Conclusion

Understanding realism is vital to understanding animation, since one of the great struggles of the form has been to create realistic effects in a medium that is inherently artificial and created in a particularly laborious fashion. The Disney features have come to be accepted as the pinnacle of animated realism, yet the convention surrounding the “illusion of life” are too rarely examined. A number of different types of realism can be identified, and I have attempted a preliminary discussion of some of these types here. Yet even this brief exploration has shown some of the problems that can be uncovered when the concept of “realism” is questioned. For each type of realism identified, different relationships to the real can be sketched. Furthermore, one form of reality might be prioritised over another, or one type of realism might serve to reinforce another. For example, if the intent is to achieve audience interest and identification in the character’s personality and situation (narrative and character realism), having the character move and behave realistically (realism of motion) is more important than having the character look real (visual realism). Such interplay partially explains why cartoons can simultaneously combine outrageous exaggeration with a painstaking fidelity to reality, without the audience perceiving an incongruity. Just as the free-spirited nature of animated cartoons belies the arduous manner of their construction, the audience’s casual acceptance of an animated reality belies the complex underpinnings of the cartoon notion of the real.

Contents

Introduction

Visual Realism

Aural Realism

Realism of Motion

Narrative & Character Realism

Social Realism

Conclusion