The reason this is repulsive is that Walt Disney defined the concept of Animation Acting in the public animation as something very stagey, very "playing to the back rows" in a simplistic way. Early film acting was like that too but it quickly became more nuanced. But Disney was all about formulas & everyone copies them so this vaudeville mugging has remained the industry standard for 100 years. The point with this clip is that doing this stuff in live action helps you see how flesh-crawlingly embarrassing it is. & it is not, as some have suggested, the same as what someone like Jim Carrey or Rowan Atkinson or other gifted physical comedians do with their faces, because those guys are commanding their own unique physicality with far more moving parts than a cartoon face. The expressions in these clips could be transposed to any other animated characters, & you know this because you've seen them all a thousand times before.

https://x.com/spumdonor/status/2051543165723615253

*the public imagination

fffuck

I'm barely exaggerating; 95% of the Cat in the Hat trailer is like AI-generated "animated kids' movie content" & probably the other 5% I just don't recognize personally, but I shall attempt to index the rest of this insult to Seussian ingenuity 🧵

1 - The "cinematic vista" arrival shot, followed by the giant interior with lots of clutter / stuff. Bigness = Production Value!!
2 - The Spielberg shit of some awe inspiring whatever in a shiny box

I stumbled onto a lot of Return of the Living Dead storyboards on Bill Stout's website, which haven't been included in books or DVDs before - which if you're a ROTLD obsessive like me, is a major find 🧵 Variations on the moment when Burt and Spider pin two zombies against the wall with the police car

John defines what he calls "Lumpy" and "Itchy" animation designs, with Richard Williams' Raggedy Ann & Andy as a perfect example of both.

December 19, 2008

🧵 (1/4) (2/4)