Issue 1

September 27th, 2019

Staff writer advocates for animation

SUN. | 05-02-21 | OPINION

Movies are a huge part of our culture and lives. They provide us with entertainment, inspiration and something to think and talk about. They can bring people together or tear them apart.

Movies have been divided into two subcategories: animated and live-action. Both genres have evolved greatly and have become revolutionary in their technology and quality. Each movie genre is greatly appreciated by the world and has a lot of love put into them.

One of the main stereotypes of animated movies is that they are “children’s movies”, not for adults to enjoy. Many people believe that live action movies are more “mature”. I think that this is absolutely wrong. A lot of animated movies have very adult themes (such as pain and death) and can evoke strong emotions. Both types of movies can be aimed toward a younger audience or be made for children.

One thing that many animated movie watchers don’t appreciate is just how much time and work goes into making the movie. A high-quality animated movie from companies such as Disney and Pixar takes at least a full year, on average, to make. There has to be story writing, character creation, sketch art, animation, lighting, voice

Graphic by Jake Bradsher

acting and much more. It requires an enormous team and long work days. For one of the new Disney animated movies, Soul, the full development process took four years. Individual animators work for all this time just to have two or three clips in the movie that are only about two or three seconds long each.

None of this is to say that live action movies aren’t as good as animated movies. I simply believe that the two should be treated equally and that people should respect animation for the time and work that goes into it. Both live action and animated movies have charm in different ways and they each provide totally different feels for the audience. I love the realism that live action movies provide, but I also love the whimsical and otherworldly feeling of a lot of animated movies.

For anyone who is interested in better understanding the complex process of making an animated movie, there is a six episode docuseries about the making of Frozen II called Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II that is available on Disney Plus. Frozen II was perfect to make a show about because of its incredibly advanced animation and detail. It goes through the whole process of creating and producing the movie, interviewing employees and directors and giving the audience a peek into the world of Disney. It is one of my favorite documentaries and greatly increased my appreciation and love of animation.

Animation is one of my greatest interests and passions and it is upsetting when people act like it is only for kids. Animated movies deserve to be appreciated just as much as live action movies. It is understandable for people to prefer one or the other, but that does not mean they need to talk poorly about the other movie style. I hope for adults and children around the world to have their eyes opened to the world of animation and the incredible work behind it.

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