A Comparative Analysis of Character Animation and Performance between American and Japanese Feature Film

Animation

University of the Witwatersrand

School of Digital Arts

A n im at io n M as t e r s

Name: Reg Krommenhoek

Student Number: 325490

Supervisor: Stephen Cloete

Abstract This research paper seeks to gain a better understanding of t he disparity in character animation and performance be t w e e n Japanese and American a n im at io n through a comparative analysis of feature films by Studio Ghibli and D i s n e y . The analysis incorporates an investigation into the cultural and historical elements that influenced the development of the m e d ium i n bo t h r e g io n s as w e l l as t he individuals that pioneered animation techniques and approaches to performance that contributed to both studios ’ unique styles. Beyond the textual and technological readings of animation, this research p a pe r engages with performance theory and seeks to explore the disparity in a n im at io n ba s e d o n performative differences . By g ain i n g, a n ua nc e d understanding of performance in animation and the characteristics of these fo rm s of performance one can gain a greater under s t a nd i n g o f ho w e ac h studio approaches characte r animation and performance , a n d w hy t h e s e approaches di ffe r . This is achieved through id e nt ify i ng the difference in ideology regarding movement and the processes by which these movements are rendered . The identification of t he key performance models - figurative or e m bo d ie d - and their use by each studio is t he n re- integrated into the greater discussion regard i ng the textual and technological readings of animation a n d h o w the textual and technological elements help reinforce the unique style and approach to each performance mode . Thus gaining a nuanced understanding of the medium in both regions in regards to an im at io n production and the disparity in animation on a performative level .

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Acknowledgments I would like to thank my loving family who always support me no matter the e nd e av o u r.

I w o u l d a ls o li k e t o t h ank m y s upervisor and the Digital A rts faculty of Wits U n iv e rs it y for their guidance and support throughout my academic career .

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Declaration

I declare that this research report is my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in Digital Arts in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination in any other university.

______15th day of February 2018

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Contents A b s t r ac t ...... 2

Acknowledgments ...... 3

Table of Figur es ...... 6

Introduction ...... 8

Limited Animation vs. Full Animation ...... 14

Disney and the Golden Age ...... 17

Japanese Animation History ...... 24

Anime Historical Predecessors ...... 32

Studio Ghibli ...... 37

Performance in An im at io n ...... 47

Figurative Performance ...... 50

Embodied Performance ...... 58

Performance Space ...... 67

A n aly s is ...... 80

Disney and Ghibli Performance ...... 80

Disney and Ghibli Performance Space ...... 92

Co nc lu s io n ...... 97

Works Cited ...... 100

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Table of Figures Figure 1: Manga panels from Astroboy Volume 1, The Birth of Astroboy...... 31 Figure 2: Astroboy and the use of several Tome...... 32 Figure 3: Part of Choju jinbutsu giga ...... 34 Figure 4: Genji Monogatari Emakimono published by the Toku gawa Museum in Nagoya, Japan, 1937 ...... 35 Figure 5: Noh device in which the audience experience the contemplative world in Spirited Aw ay ...... 37 Figure 6: Howl's Moving Castle animated by moving and rotating planes ...... 39 Figure 7: Hayao Miyazaki (Left) and Yasou Otsuka (Right) ...... 40 Figure 8: Illustrating Otsuko Yasou’s ‘peghole technique’ angling characters to impart a sense of dynamism in more limited animation ...... 43 Figure 9: A more recent example from Princess Mononoke in which the peghole is used to shift the weight rather than drawing it creating dynamic m o v e m e nt ...... 44 Figure 10: François Delsarte Eye Expression Chart ...... 51 Figure 11: Preston Blair's Stylized Facial Expression ...... 52 Figure 12: Sample of Graphic Emblems taken from Neil Cohn's Japanese Visual Language: The Structure of Manga ...... 53 Figure 13: ‘Gainax pose’ in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ( 2 00 7 ) ...... 54 Figure 14: ‘Gainax pose’ in D ie bu s t e r ( 2 0 0 4 ) ...... 54 Figure 15: Comic strip language used as a performative element in early a n im at io n ...... 56 Figure 16: Don Graham instructing Disney Animators ...... 60 Figure 17: The Three Little Pigs by Disney. From left to right, Practical Pig, Fiddler Pig and Piper Pig ...... 61 Figure 18: Scenes from Mickey Mouse Plane Crazy (1928) displaying lateral scene composition similar to comic strips...... 70 Figure 19: Plane Crazy (1928) was the first animated Mickey Mouse cartoon adapted to a newspaper comic strip titled "Lost on a Desert Island (1930)". When comparing the two a clear connection between comic spatial composition and the early Disney animations is presented...... 70

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Figure 20: Skeleton in The Skeleton Dance in frontal display representative of vaudeville theatre...... 72 Figure 21: Extreme close up from Satashi Kon's Paprika (2006) ...... 74 Figure 22: Mickey’s Steamroller (1934) but with shadows absent. This illustrates the inconsistency in the use of shadows as within the same scene Minnie sprouts a shadow within the same performance as seen in Figure 6. .... 79 Figure 23: Mickey's Steamroller (1934) showcasing the use of the formulaic noonday shadow ...... 79 Figure 24: Emoting Tarzan (1999) ...... 82 Figure 25: Emoting Spirited Away (2001) ...... 83 Figure 26: Jiji’s figurative facial gesture. Kiki’s Delivery Service ...... 87 Figure 27: Jiji’s figurative performance Kiki’s Delivery Service ...... 87 Figure 28: Chihiro Figurative Performance in Spirited Away ...... 88 Figure 29: Chihir o’s Figurative Performance Spirited Away ...... 88 Figure 30: Weight shift and movement out of depth. Tarzan ...... 90 Figure 31: Weight shift in Spirited Away ...... 91 Figure 32: Shadow comparison between Disney and Studio Ghibli. Indicating the use of more defined translucent shadows in Disney’s work and the more opaque and less defined shadows of Studio Ghibli...... 95 Figure 33: Comparison of figurative shadows in Kiki’s Delivery Service a n d Popeye Vim, Vigor and Vitaliky (1936). Opaque and loosely defined shadows in both productions seem to serve the same function of anchoring the characters but only enough to facilitate that they are influenced by physical forces...... 96 Figure 34: Defined translucent shadows for dramatic effect in T ar z a n a n d Spirited Away ...... 96

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Introduction Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn; what happens between each frame is much more important than what exists on each frame; animation is therefore the art of manipulating the invisible inte rstices that lie between frames . (Furniss, 2007)

T he movement of bodies is t he he art a n d s o ul of c h ar ac t e r a n im at io n . Ho w t he s e a n im at e d bodies move and their presentation is influenced by a range of a s p e c t s that inform the performance . T hi s facet of animation allows for a ne w investigation into the movement of bodies , o r rat he r , the performance of bodies through character animation by a na ly s i ng m o v e m e nt - the raw material of animated film s . By analysing movement as one would analyse music “ through its melody or rhythm, or a painting through c o lo ur , line and shape ” (Bishko, 2007, p. 34) one can understand and discern visible differences in Western and Eastern approaches to c hara c t e r animation and performance .

Differences between Western and Eastern animation extend beyond the types of stories they tell and the aesthetic t h e y us e . The purpose of this research p a pe r is t o fo c u s on c har ac t e r a nim at io n a nd performance in Japanese and Am e ri c a n fe at ur e a n im at io n . Japanese and American animation a r gu ab ly c o ns t it ut e the two biggest representatives of mainstream narrative animation , t hi s is not to downplay other large animation industries ( e .g . t he Fre nc h animation industry) b u t r at h e r to focus on the two most prominent ; y e t t he ir approach and understanding of the medium is different . T he goal is not to assign any value judgement on which approach is better in one form or a no t he r but rather to gain a greater understanding of performance in animation, t he processes by which they ar e rendered and t h e t ra d it io ns a n d cultures that influence their development . Nor is the goal of the research to reduce Japanese animation or American animation ’ s complexity down to ‘ Japaneseness ’ o r ‘ Americanness ’ , but rather to engage with the di ffe ri n g qualities of movement and performance in their animations a n d i de nt i fy e le m e nt s that may contribute to their similarities or differences w he t he r

8 | P a g e c ul t u ra l, e c o no m i c or technical . The engagement with this study into c ha rac t e r a nim a t io n a n d performance through a na ly s is is fro m an e t ic perspective on both forms as I am not a member of either culture . Therefore, t hroughout the research pa pe r , I attempt to engage with and underst a n d t he historical, cultural, t ra dit io n al and economic aspects of Japanese and Am e ri c a n animation; however, the potential remains for nuanced elements to b e lo s t in ‘translation’ .

I t is often stated that what separates anime 1 from other animation fo rm s is i t s deliberate lack of fluidity and use of limited animation . A lt ho u gh t he s e elements do contribute to its unique aesthetic a p pro ac h , I b e l ie ve that if one were to compare feature films from Japan and America that use t he s am e animation technique, in t his case full o r at le as t fu ll -l im it e d a nim at io n 2 o ne would still be able to identify a discernible difference in the w ay c h ara c t e r s move and perform. Fo r in s t a nc e , American animation , namely the works of Disney will often express a characters e m o t io na l state through physical actions whereas Studio Ghibli , D i s n e y ’s s p ir it ua l counterpart in Japan, m ay express the same emotional state through other means that m ay be le s s p hy s ic al an d m o re f i gu rat iv e in depiction. This s u bt le difference in performance c o u ld b e a t t ributed to a range of influences ranging from the animation process used to t he thematic and cultural qualities o f t he p ro du c t io n , but beyond these factors is an underlying ideology o r ap pro ac h that informs a n im at e d c ha rac t e r performance .

W hat p ro m pt e d i nt e r e s t in this topic was twofold my own interest as a fan a nd practitioner of animation and the multitude of articles written on the topic f ro m the academic to t h e no n -ac ade m i c . One particular article written by animation historian Michael Ba rr i er caught my interest, in which he discussed

1 Anime is the most common modern term used to define animation in Japan but it only came to fruition in the middle of the twentieth century and went by other names in earlier periods (Clements, 2013, p. 1) . In contemporary terms anime, refers to animation from Japan (Clements & McCarthy, 2015, p. 30) .

2 The distinction between full and limited animation is discussed in detail in the Limited Animation vs. Full Animation section.

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Studio Ghibli and famed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. Michael Barrier r e m ark e d t h at :

After watching six of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated features…I’ve c o nc lu de d that this extravagantly praised Japanese filmmaker is above all a great effects animator … The downside of a preoccupation with e ffe c t s is that everything in between turns into a sort of stuffing, the character animation in particular. In Miyazaki films it suffers from Japanese animation ’ s endemic reticence w he re t he illumination o f personality is concerned . This or that character may express extreme emotion, but always with the stylized extravagance of Kabuki. Too many Miyazaki characters – the doll like he roes and heroines, the raw boned comic relief pirates and la bo u re rs - look and behave too much alike (Barrier, 2006) .

Michael Barrier ’s statement is r at h e r h ars h and dismissive of bo t h Hay ao M iy a zaki’s work an d Japanese a nim at io n as a w ho le o n t he p ri nc i ple o f character animation . I disagree with his observation , but nonetheless his statement raises an interesting point pertinent to the introduction to the discussion of this thesis . Barrier makes a veiled c o m p ar is o n , although not directly stated , w he n he compares J apa ne s e character animation t o t hat o f n o n -J a pa ne s e , po s s i b ly Am e r ic a n c ha ra c t e r an im at io n . This highlights an embedded cultural bias in his assessment that utilises the American approach to animation and performance as a s t a n da rd from which to assess anime . Character anim ation or the lack thereof , a s f ar as B a rr ie r i s c o nc e rne d , i s t ie d to the regional output of Japanese animation. B arr ie r id e n t i fi e s a difference in how character s perform emotion and how emotion is handled and to some degree identifies a lack of ‘personality’ in the animation , not emotion , a nd correlates this d if fe r e n c e t o t he theatre traditio n s o f Ja pan . Am id Am id i o f Animation Blast s har e s a similar notion a n d b ia s to Michael Barrier in regards to the performance of characters and their personality animation w he n writing that :

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C ertain aspects of Japanese cartoons…turn me off, and surprisingly these elements remain consistent throughout all of the anime I’ve seen, whether it’s a cheaply - produced OAV [s ic ] or a classy Miyazaki production. Namely, it is the unappealing and cold nature of their character designs, and the general lack of dynamics and complexity in their personality an im at io n (Osmond, 2000) .

