hroughout modern history, many important
skills have become so-called “lost arts”
because nobody practices them anymore.
Consider blacksmithing. Today, nobody bashes
red-hot metal against an anvil to create simple
shapes, instead, any metal we need can be forged
on an assembly line by specialized machinery. It’s
faster, cheaper, and requires less human input to
accomplish. Such is the way of industrial progress.
Most craftsman jobs are no longer practiced
today, except by those who do so for recreation.
Modern methods may be more efficient, but
they come at the expense of traditions that carry
much history within them. Likewise, the world of
animation is currently seeing a similar evolution.
More and more frequently, major animation
studios are turning
to the

 

: convenience and comparative ease provided by

: 3-D computer animation because they can no

: longer afford to pay for the large teams traditional
: pen-and-paper animation requires. There is, quite
: simply, no money in it anymore—and because

; of that, the world could lose an artistic tradition

; that has connected cultures for generations.

Like many children of the 90s, some of my

: earliest memories are of Walt Disney’s animated
: films. I vividly remember watching with glee as

: Timon and Pumbaa sang “Hakuna Matata,” and

: cheering for Peter Pan as he dueled with Captain
: Hook. What my four-year-old brain could never

: imagine was that there were children just like me
: around the world who felt the same way about

: the same films. The only difference between us

: is that some of those other children decided

: to make new movies when they grew up.

And that’s how it started. It’s no secret that

Disney’s The Lion King was partially inspired by

Osamu Tezuka’s 1965 anime series
Kimba the White Lion. Now,
we can debate forever about
what is or isn’t a rip-off—you
only need to change one
letter in Kimba’s name to get
“Simba”—but the fact remains
that animation has no borders.
Like all artists, animators get
inspiration from works that came
before. Homage becomes a tradition
that transcends cultures, simply
through a shared love for

storytelling through pictures.

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Many of the earliest anime took their

: inspiration from the original Walt Disney cartoons
: like Steamboat Willie, hence their typical use of

: large, expressive eyes. In the 90s, Cowboy Bebop

: gained notoriety in North America for its pastiche
: style, adopting audio and visual elements from

: jazz, blues, film noir, sci-fi, western, and so on.

: This is not to say that anime should Americanize

: itself to appeal to a Western audience, but rather

: that a show like Bebop could only exist following a
: long-term artistic dialogue between Japanese and
: American artists. Each new generation of artists is
: like the next strut on a bridge that spans nations.

All this has contributed to the emergence

: of animation as a medium apart from all others,
: complete with its own creative benefits. On the
: practical side, it’s easier to animate something

: than film live action because it is cheaper

: to produce and not limited by filmmaking

: necessities like set building, location shooting,

: special effects, and so on. On the philosophical
: side, animation has created unique tropes and

: storytelling devices that can only exist within
it, particularly the expression of a character

: through design. In many cases, these designs

: become widely adopted, then subject to parody
: and subversion. It’s amazing when any medium
: evolves to the point where it parodies itself.

All of this is evidence of animation’s

: validity as a form of artistic expression, in spite
: of detractors who may claim that animation is

: only for children. There are countless reasons to
: preserve the method alongside the ever-more-

: successful 3-D computer animation. However,

: anumber of factors are emerging that severely

: limit the profitability of traditional animation.

The most prominent harbinger of the

: tombstone on the horizon is, as mentioned, 3-D
: computer animation. Back in 2013, Walt Disney
: Corporation slashed its entire team of hand

: animators for this exact reason. I object to the

: idea that 3-D animation is somehow inherently

: superior just because it is more technologically