Why the Stigma about Animation Should End

 by Nicholas Lemieux

I think we can all agree that animation has shaped a large part for all of our childhoods. Whether it be from watching a classic Disney film or switching over to CBBC to watch some Shaun the Sheep, there’s no denying it has served as the cornerstone for many happy memories. But why is it that as we get older, we tend to look down upon such pieces of media, automatically writing it off as being purely for children in spite of the significant talent usually put into them?

The driving force for this article (besides my looming deadline of course) was the results of the Oscars last month. Of course, the Academy Awards have already been something of a joke with last month’s hysterically bad ceremony serving as the most compelling case for the awards being retired. But I was personally surprised to see that, even with the reduced slate of films released in 2020, Pixar’s latest release Soul failed to secure a nomination for Best Picture. Sure, it won Best Animated Picture, but the fact that the Academy insists upon animated movies having their own distinct category sends the message that such movies, no matter how much effort is put into them, will rarely have the chance to be acknowledged as genuine pieces of art.

In the entire 92-year history of the Oscars, only three films have ever been nominated for Best Picture. This in spite of the fact that, when it comes to critical reception to animated movies, it’s almost always in the 80% upward bracket. Powerhouse studios such as Pixar or Ghibli are masters at film-making; classics such as Toy Story and Spirited Away are on pretty much everyone’s top 100 films list. It’s also an undeniable fact that the production cycle for an animated product is far longer than a live-action one. The animation process is a lengthy process with even just 5-10 seconds of animation being enough to take up a whole day of work. But for some reason, despite the huge amount of effort typically put into producing an animated film, they usually receive barely a minimum of critical and audience reception compared to their live-action contemporaries.

Now granted, there are some animated films created purely for the entertainment of children with little quality present (*cough* EMOJI MOVIE *cough*).  But, and I cannot stress this enough, animation is a medium not a genre. You can’t just write off every single animated product as being solely for kids when there’s so much more to it than that. As Walt Disney put it, “you’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway”.

The recent trend of soulless live-action remakes of classic animations has also proven why the sheer effort put into animated films can never be replicated within real-life. Disney’s recent Lion King remake, despite how it was marketed, was for all intents and purposes an animated film, disguised by its uncanny photorealism. Yet its immense success at the box office, widely outgrossing the original, again drives home how most people write off animation as a one-trick pony and prefer to only see the realistic on the big screen, even though the whole point of cinema is to create world of make-believe for us to get absorbed into. The cheap drive to churn out these live-action remakes at such an alarming rate therefore suggests that these stories, however timeless, cannot be taken seriously unless actual people are put in front of a camera.

As another instance, Avatar: The Last Airbender still stands as one of my most favourite shows of all time. Yes, it was a cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon but the showrunners didn’t care about dumbing it down for kids and instead chose to craft a genuinely compelling work of art with fantastic world building, breathtaking animation, well-rounded characters and a story that’s able to maintain momentum all the way until the end. It took full advantage of its animated status and to this day is still widely talked about, being more remembered than ultimately half the other serious live-action dramas on air during its time. This of course didn’t deter Netflix from announcing plans to adapt the series to live-action. Because, of course, the last time anyone tried to adapt Last Airbender to live-action amounted to a tremendous success (friendly reminder that there is no Last Airbender movie in Ba Sing Se).

There also just tends to be a depressing trend of animators being taken for granted by studios. One of the more awful stories I can recall is how the producers on Sausage Party, hoping to cut corners on a looming deadline, forced the animators to work unpaid overtime at the threat of getting blacklisted. I mean, just picture it: if you were just breaking out into the animation industry and your first and only job was on Sausage Party, you had to do what they say. I’ve seen some very dodgy things in my lifetime, but no person deserves to go through the torment of animating THAT scene (I’m not describing it, you know what it is) just for free. The sad part is that such blatant mistreatment is par the course in the animation industry and the fact that so many people still choose to write off animation just because it doesn’t look real is absurd to me.

I’ve also always felt like there’s a significant market for animated dramas geared towards an adult audience, mature storytelling that can break the boundaries of what’s to be expected from animation and again prove it’s more than just a collectivised genre. A majority of adult animation today comprises sitcoms such as The Simpsons or Family Guy, and to be fair there’s nothing wrong with what they do. But after seeing formulaic sitcom after formulaic sitcom, you could probably understandably from my perspective that animation as a medium could be put to far better use here.

With that said, there does seem to be some glimmers of hope within the current culture that animation of all ages may start to become more widely accepted by audiences for their experimental approach in breaking the boundaries of storytelling. Within the world of TV, story-driven animations such as Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe have garnered huge popularity for tackling topics that others would deem to be “too adult” for children, such as trauma or LGBT issues. All of these shows are simultaneously capable of being appropriate for children and appealing to all ages.

Likewise, story-driven adult animated shows such as BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty have started entering the cultural zeitgeist more (although in Rick and Morty’s case it’s more of a con if anything). I was also recently very happy to hear about the immense success of Amazon’s Invincible, notable for being from what I can recall the first instance of a 45-minute animated drama. The sheer amount of acclaim it has received has given me hope that it can pave the way for similar animated shows to prosper.

In the end, the major message I want to send across is for people to get rid of their preconceived notions about animation and just accept it as the wide, varying medium it truly is. There’s a chance you’re missing out on some genuinely great pieces of storytelling art.

But seriously, enough joking, there is no Last Airbender movie. What are you on about???