Following Disney’s hyperrealism or thinking outside of the box?
Hyperrealism, as developed in the works of animation theorist Paul Wells, has come to define a mode of animation, which despite the medium’s obvious artifice, strives for ‘realism’. The most significant element of Disney hyperrealism is the lifelike movement and CGI effects – or motor function – of the animation, which reflects both the actual movements of live-action models and the skill of the animator. Many animation studios across the world have sought to imitate Disney aesthetically, industrially, technologically, and commercially, while others have resisted this perspective.
On the one hand, Disney’s hyperreal animation aesthetic is frequently seen as the yardstick by which the creation of animation from other animation studios may be measured. For example, ‘Animal United’, a film produced by the German studio Constantin Film. Speaking of this film, Despite an outstanding voice cast, ‘Animal United’ often feels like a sub-par copycat of a bunch of animated animal adventures, such as ‘The Lion king’. Their primary goal was to create a successful movie, so they stole the look and some characters from other animated features and used computer-animated skills also so-called CGI technology to create animal-like fluffy characters. They ended up with a movie that played okay in the German theaters but soon will be forgotten forever. No heart, no soul, it is quite a pity that many talents wasted years of their time.
However, there are still some animation studios that can be totally different from Disneyland. Take Cartoon Saloon, producing movies using essentially the same techniques that he practiced on his father’s acetate sheets as a child. This approach sets it apart in the animation world, which has gone almost entirely digital. Moore, the co-founder animator of Cartoon Saloon, believes that computer graphics are subject to built-in obsolescence. “Computer animation is moving so fast that ‘Toy Story’ looks really ropy now,” he said. “Whereas there are hand-drawn films from the nineteen-forties that still stand up. ‘Bambi’ still looks really timeless. And that’s because its language is the language of painting and illustration, rather than the language of the latest technology.”
That hoped-for spirit does live in the culture of the studio. Louise Bagnall, who went to work there eight years ago, in her late twenties, said that, almost as soon as she was hired, she was encouraged to pitch ideas for things she wanted to make because Moore and his co-founders didn’t want Cartoon Saloon to employ the industrial approach just like Disneyland.
To sum up, good animated films or animation studios don’t have to fulfill all the recent Disney hyperrealism, to be incredibly realistic, or technologically fluffy. don’t have to look like whatever insane sum Hollywood can afford. It can be extremely beneficial if you no longer (more or less successfully) copy a style, but come up with a distinctive visual enjoyment. In this day and age, animation studios should learn how to think outside of the box.