Both identify a difference between American and Japanese animation b as e d o n personality animation and the difference in performance as a result. W h at is particularly interesting from their assessments is that they completely remove production and budgetary elements from the assessment and po t e n t i al traditional and cultural aspects that would influence the performance as whole. Their asse ssm e nt purely focu s es on the performance of characters , based on the standardised tradition of Disney’s “illusion of life” or personality animation , hi g hl i ght i ng a core separation between both territories ’ approach to character animation and performance .

The notion of difference in style and performance of c h ara c t e r between the two nations provides an avenue worth investigating and shares more than one similarity to the approach u s e d by Mark Langer . Mark Langer conducted a s t u dy in which he i de nt if ie d di ffe r e nc e s i n t h e character animation and performance of characters between East Coast and West Coast animations in America during the 1940’s. M a rk L a nge r specifically ide nt if ie d a difference in t he c ha ra c t e r animation tradition in Disney’s own work during the 1 9 3 0 ’s – 1 9 4 0 ’ s . He i de nt if ie d two different styles of animation at Disney during this p e r io d the aforementioned E as t (New York style) an d W e s t c o a s t (Hollywood) s t y le s .

New York style was a form of discourse that preceded and stood in opposition to the dominant West Coast style in use by Walt Disney Productions. While West Coast animation was more consistent with the codes of classical Hollywood cinema, the New York style violated those codes through its emphasis on the artificial qu ality of animation (Langer, 1990, p. 306) .

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What Langer identified , without using the terminol ogy, is what Crafton describes as figurative and embodied performance s . The East Coast style is figurative and the West Coast s tyle is embodied. By identifying t h e s e two different animation traditions , he effectively identified two different modes of performance in classic Am e r ic an cartoons driven by regionalism . T h is separation in regionalism, according to Langer, attributed to the difference in approach to animation as it influenced the type of c h ara c t e r performance, n a rra t iv e s , s e t t i n gs and the overall mise -en-scene of the animation . As t he s e regions had different ideological, cultural and conventional expectations of t he art f o rm . Most viewers can tell the difference between an animation from Fleischer Studios and Disney based solely on the performance and the same is true for the w o rk s o f American animation and Japanese animation. T he importance of Langer’s observation t he n is t hat in many ways it resembles a similar separation between Japanese and American animation and is echoed , to some degree , in B ar rie r ’ s and Amid Amidi’s statement in regard s t o ho w c ha rac t e r ’ s performance is handled between American and Japanese a n im at io n .

While Langer’s focus was on the difference in animation tradition d ue t o regionalism within America, t his research paper will focus on t h e performativity of characters in fe a t u re a n im at io n f ro m Ja pan and America a nd the influences of production, c u lt ure and artistic traditions o n c ha rac t e r animation and performativity. As stated previously , t he separation between Japanese and American animation extend s beyond the visual aesthetic and is an engrained part in how animation is approached and movement is p re s e n t e d . Us i n g examples from W a lt D is ne y ’s ‘Renaissance Period 3’ an d Studio Ghibli ’s library of work from the late 80’s and 90’s , this essay will s e e k to a na ly s e character performance and the approach to character performance

3 T h e renaissance period reflects a period of aesthetic and industrial growth at Disney animation studios between 1989 and 1999. This period saw Disney animated productions return to the “artistic ideologies of t h e D i s n e y - Formalist period” (Pallant, 2011, p. 89) . The films that constitute the Disney Renaissance are T h e Little Mermaid ( 1 9 8 9 ) , The Rescuers Down Under ( 1 9 9 0 ) , Beauty and the Beast ( 1 9 9 1 ) , A l a d d i n ( 1 9 9 2 ) , T h e L i o n K i n g ( 1 9 9 4 ) , Pocahontas ( 1 9 9 5 ) , The Hunchback of N o t r e D a m e ( 1 9 9 6 ) , H e r c u l e s ( 1 9 9 7 ) , M u l a n (1998) and T a r z a n ( 1 9 9 9 ) .

12 | P a g e within these films . Donald Crafton’s theory of animation performativity w i ll be used as a base to c r it ic a l ly engage and analys e performance in the selected e x am p le s . Historical account s o f t he development of both the American and J a pa ne s e i nd us t r ie s will be given to gain further insight and h e l p identify core a rt is t ic traditions and cultures that influenced animation and character performativity of each Studio .

The selection of Studio Ghibli and Disney films are based on their use of full animation a nd traditional cel animation. Additionally both studios films are c o ns ide re d o rt ho do x a nim a t io n d ue t o t he ir use of the narrative form and a reliance on configuration or the use of recognizable charac ter models of people or animals (Wells, 1998, p. 35) . T h us , Studio Ghibli ’s productions mirror those of Disney in regards to animation and production, a t le as t c lo s e enough to allow for a closer analysis.

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Limited Animation vs. Full Animation At this juncture it is important to address the distinction between full animation and limited animation.

The distinction between full animation and limited animation is central to the study of animation, and accounts frequently c h ar ac t e ri ze an im e as a distinctive form of limited animation that began in earnest with the production of animated television series in the early 1960’s ( L am a rre , 2009, p. 184) .

A basic understanding of the two aesthetic approaches is required as it plays a fundamental role in how movement is re n de r ed and therefore af fe c t s character animation and performance , a n d t he a ud ie nc e ’ s interpretation of these performances .

The main separ at io n between limited and f ull animation is the amount of frames used to render a character ’ s movement. F ur ni s s h o w e v e r identifies four main criteria: the movement of images, number of frames, a nd t he metamorphosis of images and the density of visual and aural c o m po ne nt s (Furniss, 2007, p. 133) . Furniss notes t h at limited and full animation “ a re quantitative measures, but they have acquire d misleading qualitative connotations . Full and limited animations are two stylistic tendencies that can achieve different aesthetic results, with neither being inherently pleasing nor r e pe ll e nt ” (Furniss, 2007, p. 133) . This sentiment is expressed by Lamarre when discussing limited and full animation and problems associated with the distinction , stating that “ there has been a tendency to think of full animation a s t he art of animation and to depict limited animation as an artistically limited and even failed version of full animation” (Lamarre, 2009, p. 184) .

Film is projected at 24 frames per second. Full animation primarily refers to the number of drawings us e d t o an im a t e the movement of a character. It’ s characterised by high quality , smooth animation as i t employs constant movement with cycles kept to a m i nim um as t he “ re -use of drawings is anathema to full animatio n” (Furniss, 2007, p. 133) . In ‘true’ full animation each drawing is only used once and the greatest fluidity is achieved by using

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24 different images for each second of running time. This however is not a lw ay s re q ui re d based on the s c o pe of t he ac t io n or movement required in a n im at io n . Thomas Lamarre points o u t t hat t he “ Disney average, w h ic h created the norms for full animation, is said to be about eighteen drawings per second” (Lamarre, 2009, p. 64) . Fu r niss also points ou t t hat a n im at io n on ones and twos 4 is consistent with full animation w he re as animation on t hre e s or higher is regarded as limited animation (Furniss, 2007, p. 134) . Furniss also highlights the importance of camera movement in limited animation to c re at e m o t io n and reduce the amount of animation re qu ire d . Highlighting the importance of composition and staging in limited animation sequences a s t he camera tends to hold on characters for longer periods . This is not to say that staging and composition are not equally important in full animation but r at he r that in limited animation the focus is shifted away from the movement of c ha rac t e r s . I n o t he r w o r ds , limited and full animation prioritize and fo c us o n different aspects.

F ull animation places focus on the animation and visuals as opposed to sound and stillness of limited animation (Furniss, 2007, p. 134) . L am arr e hi g hl ig ht s the tendency of distinguishing between full and limited animation in terms of movement versus stasis as problematic (Lamarre, 2009, p. 184) . “ L im it e d animation is not seen as a different way of animating, of generating m o v e m e nt , but as an absence of movement, a lack of animation, as a series of s t at ic im a ge s ” ( L am a rre , 2009, p. 184) . For this reason Lamarre believes it is impossible to engage in a n aly s is of the dynamism of limited animation and anime if framed on the model of stasis and stillness . Rather Lamarre p ro po s e s that one understands full animation and limit ed animation as either classic or m o de rn (Lamarre, 2009, p. 186) . He proposes that Limited animation is an ar t m o v e m e nt , s im il ar t o UPA’s e x pe r im entation and development of limited

4 To achieve full animation and the greatest fluidity in movement 24 different images are used for each second of running time, this is re ferred to as animating on ones. If an animator were to animate half of the number of images, or 12 images per second of running time he or she is animating on twos. Animating on threes involves animating 8 images per second of running time. Animating on on e s a n d twos is consistent with full animation production while animating on threes, fours and fives is consistent with limited animation production.

15 | P a g e a n im at io n t e c h ni que s , “ a modern art of animation in contrast to the classicism of full animation ” (Lamarre, 2009, p. 188) .

T hus in summation , full and limited animation is defined by the number of f ram e s u s e d per running second of animation and the smoothness o r l ac k t he r e o f as a result of which ap pro ac h is u s e d . Each process places emphasis on separate aspects that define the portrayal of motion . O ne may question the validity of discussing limited animation at all when the analysis will foc us on full animated features from Disney and Studio Ghibli and the answe r i s r at he r simple, limited animation plays a large role in anime’s formation and the development of both Japan ’ s and Studio Gh ib li ’s animation history . Understanding the difference between full and limited animation is pivotal to engaging with the separation between the two streams of anime , an d Ja pa n ’ s development from fu l l - an im at e d D is ne y - like productions to the more limited a n im at ed pro du c t io n s . Limited animation occupies the posi t io n o f a t rue alternative to full an im a t io n due to its development as an alternative to full a n im at io n, but where did full animation come from and how did it become the global standard ? As s t at e d , Disney defined the norms of what constitu t e s f ul l a n im at io n and the trajectory o f a n im at io n performance , therefore it would make sense to engage further with the period in which these norms were developed and defined and came to represent the ‘ s t a nd ar d ’ by w h i c h o t he r a n im at io ns w o u ld be c o m pa re d .

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Disney and the Golden Age The focus of American animation history will be on the development of D i s n e y ’s ‘ illusion of l ife ’ a n d t he ir approach to character animation a n d performativity between the 1930’s and 1940’s rather than t he e ar ly development of American animation . The intention is not to underplay the contributions of o t he r highly important figures in animation history but rather to e m p ha s i ze a particular period in which Disney defined how c h ar ac t e rs a re animated and per fo rm . Disney pioneered strong characterisation (personality animation), linear effects, comic and visual a ff e c t s during this period . T he p iv o t al de v e lo p ments of this period would shape Disney’s animation and the development of t he animation industry as a whole . In many ways the guiding metaphor of American animation, in particular Disney animation , was that the animator is an actor imparting life to inanimate objects (bringing them to l i fe ) . T he focus and emphasis was on the perfor mance and how the audience would react and connect with the se animated c har ac t e rs . Al t ho u gh this period was marked with a multitude of developments in terms of technique and technology, t he most important development during t hi s pe r io d was D i s ne y ’s t ra ns it io n f ro m f igu r at iv e performance s to e m bo die d performances . I n t he p ro c e s s , c re at i ng the fundamentals of their aesthetic and t h e i r approach to movement that would become the ‘ s t a n da r d ’ for the animation.

