Recently, Guillermo del Toro, world-renowned filmmaker and director of Academy Award-winning films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, has made the case that animation is a medium, not a genre. He declared: animation is film.
His commentary about animation came with the release of his newest film, Pinocchio, which is a stop-motion animated retelling of the classic tale. The film is impressive, bringing the director’s notorious dark fantasy elements to a heartwarming story about a father and son.
This evening, I went to the movie theater to see the new Puss in Boots movie, and the entire time all I could think about was Guillermo del Toro’s quote about animation. Over the last few years, I have been blown away by what animation can accomplish, not only from a storytelling perspective, but also from a—I don’t know what else to call it—animation perspective.
There are several examples that immediately come to mind for me from within the past few years: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Arcane, Luca, Encanto, Coco. The list goes on. It’s unbelievable what we have been able to accomplish over the past 30 years in animation. We went from this (one of Pixar’s earliest animated shorts) to this (Miles Morales testing out his Spidey suit).
The level of detail in animated films today is just absurd. Perhaps it’s because I lack any sort of visual artistic ability (I can barely draw stick figures), but I am constantly impressed by how much detail is packed into every single frame of animated films today.
And on top of the artistic achievements of modern animated films and television series, the storytelling is unbelievably good as well. Of course, the classics will always be the classics. Nobody is going to take the crown from Snow White or Spirited Away in terms of storytelling.
But I have to say, the way that Pixar and Dreamworks weave these stories together leaves me spellbound. They often follow the same tried and true formulas, yet they do it in a way that feels fresh and new, balancing comedy, romance, musical, action, adventure, and even mystery all at the same time.
With a non-animated film, I assume that there are all sorts of hurdles to overcome. Budgets, shooting schedules, so on and so forth. And I’m sure there are hurdles that exist with animation too.
But animation scratches an itch that other films just aren’t able to achieve. It feels like animation is the tool that allows us to test the very limits of our imagination, to create everything the human mind is able to create without any hindrances or shortcomings.
Every time I watch an animated film like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, it makes me feel like the sky's the limit. And that might just be what is so magical about them.
We all want to feel like a kid again, like the sky goes as high as our imagination, even if only for a short time.
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Recently, Guillermo del Toro, world-renowned filmmaker and director of Academy Award-winning films like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water, has made the case that animation is a medium, not a genre. He declared: animation is film.
His commentary about animation came with the release of his newest film, Pinocchio, which is a stop-motion animated retelling of the classic tale. The film is impressive, bringing the director’s notorious dark fantasy elements to a heartwarming story about a father and son.
This evening, I went to the movie theater to see the new Puss in Boots movie, and the entire time all I could think about was Guillermo del Toro’s quote about animation. Over the last few years, I have been blown away by what animation can accomplish, not only from a storytelling perspective, but also from a—I don’t know what else to call it—animation perspective.
There are several examples that immediately come to mind for me from within the past few years: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Arcane, Luca, Encanto, Coco. The list goes on. It’s unbelievable what we have been able to accomplish over the past 30 years in animation. We went from this (one of Pixar’s earliest animated shorts) to this (Miles Morales testing out his Spidey suit).
The level of detail in animated films today is just absurd. Perhaps it’s because I lack any sort of visual artistic ability (I can barely draw stick figures), but I am constantly impressed by how much detail is packed into every single frame of animated films today.
And on top of the artistic achievements of modern animated films and television series, the storytelling is unbelievably good as well. Of course, the classics will always be the classics. Nobody is going to take the crown from Snow White or Spirited Away in terms of storytelling.
But I have to say, the way that Pixar and Dreamworks weave these stories together leaves me spellbound. They often follow the same tried and true formulas, yet they do it in a way that feels fresh and new, balancing comedy, romance, musical, action, adventure, and even mystery all at the same time.
With a non-animated film, I assume that there are all sorts of hurdles to overcome. Budgets, shooting schedules, so on and so forth. And I’m sure there are hurdles that exist with animation too.
But animation scratches an itch that other films just aren’t able to achieve. It feels like animation is the tool that allows us to test the very limits of our imagination, to create everything the human mind is able to create without any hindrances or shortcomings.
Every time I watch an animated film like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, it makes me feel like the sky's the limit. And that might just be what is so magical about them.
We all want to feel like a kid again, like the sky goes as high as our imagination, even if only for a short time.
