Auteurism, Animation and America
The 2020s so far have been an interesting decade so far in American animation, with the continued dominance in streaming, TV shows and films have been playing around with format, style and lengths more than ever before. While groundbreaking works like the Spider-verse series, Arcane, The Mitchells vs the Machines and more have all proven to be popular lately, there still seems to lack a sense of auteurism in animation unlike live action film.
Auteur theory is the “thought that the director of a film is the major creative force behind a film”. While there are critics who push back on the concept, most cinephiles can recognize that certain filmmakers have a distinct style or recurring themes. From Christopher Nolan’s use of non-linear timelines, to Greta Gerwig’s exploration of femininity and girlhood to Spike Lee’s iconic dolly shot and more, most accomplished directors have their thing. So why don’t we see that recreated in mainstream animation more?
Hayao Miyazaki is easily the most acclaimed living animation director. His work with Studio Ghibli is distinct and influential. It’s quite easy to recognize one of his films from a still picture alone, the soft unlined Japanese anime characters and the majestic naturescapes and backgrounds paired with stories about coming of age, environmentalism and anti-war commentary have made for some of the best films in existence. While many Japanse animators have reached that “auteur” status, (Satoshi Kon, Makoto Shinkai, Mamoru Hosoda, etc) the American animation market has failed to produce a similar counterpart to Miyazaki
Walt Disney was probably the best example, the animation titan’s work, especially his fairy tale adaptations, still influence the Disney company today. But most people (even dedicated film fans) couldn’t name a single director or animator that works on today’s Disney films. Disney’s (and Pixar’s) animated films are made within the confines of corporations brand first, giving little way to any artistic stamp from the directors themselves, it doesn’t matter if they are is John Lasseter or Musker & Clements, as important as those filmmakers are to modern Disney’s legacy, they made a Walt Disney film before anything else.
This isn’t unique to just Disney, all the feature animation studios from Illumination to DreamWorks suffer with non-descript direction, their works all being attributed to the overall studio identity and not the individual directors, animators or screenwriters behind it.
You can’t help but wonder what would these animated films look like if filmmakers were given the keys and the budget to just go as far as they want, not held back by studio constraints? Of course there’s very rarely complete freedom with making any major motion film, live action or otherwise, but sometimes when you watch behind the scenes on some of these films, it seems like they’re directed more by committee than one singular director.
So is it necessarily bad that auteur theory doesn’t seem to apply in American animation? I would argue the lack of specificity in animation holds the medium back. Directors like Jordan Peele or Lorgos Lanthimos have been able to make their dazzling original films off the back of their recognition. Animation is still largely seen as a children’s genre vs a versatile medium and the feature film side seems to still lack diverse narratives. Imagine if more animation creatives were able to pitch original films and get the type of funding and distribution that a Spider-verse or a Puss in Boots does?
Even when animation directors strike out on their own and produce works independent of the main studio system, they still struggle with recognition. Animation aficionados will probably recognize Don Bluth’s name but while the former Disney employee has notable works such as The Secret of NIHM and Anastasia, many times his films end up being miscategorized as Disney films before anything else.
There are some bright notable exceptions, that sense of authorship seems to exist in directors like Henry Selick. His macabre stop motion films like Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas have stayed consistent no matter what studio he collaborates with. Or even someone like Wes Anderson has converted his precise and polychromatic style to stop motion animation before as well too.
I don’t mean to discredit the efforts of any of the hundreds of creatives that work on animated films just to only valorize the director though I still can’t help but feel like animation is held back to a degree to satiate corporate interests first. This probably wouldn’t feel like a major issue if there was a thriving independent animation scene but right now the pickings are… scant to say to the least.
There’s even been progress from Pixar that may be a sign of changing times, Enrico Casarosa’s small town Italian upbringing was a major influence on both both his short and feature film for the studio, La Luna and Luca. Domee Shi used a familiar path, as well, using Chinese culture and immigration as major themes in both Bao and Turning Red.
Animation is ever evolving and I imagine that in the next ten to fifteen years this may be a totally different conversation and we may have some more notable filmmakers.