‘During animation’s ‘Golden Age’ the Studio [D is ne y ] was instrumental in formalizing a number of principles ’ (Pallant, 2011, p. 16) . Disney became synonymous with a particular set of fo rm a li ze d a nim a t io n mechanics outlined i n Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (Thomas & Johnson, 1995, p. 17) . Thomas and Johnson outline twelve animation principles that were encouraged at the Disney Studio as they added a greater sense of ‘realism’ to Disney’s a n im at io n . These principles were formalized in the studios production as Thomas and Johnson state that as

each of these processes acquired a name, it was analysed and perfected and talked about, and when new artists joined the staff they were taught these practices as if they were the rules of the trade. To

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everyone’s surprise, they became the fundamental prin c i p le s o f a n im at io n (1995, p. 47) .

The formalized existence and nature of these principles illustrated Disney’s desire to industrialize and further centralised Disney’s contribution to the evolution of animation and ind ustrial practice (Pallant, 2011, p. 17) . He nc e Chris Pallant refers to this as Disney Formalism , fundamentally “ t he D i s ne y - Formalist ideology prioritized artistic sophistication, ‘realism’ in characters and contexts and, a bove all, believability ” (2011, p. 35) .

Steven Watts identifies Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( 1 9 3 7 ) , P in o cc hi o ( 1 9 4 0 ) , D um bo ( 1 9 41 ) an d B am b i ( 1 9 4 2 ) as the films that established the ‘creative high -watermark’ of the Disney Studio (Watts, 1997, p. 35) . S n ow White and the Seven Dwarfs in particular pl ay e d an instrumental role in t he development of Disney Formalism and the solidification of principles that would govern D is ne y ’s feature film development . Snow White’s success ‘profoundly altered the studio’ (Pallant, 2011, p. 39) and ultimately led to it becoming the aesthetic ‘b lue pr i nt ’ or template for the formalist p e rio d . ‘ T he artistic paradigm promoted by Snow White has since be c o m e k no w n as ‘hyperrealism ’ (Pallant, 2011, p. 40) . This echoes Maureen Furniss ’ s t a t e m e nt t hat , in 1937, Disney ac hieved one of its greatest technological and aesthetic f e at s with the release of its first feature film (Furniss, 2007, p. 112) .

“ Hyperrealism … has come to define a mode of animation which, despite the medium’s obvious artifice, strives for ‘realism’ ” (Pallant, 2011, p. 40) . P a ll an t u t i li s e s P au l W e ll s ’ definition of Disneyesque hyperrealism to define Disney’s a t t e m p t t o represent reality in a medium based on artificiality . T h is ‘hyperrealism’ is seen ‘as the yardstick by which other kinds of animation may be measured for its relative degree of “realism” (Wells, 1998, p. 25) . I f o ne recalls Mark Langer w ho identified a separation between the Ea s t Co as t ( New Y o r k ) an d W e s t C o as t (Hollywood) animation styles, ultimately what Langer d efined as West Coast animation i s Disney’s hyperrealism .

The most significant element of Disney -Formalist hyperrealism is the lifelike movement – or motor function – o f the animation, which reflects

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both the actual movements of live - action model s and the skill of the a n im at o r (Pallant, 2011, p. 41) .

Donald Crafton however defines this approach to Disneyesque hyperrealism a s the pursuit of embodied acting and thus identifies Langer ’s identification of t he s e pa rat io n between West Coast and East Coast as differences in performance re g is t e r s . It must be noted at this juncture that a discussion of realism stretches beyond the scope of this research paper . H yperrealism within the context of the research pa pe r will refer to a style of animation developed during the Disney Formalist period which priorit izes believability and present “ verisimilitude in…char acters, contexts and narratives” ( W e l ls , 1998, p. 23) . Wells state s t hat :

The construction of the ‘body’, even in the most determinedly hyperrealist animation (most specifically, Disney), is a complex issue, largely because animation has the capacity to resist ‘realism’ and the orthodoxies of the physical world, redefining the body as a fl ui d a nd indestructible form (Wells, 1996, p. 185) .

Disney realised that it was impossi ble to depict a realistic human figure in traditional animation as the medium foregrounds its artifice. This resulted in believability being the driving principle of Disney Hype r realism rather t ha n ‘ re a li s m ’ . This is echoed in a statement made by O ll ie Johnson and Fr a nk Thomas in regards to the realism and accura cy of movement in rotoscoping, “it was impossible to become emotionally involved with this eerie, shadowy creature who was never a real inhabitant of our fantasy w o r l d” ( T ho m as & Johnson, 1995, p. 323) . In essence Disney wanted to enhance the verisimilitude between movement and the animated fantasy world. T o ac hi e v e this ‘realism’ (believability) the use of filmed live action sequences was used as guides, as rotosc o pe d 5, 6 a n im at io n h as “ a tendency to lose the illusion of l i fe ” (Pallant, 2011, p. 41) and contrasted the studios approach to ‘ re a l is m ’ . Maureen Furniss highlights the importance of Donald Graham’s suggestion

5 Max Fleischer patented the Rotoscope in 1917. 6 Rotoscoping is the process of animation in which animat ors trace filmed footage, frame by frame, resulting in movements with a high degree of realism.

19 | P a g e that animators watch films of both live action and animated movement, to gain a greater understanding of how ac t io n s occur in reality and how other animators rendered these actions (Furniss, 2007, p. 113) . Don Graham pl ay e d a vital role and greatly influenced the look of Disney animation through his ‘action analyses’ classes (Furniss, 2007, p. 112) , his exact role and influence on Disney animated character perfor mance will be discusse d i n t he P e r for m an ce in Animation s e c t io n . L a ng e r highlights an important facet of G ra ham ’ s teachings that are inherently tied to Disney' s hyperrealism w he n he states that:

Graham distinguished between caricature and cartoon, noting that caricature was rooted in a detailed observation of the physical world and natural action. Cartoon was based on the study of other cartoons. Caricature, rather than cartoon was to be the g oal of Disney p ro du c t io n (Langer, 19 90, p. 306) .

This statement echoes a similar statement by Walt Disney in a studio memo stating that t he :

F irst duty of cartoons is not to picture or duplicate real action or things as they actually happen – but to give a caricature of both life and a c t io n …The point must be made clear to the men that our study of the actual is not so that we may be able to accomplish the actual, but so that we may have a basis upon which to go into the fantastic, the unreal, the imaginative – and yet to let it hav e a foundation of fact, in order that it may more richly possess sincerity and contact with the p u b lic …I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastical things, based on the real, unless we first know the real ( W at t s , 1997, p. 108) .

Caricature and the exploration of motivation and its emphasis of personality came to define a key aspect of Disney ‘ re a li s m ’ o r a s D is ney referred t o it “ t he possible impossible” . Disney believed that animation relie d on strong action , but if one were to engage with it on a deeper level , animation should explore the reason or motivation for the action. “ The driving force behind action is the mood, the personality, the attitude of the character – or all three ”

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(Watts, 1997, p. 108) . Personality animation t hu s became a cornerstone of D i s n e y ’s hyperrealism and the formalisation of these rules and approaches helped continue this trademark of performance .

This wasn’t always the case , ho w e v e r , as Disney’s earlier work did not pursue t he be nc hm a rk of ‘ re al is m ’ a nd fe at ur ed exaggerated physics and ‘ c art o o na l ’ m e t am o rp ho s is . Langer defines this style of animation as East Coast / Ne w Y o rk s t y le an im at io n , a cartoony style where the artificiality was e m p ha s i ze d through design, movement and dialogue (Langer, 1990, p. 308) . D o n al d C ra ft o n , on the other hand refers to this earlier form of performance as f i gu rat iv e , but this will be addressed in more detail in t h e P e r f or m a n ce in A n im a t i on s e c t io n . To achieve this fo rm a li s m , Disney intensified its efforts to i nt e g rat e liv e -action Hollywood conventions into their productions , visible in the increased complexity of staging, camera movement, and character m o v e m e nt (Furniss, 2007, p. 111) . According to C h ris Pallant, the pinnacle of the Disney Formalist period was t he fe a t u re f ilm Bam b i ( 1942) as it was the culmination of advancements made in previous Disney feature films c o n de ns e d i nt o a single production. As an e x am pl e , t hi s e x c e r pt by Thomas and Jo h ns o n , illustrates the lengths the Studio went too to c re a t e their hyperrealism :

Compared to Mickey or the dwarfs, the Bambi eyes appear to be very r e a lis t ic . They are caric atures of a real deer’s eyes rather than being cartoon eyes. We had the suggestion of tear duct and had carefully drawn upper eyelid with a thickness to it that fits over the eyeball. The pupil with the dark centre and the highlight made the eye the mo s t detailed we had ever drawn (Thomas & Johnson, 1995, pp. 448 - 499).

This was just one of many facets that informed th e performance in Bambi, as t he de e r’s mechanical m o v e m e nt s were starkly different to previous D is ne y f i lm s . T he t ra j e c t o ry of this development towards hyperrealism ho w e v e r w as less than linear as e v ide nc e d by the development of D um bo ( 1 9 4 1 ) w h ic h p re c e de d B am bi , a nd fe at ure d both Disney’s e m bo die d ( Ho ll y w o o d in fl ue nc e d , h y pe r - re a l is t s t y le ) and figurative a c t in g ( Ne w Y o rk , rubber hose s t y le ) . Dumbo was a film of animation hybridity, a mixing of both West coast and East

21 | P a g e coast animation styles , contrasting Disney formalist hyperrealism. D um bo ’s movements when not in flight bear all the hallmar ks of Disney hyperrealism, revealing a “ careful study of live action animal motor function” (Pallant, 2011, p . 4 7 ) . The most emblematic sequence of the New York style in Dumbo would undoubtedly be the pink elephants sequence e m plo y in g s u rre al aesthetics that are rarely seen in Disney films a s a whole, let alone the Disney - Fo rm al is t p e r io d . Langer identifies three animators responsible for this sequence Dick Huemer, Joe Grant and Norman Ferguson, al l of whom started their animation careers in New York and favoured figurative performances (Langer, 1990, p. 48). Dumbo thus stands as a testament to the less than linear development of Disney hyperrealism.

Disney’s ‘hyper re al is m ’ a pp ro ac h did become a source of inspiration for o t he r a n im at io n studios and animators s e e k in g ‘ to generate a similar level of verisimilitude in their animation ’ (Pallant, 2011, p. 43) . In the process D i s n e y b e c am e the most visible studio in American animation due to their pursuit of g re at e r verisimilitude in their productions . Paul Wells makes the statement t hat

it might properly be argued that all cartoon animation that follows the Disney output is a r e a ct io n t o D isney, aesthetically, technically, and ideologically … American animation is effec tively a history of responses to Disney’s usurpation of the form in the period between 1933 and 1941 (2002, p. 45) .

Not all responses to Disney Forma li s m w e re o f p ra is e ho w e v e r , as metamorphosis, the ability of an image to change to a different image through the ‘evolution of the line’ (Wells, 1998, p. 69) was reduced or lost. A rg ua bly , one of the most imp ortant responses to Disney’s cinematic realism o ut p ut w a s United Productions of America ( UPA) , which would have direct and lasting influences on animation and the formation of anime. While Langer de fi ne d, the West Coast style as modern in comparison to tha t of the East Coast style, UPA would also take a similar stance influenced by modernism a nd would have a profound influence of its own in the 1950’s in direct opposition Disney’s

22 | P a g e hyperrealism . UPA’s limited animation arose as a new style of animation and became the new modern while Disney’s full animation be c am e c la s s ic .

Postwar animation studio United Productions of America (UPA) is credited with bringing a modern art sensibility to the American cartoon, a simplified, abstract style that transformed the lo o k o f s t ud io a n im at io n throughout the 1950s and 1960s (Bashara, 2015, p. 81) .

