A conversation on a KH movie got me thinking on this, and then one of wyna_hiros's posts made me contemplate it more. The concept of the animated action movie is dead in America - that is, if it was ever alive to begin with. I'm trying to figure out why that is.

The examples we have of strictly "action" in American animation are rare to begin with. They seem to come and go in spurts, the most recent of which included some of Disney's feeble attempts: Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet, as well as Fox's brief foray into animation: Titan A.E. and to a much lesser extent, Anastasia. Surprisingly, action's been pursued even less in 3D animation (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is the only thing jumping to my mind.) All of these movies, while some have created loyal fanbases, have generally floundered at the box office and been sneered at by critics. As a result, action has been dropped like a hot potato by all the major animation studios, as it seems an animated action flick is doomed to failure. But why have animated action films done so poorly in the first place?



1) A large part of any movie's initial success is marketing strategy, and Disney and other companies have generally marketed action animation incorrectly. For one thing, most of the action flicks were downplayed in advertising, and shoved over into the "geek culture" rather than the general mainstream. The geeks are going to go see the movie anyway; it's the rest of the public that needs to be won over. Also, the action animation was usually pushed onto the teenage male audience. Not only is pushing anything animated onto teenage males a poor idea (the Disney stigma is still stuck on anything animated), but you miss out on the female half of the population. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me a lot more females are willing to see an animated action flick than a typical live-action explosion-fest. If you market your movie to a small percentage of the population, only a small percentage is going to go see it, and you're not going to get much money in return. *coughTitanAEcough*

2) In conjunction with that, the animated movies that HAVE done extraordinarily well have been either family and kiddie fare (which does well no matter what the medium) and comedy. Even the Pixar movies, which are probably the most balanced in terms of action/drama/comedy/family stories, push comedy as the main selling point. Of course, whether or not these movies outlast their competitors is in no way dependent on how funny they are alone. That thinking has led to animated comedies that take off running from the box office and then lose steam in the long haul: Ice Age, Shrek 2, Madagascar, etc. (although their success is debatable.) Comedy and animation have always gotten along fairly well to begin with, simply because the nature of animation and its processes lends itself to comedy more. However, people have taken all of this to mean that animated comedy = success and animated action = failure, when this does not necessarily have to be the case.

3) Perhaps part of it is also that, because of American culture, we simply don't know *how* to handle an animated action movie or TV show. Japan seems to pull it off just fine (considering most of our action-oriented animated shows come from Japan, anyway...) so it's not a matter of action and animation being irreconcilable. Because of the near century-long bias that animation is for kids only, (a strictly American way of thinking, as Europe and Japan have proved otherwise), most animated action is considered too "violent" for our poor, impressionable youth. And naturally, because Disney is unwilling to try otherwise, it has helped perpetuate this belief by downplaying or killing off their few-and-far-between action titles. Treasure Planet and Atlantis were swept under the rug as quickly as possible, and a pitch for a Kingdom Hearts animated series was turned down because Donald, Goofy and other Disney characters wielding weapons was considered "too violent for kids" (never mind that they've done so in other cartoons as it is.) With this attitude, it's shocking that Gargoyles got picked up at all; and it ended up being one of the best animated action series out there. (Ironically enough, many of the writers and/or producers were Japanese.) If animated action movies are ever going to keep pace with most family movies and comedies, Americans are going to have to change their views on who animation is and isn't intended for. Perhaps when a generation or two grows up they'll take their anime obsessions with them and make GOOD action animation stories...then maybe something good can come out of the mad Inuyasha and Naruto crazes. ;P

It just seems saddening that animated action stories have gotten such a bad rap, when there's a lot of untapped potential in them. If anything, it seems action would be better suited to animation, since unlike in live action, anything and everything can be drawn on paper or the computer. It would also be significantly cheaper than trying to film a bunch of high-end special effects (although with computers, the line between animated and live action is beginning to blur significantly). With Disney killing off their 2D department, it seems even less likely that this attitude will change in the near future, which is even more maddening. It seems we'll have to sit through a few more years of hilarious-but-forgettable 3D comedy before studios start realizing that Europe and Japan especially are running circles around us in terms of innovative animation. :(

In the meanwhile...I'm gonna go watch Gargoyles DVDs and drool over the texturing on Cloud's sweater from FFVII:AC. XD



Operator status: Very very busy, as NSO's just a day or two away. Schnikes! I suppose this means I'll have to actually start caring about going back to school now...maybe. :P

Drawing: YAY, finished drawing that Axel/Larxene pic of DOOM, and got it out of my brain! XO (mostly...) Need to color a KH b-day present for Rebmakash, and my weekly avatar for the Pseudome forums. Also, one of the producers at Porchlight had a good conversation with me on job-searching and building a portfolio, so I decided to try doing some sample cleanups for portfolios. I'm working on some backgrounds, characters (and maybe props) from the 'Artifactory' story. I figure that'll kill two birds with one stone, and be a productive way to spend my time until work for RSOM 6 and the other small comic project catch up with me. ;P

Writing: Not too much at the moment; I sort of hit a roadblack with that fic (and only four pages in, heh...)