Queen Michael said:
absoul11 said:
Queen Michael said:
1. Are completely realistic in plot and look, that is, people have realistic proportions and it doesn't contain supernatural or sci-fi concepts. Of course, neither sf or fantasy are inherently childish. But live-action directors can create masterpieces without fantasy elements or sf elements. I'm just asking animation to do the same.
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I'm fine with looking realistic, but why not have sci-fi or fantasy? There are many movies (with or without it) that are amazing so should that matter? Also, what if the proportions were realistic but the colors were on the cartoonish side.
Why not have sci-fi or fantasy? Because making movies that aren't helps fight the stereotype that animation is a genre and not a look. If the proportions were realistic but the colors were on the cartoonish side? That's fine.
OP, you seem to be forgetting that Sci-Fi and Fantasy aren't necessarily "kiddie" genres. I'll slip out of the boundaries of your thread for a moment and recommend that you find some seminal SF classics. Metropolis, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Soylent Green, A Clockwork Orange, the first Matrix flick, Inception, Possible Worlds... You'll notice none of them are frivolous in any way, unless you consider their themes to be frivolous. If you do, well... You'll have to remember that the human condition comes complete with the need and want to discuss things that aren't strictly in the purview of Reality with a Big R.
Considering this, these movies are pretty realistic, in a roundabout sort of way.
I understand that you have a slight beef against the fact that *animated* features use Sci-Fi or Fantasy to establish whimsical plots and universes as a rule. That's just a question of perception and of how a given movie's subject matter is handled.
Take Titan A.E., for instance. The animation is iffy as someone else said, the CGI sucks, the acting varies a lot between "passable" and "horrendous", that's all true - but the core premise is pretty damn near adult. Earth gets wiped out and Humanity becomes an endangered species that's looked at with contempt or pity by the other members of the galactic community.
Yes, it's Sci-Fi, yes it's not realistic by a long shot, but it's pretty serious when you strip the admittedly kiddie stuff away, as much as I did get a few chuckles out of John Leguizamo and Nathan Lane.
What you're essentially asking for is the sort of movie auteur film-makers would consider. It's the sort of release that earns a respectable amount of accolades from prestigious institutions (e.g. Persepolis did pretty well, if memory serves me right) - but that will never be able to break out into the mainstream audience and consequently dispel that childish aspect you seem so tired of.
For better or for worse, people *have* associated animation to harmless, childish fun. For every stunningly awesome anime out there, you'll get bucketfuls of the stuff that airs on Disney XD. For every genre-defining or genre-defying piece the West or the East will pump out, you'll get dozens more that ask that you do nothing more than turn your brain off and munch on some popcorn.
The norm, as far as adult productions go, is still low-brow humor and exploitation galore. It'll stay the norm because, unfortunately, the audience for cheap T&A or gore is always going to be bigger and more profitable than those who'd like to see something meaningful in an animated form. A lot of people go to the movies to turn their brains off, unfortunately far moreso than those who go out to the movies to *think*.
I'm in my master's degree, so my "job", so to speak, involves a lot of thought. When I pop a DVD in the tray, there's a bigger chance of it being something along the lines of Heavy Metal, rather than Persepolis. I use movies to unplug, primarily, and only check out a thinking man's movie about once or twice a year. I've got enough cogitation going on with the dozens of literary analyses and critical editions I have to go through.
Granted, of course, that's just me. Personally, after downing all of S.T. Joshi's annotated essays on H.P. Lovecraft and the last twenty years' worth of critical analyses on Stephen King, I *really* don't mind a Ralph Bakshi flick or stuff like Afro Samurai.
