Must Animation Represent?

In my previous post, I discussed the idea of animation as being the medium freest from obligation to representation. The question this raises, of course, is if this is a good trait for animators to take full advantage of when creating their films. Does a realistic depiction of realistic events have a value over the caricature, or does exaggeration and simplification lend the work a greater deal of relatability and unique charm?

The answer is up to the audience, and to a lesser extent, the animator. Making realistic animation can be good in certain audience targets. If you’re animating something like Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars, realism would be preferred, so long as the animation does not fall into the uncanny valley (Lucas opted to go the opposite way on both of these, creating a caricature that still manages to hit the uncanny valley). If you’re animating something a little more abstract, or perhaps a character you want the audience to relate to easily, a blank slate caricature, like the simplicity of Andy in Toy Story, who looks like every ten year old boy ever, is a good fit.



If we seek to examine how animation relates to reality on the spectrum of realism vs caricature, perhaps it’s a good idea to begin with animation that’s been inserted into largely live-action films. Here’s the judge from The Wall’s trial sequence:


This is an extraordinary amount of caricature in a single image. The judge is so much in caricature that his personality as an “asshole” takes over the entire body of his character. This is extremely refreshing in a film that mostly consists of images of Bob Geldof crying, and ultimately, the animation in the trial sequence is what makes the movie watchable a second time. A realistic depiction of the characters at the trial would have been perhaps the single worst decision to make on this film, as the sequence stands above all others in the film for its brilliant use of caricature as a method of attention-getting.



Here’s the classic puppet vs animation comparison shot of Yoda from Star Wars Episode I. 

On the left is the classic Frank Oz puppet from The Empire Strikes Back, as he appeared in the theatrical cut of The Phantom Menace. On the right is the 3d animated Yoda used in the DVD release. In this particular situation, we notice immediately that the puppet looks like a puppet, while the animated Yoda looks a bit more alive, particularly in motion. In this situation, realism was looked for in animation, because the puppet version looked laughably dead in the well-lit shots of The Phantom Menace, which was not a problem in the dark swamps of “Empire”. By animating to realism, they were able to make Yoda’s motions during his surprisingly coherent speeches look more real than they ever did through puppetry. In this film, suspension of disbelief was a rare resource, and every animated Yoda they could use would improve the film’s charm.