Wells

I feel that Wells had some intriguing ideas pertaining to animation as a film medium. Similar to most kids in my generation, I grew up on mostly Saturday morning cartoons produced by both Warner Bros. and Disney—a far cry as what is perceived to be abstract. In essence, I equate his notion of orthodox animation as a character based structural form and unorthodox as focusing on abstract form and rhythm. It is essentially similar to how people respond to narrative film when compared with avant-garde. Personally, I admire the form as far as creativity and experimentation involved in producing unorthodox animation, but for whatever reason I am stuck in my conservative notions of compelling stories. Our minds are either hardwired or conditioned to create connections through images and sound that create a story, even when it is against the desires of the filmmaker. When emphasis is on the media itself without attempting to create a narrative structure it is difficult for me to see it as “complete”, it is an element which can be appreciated in itself but falls short of constituting something for the mind to create associations that are more concrete. Cell animation, above all else, is extremely laborious and time consuming. Before computer animation took over, traditional animation almost did not make it because of the vast amount time and resources it takes. Because of this, I do appreciate the creative effort involved with experimental animation, and I would like to think that experimentation is essential to progression.