Real Death in Animation/Should animation be used more for documentaries?

    In animation, people die all the time and we are not phased. We saw Kenny die on South Park every episode for 12 seasons and I thought nothing of it. In Waltz with Bashir, it was very very different. 

Obviously, a key difference is that the people in Waltz with Bashir represent real people that died. As I sat watching people being lined up and shot I wondered why this was more effective than live action. I'm not saying that a live action version of this film couldn't work, but the thought of recreating the horrific scene with actors and fake blood just seems wrong. 

Should animation be used more for documentaries? Obviously, Waltz with Bashir is not a real documentary; however, I can't stop thinking about the reality they bring to recreating scenes. In the interviews, they have the same style of animation as the flashbacks, making the world flow very nicely. Even though the deaths are not real people being shot it almost makes it feel more real since we have accepted the fact that this is how the world is already. We accept that they are real and living, so in the flashbacks, we accept that they are real people dying. I've seen so many horrible documentaries where they botch the recreation of events. It not only makes it hard to watch but also loses the emotional impact. Animation can flow so seamlessly in terms of style and look that you are never sucked out of the world during these flashbacks.  

Comments

  1. Jyasi NagelOctober 21, 2018 at 6:36 PM

    I agree. Make all documentaries animated. I think it's definitely true but seems counterintuitive why animations would have a stronger impact.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 22, 2018 at 8:54 AM

    There is this awesome documentary called "Tower" and it's about the shooting that happened at UT Austin in 1996. It is completely animated but shows re-enacted/rotoscoped death. This animation hit hard if not harder than what death in a documentary or something of that nature would look like. I believe that animation and documentaries are an extraordinary mix that needs to be played with more often.

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