by Brandie Ashe
Animation—when it’s done well—has its own special sense of lyricism. That is due in large part to the form itself, for animation can do a myriad of things that we mere mortals cannot physically recreate. There is a magic to the movement of a cartoon, a fluidity that can feel almost otherworldly, yet comfortably grounded, as you watch the characters slide across the screen. Combine that with an effective and engaging story, and you have not only a great cartoon, but a great film, period. And few in the animation field today understand this as much as Pixar.
Now, you could argue that because Pixar’s output is computer-generated, it could be considered a sort of cheat, that it stands apart from traditional hand-drawn animation, that perhaps it’s somehow “easier” for computer animation to capture realistic yet fantastical movement. But that argument belies the brilliance of the animators who so lovingly craft these films. Even a cursory look at the Pixar canon demonstrates how these films excel at movement down to the finest details; something as seemingly negligible as hair is so finely crafted that it waves with a stunning realism as the characters shift across the screen. With a breathtaking precision that only grows more impressive over the years, Pixar has mastered the poetic melding of motion and story. It’s in the undulating, beautifully-rendered fish who swim their way through an emotional quest in Finding Nemo (2003); the realistic motivations and dynamic action of the heroic playthings in the Toy Story series and the superheroes of The Incredibles (2004); and the creatively creepy yet relatable creatures who populate the worlds of Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013). (more…)
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