Introduction

For the past eighty years animation has held the image of a genre that caters to children and the young at heart. I disagree with this sentiment, animation is a medium. It’s a common misconception to assume animation and cartoons are strictly for kids, thanks to big animation studios like Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks saturating the market. However, like the medium of film, which can tell a wide variety of genres and stories that can be told and appeal to a wide audience, both young and old; so can animation. For example, even though their work is geared towards children, Pixar still conveys enough material for adults and artists to enjoy. The films they’ve created feature timeless stories, they’ve delved into mature thematic material regardless of their audience, and scenes and characters that we find ourselves emotionally invested.    
As famed animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (1981) once said:

What you as an animator are interested in is conveying a certain feeling you happen to have at that particular time…. Conveying a certain feeling is the essence of communication in any art form. The response of the viewer is an emotional one, because art speaks to the heart. This gives animation an almost magical ability to reach inside any audience and communicate with all peoples everywhere, regardless of language barriers (p. 15).

            However, getting a viewer to respond and emotionally invest in a character is tricky. Animators look at expressions, symbols, and signifiers that an audience member can identify with:

We start with something they know and like. This can be either an idea or a character, as long as it is familiar and appealing. It can be a situation everyone has experienced, an emotional reaction universally shared, a facet of someone’s personality easily recognized, or any combination of these…. The audiences will make our little cartoon character sad––actually, far sadder than we could ever dram him––because in their minds that character is real. He lives in their imaginations (Johnston & Thomas, 1981, p.19).

They then go into detail that for an animated cartoon character to be real, he must have personality, and preferably an interesting one. For example, the earliest cartoon character with a distinct personality would be Gertie the Dinosaur by Winsor McCay.  
 It was believed McCay used a cat for reference when animating Gertie, given that the dinosaur displayed cat-like tendencies like pawing or kneading the ground. Nonetheless, Gertie conveyed shyness, stubbornness, and a fragile self-esteem: traits that mark a distinct personality. Later, Thomas and Johnson use Donald Duck, who is known for his explosive temper, best represented when he’d break a golf club in half in frustration.

            Animation is a medium, not a genre. It is the art and science of bringing imagination to life:

The illusion of life is a rare accomplishment in animation, and it was never really mastered anywhere except at the Disney Studio. Of all the characters and stories and exciting dimensions of entertainment to come from that incubator of ideas, this is the truly unique achievement. This is what must be examined and explained, understood and appreciated, taught to others and passed on to the animators of the future (Johnston &Thomas, 1981, p. 25).

That is what the purpose this blog shall be. I will “examine and explain, understand and appreciate, and to teach others” the art of animation.

Works Cited

Johnston, O., & Thomas F. (1981). The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. New York: Disney Editions.