It's "Miyazaki" so you were close.Artlad wrote:Anime: I like the Myazaki (I think I horribly butchered that name) films are great. "Castle in the Sky", "Princess Mononoke" & "Spirited Away" are the best. However my problem with most anime is that most leave a lot to be desired in the animation. some are done no better than Hanna-Barbera cartoons. (I rented one called "Record of Lodoss War", which had a great concept, great artwork and a well plotted story, but the actual animation was so horrible it ruined it. the big climactic battle between the two dragons looked like someone had just moved cardboard cutouts in front of the camera) So for me anime is a mixed bag.
One of the main differences between western animation and anime is that the anime artists often spend a large amount of time on the artwork and detail, and thus put less motion into the product, as it would be cost prohibitive to fully animate the entire scene. Western animation, however, has always been more about motion than the actual artwork, and it is very rare to find a static scene. Also, IMHO, anime has a much richer storyline than western animation (especially TV animation) and has more conversations, where the focus is on the dialogue instead of action.
If you consider that many anime titles are for TV, or direct to video OVAs (original video animation,) although with a different connotation than direct to video has over here, then you'll see that most titles don't have as much budget as a feature film would have. I would guess that most anime has a larger budget than western TV animation, since anime is very main stream in Japan. By the same token, however, there are so many anime shows over there that they are competing for viewers just like prime-time TV is over here.
Also, many anime titles are originally based on manga, which is the Japanese form of comic books, although with much wider ranges than superheroes, and targeted towards all demographics. Manga is usually the creation of 1 writer/illustrator (with assistants,) although sometimes there may be a team who works on a specific manga or even a group of titles. Some animators may feel that it would be a disservice to try and animate a scene that was very powerful on paper, and there are many animes that have used artwork taken directly from the manga.
I enjoy many western animated films, and a smaller number of TV shows, but I get the feeling that many of the TV shows are worse than the direct to video sequels, and are just trying to capitalize on the success of the film. I turned the TV on one day and saw the Tarzan TV show, and almost felt nauseous. I could easily tell they used a cut-out for shadows, and you would see the same shadow shape on the ground, or on a high up branch, causing a severe loss of depth. I could also tell that they didn't even animate the shadow cut-out, which would have at least provided variety in the shadows.
