Getting Animated
Up until the age of about 11, there was a particular bias to the TV shows I watched, viz: they were all cartoons. With the notable exception of the original season of Power Rangers, which I am woman enough to admit that I not only watched, but was addicted to, my roster of acceptable television consisted entirely of animated offerings. Sure, there were real-life shows aimed at my demographic, but for whatever reason, I’d got it into my head that Actors = Adult, and as it went without saying that Adult = Boring, I’d turn off the TV as soon as the opening credits for Heartbreak High or The Secret World of Alec Mack came on. In fact, on the day I first started watching Power Rangers, I remember feeling unaccountably Grown Up, because not only had I watched what was, to my way of thinking, an Adult Show, but I’d enjoyed it. The shameful irony of this belief is not lost on me now, but we all have skeletons in our closets, and at least I can claim faithfully never to have sat through even half an episode of Home and Away or Neighbours.
But I digress.
The point being, I was heavily biased towards cartoons. I eventually grew up, of course, as everyone does, and started expanding my tastes, but the older I’ve become, the more it seems like the general beliefs of my peer group are sliding steadily in the opposite direction: Animation = Junior, and Junior = Boring. Which, frankly, is about as worthwhile summation of the entertainment industry as my original, opposite judgement. Sure, there’s a lot of crap out there, but you only need to glance at your weekly prime time TV guide to realise that the dross isn’t limited to the before-and-after school slots. Despite how it may seem, there are some excellent animated films and shows available, and while the Pixar franchise makes for the most obvious case in point, there is also the question of anime.
For those who’ve never heard of it, anime broadly indicates Japanese animation, but can also be used to describe particular drawing styles common to the genre. Unless you want to start an argument with any geeks who may be in hearing range, it is never acceptable to describe any kind of anime as a ‘cartoon’: not just because of the considerable differences in style and content between Western cartoons and Japanese animation, but because, given the general Western sense that cartoons are, by definition, childish and exaggerated, it also comes off as an ignorant pejorative. Anime has a longstanding tradition in Japan, as does manga, the graphic novel equivalent.
While it is rare to find any examples of Western animation with content geared towards an older, more intelligent audience – two exceptions being the critically underrated sci-fi films Titan AE and Atlantis, both of which, it is worth noting, were worked on by Joss Whedon – such instances abound in anime. Shows like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex are about as far from children’s programming as it’s possible to get, featuring explosive gun battles, drugs, sex, terrorism, bounty hunting, gang wars, actual wars and corrupt government officials. In the case of Cowboy Bebop, these are also balanced out by the presence of a hyper-intelligent corgi called Ein and a prepubescent genius hacker-girl called Edward, as well as liberal dosages of black and ironic humour. By contrast, Stand Alone Complex falls much more into the category of political thriller, focusing on the exploits of Section 9, a secret government agency established to fight terrorism and cyber-crime in a slightly dystopian, not-too-distant future.
For those who prefer something lighter, however, it’s impossible to go past the works of Hayao Miyazaki, an acclaimed animator and director whose films have been a staple of both anime and geekdom since the 1970s. Given that a discussion of the individual merits of each of his films could easily fill several columns, I’ll stick instead to recommending my personal favourites: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, his first original film; Princess Mononoke, which briefly became the highest grossing film in Japan at the time of its 1997 release; Spirited Away, which won an Oscar in 2003 for Best Animated Feature; and Howl’s Moving Castle, an Oscar-nominated adaptation of a novel by Dianna Wynne-Jones.
Despite the high number of digitally animated films produced each year, there’s a reason why each new Pixar offering explodes the box office records: they are, at base, well-written, well-constructed films designed to appeal to adults as well as children. The fact that their protagonists are talking toys, fish, cars, rats and insects doesn’t actually matter: what does is the presence of genuine, intelligent humanity in the characters and narrative. The same is ultimately true of all good films, regardless of whether they’re animated or made in real life, but while children at least have the excuse of immaturity when it comes to defending their own conservatism, adults may sensibly claim no such exemption.
My challenge, then, is to surprise yourself. Look for something new – try some anime, or a children’s film, even if it’s one you originally enjoyed as a kid, and see where it takes you. If the only downside is wasting a buck fifty renting an unenjoyable DVD, then at least you can say you tried; but there are amazing things out there, too, and in the animated world, there’s everything to gain.
