If this is a storytelling blog, why do I focus so much on animation?

First of all, because I love animation. I’ve always had an affinity for the art form and I studied it in school. But more importantly, animation is particularly well-suited to story analysis. Allow me to elaborate:

1. Animation is collaborative. Although there are exceptions, it takes a lot of people to make an animated work, especially if we’re looking at higher budget productions such as those that come out of studios. That means a lot of peoples’ eyes are on every piece of the puzzle, making it a highly intentional art form.
2. Animation is expensive. The economics of animation force producers to know what they’re doing before production begins. The script and storyboard must be locked before the animators do their work, or else the producer is throwing money down the drain. (Many pieces do go into animation when the script isn’t locked, but that is never ideal).
3. Story comes first. Because animation is expensive, it’s necessary to work out the story before you begin. Unlike live action, in which film is cheap and it’s possible to reshape a story in the cutting room, animators usually don’t have that luxury. That economic reality puts pressure on getting the story right up front. And because it’s collaborative, there are usually several writers, story/concept artists, and storyboarders all working with the director to shape the story before a single frame is animated.
4. Everything is intentional. A character is wearing a particular outfit? Someone designed it that way. A piece of seaweed floats in a particular pattern? Someone animated it that way. The lighting gives a particular mood? Someone rendered it that way. In this art form, every frame is created by a human hand and guided by human thought (even if a computer is used). There are no accidents in animation, and that makes it ripe for artistic analysis.
5. The production is iterative. First comes a concept. A story treatment flushes out that concept and gives it an arc. Next, the script comes, adding details through plot and dialogue. The script gets more nuanced as it’s revised. The storyboards give visual direction to the script. The character and background designs (or modeling/texturing) add richness and grounding to the characters and world. The animators give life and detail through performance. The lighters/renderers/inkers finalize the mood through lighting and color effects. It’s a granular, pain-staking process which gives the director the opportunity to create a full, rich piece in which every detail is considered.

These factors make animation conducive to story analysis.

Not all animated projects succeed. Some of them are rushed, so that the story hasn’t been developed well. Sometimes the director is unable to pull together all the variant pieces into a unified story arc or mood. Sometimes there just aren’t enough resources in the story, design, or animation departments to make it shine. But when all the pieces come together, a strong script wil beget a beautiful movie that we can study and blog about for years to come!