Push for Realism: Disney/Pixar vs. Laika
While the animation style of Disney and Pixar strive to look as realistic and lifelike as possible in environment and textures, the models of their characters have also moved to present a closer interpretation of a person you could see walking down the street. As someone brought up in class, the water and hair in Moana look incredibly lifelike, with a range of natural looking movement and reactions to other elements that can interact with them and in Incredibles 2 the textures of fabrics are remarkably true to our world.
Laika studios on the other hand, doesn’t seem concerned with portraying their characters as realistically as possible, and this somehow makes them more lifelike. While some of the characters Laika creates look closer to traditionally human than other, the background characters really shine in their films. Characters within the worlds Laika creates are often stylized to better suit tone of the narrative or to better capture the personalities of the characters themselves. In Coraline, the look of a character can switch between ‘realistic’ human and more exaggerated and stylized depending on whether they exist in the Other World or the Real World (Mr. Bobinski) or as Coraline’s perception of the character changes (the Other Mother). Similarly, characters in the world of Paranorman are caricatures of stereotypes of establishes character tropes (mom, dad, jock, bully, popular girl, etc.) and although their proportions are strange they are somehow more recognizably human in this interpretation. Kubo and the Two Strings plays with this idea further by creating lifelike interpretations of stylized artwork from Japan to better capture the world of the narrative.
Laika studios on the other hand, doesn’t seem concerned with portraying their characters as realistically as possible, and this somehow makes them more lifelike. While some of the characters Laika creates look closer to traditionally human than other, the background characters really shine in their films. Characters within the worlds Laika creates are often stylized to better suit tone of the narrative or to better capture the personalities of the characters themselves. In Coraline, the look of a character can switch between ‘realistic’ human and more exaggerated and stylized depending on whether they exist in the Other World or the Real World (Mr. Bobinski) or as Coraline’s perception of the character changes (the Other Mother). Similarly, characters in the world of Paranorman are caricatures of stereotypes of establishes character tropes (mom, dad, jock, bully, popular girl, etc.) and although their proportions are strange they are somehow more recognizably human in this interpretation. Kubo and the Two Strings plays with this idea further by creating lifelike interpretations of stylized artwork from Japan to better capture the world of the narrative.
Personally, I believe that the quality of animated characters is what really makes them more lifelike. Sure, making someone appear as a stereotype of what they are in real life is a fun way of addressing issues visually. It doesn't allow for the audience to be immersed in their movie experience. I talked about how "Coraline" lets the audience know its fake with examples such as the button eyes. But the fake that it shares also adds to the aesthetic of the film's story. In movies such as the Marvel superhero films, I expect to be immersed and forget that most of what I'm seeing is fake. Thanos doesn't physically exist, and yet I can watch his hand ruffle through Iron Man's hair as if its really there. This type of quality in CGI characters is what makes them so astounding and fantastic to experience when watching a film. And I believe it makes them more lifelike, unlike the style of Laika studios.
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