Using minimalist designs and stylised colour, U P A garnered great critical a c c l aim (Furniss, 2007, p. 136) . If the core underpinning of Disney’s hyperrealism was greater verisimilitude through realism then UPA was the departure from this pursui t, ushering in new forms of character animation and performance . Paul Wells claims that UPA “ represent the quasi -E ur opeanisation of what had become an intrinsically American art - fo rm ” (Wells, 1998, p. 100) , using this rhetoric one can state that anime is the qausi -Japanification of an American art form . Thomas Lamarre shares a similar viewpoint that “i n t he instance of anime at least, the operative relation between Japan and the West is not a monolithic one of resistance, opposition and rupture. On the contrary, the relation involves processes of multiplication of, departure from and mutation within sources and models for animation ” (Lamarre, 2002, p. 336) . Thus the next step on th is journey would be to investigate animation in Japan.

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Japanese Animation History A nime is often defined by its form, iconography, thematic genres and i t s cultural and social contexts . F o r t h is r e as o n, it is vital to engage with the historical development of Japanese art forms when exploring the aesthetic, performing, and ideological frameworks of Japanese animati o n . Animation in J a pa n is a dominant cinematic art fo rm unlike animation in the United States and Europe, w hich is arguably the result of it s c lo s e relation to other media formats such as manga and videogames . I n t his s e c t io n , traditional a rt fo rm s a n d ideological frameworks will be discussed in re lat io n to the post -W o r l d War 2 development of Japanese animation. Ja pa n ’ s po s t -World War 2 animation development is a rguably its most important . I t was during this period that J a pa ne s e animation developed into an i n du s t ry a n d it s s t y li s t i c and aesthetic frameworks were c r e at e d . P o s t -W o rl d W ar 2 Ja pa ne s e an im at io n developments can be narrowed down to the formation of Toei A n im at io n S t u d io s a n d t he r is e o f m an ga and its adaption into anime by O s am u T e z uk a . O v e ra ll , this period in Japan ’ s history was characterized by rapid modernization , economic growth and radical soci al- cultural shift , much in the same way that the golden age of American animation saw similar sh i ft s .

I n t he pe r io d directly after the Se c o nd World War the animation medium was k e pt al iv e in J a pa n by T o ho bu t this period was rather tremulous with m ul t i ple companies being me rge d an d re g ro u pe d r e s ult i ng in animators and their sponsors adapting to various changes in the industry, one such shift was the creation of a new film conglomerate. Toei Animation was formed in mid -1 9 5 6 after Toei purchased and integrated Nihon Dōga Eiga (Japan Animated Films) a s T o e i Doga, which eventually became Toei Animation (G.Hu, 2010, p. 82) . “ Tokyo Motion Picture Distribution Company, in short, Toei ” took the mantle from pervious main sponsors Toho and Shochiku (G.Hu, 2010, p. 82) . T o ho a n d Shochiku were the main sponsors a n d in v e s t o rs during the 2 nd World War. T o e i

24 | P a g e h o w e v e r played the important role of no t only keeping the medium al iv e po st World War 2 but for creating a new image for Japanese animation.

In the post -war era, it made sense to let a “new player” regroup and rejuvenate the industry so as to present a fresh image or, at least and at best, obscure the inglorious wartime propaganda film projects that had previously been taken on by the animat ors. One such player who had a resolute determination to take on this task and even accomplished more was Toei (G.Hu, 2010, p. 82) .

T o e i w a s positioned as the D is ne y o f t he E ast, seeking to engage in the business of crea ting animated features of the same standard as Disney’s productions. “Toei Animation m o de l le d itself in the image of Disney Studios. From its industrial, mass - production methods, to its aspiration to cinematic realism (using full animation to generate real ism in motion, and the multiplane camera to generate a sense of cinematic depth), to its use of fairy - tales as the source material for its narratives, Toei aspired to be the ‘Disney of the Orient’ ” (Steinberg, 2006, p. 196) . I n fac t T o e i w a s so resolute in their objective of Disney standard feature animation that the y bu i lt a “ D is ne y -l ik e animation studio with multitask f ac il it ie s to produce Asia’s first c o lo u r animated feature films. ” ( G .H u, 2 010, p. 83) . I n essence Toei animation sought t o a do pt Disney’s ‘illusion of life’ ap p ro a c h , and produce hyperrealist fi lm s similar to Disney . Not only adopting the use of folktale narratives b ut a ls o t o some degree adopting the ways in which characters are animated , a nd by association pe rfo rm .

Their first colour feature film was H ak uj a da n ( Legend of the White Snake ) ( 1 9 5 8 ) , based on a Chinese folktale. Hak uj a de n was a success and proved that the studio was capable of producing high standard productions; however the film did receive mixed reactions from the Japanese reviewers fo r it s “ un - Chineseness” and “un - Japaneseness” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 94) . T he s e c rit i que s w e re n o t aimed at just the d e s ig ns o f c h ar ac t e rs bu t at t he performances of c ha rac t e r s a s w e ll . The simplification of the original folk tale ’ s conclusion also drew the ire of the Ja pa ne s e p ub l ic in addition to their critique of

25 | P a g e a da pt i ng a classic Chinese tale rather than a classic Japanese tale . I n m a ny ways the animated film ’ s conclusion deviated from the o r ig i na l s o u rc e material to a more Disneyesque conclusion adhering t o t he ‘happily ever a ft e r’ fo rm u la . “ Legend of the White Snake points to a calculative desired course of creati on, which had already been tested and manifested by a m uc h admired distant party, most notably the i nstitution of Disney -m a de fi lm s ” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 89) . Regardless of the reception , T o e i An im a t io n successfully e nt e re d t he feature film industry an d commercial entertainment re le as i ng s ix animation features fro m 1958 to 1963 (Ono, 2006, p. 104) . A c c o r d in g to K o s e i O no , T o e i remained in a relatively uncontested position until the rise of O s am u T e zuk a a n d television animation i n 1 9 5 6 .

“Tezuka occupies a huge place in the Japanese imaginary and the history of its postwar mass culture in that he lays claim to being the creator of both manga and anime as we know them” (Steinberg, 2006, p. 195) . T he l at e Osamu Tezuka w a s bo rn in 1928 an d is heralded as the ‘ God of Manga ’ . It may seem odd to d i s c u s s a hi g hly pro li fi c comic book artist in a discussion of Japanese a n im at io n and character p erformance, but just as American comic s t ri p s played an important role in the creation of early cartoons and its icons , s o t o o d i d m a ng a in the development of Japanese television animation a t re n d w h ic h still continues to this day .

T e z uk a s a id he first became infatuated with animation after watching Momotarō umi no shinpei ( 1945) , a Japanese World War 2 propaganda film released in 1945 . His first attempt at pursuing a career in animation was met with failure as “ his work was rejected due to its manga - like approach and was instead praised for its print publishing potential” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 96) . W hi le attending medical school he decided to take up the challenge and by 1947 ha d started publishing his w o r k ; by the time of his graduation in 1951 fro m medical school his m a ng a w e re a c o m m o n s i gh t in Ja pa n . T e z uk a revolutionized the manga industry by incorporating a long story format and c in e m at i c framing techniques (Steinberg, 2006 , p . 1 9 6 ) . He transformed t he f ram e -by -frame presentation of the comic narrative by changing the page

26 | P a g e layout to become more fluid and creative . This was achieved by increasing the p re s e n c e o f s o u nd e ffe c t s by “harkening back to the Japanese tradition of picture sound combination” (Phillips, 2008, p. 68) a nd experimenting “ w it h c lo s e -ups and different angles” (Schodt, 1983, p. 63) from European and Am e ri c a c in e m a in order to “ emphasize action and the mental states of the c ha rac t e r s ” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 97) . A no t h e r vital aspect of Tezuka’s manga revolution was the incorporation of “ f ilm i c - like effects with strong e m p has is o n s ha dows and shades ” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 97) .

It was only years later after seeing H ak u j ad e n that his interest in animation was reawakened . During this t im e , Tezuka had built an oeuvre of po pu la r works and his aspirations had g ro w n past the print industry . Tezuka was an av i d f a n of Disney, having said to have watched every “pre -w a r D is ne y -m a de production” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 96) . According to Schodt , O s am u Tezuka was a “fanatical fan” (L.Schodt, 1983, p. 160) . “ Following in the footsteps of Disney w ho owned a kingdom of well - loved cartoon characters, Tezuka had by the l at e 1 9 5 0 s created his own pool of characters based on his successful manga s t o ri e s ” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 96) . H is be s t - k no w n m an g a works were N e w T r e as ur e I s l a nd ( 1 9 4 7 ) , Jungle Taitei ( 1950) a n d Tetsuwan Atomu ( 1952) . His success and popularity in publishing resulted in Toei adapting h i s m an ga S ai yu k i ( 1960) into an animated feature. L ik e H ak uj a de n it was based on a Chinese fo lk t ale an d l ik e Hak uj a de n it did not s t r ic t ly adhere to the fo l k t a le , w hi c h aligned with Toei animation ’ s e x po rt -orientated approach of the time ( G .H u, 2 0 1 0 , p . 9 6 ) .

In 1961, Osamu Tezuka established his own animation studio. Their first production was adapting his manga Tetsuwan Atomu ( A s t r o b oy) i nt o a n a n im at e d television series. “ With the arrival of television as a popular tool of mass communication in the early 1960s, Tezuka’s manga works were to influence the development of Japanese animation, leading to the birth of a new genre called ani m e ” ( G. H u, 2 010, p. 97) . Not only was Ast r o b oy T e z uk a’s first animated television series , it w as al s o t he f ir s t Ja pan e s e a nim a t e d T V

27 | P a g e series produced in Japan , airing on Fuji Television in January 1936 ( G .H u, 2010, p. 98) .

Steinberg highlights t w o ‘ s t re am s ’ o f a nim e , and identifies A s t r o b oy ’ s development as the formation of o ne s t re am o f an im e , t he other stream is identified as the “ D i s ne y - influenced, full - animation, fe at u re -length animated f i lm s t re a m that comes out of T o e i” (Steinberg, 2006, p. 196) . This second stream culminates with Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, who started his c are e r a t T o e i An im at io n and continues the tradition of producing feature l e n gt h, f u ll -a nim a t e d fi lm s . Lamarre defines the two streams according t o t he position held by Hayao M iyazaki and S tudio Ghibli, that of the manga film and a n im e . The manga film is full animation and anime is limited animation , a distinction t hat elevates the big screen over the smal l s c re e n .

On the scene of Japanese animation today, Studio Ghibli in particular pushes such connotations, insisting that the works of its directors, such as Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao, are not anime but manga eiga o r manga films. The result is a n entrenched opposition between feature - length full animation films (manga film) and animated television series ( an im e ) (Lamarre, 2009, p. 184) .

Steinberg furthers this notion by suggesting that one think of the Toei stream as a style of animation c o m po s e d of a “relation between animation and c in e m a ( mediated by the cinematic style of Disney animation) whose physical apparatus was the film theatre. The other stream, anime proper, which f in ds its beginnings in As t r ob oy , is developed from the relation between animation and manga (in its postwar narrative -c o m ic s manifestation), w ho s e p hy s ic al apparatus was the new medium of t e le v is io n ” (Steinberg, 2006, p. 197) . M an ga films are not a daptations of manga but feature - length animated films, largely geared to children or general audiences, such as those produced by Toei Studios in the 1950s and 1960s, often referred to as Toei do g a (literally “ m o v i ng pictures” or “moving drawings”)” (Lamarre, 2009) .

A s t r o b oy was the first animation based on the relation between manga and animation, thus as a result became the inspirational source for thematic

28 | P a g e elements and a new visual culture , and in the process i nt ro d u c e d a ne w fo rm of performance and character moveme nt that strongly relates to the figurative m o de . This is similar to ho w Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became the template for Disney animations and early Toei animations .

