Beauty

I never realized how many kinds of animation there are. I had some notion of the different types of animation with such things as stop motion and hand drawn. But I was amazed watching both sand animation and optical film printing. These types of animation were fascinating. Norman McLaren and Caroline Leaf had something I've never seen before. Seeing these animation styles I had never seen before now have me thinking.

There are so many types of animation, and they all can speak to us on a deep level. As I mentioned in the Q&A time, I was nearly brought to tears by "Father and Daughter." I don't know the person who made these films, I don't know the backgrounds of the characters, and I don't know why this film gets to me. But it does. I feel for the daughter who is waiting on her father's return. And I wouldn't feel the same about this story if I saw it in live action.

I like Dr. Leeper's response to my question about why this happens. He said that we feel emotionally closer due in some part to a distance that we get from watching something we know isn't real. Animation isn't real life. Sorry for breaking the illusion, but animation simply isn't real. We know this. Yet we feel something of a kinship with this illusion. I think it's because we see a shadow of what's real. In watching "Father and Daughter," I realize that I've never been a young girl who lost her father. But I have felt loss, and seeing that in an unfamiliar way sparks something in me.

And I think this is key. We don't hear what is said to us on a daily basis. Daily events don't often affect us since we build a tolerance to them. But when we see something that is new and unnatural, we tend to pay more attention. We notice things that are shocking and different. Animation is just such an unnatural occurrence. Maybe that's why shows like Steven Universe and Adventure Time have such a big impact on us.