What is GOOD animation?

[dvdjunkie]

All of what I am about to say is just my opinion, and some of you know what is coming, but here goes anyway.

There is good and bad in all animation. I prefer Disney shorts and Warner Bros. shorts to any of the others that are out there. I think that that The Pink Panther cartoons, funny as they are, are all horrbly drawn, but I still like them and collect them.

I am not a big Japanese Anime fan, I find that for the most part their animation is just a step above the Saturday morning stick cartoons that most kids think is art. I don't find shows like The Simpsons, American Dad, King of the Hill, or Family Guy to be great animation, but I like them.

I think that trying to compare good animation to bad animation is like beating your head against the wall for an hour and expecting not to get a head ache. There are all types of animation - 2-D, CGI, Stop Motion, Claymation, the new animation used in Monster House and The Polar Express. Trying to say what is bad or what is good is all in the eyes of the beholder.

I like the Shrek films, though you can't compare them to a hand-drawn animated feature like Snow White or Fantasia, Shrek is still good. Of the current films in the theaters today, Over the Hedge, Cars, and Monster House are three different types of animation and they all are good in my eyes.

I don't pretend to be an expert, or an art critic, but as I said before, you can find good and bad in all animation.

[DARTH KNITE]

I don't know if this has been said before, because I honestly haven't read all of them,Hehe, But I think that design work is only strong if it is appropriate for the film or project that it is assigned to. I myself love realistic animation. Disney's best has BY FAR been "Hunchback of Notre Dame". They haven't come close to anything that groundbreaking since. I personally find the lastest assault of CGI films annoying and gimmicky, but that being said, the more lighthearted films have had less serious animation which is suitable. Hercules for example, is not a serious movie and therefore has more lighthearted animation. I hated it myself, but it is right fore the movie. The only big mistake I find is "Atlantis". Here they are with a film they wanted to be more mature, no songs or anything, and yet the animation was clumsy and cheap looking. The 3D animation did not look nearly as good as the Computer graphics used in earlier films. I've seen similar FX on shows like "Futurama" and that's about the level they need to stay at. Until Hercules, I would say that I liked the animation for all the films, but I think the less realistic characters look, the harder is to take them or the story seriously because it reminds us that we're watching an animated film and takes us out of the moment. Like seeing the strings on a puppet. Mulan and Tarzan are also good examples of films that had more serious elements and yet looked like saturday morning cartoons because of inconsistant design work. In fact it was really only the characters that looked poor. The scenery and backdrops looked good, but nothing else. It ruins them for me, but that's just my reaction.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

If there were a recipe for "good animation", I'd say chances are we'd see more of it.

I'm not saying that one cannot ever make distinctions between good and bad, though...

[Jules]

I started this thread, and have come to realize that there's no way we can ever determine good animation (to a certain extent).

Everyone has his own opinions, in some cases debatable.

For example, would anyone be shocked if I said, that personally, I feel that Emperor's New Groove has some great comic animation?

Critics consider Groove to be below average quality in terms of animation, for Disney, probably due to lack of detail.

Now I'll look at it this way. First, I don't think Emperor has a lack of detail. If it does, than it's probably no big deal. EVEN if it does have a lack of detail, there are many redeeming factors that in my eyes would make it look expertly animated.

Just look at the treat Yzma is. What amount of emotion does an artist have to transfer to his paper and pencil, to create such an eccentric hilarious villianess such as Yzma?

Just look at the way she moves...her gestures, her overall comic effect...

Is she believable?

Yes!

[Lars Vermundsberget]

For example, would anyone be shocked if I said, that personally, I feel that Emperor's New Groove has some great comic animation?

I certainly wouldn't be shocked, and I could probably even agree. I'm sure a lot of others could as well, perhaps even some of the harsh critics. It could still be argued, though, that there are serious problems with TENG as a whole.