Animation Progressions

I’ve grown up loving animated films and television shows, from the classic Saturday morning cartoons to Disney/Pixar animated features (Toy Story is arguably one of my favorite movies ever). So when we discussed the nature of animation and how we are repulsed by things that are so similar to us but just slightly off, I thought of the nature of animated movies and children’s television shows today versus those that we grew up with. As a kid, I was obsessed with basic Nickelodeon cartoons—Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Doug, Rocket Power—you know, the classics. I watched them all the time, and taped and re-taped VHS’s of these shows a countless number of times. Even the animated movies we watched as kids were much more two-dimensional and obviously not real, as the technology hadn’t reached the state it is at today. But even today, these animated characters on television shows aren’t really that lifelike. Sure, they are less “cartoon-y” than the classic characters, but very few of them have three-dimensional qualities that come too close to realism. Below is a picture of Angelika from Rugrats, which premiered in 1991 and Dora from Dora the Explorer, which premiered 9 years later. The difference between the composition of the two characters does not, in my opinion, reflect the nine years of technological advances between them.

However, when looking at animated movies of the past, say Aladdin, which was made in 1992 versus Monsters, Inc. in 2002, the differences in animation techniques are astounding. The characters in Aladdin resemble both Angelika and Dora, where both the monsters and the human characters in Monsters, Inc. are much more lifelike. In the images below, both Aladdin and Boo have a sort of hesitant expression on their faces. However, the human emotion is conveyed so much more through Boo’s face than through Aladdin’s. Although it is clear that Aladdin is surprised and kind of taken aback by the lamp, I don’t really feel empathetic toward his situation at all. On the other hand, I get a much better sense of Boo’s sadness and longing. I think that could be a part of why people are getting a sense of creepiness from newer and better animation. When I watch an animated movie, I don’t feel as involved in it as I do when I watch a live-action film. I kind of enjoy the fact that the people being portrayed aren’t “real” in animated films, and, in my opinion, the move toward exact human representations really takes away from the animation genre.