Updated February 16, 2010
Over and over. They say animators have to have a child-like personality in order to have the kind of creative sensibility that appeals to children. While I would have to agree with that in a way, I would first have to take issue with the implication that animation is necessarily for children. One only has to tune into Cartoon Network after nine on a school night to discover, indeed, it’s for adults too. In the earliest days of the art from known as traditional animation, it was an ocular scientific phenomenon that garnered the interest of adults and children alike. Windsor McCay, one of the medium’s pioneers (if not outright grandfather) showcased his animated dinosaurs in Vaudeville sideshows, fairs and expositions that were mostly frequented by adults. At first it was the exploitation of the scientific concept of persistence of memory that is older than the invention of the modern movie projector. It wasn’t until the watered down, over-saturation of the medium along with the inception of limited animation technique perfected by Hanna Barbara Studios in the 60s and 70s that animation came to be analogous with adolescent entertainment. Before then, its was simply an aesthetic artistic medium choice along with live action and stop motion capture. Animation’s father, Walt Disney wasn’t out to appeal merely to children when Snow White won Oscar nominations for best picture in the early 1930’s. It just so happened, that because of what was known as the Motion Picture Ethics Code, commercial movies, whether animated or live-action could not contain profanity, or lewdness, or sexually suggestive themes or images…and unfortunately, in the south, they also couldn’t contain bi-racial romance or fraternization that suggested equality, but that’s and Ethics Code contradiction that would take up an whole other blog entry entirely.
What I’m trying to get across here, is that animation is NOT just for children, unless it’s intended to target that demographic specifically. I’ve always thought one of the injustices of the Oscars was to create a separate category for Best Animated Picture, thereby relegating the medium to a class wholly different from “legitimate” mainstream movie making. When Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture, it was running up against live-action Best Picture nominees, and, in my opinion, that is what made it so very special. Nowadays, animated films are categorized off in a corner by themselves, and the impression I get is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doesn’t consider a film like The Princess and the Frog as legitimate as Inglorious Bastards, despite the level of unique artistic storytelling each has to offer. Just for the record, I’m a fan of ditching the Best Animated Film category and letting filmmakers who choose animation, whether traditionally drawn or CGI character animated films compete with those who opt to tell their by filming live actors. In a way, that’s what animation has on live-action—the dynamic of the vocal performances of live-actors, and the magnanimous skill and technique of dozens if not hundreds of artists. And the end result is a story—either artfully or poorly told. Period. Let’s ditch the patronizing, condescending separate category. But that’s just my opinion, and again, I digress. This blog post was originally about child-like sensibilities, namely one in particular—the ability to watch things they like over and over and over. Children have this in spades. And I suppose of my most childlike personality traits—I’m told I have many, which may just be a polite way of saying I’m immature—the ability to watch what I like over and over and over abounds with me. And not just animated things, though I grew up watching copies of Sleeping Beauty, The Rescuers, 101 Dalmations and the like on looop. All my life I’ve had the tolerance to sit through a movie I’ve seen over and over and over, including live-action classics like Uptown Saturday Night, It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World, reruns of I Love Lucy or What’s Happening…the list goes on. And still today, the truest test of whether or not I like a movie is how many times I’m willing to see it in the theatre, and whether or not I’d purchase it on DVD after that. There’s no question that I like the original Matrix or the movie Fight Club as I saw both in the theatre over 10 times, and have watched them incessantly on DVD for years.
Okay, Jai. Where are you going with this? Wrap this up!
The last time I was home in California for my father’s surprise birthday party, I brought some Kasha work with me as usual—a film deadline takes no holidays—and two of my nieces, aged 6 and 3 caught a glimpse of the Kasha Storyboard Animatic. And of course a glimpse led to, “Uncle Jai, can we watch the whole thing?” Reluctantly, I let them. I say reluctantly because I was busy, but I’m a way more indulgent uncle than I am work-a-holic. Of course, I chose to let them watch the Network broadcast version which is 40 minutes long rather than the 60 minute DVD version, and I’m quite grateful, because as soon as the credits rolled on the animatic, that familiar child-like refrain rang out…”Can we watch it again!?”
I was blown away, because I really didn’t think a 6 and 3 year old would get through a Storyboard Animatic once, let alone twice, considering there’s not real animation. Mostly just still storyboard drawings timed to the preliminary audio build. But the credits rolled again, and there it was….”Again! Please, Uncle Jai!” They proceeded to watch the Kasha Storyboard Animatic six more times before my sister saved me by announcing, “Dinner was ready!” And since they had to sit at their Disney Princess table, Uncle Jai could finally continue to work in peace.
While we’re aiming for family friendly with Kasha and the Zulu King, we arent’ trying to appeal solely to the adolescent demographic. We believe, like all classic animated movies, there’s plenty in it for the kiddies as well as the adults. But if my nieces are anything like their uncle, their ability—rather passion—for watching the Storyboard Anmatic over and over and over tells me one thing…we’re on the right track! I would say we’ve got a pre-emptive hit on our hands, but I don’t want to go so far as to set up expectations that will keep me up at night any more than I already am working on Kasha. My nieces aren’t blindly entertainable. If the flick isn’t good, their interest is quickly waned and they’re off doing something else with that hummingbird energy children have. But they sat and watched Kasha six times in a row, and the characters aren’t even moving yet. Now this is a great testament to the remarkable vocal performances the voice actors gave, but it’s also a great indication that then this thing lives and breaths—after we finish animating it and putting it to color and score, it’s going to be something worth watching…over and over and over!
I’m really excited!
Jai
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