Tezuka and M us h i Productions in a sense created a ‘ n e w ’ aesthetic s t y le o f limited animation. Limited animation as a set of techniques and visual style or aesthetic of animation had existed prior to Tezuka’s engagement with a n im at io n (Steinberg, 2006, p. 19 7). It had been in use since the 1940’s after UPA’s (United Production of America) popularization of the technique ( Bu t le r, 1994, p. 278) . Regardless Tezuka’s approach to limited animation created a u n i que performance aesthetic focusing on immobility rather than motion. Limited anima t io n reduced not o nly the cost of production but reduced production time for a 30-m i n ut e e pi s o de . These will be briefly covered t o g ai n a gre at e r grasp of the processes used to r e nd e r m o v e m en t a nd in part the visual aesthetic of anime in contrast to traditional animation :

• Shooting on threes ( Sa n -k o m a t o ri ) – Using only eight frames per s e c o n d . • S t o p im a ge s ( T o m e ) – A still image or frame used for a sequence. e .g. Establishing s ho t s , crowd scenes etc. • Pull cells ( H ik i -c e l) – Creating the impression of movement by pulling a background image behind a foreground image. • Repetition (Kurikaeshi) – Using looped animation. This technique is sometimes used in conjunctio n with pull cells t o create walking sequences etc. • Sectioning ( B ub u n) – Essential parts of the body move while less essential parts remain still or immobile . ‘ Prime examples include k uc hi - paku [mouth flaps] , i n which the mouth is an im a t e d separately from the face , a llo w i ng for a limited set of three or four mouth positions to be cycled in place, thus creating the illusion that the character is s pe ak in g ’ (Clements, 2013, p. 118) .

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• Combined use / Cell bank ( K e ny o ) – An archive of cels from p re vious animations eliminating the need to redraw images. These could include backgrounds and character animations such as talking scenes. • S ho rt C ut s – Longer shots require more animation while shorter sequences require less and could utilize a single image s t re t c he d o ut across the shortened length .

If one were to co mpare the panels from As t r o bo y ’ s: The Birth of Astroboy m a ng a ( Fi g ure 1 ) an d the first epis o de o f As t r ob oy ( F ig ur e 2 ) , o ne w o u ld i dentify the strong use of tome (still images) in the animated c a r c r as h s e q ue nc e . T he s e t o m e (still images) a re e s s e n t ially the equivalent of the m a ng a’ s panels, utilizing the same visual language from the man g a s o urc e m at e ri al . T he o n ly s e pa rat io n is the use of diegetic audio , slight movement of l ay e rs an d camera movement (pans and zooms) to create the impression of m o v e m e nt but if one were to remove these elements it co u l d fu n ction as a p a ne l in t he m an ga. I n m any w ay s , t hi s s e rv e s as us e fu l visual shorthand fo r a u die nc e s used to reading manga . In addition to the shift in how character movement is generated Lamarre notes how Japanese animators, as a result of the economic ‘climate’, began to place emphasis on particular poses that were the most visually and emotionally important and resulted in a staple of anime in which characters are presented with extreme emotion with minimal movement (Lamarre, 2002, p. 335).

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F i g u r e 1 : Manga panels from Astroboy Volume 1, The Birth of Astroboy .

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F i g u r e 2 : Astroboy and the use of several Tome . Anime Historical Predecessors E conomic limitations w e re no t the only elements influencing an im e ’s development. T ze -G. H u and Steinberg both highli ght t he K amishibai as a cultural and historic predecessor to anime . Sakamoto Yusaku , one of Tezuka’s key collaborators , highlighted the popular o pe n - ai r t he at re p re v ale nt i n J ap a n during the 1940’s and 1 9 5 0 ’ s in which children were narrated stories along with accompanying picture cards . According to Tada Michitaro , n ot only was t he K amishibai the predecessor of the still image in ‘animation’ but the use of stop images and pull cells o f a nim e stylistically resemble that of K am is h ib ai (Clements, 2013, p. 120) . Hu furthers the notion of artistic tradition related t o a n im e ’ s lack of mobility and fav o uri n g o f s t ro ng po s e s when she states t hat :

Astro Boy’s limited and so -called “stiff” movements in animated television frames, in a way, are similar to the slow acting pace of a nō actor. The external spectacle may be resting in an inert pose and mode,

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but what matters most is the innate psychological state of the character that is being portrayed (G.Hu, 2010, p. 100) .

American animation had a wealth of influences acting upon its e ar ly development some of the m o s t pro m i ne nt be i ng c o m ic s and W e s t e rn t he at re t ra dit io ns such as Vaudeville and the physical comedy of silent era mainstays , such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster K e a t o n. Japan’s animation influences were just as varied and derived no t o n ly f ro m W estern animation b ut it s o w n domestic theatre traditions and visual culture. S u s a n Napier not e s t h at :

A nime is a popular cultural form that clearly builds on previous high cultural traditions. Not only does the medium show influences from such Japanese traditional arts a s Kabuki and the woodblock print (originally popular culture phenomena themselves), but it also makes use of worldwide artistic traditions o f t h e twentieth century cinema and photography (J.Napier, 2005, p. 4) .

Antonia Levi highlights the developmental s o urc e s fo r a n im e an d m a n ga, noting that m anga is seen as developing from American comics and traditional Japanese illustration traditions suc h as t he e -maki (picture scrolls, Fi g ure 4 ) a n d u k iy o -e (woodblock prints). “ E m ak im o no emphasized formalistic expressions and shapes. It allowed the artist to focus on narrative continuity, spatial perspective, and other decorative de m an ds ” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 27) . A n important feature of the e m a k im on o is its focus on mannerism and facial expression. Bridgette Koriyama Rickard states that illuminated scrolls or i l lu s io ns of movement are ‘ no t o n ly t h e pre c u rs o r s of ma n ga , b ut a ls o o f animated feature films’ ( K o y am a - Rikard, 2008, p. 11) a s s he compares the use of ‘ re a l -l ife ’ facial expression , pa ra lle l movements, use of zooms and the connection between character and action as the antecedent to manga and the animated form. Imamura Taihei, one of Japan ’ s pioneering animation theoreticians, argue d a similar position when stating that Japanese animation has its roots in traditional Japanese arts, the earliest of which is the aforementioned e -m ak i o r E m a k im on o. This sentiment is shared by famed

33 | P a g e anime director Rintaro ( Shigeyuki Hayashi ) who, when asked what constitutes t he o ri gi nality of a Japanese film, stated t h at :

Our graphics are also born of cultural tradition, albeit subconsciously. Illuminated scrolls, such as Choju jinbutsu giga [Scrolls of Frolicking Animals and Humans], are at the root of our animated pictures, and the master Japanese printmaker s have influenced our graphics… All of the works by these artists are in our genes and are part of our DNA, e v e n if we are unaware of it ( K o y am a -Rikard, 2008, p. 166) .

Thus for Rintaro the uni que qualities of Japanese animation are driven by a r a nge of Japanese cultural traditions , from the graphic to the performative , t hat are engrained in Ja pa ne s e culture and society .

F i g u r e 3 : P a r t o f Choju jinbutsu giga

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F i g u r e 4 : Genji Monogatari Emakimono published by the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya, Japan, 1937

A n im e also draws from its strong theatre tradition incorporating elements f ro m Noh, Kabuki, Ba nraku and Takaraz u ka. Elements such as ‘sound effects, stylized poses’ and ‘tableau effects’ are drawn from these different forms of Japanese theatre (Levi, 2001, p. 24) . Interestingly Levi makes the observation t hat Ja pa n’ s “artistic and theatrical traditi ons have never aimed at realism. Instead, both in art and drama, the Japanese have emphasized techniques that capture the essence of the subject in a way that assumes some participation by the audience” (Levi, 1996, p. 21) . T h is i s in contrast to t h e developments in western theatre that actively pursued realism in their productions.

T he c o re aesthetic world view of Japanese narrative drama lies in the performance of the mental state of the protagonist , specifically in theatre traditions such as No h .

The masked actor playing the sole shite role (the protagonist) first “identifies himself with the true essence of the whole role” ( O rt o la ni 112 and 121) and in the process genuinely expresses the mind an d body of the soul - role he plays. The imitative act becomes truthful, real -

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life, and natural, which entices the audience to identify and experience with him the “in ner essence” of the object - ro le .

In Noh the shite is tasked with portraying one a ll -e nc o m p as s i ng e m o t io n , through the use of stylized choreographed movement that is often symbolic . N othing in Noh theatre is improvised . Masks are only worn by the main c ha rac t e r o r s h it e ; o nc e w o r n the individuality of the actor recedes and is nothing but the emotion. Most Noh masks are created to be emotionally neutral as it is the task of the actor to convey the emotion through their performance. T hu s t he entire performanc e is based on portraying e m o t io n through movement and sound , the form of the performance takes precedence .

This observation is quite interesting as it creates a common thread or connection between elements found in Tezuka’s manga (and anime) and Japanese theatrical traditions. T e zuk a’ s m a ng a a s p re v io us ly outlined focused o n t he presentation of the mental state of characters and played a large role in its popularization , and Tze identified this as an aesthetic of Japanese d r am a. How these mental states are represented in animation seems to be an amalgamation of various influences and traditions.

Noh elements are al s o present throughout Miyazaki and Takahata’s films in the form of moments o f no n -action. These intervals between events or ‘silent breaths’ of the protagonists are a comm on Noh element and known as the ‘art of ma’. In Noh “what [the actor] does not do is of interest” (Komparu, 1983, p . 7 3 ) , and these silent ma moments are a device to move the audience into experiencing the contemplative wo rld. These performances are described by Roger Ebert as “gratuitous motion" in his films. He states that rather than having “every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running st ream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are” (Ebert, 2002) . A sequence such as the mentioned above occurs in t he f i lm Spirited Away ( 2001) w he n protagonist Chihiro gazes o v e r t he o c e a n ( Fi g ur e 5 ) . T h is s c e ne occurs after Chihiro helps clean the riv e r s p ir it by removing a bicycle ( among other human ba s e d t ras h ) f ro m h is bo dy .

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A s a re w ar d, Chihiro is gifted an emetic dumpling m e d ic in e w h ile he r c o - w o r k e rs are tipped with a generous amount of gold by the river spirit filling t he bat h ho u s e with jubilation . R hy t hm ic al ly the film goes from an e ne r ge t ic action orientated sequence to one that is contemplative in t o ne and allows the viewer to engage with the world along with the character . The use of iconic character design in juxtaposition with the realist painterly backgrounds allows for both the charact er and the viewer to engage w it h, and experience a vivid imaginary world . I n t he p ro c e s s , this sequence maintains Japanese d r a m a and art traditions by capturing true essence of t he c har ac t e r ’ s emotional and mental state while fostering audience participation .

F i g u r e 5 : Noh device in which the audience e x p e r i e n c e the contemplative world in Spirited Away Studio Ghibli The 1970’s saw the rise “ of master animator Miyazaki Hayao and his colleague, animat ion director Takahata ” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 105) . M iy a zak i, T ak a hat a an d m e nt o r O t s uk a started their careers at Toei animation and s pe nt a significant number of years working on feature films and television

37 | P a g e a n im at io n (Lamarre, 2009, p. 41) . Studio Ghibli ’s animation and the w o rk o f Hayao Miyazaki have always been in dialogue with limited animation. T his history and engagement with different fo rm s of animation resulted in their unique approach.

