Another day, Another essay

Can the animated form be categorised?

Before we begin to ask the question about if the animated form can be categorised I am first going to look at the 'notes towards a theory of animation' by Paul Wells. In these notes he goes over how he sees only two real types of categories for animation, Developmental and Experimental. Developmental being the more Orthodox form, normally used in Disney movies and often known as 'cel-animation'. These types of animation normally follow a clear story and will most of the time follow a same style of animation or imagery through the production. Experimental animation tends to be more willing to break the rules of what appears to be the norm for animations and most times aims to explore the limits of what it can create or instill in its viewer. (Wells, 2011)
Because of these 'believed' separate categories I am going to try and determine if these are indeed the only types of animation by looking at examples of mainstream and extreme animations.

My first example of mainstream animation is from a well known show called 'The Simpsons'. This show has been running since 1989 and is still airing today, believed to be one of the best animated shows of all time and responsible for alot of the mainstream animated TV shows around today. Originally a small segment at the end of another show, the animators went for a rather different style to the typical Disney films that viewers were used to by creating the iconic yellow skin and initially wanting bright and various colour pallets such as purple trees and so on. (TVLEGENDS, 2015)
Over time the original look of the show began to change from the more distorted, 'rough' figures of the earlier seasons to a 'cleaner' more consistent appearance which helped it stay alive and compete with newer shows that it itself had inspired. Through the years the style itself has changed twice, with the original being the rough look, then when it became its own show in adjusted again finally looking as it does today when HD animations started coming out hence why it looks so much smoother and well presented now compared to when it started.
Looking at this fact however the style of the animation would be classed as experimental as the figures would become distorted in movement, the colour pallets were extremes and the consistency of the characters themselves would change often for comedic effect. Adding to the fact that there were no real mainstream animated TV shows at the time this would have also been an example of extreme animation. Only through popularity and time did this style of animation actually become the mainstream. So even though something can start out as an extremely experimental type of animation it can actually change and become a mainstream orthodox style through pop culture or popularity.

My next example will be an extreme animation by the name of 'Revolver' by Jonas Odell. The video itself is of different looping animations of different characters performing the same actions over and over again in a robot like fashion. Personally I found the video quite creepy as the human like figures seem to be emotionally void even when they smile or move. It successfully made me feel uncomfortable and wanting to look away yet at the same time I was intrigued to see what happened next, to see if there was a linear story to this animation or even any vocal audio. The music and sound effects were the only real audio that accompanied me through this and along with the grotesque images it only made me feel more uncomfortable. As for the look of the images themselves the lack of colour and simple hand drawings add to the uncomfortable theme as it makes the images feel cold, grim and negative. On top of this however the drawings aren't completely distorted and follow a very tidy appearance, even though some characters appearances are different to what we would normally expect the lines and the shapes seem to connect well and infact look tidy maybe as a form of symbolism for how everything looks nice and clean on the outside even though the act or the atmosphere is such a negative one.
In my opinion this example is extremely experimental through till the end as there is no true story to follow and the animation doesn't have a linear flow to it making you have to try figure out the point of its purpose. (neergoeht, 2008)

My final animation I am going to be looking at is 'The tale of the fox' by Ladislas Starevich. This is one of the very first animated movies being the 6th animated movie in the world and only shortly before Disney released 'Snow White'. This type of animation is different from the ones that I have already spoken about as this is a 3D stop motion animation whereas my others were all hand drawn. Another massive difference is that this film is pre colour so even with the limit to a black and white pallet the film itself still seems to manage to create an engaging atmosphere. The narrative also manages to add to the atmosphere with facial expressions and general movements also adding the the characterisation. As for the animation style itself it is definitely what Wells would classify as mainstream orthodox as this style of animation was popular at the time in story telling and major movies featuring stop animation. However I would also care to argue that it is also experimental as trying to use animals to tell a tale and show emotions in a human like way is something that is different to the normal. trying to show a lion stroke his beard for example would have been difficult considering that lions themselves lack the human features required, so the experimentation would have come from the changing the form of the characters. (iconauta3, 2014)

In conclusion I believe that the categorisation that Wells had spoken about in 'Understanding Animation' is infact the best ways to currently categorise the unique styles and attributes that certain animations show or contain. However I also believe that animations which were once a particular category at the time can then move to be another type dependant on how its viewed alongside attributes such as time and pop culture.



Bibliography:
Wells, P.J. (2011) Understanding animation. New York: Routledge.
In-line Citation:
(Wells, 2011)

Bibliography:
TVLEGENDS (2015) Al Jean discusses the animation style on ‘the Simpsons’ - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VYoM-CIMW0 (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
In-line Citation:
(TVLEGENDS, 2015)

Bibliography:
neergoeht (2008) Revolver - animation - Jonas Odell. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPPtxyubCoI (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
In-line Citation:
(neergoeht, 2008)

Bibliography:
iconauta3 (2014) Ladislas Starevich: The tale of the fox (1930). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsdTCsfnxc (Accessed: 8 January 2017).
In-line Citation:
(iconauta3, 2014)