Animation and Cartoons!

I've never really been a fan of cartoons, ive never really seen the appeal, I just can't connect with the characters as well as say a real human actor.

But they do have an ability to transport the viewer to fantastical places and some animation has been truly beautiful.

So then?

Cartoons.

Well it all started decades ago, and I can see why they had such appeal, before most special effects and visual effects came about they were the only way to realise some of the more outlandish stories. I mean today I feel animation in the traditional sense has become slightly redundant due to more sophisticated visual effects. Nevertheless though animation has its place well rooted in history.

Fantasmagorie is what you could say 'cartoon', it was made in 1908 by Emile Chol and was at the time ground breaking, it features a clown going through several changes morphing into different objects and shapes. It has recently been remade, and I think this mordern version doesn't really give the charm of the old version justice.

There are several types of animation:

Rotoscoping is used by physical drawing over the live action captures, to create epics such as the original animated lord of the rings.

Full animation, wherby the entire media is created using animation, like the Lion King for instance, it is highly detailed!

Stop Motion a favourite of mine, used in creating things such as wallace and grommit and scenes in jason and the argonauts. It is done capturing an image of a still model, moving it slightly, capturing another image, moving it again, and so on so forth until a sequence is created.

Limited animation, things like fairly odd parents, and spongebob. It uses less detail than full animation.

Cutout animation. 2D cutouts are used to create animated scenes, such as South Park

Live action/animation: Live action is mixed with animation, such as osmosis jones.


And the list goes on..

So obviously there are tonnes and tonnes of different methods of animation, each with their own effects. And there is no doubt it is a popular form of media, on every kids network ever and even some adult networks we see cartoons. Its cheaper, you can really go all out and everything is possible.

Cartoons can be put to lots of uses too, because of semiotics we can connect with characters in cartoons (i know i said i cant, but most people can) we understand spongebob and bart simpson as characters. And we fall in love with them, which is why shows like The Simpsons are known and loved the world over. Cartoons are a form of escapism from real life.



Because of our connection with them, they are used in all sorts of different mediums, instructional videos, propaganda, parody and even dare I say it porn!

It is everywhere. Its cheaper, more stylised and there is no ceiling with what you can do, no wonder its such a loved medium then..

But recently we've seen a rise in media such as this..




Feature length animated epics, like Wall-e and the incredibles.

Done by studios such as Pixar.

We see them more and more and they are generating more revenue than ever before..

obviously they are cheaper than creating the same thing in live action, and because of their bright colours and stylised look appeal to the kids, and with intertextual references and in jokes for the adults, there is something for the whole family.

And these mordern animations are becoming more and more realistic looking, pseudoreal, created from realistic looking tissues but forming something not real. Despite being a negative in the field of visual and special effects, it is put to good use here, because as we learnt with final fantasy spirts within, realistic is sometimes strange looking.

With animation there is no ceiling and you can achieve almost anything, its not limited as much by technology, and i suspect as it becomes more and more popular we'll see it intergrated more and more into all ranges of media.