On Friday I went to the showing of the Oscar winning animated film Spirited Away. I had never seen this movie but I had heard a lot about it, and I was very impressed but the animation style and the story telling. The movie as a whole made me think a lot about the recent wave of interest into the Japanese phenomenon of Anime. Personally, I have just recently started to watch a few Anime shows: Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone, and One Punch Man being my favorite. After watching Spirited Away, I have become increasingly interested in how the different animations styles of these shows and this movie work to play a part in the story telling, similarly to how set design plays a role in traditional film. To me, the animation styles of Disney Pixar have begun to feel very stale and boring, despite increasing realism. The animation styles in Anime convey a message, even a feeling, from the artist that is hard to describe. To me, the unique animation styles are akin to a signature from the artists and story tellers, giving the viewer a little extra to think about, and certainly adding to (or sometimes detracting from) the enjoyment factor.
Rose Scholars Fall 2019
Endless possibilities
I totally agree with your view of current animation styles of Disney/Pixar. The current shapes and movements of the characters all seem very similar across all films, and I feel like that’s just because it’s what the filmmakers think we want to see. In some aspects, they might be right because I’ll find myself looking at other, older animation films and remarking to myself at how bad the quality is compared to more recent films. However, the quality may not be bad, it might just be a different style and I’m a sucker for what’s trending.
I agree that the animation sometimes detracts from the viewing experience. I personally watch anime that has really nice animations, and find it difficult to watch anime that has relatively more crude animation. I also find that the amount of detail in the animation plays a large part in my assessment of quality.
I’m actually going to disagree with you here. I think that Disney’s animation style is actually becoming more innovative in its 3-D animation that a lot of anime fails to achieve. I also believe that a great majority of anime has very similar if not the same animation style. It’s only a few animation studios and anime series that are actually brave enough to divert from the popular styles.
It was also my first time watching the film when I went to the event and I loved it, especially since it was my first time seeing an animated movie that wasn’t made by Disney or Pixar, and it had a new animation style.