Understanding Animation ch 1

It is interesting how the language of comics, through squiggly lines, POWS, and zzzs, carried through to early animation. It is then further interesting how the very open form of animation, utelized most by European avant guard-ists, was streamlined and given limiting conventions by Disney. These limits give limit to expectations for animations as well as limiting the ideological subversion they can create. In creating the industry of animation, Disney helped pave the way for moral confrontations in realistic scenarios rather than graphic and thematic anarchy (p 23). I compared this to the animation I am accustomed to, Disney fairy tales, Warner Bros anthropomorphisms and running gags, superheros with exaggerated qualities but realistic environments, and newer computer animations that attempt to recreate reality in a fantastic way- Lord of the Rings, Avatar. The more abstract, unconventional animation is secluded to underground avant guard, commercials, music videos- separate from narrative animation. Animation is often used in TV commercials, perhaps because it is though to be linked to the subconscious? Yet at the same time there seems to be a push to view animation for a wider genres than children and comedy. Waking Life, Adult Swim, and anime show many different genres and convention breaking animation.

-Hannah Schulman