From: wbarnes@sura.net (Bill Barnes)
Subject: Oh no!  American vs. Japanese animation
Organization: SURAnet, College Park, MD, USA, NA, Earth, Milky Way
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 21:32:59 GMT

In article <1548@tnc.UUCP> m0336@tnc.UUCP (RALPH JENKINS) writes:
>I saw some original animation cels from the new Batman cartoon at the
>Warner Bros. store today.  Nice...but the artwork is nowhere near as
>complex as some anime (and thus easier to animate).

Now who's being unfair?  8-) Batman is a TV show.  Compare it to anime
TV shows.  From what little I've seen of Batman (mostly pictures of
it), it looks like it can hold its own against a lot of anime TV shows.
The artwork is not that detailed but it has a nice gothic feel to it
(although Batman himself looks weird to me...I think it may be the
chin 8-).  And most anime TV shows aren't that detailed art-wise either.
Plus you might want to compare the animation quality itself - the more
detailed artwork in anime usually means more limited animation (or a
bigger budget 8-).

This argument is not as cut-and-dry as most people seem to think it is...
which is probably why we're still arguing over it!

My input on the subject:

I find, as a general rule, that Disney's animation is *technically* superior,
i.e. I think it's smoother-moving, often fairly detailed, etc.  However,
this is probably due to the fact that Disney has mondoly bloated budgets
for its movies - the least expensive Disney movie is probably still more
expensive than all but the most expensive anime movie.  Add to this the
fact that Disney movies are at least half-an-hour shorter than anime movies
usually, and it's no wonder theirs look better.

However, as others have pointed out, Disney is locked into its family/kiddie
fare mode of animation, usually "adapting"  (cough cough) children's stories
or fairy tales.  There isn't anything inherently wrong with this, it's
just terribly limited and narrow-minded of them and not everyone's cup
of tea.  There seemed to me to be real hope that Disney would break this
mold with "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" but after several years of waiting,
the animated revolution I was hoping from Disney never materialized.

Now, there are others who have tried to break the mold of kiddie
animation (Don Bluth with "The Secret of NIMH," Ralph Bakshi, or
independent efforts like Heavy Metal, Watership Down, or Rock & Rule),
but for the most part I've been disappointed with them; of the ones
I've seen, none of them really showed any intelligence to their
writing (except for Watership Down) and the animation technically
wasn't all that impressive except maybe Don Bluth's, which I happen to
like (I liked Heavy Metal but I didn't find the animation all that great).

Enter anime.  To be sure, anime has more than its fair share of duds
and escapist fare (BTW, Ryan, I found your comments about the
immaturity of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" amusing when your main
writing accomplishments around here have been DP and BGC fan fiction,
two shows which are not renowned for their intellectual maturity 8-),
but try to find animation in the US to rival Wings of Honneamise,
Grave of the Fireflies, or just about any Miyazaki movie.  Disney is the
only ones I feel could compete on a technical level with them and there's
no way they'd do a story like GotF, and everybody else doesn't even have
great animators working for them.

However, I'd watch the mindless praise of anime, gentlemen (and
ladies, if there are any participating in this discussion - I didn't
notice any).  Anime has its flaws too.  For instance, I don't see how
one can attack Disney's work for being too "cartoony" and not see that
anime characters - with their oversized eyes and funky body
proportions - are just as much of a caricature of humans but in
different ways.  Also, I often find that the character animation in
most anime is either limited - due to budget constraints, I'd guess -
or too jerky (although I think their mechanical animations are really
cool! 8-).  It's a little hard to compare anime to American animation,
since most "American cartoons" are actually animated in Asia anyway!

Well, that's my commentary on the matter.  Make of it what you will.
Or not.
-- 
Bill "Whassamatter?!  Can't you take a joke?!" Barnes   wbarnes@sura.net
Disclaimer:  The author apologizes for any thought-provoking material he may
	     have accidentally included and promises not to do it again.
Datclaimer:  My employers wouldn't WANT to share some of my opinions.