Anime vs. Disney

[Ritoru Maameido]

Anybody tires of this stupid, pointless debate?

[Disney Duster]

Well, it's true that many animes(is that the correct plural form of anime?) deal with more adult themes than Disney films and shorts, such as drugs, sex, and alcohol, but anime fans often can't see the many Disney films touch on adult, human emotions, and deal with subjects such as death, love, and war(good examples being Bambi and Mulan). Disney movies aren't devoid of real things like violence or sophisticated things like verbal humor. Also, Disney films ar filled with imagination and beautiful artistry. If you ask me, Disney films have always had animation that flowed smoother and looked more natural than most animation in anime.

[castleinthesky]

Well, it's true that many animes(is that the correct plural form of anime?) deal with more adult themes than Disney films and shorts, such as drugs, sex, and alcohol, but anime fans often can't see the many Disney films touch on adult, human emotions, and deal with subjects such as death, love, and war(good examples being Bambi and Mulan). Disney movies aren't devoid of real things like violence or sophisticated things like verbal humor. Also, Disney films ar filled with imagination and beautiful artistry. If you ask me, Disney films have always had animation that flowed smoother and looked more natural than most animation in anime.

And I guess you have never seen any of the Studio Ghibli anime movies. Those movies rivaly Disney's in every way. And if you have ever seen Grave of the Fireflies, that would be teh best war animated movie of all time.

[Ritoru Maameido]

Well, it's true that many animes(is that the correct plural form of anime?) deal with more adult themes than Disney films and shorts, such as drugs, sex, and alcohol, but anime fans often can't see the many Disney films touch on adult, human emotions, and deal with subjects such as death, love, and war(good examples being Bambi and Mulan). Disney movies aren't devoid of real things like violence or sophisticated things like verbal humor. Also, Disney films ar filled with imagination and beautiful artistry. If you ask me, Disney films have always had animation that flowed smoother and looked more natural than most animation in anime.

And I guess you have never seen any of the Studio Ghibli anime movies. Those movies rivaly Disney's in every way. And if you have ever seen Grave of the Fireflies, that would be teh best war animated movie of all time.

You're missing the point. I'm not asking what you think is better, I'm discussing about how the Anime vs. Disney is stupid and pointless. Yes, there are some Japanese animation that are far superior than anything in the West, however, again, that isn't the point.

[Loomis]

Well, I think that it is silly to try and compare and two forms of art, because both are coming from different viewpoints.

I think you'll find that if you went to a Disney forum, or a Anime forum, both are going to have fairly strong views as to which is better. However, as you say, both have their high points and low points, both try for and achieve different things.

However, I think the majority of cinema-goers appreciate different forms of animation. Obviously, Disney is big in Japan, or else they wouldn't have built the first international park there. By the same token, I think that Ghibili stuff is helping Japanese animation break through to the West on a much larger scale.

I'm not surprised you were flamed on an Anime board - I'm sure hardcore Disney fans would do the same thing if the situation was reversed. The trick is to lot let the extreme Internet voices on either end colour your judgment as to whether one forum is equally accepted in another.

[Ritoru Maameido]

Disney does release many kiddified ''crap'', but so many forms of Anime. I still can't get over how Miyazuki was ''actually'' refering to Disney animation in his interview were he said that Japanese animation was dead.....

[Escapay]

I agree, the entire argument (which is better) is rather pointless, as there will be too many viewpoints and no one can truly give an objective opinion as to which is better. I find Disney animation to range in style, for example the animation of Lilo and Stitch is very curvy and fun, whilst the animation of Bambi is very natural and earth, whilst the animation of The Rescuers is very fun and at the same time safe. Animation, I find, to be very stylized, each film I've seen unique in characterization through emotions, but at the same time, all Anime looks the same to me. The faces all have that distinct "anime" look, and their movement all looks the same.

It's very common for there to be very devoted fanboards and messageboards that support one cause and won't listen to the other side. As a soap opera fan, I've found my share of them:

1. WoST - One of my first messageboards, I was there for 5 years (1999 to 2004). They mainly were a lot of 30+ year olds (along with several teens) who were lamenting the present state of daytime tv and all they ever did was reminisce the past and how great it was. It was really snobbish, looking back. They thought they were better than current soap fans, they thought that their soap of yesterday is better than soaps of today (which is true based simply on how much you've seen of your show). I left quietly simply because I got tired of reading thread after thread of "When do you think the idiots in charge will cancel Guiding Light?" or "If you were to bring back a past character from 20 years ago, who would it be and why?" or "If YOU were headwriter, what would you do to fix the show?". I think, though, that they were all truly devoted to soap opera openings (the site, WoST, stands for World of Soap Themes). They judged a show based on their openings, and all had their own wishful thinking version of openings that they wanted to reflect on history and such. It was a rather "old fogies" site, and I visited once a few months ago to just say hi, and saw that they were still the same.

2. danfling's - oh MAN was this show devoted to one idea. The guy that ran it believed that only shows produced and broadcast in New York are allowed to be called "soap operas". So his messageboard was only devoted to canceled soap operas and the current "soap operas". Anything produced outside of New York, be it California or Canada or UK or Australia, it wasn't a soap opera. He wouldn't even call it by its real name! Days of our Lives became "the hourglass show on NBC" and The Young and the Restless was "The hourlong Bill Bell show on CBS". Many tried to reason with him, that it was simply ridiculous to not consider non-NY soaps to be soaps, but he stood his ground. Once, there was a thread about the 10 best deceased soap actors, and people naturally listed Macdonald Carey and John Beradino, two vets of Days and General Hospital (respectively). danfling said that the two were NOT soap actors, as they didn't appear on what was called a soap opera to him. They had done no other soap except for Days and GH, so since they didn't appear on any New York soaps, they weren't real soap actors to him. It led to a pretty big and long argument, and some people left because of it. Anyways, I once started a topic about it, saying he was prejudiced about soaps and compared it to white supremacy (in that he felt only New York soaps were real soaps, the way that white supremacists felt only white people were real people). He got into such a tirade about it he started lecturing me about all his black friends, even going as far as mentioning their college education and how one was a congressman. Anyways, I stayed with that board for only a year before I left, simply fed up with the fact that he would not budge from his "New York soaps are the only true soaps" stance.

3. Soap Opera Network - aka SON, I was at that place for a good two years before I left. It was perhaps, the most liberal messageboard I ever encountered, and during the presidential election, friendships were broken up over political views. But enough about that, and onto the big arguments. The board was Days of our Lives- crazy. Nearly half the members were big Days fans, while the others were former fans or people who hate the show because of its direction. This did not sit well with one member, who was solely a fan of As the World Turns. So she kept trying to pimp ATWT by starting 5 topics about it a day, but since they all related to the same thing each day (like 5 topics about each episode, so they'd just merge them into one post). Anyways, she was really getting on everyone's nerves, because they'd try and calm her down and she'd flame everyone. Eventually she was banned and left, and went to WoST, where she did the same thing and was banned yet again. Last I heard, she had been banned from SON, WoST, the official SoapCity boards, and I think WeirdWend's Soap News and Scoops (SNS). All the major boards!

Escapay