I'm going to start this post with a bit of an analogy, so please bear with me because I think there is a point in here somewhere.
It seems to me that being an admirer of feature animation these days is much like supporting a football team, each with its own supporter base, creative approach, star roster and marketing sensibility. Like football, for some reason being a fan of one animation "club" seems to automatically disqualify you from forming an attachment with any other. The same holds for the different disciplines used to create animated content, ("CG isn't creative!", "Traditional 2D is dead" etc). There are plenty of blogs/publications/websites/critics out there espousing a similar view, (naming no names), but why does this have to be? It is frustrating!
Maybe I'm daft, but this vehemence baffles me. After all, isn't animation, animation? This acrimony doesn't seem to occur to the same extent in other artforms as far as I'm aware, so why modern animation, and how do we get the faithful of one studio/technique to overcome that fierce, unbending loyalty and just enjoy whatever new entertainment release comes along on its individual merit, (even if it's not from AmazingPlaceX)?
A few thoughts on this:
1) Let's face it. There is a lot of snobbery kicking around, and this drives the creative elitism the encourages that rabid fan mentality. Animation has never been more accessible, and superficially, easy to realise. If people think they can do better, more creatively, then they will be quick to denigrate the work of others. To those people I say, "Cool! Let's see it.". It's much easier to promote negativity than it is to contribute.
2) People like precedent, and it is much easier to pre-judge when one studio's theatrical release follows a line of commercial successes. To a certain extent this is true, but the output of a studio or discipline is organic and grows much like those of one artist at an individual level as their experience grows. You can probably learn something even from the least popular animated content, in whatever medium.
Maybe I'm just being naive, but I'd like to think I'll give most things a chance before hating something. If you let prejudice guide your hand, after all the bluster has died down the only person who's lost out on the experience ultimately is you.
Go Team!