Thomas Lamarre highlights two techniques crucial to Studio Ghibli’s animations being viewed as full animations rather than limited ; t he f ir s t i s t he use of painterly backgrounds and the s e c o n d is t he dy nam i sm of character m o v e m e nt (Lamarre, 2009, p. 189) . T he fo rm e r is achieved through “real time location hunting, photo taking, a n d v i de o f ilm in g and superior art directorship” (G.Hu, 2010, p. 1 1 9 ) . These backgrounds have become more painterly in recent years and play a large role in Studio Ghibli ’ s o v e r al l a e s t he t ic presentation . Interestingly Studio Ghibl i strongly defends its separation from other anime based on its use of full animat ion, yet this d e fe nc e of full animation relies solely on the movement of c ha rac t e r s r at he r than the realist b ac k d ro ps . I t is rather ironic t he n t h at Studio Ghibli’s and Miyazaki’s “characters do not move all that much; their motion is rarely that o f classic full animation . His character animation shows the impact of limited a n im at io n ” (Lamarre, 2009, p. 189) . According to Lammare the real strength of Miyazaki’s animation is in the sliding of planes and the dynami sm of this form of animation rather than the classic understanding of full a nim at io n . A s t e l la r example of where shifting and rotating planes are used , to produce movement unlike any other animation both Japanese and American , is the sequences in w hi c h How l’s Moving Castle ( 2004) m o v e s ( Se e F ig ur e 6 ) . Rather than animate the castle through traditional m e a ns , t he castle is made up of various planes that constitute separate parts of the c as t le , w hi c h are then shifted and rotated to impart movement in the hulking structure .

T he r e fo re Studio Ghibli’s animation is arguably characterised by its hybridity of full animati on and limited animation. Thomas Lamarre refers to this as full limited animation or Full Animation, Ltd. If one recalls the separation between Studio Ghibli and other anime has always been predicated on the fo rm e r ’ s use of full animation in the tradition of Toei (Disney) and the l at t e r’s

38 | P a g e u s e o f limited animation. Ho w e v e r , it is clear that Studio G h ib li ut il i ze s limited animation techniques but not to the same extent as other anime. It would seem that Studio Ghibli pursue s full animated goals but achieves elements of these through the use of limited animation techniques.

F i g u r e 6 : H o w l ' s Moving Castle animated by moving and rotating p l a n e s

This is where O tsuka Yasuo’s techniques p lay a vital role “ for producing a limited version of the dynamism of full animation come into play ” ( L am a rre , 2009, p. 190) . Yasuo Otsuka’s work is particularly clear in The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun ( 1 9 6 8 ) , during a sequence that in volves a battle between Horus and a giant fish . This sequence po rt ray s all the hallmarks of Studio Ghibli’s fut u re w o rk incorporating the dynamic movement of characters a n d its interests in ‘realism’ .

The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun s e rv e s as a pivotal moment in t he development of the animation medium i n J ap a n a nd is often cited as t he first modern anime film (Drazen, 2003) . Stylistically the design of characters more closely resembles that of modern anime and ar gu a bly serves as a prototype for later Studio Ghibli character designs. The film is particularly

39 | P a g e noteworthy for breaking away from the Disney styled features of Toei’s previous output and defining contemporary Japanese animation, particularly the work of Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki. T h u s , Otsuka’s work is the key to understanding Studio Ghibli’s approach to animation and performance ( Fi gu r e 7 ) .

F i g u r e 7 : Hayao Miyazaki (Left) and Yasou Otsuka (Right)

The film used less frames than the conventional productions that preceded it a t T o e i An im at io n b u t i n the process us he re d in a process referred to as ‘frame modulation’. F ram e m o d ul at io n simply described is c ha n ge s in the rate of animated frames per second , for example, an animation will switch from animating on ones to threes or vice versa or any other variation . T he b as ic principle driving this is to give certain scenes great er emphasis . T h us important scenes receive smoother animation by utilizing more frames a nd t he r e fo re h av e greater emphasis while less important scenes receive less frames and therefore less emphasis. The animation would t h e re fo re o s c i ll at e between higher amounts of frames and lower or more stable am o unt of

40 | P a g e f ram e s . This creates a rhythmic flow to the animation , shifting from one sequence that may be more ‘jerky’ to the next, which appears smoother . Frame modulation is not a new con c e pt ho w e v e r; it is inherently tied to the principle of timing and s pac i ng and the scope of t he ac t io n to be performed. Frame modulation is present in D i s ne y an im a t io n but the results are far more subdued due to the higher consistency in the amount of frames used . In t he case of Japanese animation and in particularly Studio Ghibli’s animation t he effect is used to heighten a particular performance , giving the animation a jazz like rhythmic sensibility . Yasou Otsuka popularized the t e c h n i q ue ; us i n g this method in Hor us to add a sense of w eight and scale to the rock gole m by increasing the amount of frames . The practice proved so popular it became a standard in the Japanese animation industry (Ettinger, n.d.) . It is important to stress that while the number of frames increase it is not ne c e s s ar i ly equivalent to quality , rather the goal is to emphasize a specific moment and differentiate it from other sequences for dramatic effect. This use of animation is remini s c e n t of other Japanese a rt fo rm s including theatre and m a ng a .

T he u se of iconic characters in m a ng a is the result of Osamu Tezuka’s w o rk t hat was highly influenced by Disney . Disney used a similar method of foregrounding icon ic c h ara c t e r ’ s against realist bac k d ro p s . Thomas Lamarre b e l ie v e s that when the animation of figures is limited the figures themselves need to be more iconic, that is to be drawn more simply, and that due to the iconic or simple nature of anime characters viewers tend to more easily accept limited animation and its reduction in the intermediate stages between k e y fram e s (Lamarre, 2002, p. 345) . If the character w ere drawn in greater detail the exclusion of the intermediary movements become more v is i ble resulting in ‘jerky’ movement s . Thus to reduce the gaps in animated movement lines and designs will become simplified.

T hi s a p pro a c h of using simplified or iconic characters in juxtaposition with more realist backgrounds is not unique to manga as o t he r comic traditions, such as the ‘clear line’ s t y l e Belgian comics l ik e T i nt i n , us e d s im il ar

41 | P a g e a p pro a c h e s . R at he r what is of interest is the use of realistic art or greater realism as a dramatic technique t o e m pha s i ze a n e le m e nt . T his approach o ft e n appears in both manga and Ja pa ne s e an im a t io n (McCloud, 1993, p. 44) i. If r e a lis m o r higher detailed illustrations are used within manga to emphasize an e le m e nt the close equivalent in animation wo uld be more detailed a nd t he r e fo re f l ui d an im at io n or rather animation that shifts from figurative to more embodied performances . T he re fo re , o ne could argue that this dramatic convention and visual style of increasing the ‘realism’ of an artistic p ro du c t io n is a common e le m e nt in both mediums.

Another way in which Otsuka imparted the dynamism of full animation through limited animation was the use of the pe g - hole technique ii, w h ic h utilizes a slight tilt in each successive frame to impart a sense of energy and weight into the characters animation. Despite the limited amount of frames the a n gl in g of frames allows fo r fully animated dynamic characters . By d irecting a c ha rac t e r ’s e ne rg y earthward , it places emphasis on moving the ima ge ra t he r than the image moving . T hi s r e s ult s in a different approach to weight and g r av it y . Meaning that m ass and the gravitational elements that s ur ro u nd t h e c ha rac t e r are portrayed and handled differently. T h is different portrayal is illustrated in F i gu re 8 , from an episode of Fu t ur e Bo y C on an ( 1978) o n w h ic h Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Otsuko Yasou worked t o ge t he r . T hi s a n im at e d sequence shares similarity to ano t he r a sequence from Princess M o no no k e ( Fi g ure 9 ) . Yasou Otsuka’s experimented with techniques that have now become a staple in modern Japanese animation and anime.

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F i g u r e 8 : Illustrating O tsuko Yasou’s ‘peghole technique’ angling characters to impart a sense of dynamism in m o r e limited animation

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F i g u r e 9 : A more recent example from Princess Mononoke in which the peghole is used to shift the weight rather than drawing it creating dynamic moveme nt

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Hu like Lammare identifies the use of photorealist backdrops and dynamic movement but identifies realism as what distinguishes Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki’s work from other anime in Japan and Disney - like feature animation f i lm s . It is their approach and emphasis on realism that underpins their work stating that:

It is realism that has become a major, if not primordial, ideological backbone of their animation aspirations. The constant desire and struggle to portray reality, often at all co sts, are reflected in their storytelling process, especially in the thematic contents and technical expressions. The principle has motivated their careers and is both a common characteristic and a theme in their works ( G. H u , 2010, p. 119) .

This certainly seems to correspond to what Hayao Miyazaki himself s t a t e d discussing his animation in regards to other anime:

Anime may depict fictional worlds, but I nonetheless believe that at its core it must have a c e rt a i n realism. Even if the world depicted is a lie, the trick is to make it seem as real as possible. Stated another way, the animator must fabricate a lie that seems so real viewers will think the world depicted might possibly exist (Miyazaki, 2009, p. 21) .

This statement alone could place Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on the same trajectory as Walt Disney and the radical shift his studio underwent in the 1930’s by pursuing greater ‘ re al is m ’ through the pursuit of e m bo d ie d performances to be discussed in the following section. If ‘ re a li s m ’ or greater believability , verisimilitude as Disney pursued it , is the ultimate goal why are t he results quite d if fe re n t and why would Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli pursue s uc h an a p pro ac h ? It is more perplexing when one considers Miyazaki’s position regarding Disney animation , as he often dismisses Disney’s work in f av o u r of their earlier Silly Symphon ie s o r fav o ur s t he w o rk by other studios such as the Fleischer brothers which were arguably very figurative in their performances rather than embodied .

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Before these questions can be ad d re s s e d, a m o re in -depth discussion r e g ar di n g what exactly figurative and embodied p erformances entail is r e q ui re d. Understanding the development of anim ation in Japan and the elements that define the two streams of animation is only one part of t he p u z zle . T h us t he focus shall now shift to understanding t he two performance modes in greater detail before ap plying the concepts to both Disney and S t u d io Ghibli animations and gaining greater insights to the unique qualities of each studios productions .

i Scott McCloud identifies Osamu Tezuka’s seminal influence in the design of iconic characters in manga and its national sty l e (McCloud, 1993, p. 44) . Going beyond the juxtaposition of iconic characters and realist backgrounds McCloud identifies a separation between western and Japanese comics in the use of what he defines as the objectifying p ower of realistic art. Scott McCloud states that “while some characters were designed simply, to assist in reader identification other characters were drawn more realistically in order to objectify them, emphasizing their otherness from the reader” (McCloud, 1993, p. 44) . This use of realism however extends beyond characters and applies to objects, seeking to imbue them with texture, weight and physical complexity often to heighten the dramatic impact of t h e s c e n e . ii Yasou Otsuka’s p eg- hole technique involves the rotating or angling of frames around the axis of the peg hole (near the top of sheet) to impart a sense of energy and roughness into the movements of characters. Instead of moving in straight lines, the chara cters would pivot. This would have two effects on the characters performance; the first would add a sense of weight and mass to the character, thus creating a relationship between the character and his/her environment while simultaneously creating the effe ct that the character is barely bound by gravity.

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Performance in Animation For most of its history, animation has been obsessed with representing t he human form in extremis …Whatever the o ri gi n of their work, filmmakers used animation as technique an d as genre to make bodies dance, leap, float, and dive in a whimsical world with its own gravity (Crafton, 2013, p. 4 ) .

