The Future of the Cartoon Feature Film, David Mitchell
- Important yet interesting to note: this thesis is from 2002, and investigates without the benefit of contemporary hindsight how he thinks it will impact the animation industry
- Author frequently reminds us that all tools are just implementations of a human’s own work. Starts with a quote from John Lasseter, “The term CGI is a misnomer- the computer doesn’t generate the images. That would be like calling traditional animation Pencil-Generated Imagery. No matter what the tool is, it requires an artist to create art.”
- discusses how modeling, texturing, particle effects and raytracing works, etc.
- “Final Fantasy is perhaps the most ambitious CGI feature to date. The film, which took four years to make, put synthetic human actors into roles that could easily have been played by real humans and placed them incompletely synthetic sets. The film, based on a series of hugely popular, interactive, role-playing computer games, was produced by Square, the company that produces the games, and co-directed by Sakaguchi, the game’s originator. With world-wide sales of the nine-part game series totaling more than 26 million units,Square must have thought it had a ready-made potential audience of game-players familiar with the fantasy themes, comfortable with computer graphics characters, and eager to see the next installment. The CGI animation has been rightly regarded as a technical triumph, so why was FinalFantasy such a commercial failure? The answer, at least as far as western audiences and critics were concerned, (54)was the weakness of the story and the lack of pace in the way it was told. Lacking a compelling plot, the glamour that human stars can bring to a film, and without much humour, the film had little but its special effects to hold the attention of the audience.” [p.11]
- that being said….. worth discussing how to use hyperrealism in a way that isnt just the boring version of live action. It must contain some elements of surrealism that necessitate it being animated despite the fact that the style is realistic. For example, the zombies, trippy ghosts and monsters in Love Death + Robots
- Author notes a clear reduction in gross box office takings for Disney’s traditional offerings after the success of Toy Story
- cites these tables:
[p. 16] “If the CGI cartoons we have seen so far have been fantasies, their success has surely come from the fact that they are fantasies designed to appeal not just to children, but to families. As Lasseter says:
Now will Pixar do a film for adults? We already have – we’ve done four of them, they happen to include kids too. And that’s something I believe in very, very strongly. We can make a film that is fantastic for adults, is truly entertaining for teenagers, adults without kids as well as families. …. I think the work at Pixar fulfils a need in the world for this type of film. I also go to family films really just for kids and I’m bored silly, and I don’t want to go back a second time, even if the kids do. I love the idea that adults love our films as much as kids do. (71)