Mar 28, 2022

Commentary: It's not just the beginning - animation has always pushed boundaries

Where to Start with a narcissist called Oscar Foul Up-

First, the Academy has decided not to televised a series of categories, including the Best Animated Short Award. Then, during the Oscars, 3 "Disney" actresses began to announce the winner of the animated feature. First, they did their Disney duty by plugging in their past and future Disney movie roles (this is a Disney-owned network), then these 3 animation historians told the world that animation is first and foremost a child's thing. Before finally announcing the winner, all this turned out to be a Disney movie.

However, these issues have already been discussed here.

One moment that might have slipped past people, after winning a short animated Oscar for windshield wipers, Alberto Mielgo

was not so bad now. It justifiably claims that animation includes all art forms and says, "Adult animation is a fact.It was his closing line that ranked me: "This is just the beginning of what we can do with animation."

I think he's somehow fundamentally reinventing animation, and I have nothing against Mielgo to the impression that adult-oriented animation didn't exist before. I don't think he was doing anything malicious, but it was a naive and wrong comment. (In another interview I did with the Oscar nominee for another publication, he talked about how the academy has finally shown that it takes adult animation seriously, but this is not true.

Let's be clear: This is not the beginning of what animation can do. It's been happening for decades, maybe centuries. It's always happening.

How do I know-

Well, a little background.

I have been involved in animation for 30 years as a writer, writer and artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). My job (incredible) is basically to watch over 2,000 animated films a year and pick the best one for the festival program. In short, I see a lot of animation.

During this time, I prioritized finding innovative voices. I always preferred movies for what the animation festivals (including OIAF) look like, not what they had to say.Too often, I watched beautifully crafted movies, but there was nothing (in my view) that was not interesting or unique at all. It was a great experience. I've tried (and still tried) to move away from the craft and technique and prioritize what the movie says. A good example is Jj Villard's now classic student film, Son Of Satan. It's an ugly movie with distorted audio, but behind it was a powerful pancliff about bullying and domestic violence. There was an urgency in that film, which is too often lacking in animation. In a nutshell, I did my best to seek out and share unknown and overlooked voices – and there were a lot.

So when I hear someone speak as if animation had somehow not matured until now, well, yeah, I take the issue.

First of all, all you need to do is glance over some of Mielgo's fellow candidates: Bestia (about torture), Affairs of the Art (about a dysfunctional family), Boxballet (Boxer and Valer Robin, except Robin, all candidates were aimed at an adult audience. And as problematic as the choice of Oscar is (they do not accurately reflect the state and quality of the world of animation), adult and art house animation is a must.

Well, if that doesn't convince you, you might go to some animation festival.I regularly see experimental, poetic and personal works that deal with a variety of non-child subjects, including domestic violence (steakhouse), mental illness (family stealing dogs), adultery/murder (night bus), rape (granny's sex life), colonization, abuse, assimilation (menace), and transgender issues (all the sensations in my belly).

That's only a small sampling from last year. McLaren, Rai, Fisinger, Vanderbeek, Griffin, Bakshi, Baumane, Norstein, Parn, Kojalev, Muroy, Heikadeh, Cournoyer, Tilby/Forbes, Landless, Hobbs...This means that we can continue with the example.

And look, the Wiper is a remarkable and commendable work, but the idea that it is bold and groundbreaking is not just a little. Wipers are not some radical, pioneering work that is changing the animated landscape. Mielgo may want to spend a little more time checking out the animation and short film festivals.

In that context, I feel Mielgo's comments (but innocent) are as problematic as any other issue in the evening. This denied the history of animation. It rejected what exists, what exists, what continues to exist. The remark also inadvertently reaffirmed the weary and misguided belief that animation is nothing more than entertainment at its core.

At what point do animators wake up and notice that they are in an abusive relationship - year after year, animators yearn to let their love from the Academy down and only want it to be treated as an aftereffect. If this year didn't drive that sad truth home, well, there's not much to do, I'm afraid. But, apparently, it wasn't just Chris Rock who slapped him in the face.