To properly engage and a na ly s e the performance of characters in Disney and Studio Ghibli feature animation , an understanding of what animation performance is and how it works is required . Crafton starts by delineating that narrative, space and music ‘almost always’ s erve to back up body performance (2013, p. 5) . Seeing as how animation is ‘the illusion of life’ this i s a rat he r important distinction t o ma k e . Crafton applie s his theory and analysis of performanc e to animated works from 1930’s America , stating that h e fav o urs the period “ because that was where and when the medium was acquiring its characteristic methods, forms, and content ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 2). This makes sense as Chris Pal lant refers to t h is as the Disney -Fo rm al is t p e r io d . Crafton shares this sentiment a s t h e pe rio d w as m a rk e d w it h t he popularisation of the Hollywood c art o o n . The Hollywood cartoon stood fo r “ a mode of production and was shorthand for an attitude, a certain style, a suite of techniques, specific types of stories and reception expectations, and even a standard length ” (Crafton, 20 1 3 , p . 1 ) . T h e no t io n o f t he ‘ Hollywood cartoon ’ as Crafton defines it can be applied to both the works of Disney and Studio G h ib li , not in the sense that they both adhere to the same practices and styles of the Hollywood cartoon . R at he r , just as the Hollywood cartoon s t o o d fo r a particular style of film , Disney and Studio Ghibli each have t he i r o w n u ni q ue attitude towards animation , mode of production , unique style, u s e o f t e c h ni q ue s , specific stories and au d ie nc e reception expectations that define the form of character animation and performances . In other words , bo t h studios produce work that conforms to a specific subset of tropes within t he broader tropes of the animation medium.

Donald Crafton’s engagement with performance t he o ry and its application to a n im at io n allows for a n analytical f ram e w o rk w it h w hic h to engage and a na ly s e the unique approach used to character performance by both D is ne y a n d Studio Ghibli while providing a more nuanced understanding of the development of character animation in American animation . T he re ar e t w o a s p e c t s o f performance : performance in animation and performance of a n im at io n . Performance in animation constitutes the “ behaviours, ac t io n s , and expressivity of the actors, as well as the dramatic situations, narrative flow, plots, and depictions… Thus this performance is primarily audio -visual. It is enacted event in a self – sufficient diegetic w o r ld ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 17) . Performance of animation however refers to the viewer ’ s experience watching the animation and the process of a nim at o r creating the animation (conditional performances) (Crafton, 2013, p. 17) . T h u s t he performance in animation is of particular importance and the focus of analysis be t w e e n American and Japanese animation , alt ho ug h the performance of animation will be touched upon where necessary as it forms a component of both production and audience reception . C ra ft o n ’s approach to performance in and of animation is instructive , providing two conceptualizations of animation performance s .

Performance in and of animation is not just doing animation, but how it is done, how it is judged, the dynamics of that execution as it produces movement in a body, and how that body acts in the resulting animation product. While there are a multitude of approaches to movement in animation, Crafton provides two such conceptualizations of animation p e r fo rm a n ce forms: embodied perform ance and figurative performance (Suan, 2017, p. 2) .

T he core foundational concept behind an imation performance is that it “ be ar s the marks of allegory, metaphor, and irony ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 20) . T he re a re two approaches to animation performance, embodied acting and figurative a c t i n g. The characteristics for each form will be addressed in further detail soon but for no w , it is important to establish that e mbodied acting is held to

48 | P a g e be D is ne y ’s brand of acting, influenced by Konstantin Stanislavsky’s teachings . E m bo d ied became the standard for animation acting replacing older styles such as the East Coast style (Crafton, 2013, p . 2 2 ) . As outlined previously w hat Mark Langer re fe r re d t o as t he West Coast style is a r gu ab ly D i s ne y ’s approach to embodied acting now known as Disney’s ‘ illusion of life ’ character a n im at io n o r D i s ne y H y pe r - R e a li s m .

Figurative acting according to Chuck Jones emphasized “ movement that conveys signifying gestures and pantomime typical of broad humour and slapstick rather than emotive personality, character nuance, and emotional expression. The c h ara c t e r s often derived f rom comic art graphic traditions and from popular theatre (vaudeville, burlesque, an d m u s ic hall), accentuated dynamism and immediate legibility ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 23) . It is important to stress that “ this does not me an that figurative acting is devoid of feeling, but rather, that it uses different “devices,” specifically through “vocabularies” of various gestures and codified expressions ” (Suan, 2017, p. 2) to achieve feeling and emotion. Figurative acting in contrast to embodied acting’s prevalence in W e s t e rn feature animation; thrives in Japanese t e le v i s io n a n im at io n (Crafton, 2013, p. 22) . “ Figurative acting is not ju st found in animation, but in many traditional theatre forms, and though Crafton does not mention them, examples would include Noh, Topeng, and Kathakali ” ( Su an , 2017, p. 2) .

F igurative and embodied performances are not in opposition or neither a p pro a c h is superior to the other, r at he r it i s the result of animators aiming for something different in their performances (Crafton, 2013, p. 40) . T hat i s to say that it is not a way to gauge quality but rather i de nt ify the types of performances , whether these performances are figurative or embodied depends on how the behaviours were intended by the a nim at o rs a nd understood by the audience . Fo r no w , however it is clear that f i g ur at iv e a nd e mbodied acting ar e di ff e re nt a pp ro a c he s to character animation and t he r e fo re performance . T he y a re no t opposites; they are registers that may o v e r la p . That said a production m i g ht favour a certain form of performan c e .

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Figurative Performance So one might ask what defines fi g ur at iv e a c t i n g and separates it from embodied acting . F i gu ra t iv e performances are extroverted according to C ra ft o n (Crafton, 2013, p. 23) . I n t hi s mode characters behave according to ‘ t y pe s ’ in the sense that they use a range of identifiable or formulaic fa c i al and body expressions (Crafton, 2013, p. 23) . This certainly does sound familiar w he n discussing cartoons and a nim e as bo t h utilise a repertoire of both stylized facial an d bo dy e x p re s s io ns . E a rly American animation ut il is e d figurative acting . D is ne y , prior to its pursuit o f embodied acting , utilized this form of performance . Not all studios adopted the embodied approach and continued using the figurative acting in their productions (Crafton, 2013, p. 28). Figurative performances are thus d e l iv e re d by cartoon characters o ft e n driven by their exaggerated physical forms and manifest in the ways they move (e.g. walk) and behave (e.g. talk). Early Mickey Mouse for instance represented the small -town boy type, his behaviour based on a collection of attributes, quirks and attitudes to resemble this ‘type’ borrowed from comedic greats such as Buster Keaton . T h e repetition of s pe c if ic ac t io ns played a large role in the early cartoon ’ s h um o u r .

Figurative performance and its portrayal of ‘ t y pe s ’ would surely result in animators using standardized model sheets that provided formulaic poses and facial expressions to maintain consistency and increase legibility o f ac t io n (Crafton, 2013, p. 29) . “ Without electric illumination of the stage or am pl i fic at io n of the voice, actors learned that they must communicate with their bodies. Furthermore, the range of these gestures had to be of a limited number and easily understood by audiences ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 29) o f t he s e easily understood poses and expression none were more popular than the work of François Delsarte and his system of expression. His system of e x pr e s s io n was readily available and a staple of theatre acting , av a il ab le t o s i nge r s , actors and by exte nsion animators and allowed “ audiences to grasp t he m essage by training or intuition” ( Se e F ig ur e 10) . (Crafton, 2013, p. 29) .

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F i g u r e 10: François Delsarte Eye Expression Chart

Another source that illustrates the use of established poses and gesture i n t he figurative mode can be seen in the works of P re s t o n B lai r’ s s uc h as “ C ar t oo n A n im a t i on ” ( 1994) . Yasou Otsuka also studied Preston Blair’s work on the D i s n e y t echnique much like contemporary animators study the work of Fra nk Thomas and Ollie Johnson. C ha rac t e r model sheets s uc h a s Fi g ure 11 il lu s t rat e a series of established facial expression that would be easily recognizable to a u die nc e s . O ne c o ul d state that the concept of strong poses in animation practice itself is fundamentally linked to figurative performances , a s figurative acting strives to remove the ambiguity in an action by relying on established actions, poses and gestures.

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F i g u r e 11: Preston Blair's Stylized Facial Expression

Based on this description one can see the similarity between classic toon animation and it s use of stylized gestures and the figurative mode t h at t h riv e s i n J ap an . The previous s e c t io n defined how traditional Japanese arts used fo rm u la ic s t y li ze d expressions in t he e -maki scrolls and how important the portrayal of the inner psyche of a character is to Japanese drama . T he formulaic presentation of emotion in manga was adopted into telev isio n animation and forms what Neil Cohn refers to as JVL or Japanese Visual L a n gu a ge ( Se e F i gur e 12) (Cohn, 2007) . This visual iconography is stable enough that viewers are quickly able to identify the pa rt ic ul ar e m o t io n o f a c ha rac t e r much in the same vein as Preston Blair ’ s a n d François Delsarte . T hi s iconography however isn’t limited to just manga and anime in Japan and form s

52 | P a g e part of a greater visual language as highlighted by their use as ‘ k ao m o j i’ o r emoticons in mobile and online texting (Katzuno & Yano, 2002) . It is important to stress that the use of JVL is even more pronounced in Japanese animation and extends beyond describing states of emotion and incorporate s s e m i indexical symbolic elements. An example of such an d t h is would be the u s e o f the ‘cross’ on the forehead to symbolize irritation. The language of anime is less iconic and naturalistic than that of W estern animation requiring audience participation .

Figurative performance involves participation, a manner of reading the codes actively. As if constituting their own “language,” in order to be readable, each performance of a figurative expression must be connected to prior iterations, yet must still retain its particular relevance in the context of that specific performance (Suan, 2017, p. 5) .

F i g u r e 12: Sample of Graphic Emblems taken from Neil Cohn's Japanese Visual Language: The Structure of Manga

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This is not only limited to facial expressions either and has extended to body g e s t ur e , such as the ‘Gainax pose’ which h as become synonymous with m e c ha a n im e produced by Gainax studios. The pose , which is one of many iconic anime poses , is often used to i llustrate the he ro ’s determination and confidence, often prior to entering an epic battle. This is illustrated in Fi gu re 13 an d Fi g ure 14.

F i g u r e 13: ‘Gainax pose’ in Tengen Toppa Gu rren Lagann ( 2 0 0 7 )

F i g u r e 14: ‘Gainax pose’ in D i e b u s t e r ( 2 0 0 4 )

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The Gainax pose which in itself pays homage t o po pu la r m ec ha m a n ga Ge t t e r R ob o ( 1974) utilizes popular manga iconography and visually depicts a c le a r conn e c t io n between manga and anim e . M ost television anime is adapted from m a ng a and incorporat es m a n ga iconography into its presentation j us t as m o s t early American cartoons were based on comic s t r ip s . Much like anime the figurative mode thrives in American televisio n animation where the use of t y pe s or conventional stock characters is particularly popular . One could state the majority of television animation is figurative. Due to the economic restraints placed on most television productions , t he re is an increased reliance on more indexical qualities due to the lower frame count. A s s t at e d previously this is done to m ax im i s e the legibility of actions within the s c o p e of the animation . Additionally the Gainax pose is an example of not only the connection between man ga and anime but of figurative performances in anime itself due to proliferation of the pose in other anime. This is due to the r e l ia nc e of figurative performances on codified expression. “ Due to this reliance on codified expressions, figurative performanc es build from previous ones (2013: 26), replaying and reiterating them in different contexts ” ( S ua n, 2017, p. 2) .

P a ul W e lls identifies the importance of comic strips and early animation when he id e nt if ie s ho w S o d a Je r k s ( 1 9 2 0 ) and other early comic strip form c re a t e d the “vocabulary for the animated short ” (Wells, 1998, p. 17) . He cites the example of the use of ‘z’s to indicat e someone sleeping as an example . T he link between the American comic strips and animated cartoon is particularly strong during its formation period as many animators were either creators of comics or had started their careers in the comic industry. Comic strips influence on the animated cartoon is particularly apparent and undeniable during the formative period as an im at e d fi lm s no t o nly i nherited the form and behaviours of the characters but also what Giannalberto Bendazzi refers to as graphic and comedy ‘gambits’ (Bendazzi, 2016, p. 38) . These graphic gambits

55 | P a g e a re what Paul Wells identifies as the vocabular y for the animated short. Bendazzi highlights a few more examples such a s “ a b ig exclamation m a rk fo r emphasis, a big question mark for doubt, flashing short lines around the face to represent surprise, movement lines around the body or the limbs to signify quick action, broken lines straight from the eyes to show the trajectory of a lo o k e t c ” (Bendazzi, 2016, p. 38) . The use of flashing short lines to represent surprise can be seen in various Mickey Mo use cartoons ( s e e F ig u re 15) . T he c o m e dic gambits are those that were inspired from vaudeville such as the utilisation of gags in the form of p rat fa ll s , takes and double takes. It is interesting to note that while Japan embraced these visual tropes fro m it s own comic tradition , American animation sought to distance itself from them in an attempt to engage a more mature audience and align its products closer to live action film . This highlights a difference in the cultural positioning of animation in Japan and America .

