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Animation Writing Roundup
 May 8, 2007 2:00 am
The most interesting writing and interviews about animation can no longer be found in any particular magazine; rather it’s spread out across the entire Web. Finding it is often the biggest challenge so I’m going to do my part and try to share more frequently the worthwhile pieces that I discover online. Here’s a few to start off with.
Animation director Mark Mayerson asks “Where’s Animation’s Brando? and then he expands on that thought. Director Michael Sporn offers his personal answer to the question. It’s a thought-provoking read from both.
This is a nice interview with artist Ree Treweek. She’s a member of the South African collective The Blackheart Gang, which produced the mesmerizing animated short The Tale of How.
One of my favorite cultural commentators, Momus, looks at the results of last week’s elections in Scotland and its implications for Scottish independence through the prism of the country’s most famous animation artist, Norman McLaren.
John K interviews can get kind of repetitive, especially when the interviewer asks the same old questions, but Aaron Simpson of the indispensable Cold Hard Flash manages to get some good stuff out of John in this recent interview. John’s ideas about his personal animation school curriculum are quite inspiring, if not quite fully developed, and point out just how much is missing from contemporary animation curriculums. 10 comments posted in Ideas/Commentary 
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Where is our Brando?
Why do we need one?
What is the point?
Where is our Picasso or our Mozart?
If Disney was our Cecil B. De Mille, who was our Scorcese? Our John Ford? Our Spike Lee? Our Penelope Spheeris? Our Dorothy Arzner? And on and on…
Umm…because animation is not just merely art? Animation is also about performance, you know?
Really? Are you serious about your comment, Elliot?
I really love the style of The Tale of How. It’s like Terry Gilliam crossed with Henry Darger, with a little bit of Tim Burton for kicks. The whole think is creepy and weird, but in the best way.
Yes Ward, I am entirely serious!
I would argue that there is little difference between art and performance.
It’s just a shallow thing to say, “Why do we need one?” Why not?
And I get your gist that there’s little difference between art and performance, and it’s a good thing that in animation these two things seem to come together rather nicely, but to put out a question like that so flippantly just boggles my mind.
Ward – I think our industry suffers from such a lack of ideas and inspiration that I do think questioning where our supposed Brando comes from is decidedly irrelevant.
Thank you for the link, Amid. And what a great post with which to be a part.
Aah, that’s the spirit, Elliot! With such a cliched and broad statement like that, there’s certainly no hope for our industry.
Your opinion, fine. But I don’t feel that way.
Ward – I am genuinely pleased you have the enthusiasm that I seem to have lost.
Perhaps you may be the Picasso I’ve been waffling on about!