Sometimes when you read about animation, whether it’s a review of a movie or a piece on the state of animation box office, you often see writers – who aren’t quite entrenched in the medium and its rich history – walk into these tiger traps. They write things about animation that indicate that the perception of the medium hasn’t really evolved since the mid-1960s. Work has to be done, so…
Here is a helpful list! Happy weekend, guys…
#1. Calling animation a genre. – Pretty self-explanatory. A genre is something like action, or sci-fi, or thriller, or adventure, etc. The kind of story that’s being told. Animation isn’t the kind of story being told, it’s the medium used to tell the story. That should be pretty obvious, even though it’s been decades since animation was called a genre and movie sites regularly list animated movies under “animation” as a genre. Still, it’s not a genre. Brad Bird will lose his stamina punching millions of people, so spare him the trouble!
#2. “Despite being animated, this was really good!” – What do you mean “despite being animated?” I remember this gem from a review of Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner last year, which happened to be an adult drama. It being animated is WHY the film in question is special. Are you trying to imply that it would’ve been *better* or more acceptable in live-action?
#3. Being surprised at depth in any given animated film. – If you’ve spent most of your life seeing and reviewing animated films, depth shouldn’t come as a surprise. It should only come as a surprise if the movie you’re watching was something that you didn’t think would have such depth in it. It’s also fine to be surprised at, knowing the film has some depth, how deep it goes. That, however, has more to do with the movie’s story and tone itself, not the medium that was used to make the movie. Don’t say that it’s surprisingly deep for an animated film, but for… An action movie, a comedy, an adventure, etc. This especially applies to films that are suitable for most young audiences.
#4. Saying all animation was for kids only until the Disney Renaissance began. – Perhaps my biggest pet peeve whenever I read any given article about animation from people who clearly haven’t been studying up on this stuff. Walt Disney didn’t aim his films directly at children, many Golden Age cartoons were produced for general audiences, and many people like Ralph Bakshi made adult animation well before the late 1980s. And that’s not even factoring in non-American films. Also, please oh pretty please don’t use Beauty and the Beast‘s Best Picture nomination as proof that exceptional animated films didn’t exist till that one came along.
#5. Constantly bringing up kids. – Some modern animated features, yes, are definitely more kid-skewing. You can’t, however, say that about most of the films being made by studios like Disney Animation, Pixar, DreamWorks, etc. Reviewers often fall prey to this, always clucking about how kids will perceive the movies… They ain’t buying the tickets. Why not tell me, the adult reading your review who may want to see the movie, about how the movie is… As a movie. And not how it is as a babysitting diversion. Also, a lot of reviewers need to quit implying that young’uns can’t grasp weightier material. Talking down to children in general, I believe, is a good-sized part of the problem.
#6. Measuring any G/PG-rated animated film’s worth by its “adult” jokes. – Family-friendly animated films get this A LOT. “Are there jokes for adults?” “Is it edgy?” It seems as if a particular kind of humor is what truly makes an animated feature worth it and not… You know… Great characters, great storytelling, genuine emotional weight, etc. I don’t care if the movie has adult jokes, that’s just the icing on the cake. Why are you at an animated movie if your main request is a few dick jokes? Do you absolutely need those to make it pass your bar for success?
#7. Nostalgia. – Not only is “nostalgia” so abused by so many kinds of people, whether it’s angry fans clinging onto things that they thought were better back in the day (Star Wars, 80s cartoons like She-Ra and ThunderCats, Ghostbusters, take your pick!) or people who can’t see that all the “superior” things they grew up with weren’t amazing, but nostalgia is often used to lessen an animated work’s significance. “It makes you feel like you’re a kid again!” “I’m gonna turn my brain off and be 6 again!” So… You’re not going to look at the movie as… A film, a work of cinema? But as a mere trip down memory lane?
#8. Only crediting the voice actors. – Yes, voice actors are BIG part of animation… But not the only part. Where’s the praise for so-and-so’s writing? Or so-and-so’s directing and staging? Why no mention of the animators, technicians, cinematographers, etc.?
#9. Babbling about “complexity.” – This ties into the whole “animation was just for children before the late 80s” mindset, but I see this tossed around A LOT. How animated movies have become “more complex,” complex complex complex I’ve come to dislike that word because of this… Animation has been telling complex stories since the Walt days. Modern, dizzying pocket-watch plots that are intricate as all hell doesn’t make the medium “more adult” or valid, and they certainly don’t render the deceptively-simple, textured films of the past less “complex.”
#10. Calling every animated movie a “cartoon.” – This is a muddy area, because nowadays pretty much every live-action film with a huge heaping of computer-animated VFX is an animated feature of sorts. A hybrid, not dissimilar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you know? Nowadays, there isn’t a strong distinction if you want to get technical. Something like a Marvel movie is maybe 80% animated, but we still call those live-action movies or “movies.” What do we call all-animated movies that aren’t trying to hide that they’re not exact recreations of real-life? That’s another debate for another day, but… Cartoons? You can’t use that to describe every animated feature. There’s a clear difference between Coco and Despicable Me 3, Incredibles 2 and Hotel Transylvania 3, Zootopia and Storks, and so on and so forth. Cartoons are very exaggerated and caricatured and most of all… Funny! Some animated features, however, are more drama then slap-your-knee hilarious. Not all of them are “toons.”