[Editing and Cinema] Research

Paul Wells suggests that ‘Animation as a form has predominantly been understood as a ‘cartoon’ medium, and largely been defined by the presence, and performance of Disney Animation from 1928 to the present day. It may be argued, therefore, that all other forms of animation may be addressed through the ways they relate to or differ from the Disney model. Many animation studios across the world have sought to imitate Disney aesthetically, industrially, technologically, and commercially, while others have resisted this approach, viewing it as something which may misrepresent their own engagement with the medium’ (2002, 2).

Disney was founded on the 16th October 1923, Los Angeles, California, United States. Being founded almost a century ago implies that Disney has had the chance to capitalise on an industry never done before. What this means is that Walt Disney has had a chance to create new forms of animated film and editing that would set the foundations for the future to come. Because of this, many studios that we know today use Disney’s iconic form of film and editing to aid and assist them in their chance of animation succession.

An example that I can think of is Pixar. Growing up to both Disney and Pixar movies, as a young child it was very hard for me to differentiate the two from each other because the styles between the two were very similar with their movies such as Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. Pixar was founded on 3rd February 1986 before being bought out by Disney in 2006, making every subsequent film a subsidiary film of Disney. Even after this purchase of Pixar, it was still almost hard to see the difference in editing and aesthetics of the hyperreal animation that Pixar had developed, meaning that maybe the two companies animations aligned more than I had originally believed. However, this comes from a more personal experience whilst growing up.

Dreamworks on the other hand is far more questionable in the sense of being their own individual studio. According to Nate Williams, there has been a long sense of competitive miming, where even similar styled movies covering the same journey would be told at similar release dates. “A Bug’s Life and Antz, both released in the same year and both taking viewers into the world of bugs below us. They follow incredibly similar stories” (Williams, 2021). It’s hard to imagine that out of all the possible story ideas that could be brought to life, two stories covering the lives of insects and a story about being outcasted from your own kind of people is quite hard to believe. Furthermore, the composition of the screenplay and editing is quite similar when put side by side, showing similar uses of transitions and continual editing.

On the other hand, other studios do break away from Disney’s capitalisation of animation methods and form of editing. Some studios resist this aesthetic by trying to discover it’s own self-identity. An iconic studio to this day that’s well-known around the world for creating compelling stories with the beautiful forms of animation that capture its own element can be Studio Ghibli. “Hayao Miyazaki’s characters are powerful, compelling, and also personable. Each heroine not only faces unique struggles that are keen to their atmosphere, but the struggles are also intimate and individually creative for women and young girls everywhere to appreciate and symbolically resonate with” (McMillan, 2021). Disney is known for its huge focus on character appeal. Disney always began to distinguish character appeal even with its first on-screen animation on Mickey Mouse. The story and editing would always be centred around Disney’s characters, to make a personable character that is relatable to the audience. Whereas, Studio Ghibli not only focus on character appeal but on World Building. Studio Ghibli spends a lot of its compositional edits on capturing the element of the world, and the setting where the world takes place. This can stay within the 12 principles of animation where timing, anticipation and staging could be considered of heavy importance in relation to film rather than just characters. Furthermore, in most Studio Ghibli films, the characters are often shown quite small in open environments to capture how minuscule and micro they are in this macro world that is built.