories and worlds to a television screen.
Animation has always been considered a childlike genre, with family movies, kids television shows and all sorts being aimed at pre-adolescent children. Adults never have felt the need or desire to go out their way to watch animated films without a child nearby. The cinematic landscape, and even the televised landscape as just discussed, is changing and proving that animation is not all about fairy tales and magic. It can go deeper and more submersive than regular film.
Recently we had Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which was nominated and even won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. Usually in awards season we have Disney and Pixar leading the pack with new original stories. However, we instead have had a Spider-Man film made by Sony Pictures Animation. The same company that makes Smurf films and odd wonders such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The secret to its success comes from two main components - two incredibly creative individuals; Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. These two producers are slowly changing the landscape when it comes to animation.
Around five years ago Lord and Miller released what many assumed to be a cash-grab money making film called The LEGO Movie. In a way I’m not wrong, but that wasn’t by far the only reason we got a film based around LEGO. Lord and Miller saw a medium for making a LEGO film that didn’t rely on stop-motion or cheap animated tricks. Instead they built software that mimicks stop-motion and used all the resources of Warner Bros. Animation Group to design a unique look that best suits LEGO objects and ended up creating an engaging, heart-felt and unique film. As well as one catchy tune for the kids to annoy parents.
So let’s get back to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Lord and Miller once again started producing an animated Spider-Man project. Bear in mind, in the last two decades we have had three iterations, with two reboots of Spider-Man on the big screen. So why create another iteration, albeit in animation, for the big screen. Reason number one; they went back to the comics and created a whole new animation style that looked like it was torn directly from the source material. Reason number two; they focused on a different character who donned the Spider-Man outfit - Miles Morales. Lastly, they knew the audiences know enough about Spider-Man to have fun with the idea of multiple Spider-Men. The result is quite possibly the most inventive and creative uses of animation we’ve had since Toy Story. The story, the style and the tone was an instant win with audiences all over the world.
Noticed how I said audiences all over the world. It appealed to children, to families, to comic book lovers and most importantly, to everyone else. Adults could enjoy it, teenagers could admire it and children could fall in love with it. It proves my point that animation doesn’t digress to one audience, instead it appeals to many. So how does this relate to art? Art is designed to convey a message for the audience to interpret. The idea is that different audiences can relate to different aspects to the art. With these points made in today’s blog, I think it is fair to say that animation has not only become a form of art but it always was and we’ve just started to notice it!
Thank you for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
Comentarios