Wells & Animation

Animation: “The act, process, or result of imparting life, interest, spirit, motion, or activity.”

I’ve always been fascinated by animation – to be honest I’ve never really taken the time to fully understand it. Wells mentions Disney several times during his text and it forced me to realise that I have watched these Disney films all my life and have never really appreciated the amount of work which had gone into creating them. I took it all for granted, especially as a child... I guess I am going to find out for myself how extensive the animation process is on Monday!

Wells cites William Moritz in his text, and he elaborates on the effect experimental art has on the audience; i.e. the fact that different meanings can be interpreted from it depending on how abstract something is. I completely agree with this statement and agree with the fact that it is more interesting to have several interpretations of art which can then be discussed. A good example would be ‘Passage’.  Moritz speaks of animation having to encompass “intriguing spirit” and immediately, ‘Western Spaghetti’ popped into my head. I was SO impressed by this film and I think my favourite part was when they chopped up the Rubik’s cube, it looked brilliant. Although it was most definitely an experimental film, I’m not sure a multitude of meanings could be taken from it – I think it was just one of those ‘simple but genius’ pieces of art and it definitely has spirit.

Wells obviously wrote this text in 1998 and I think it’s interesting that he talks about the fact that orthodox animation is 2D as clearly that statement is now outdated. Many Disney films, such as Toy Story 3 are now being made in 3D. I like the fact that  animation is moving forward and it makes me very curious to think what could be being created/invented in a mere 50 years. Thinking of the last 10 years, 3D animation has exploded onto our cinema screens (quite literally) notably in the form of ‘Avatar’. Yes, the narrative was unoriginal, but the animation was spectacular to look at and this brings us back to what Wells discusses in orthodox narrative form – the narrative most often follows a simple ‘chase’ story of some sort and there will be a resolution at the end. I don’t think people get bored of hearing the same story over and over again, as long as they have something new to look at. Image is one of the most important parts of watching a film to me, so ‘Avatar’ was refreshing in that sense.

Animation still baffles me, but it sure does look good.