F i g u r e 15: Comic strip language used as a performative element in early animation

Paul Wells also identifies t h at :

M any figures throughout the cartoon remain static, revealing Barre’s slash method of animation which only the aspects of each frame which moved were actually animated…This perpetuates the look and style of the comic strip, and the sense that linear progression in the narrative that comic strip readers were accustomed to , but it also privileges the

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narrative importance of certain movements, and the function of movements in the creation of physical comedy (Wells, 1998, p. 18) .

I t i s particularly interesting to note the importance of the slash method and its similarity to sectioning used in anime, which serves to prioritize specific movement and its relation to perpetuating the look and style of manga. Aft e r all Tezuka s t at e d that they were not p u rs ui n g animation but moving manga when adapting Astroboy .

T h us both anime and cartoons rely on figurative elements and share the use of stylized poses and expressions that were informed by a common medium ancestor comics and potentially t he at re . T h is highlights a common historic e le m e nt o f m o s t figurative performances . While there is undoubtedly, a s t ro n g connection between figurative acting and anime c ha ra c t e r performance t he re m ay be a po t e nt ia l p it fa ll . Donald Crafto n states that “ r ather than providing insights into a character’s psyche or suggesting a moral, the narratives of films adhering to the figurative approach make their points through repetition and symbolic visuals ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 32) . Chuck Jones also highlighted t h at figurative perfor mances accentuated dynamism and immediate legibility rather emotive personality, character nuance, which seems rather s t r an ge considering that anime and Japanese drama’s core focus is the representation of a character ’ s psyche and emotional state often through the use of stylized gestures and poses or expressionist visual distortions . Ho w e v e r, o n c lo s e r inspection i t is the very re pe t it io n of these narratives and symbolic visuals t hat accentuate character dynamism and immediate le gi b ili t y t hat a n i m e is identified by . So t h e re fo re , while anime may lack ‘emotive personality’ it meets all the other hallmarks of figurative performances , but before we can definitively answer this it may help to further explore embodied acting and animation.

Sergei Eisenstein was particularly enthralled by figurative acting, by its ‘plasmatic’ nature the ‘figurative reflexivity and kinetic performance’ of bodies in cartoons. Disney’s pursuit to create cartoon characters with “personality, individuated characte r, and what the animators liked to call the

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‘illusion of life’ may have been a critical success for the most part but not all studios followed suit (Crafton, 2013, p. 26) . Eisenstein was one of the greatest detractors of Disney’s new embodied acting, as his adoration for Disney dissipated due to the reduction in the plasmatic nature of figurative performance (Crafton, 2013, p. 26) . “ Eisenstein saw in such acting the potential for re sisting Stanislavskian notions of embodiment, and for world domination by Holl ywood’s brand of performativity” (Crafton, 2013, p. 28) . The plasmatic and plasticity that Eisenstein admired, the creation of expressive sp ace through the body, is a key characteristic of figurative performance.

Embodied Performance Embodied performance , contrary to figurative performance , is introverted. This form of animation performance was popularized by Disney in their pursuit of “imaginatively realized beings with individuality, depth, and internal complexity” (Crafton, 2013, p. 36) and in the process became s y no ny m o us with ‘animation ’ (Wells, 1998, p. 24) . Although Disney dealt with non -re al is t fo rm he insisted on “verisimilitude in his characters, contexts and narrative” , meaning he wanted his animated figures to be more believable by having them m o v e like real figures and be “informed by a plausible motivation” ( W e ll s , 1998, p. 23) .

Early cartoons d id n o t speak much, while there may have been sound and musical accompaniment, there was little in the way of dialogue. According to Crafton, Don Graham (the founder o f Disney’s in studio art school) s t at e d t ha t cartoon acting, or embodied acting , only started developing once sound technology was incorporated into the production and underscores the association between sound and personality (Crafton, 2013, p. 36) . W h at is particularly s u r pr is in g is t h e fo c us p la c e d on body movement and gesture t o express personality rather than the voice and dialogue which is arguably “ t h e most obvious way to embody the c har ac t e r o n s c re e n ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 37) .

If one recalls that Michael Barrier (Barrier, 2006) , when assessing Studio Ghibli’s films , was rather dismissive of the character animation , as he

58 | P a g e b e l ie v e d t he characters performances could be swapped around with little e ffe c t on the overall presentation. What Michael Barrier really identified, i f one were to apply the concept and approach us e d by D is n e y as outlined by Donald Crafton, is a l ac k of personality or rather a different approach t o t h e representation of personality through movement. This potentially points to a difference in ideo lo gy , in how one approaches the representation of personality and the relationship between movement and sound in the presentation of personality.

When Disney was beginning the process of retraining his animators in what would become the embodied approach, he brought in D o n Gr a ham ( F ig u re 16) and other instructors from Chouinard to set up art classes on the studio premises. Graham gave them the classical training that most had never had. There were lectures and classes on lightin g, shadows, composing in space, perspective, and the relation of the character's psychology to its environment. Graham was also a big advocate of embodied personalities, telling the animators to think of the motives, story functions, and outcomes o f an ac t ion before beginning to animate it (Crafton, 2013) . He insisted that the characters must appear to be thinking. I agree with Crafton w he n he s t at e s t hat it was Graham who was primarily responsible for realizing Disney's W e s t Coast style, and since that was so influential, Graham became a major contributor, t ho ug h u n s u n g.

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F i g u r e 16: Don Graham instructing Disney Animators

Disney’s pursuit into creating believable characters through character animation was first seen in The Three Little Pigs ( 1 9 3 3 ). The short featured three characters that looked alike but behaved differently in the way they moved and sang. Essentially their acting was differentiated to show c as e different attitudes and personality traits unique to each character . U po n v i e w i ng The Three Little Pigs ( 1 9 3 3 ) ( Figure 17) one can observe di ffe re nc e s in performance and personality between the three little pigs in the way they move and gesture ho w e v e r, t he degree to which this is done through movement alone is n o t a s c le a r as one would believe . T he use of sound and c ha rac t e r design also plays a large role in delineating differences be t w e e n t he three characters . In the case of The Three Little Pigs , t he re are s m al l differences in the performance s of Practical Pig and his two brothers Fi d dle r and Piper Pig (who are almost indistinguishable from a performative aspect) . Although the performative differences may be m i no r , t h e y do d is pl ay s o m e difference in personality between the two and indicates the fi rs t s t e p t o w ar ds t he development of Disney’s u s e o f e m bo d ie d ac t in g that would define D i s n e y ’s hyperrealist illusion of life.

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Figure 17: The Three Little Pigs by Disney. From left to right, Practical Pig, Fiddler Pig and Piper Pig

“ Right from the start, he didn’t want them to be just something moving a ro u n d on the screen and doing funny things. He wanted the audience to care what happened to the c har ac t e rs an d to believe them as real beings, not just a bunch of funny drawings ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 37) . This approach to acting is grounded in Konstantin Stanislavsky’ s work which caught on in Hollywood during the same period , a form of acting intended for stage actors . T hro u gh this process Disney standardised and perfected a specific brand and language for the feature length a nim at io n which adopted the model of live action film m ak i ng ( W e l ls , 1998, p. 26) .

The Stanislavsky method, also known as ‘the Method’ or more commonly ‘method acting’ , placed focus on

studying and living the role, incarnating the character by living it o ne s e lf . An actor is under the obligation to live his part inwardl y , a nd then to give to his experience an external embodiment …A method actor was supposed to make visible to his audience through his face a nd

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body; the actor could not reveal his character through dialogue alone ( Cr aft o n, 2013, p. 38) .

A foundational concept underpinning all performances is irony, the Stanislavsky method sought to reduce this irony between s t age actor and the embodied character , t o create a shift in perspective and attention from actor to character. O ne c a n see the allure in such an approach as Disney sought to enhance believability of his c h ar ac t e rs , to create the illusion of life ; t h us a n im at o r s directed their thoughts, feelings and emotion into their character ’ s performance rather than applying standard recurring graphic template s as seen in the fi gurative approach . Character animation required the animators to understand the character before animating it . Don Graham i ns is t e d t h at “movement was not communicated not only in drawings and space but a ls o through the artist’s understanding of its feelings, motives, and emotions, which elicited empathy” (Crafton, 2013, p. 40) .

The development of embodied acting led to a ne w c l as s o f a nimator, the character animator . While figurative and embodied performances are not in opposition to one another , Disney did try to distance themselves from the earlier figurative style of their own work and that of their competitors. A n im at o r Dave Hand stated in regards to their old wo rk, w he n addressing young animators , t ha t they were set in the ir ways and had e x e c u t e d w a lk s in t he s am e f as hio n re pe a t e d ly . O nly two walks existed , a regular walk and a F e l ix w al k , b ut aft e r Don Grahams action analysis classes they started to consider how to find a different walk for different kinds of characters.

G ra ham ’ s be l ie f e c h o e d French sociologist Marcel Mauss. Marcel Mauss believed “bodies and their defining gestures are culturally constructed” and defined the se characteristic ways of movement as “techniques of the body” (Crafton, 2013, p. 41) . His belief was that w hile movement is a biomechanical p ro c e s s , it is also a learn ed be hav io ur . Like Mauss, Don Graham based his l essons on observations of movement that could be mimicked from one source t o a no t he r and in the process redefine these observed bodies and produce

62 | P a g e cultural meanings from them (Crafton, 2013, p. 41) . According to Craft o n , Don Graham:

A sked his artists to create what Mauss called a “social idiosyncrasy ,” deep seated corporeal habits of movement, gesture, and behaviour that come to typify a whole society, or, in the case of cartoons, whole species (Crafton, 2013, p. 41) .

For this to work , movement would need to be ab le t o s h ift no t o n ly fro m o ne society to another but al s o from one “class of being (animal, human, im ag i n ary ) ” into human motion (Crafton, 2013, p. 41) . In essence animators were attempting to capture and re - perform recognized somatic body techniques. Thus embodied performers have “ discernible interior as well as e x t r in s ic -traits idiosyncrasies ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 42) . Grav e r de s c ri be d t hi s as a completed character , a bo dy “ that Western audience s are trained to look for first and gaze at most intently . It s re ad y display of both inside and outside makes it a pleasing object of contemplation. This body can a p pe a r i n paintings, novels, and film as readily as on s t a ge ” (Graver, 1997, p. 233) . Graver stresses the importance of the relationship between the e m bo die d c ha rac t e r ’s interiority and the ir environment to theatre’s world making , stating that:

In looking for the worlds in which t he ac t o r establishes a corporeal existence we are looking for more than just worlds in which the ac t o r has meaning. We are, rather, looking for worlds in which he or she h as a b o dy . More than just an object or image, a body has interiority, exteriority and autonomy. A body’s interior hides its unseen, volitional mechanisms, the motivating forces that drive its observable behaviour (Graver, 1997, p. 222) .

Be fo re c o nt in ui n g the discussion o f G ra ham ’ s ap p ro ac h to an im at io n , a momentary detour is required to discuss the implications of the biomechanical a s p e c t s underpinning embodied animation. In the pursuit of Disney’s embodied performances characters developed a closer relat ionship with gravity and physical properties driven by the character ’ s more ‘real’ or reality

63 | P a g e b as e d physiology. “Each character needed his own personality; a way of gesturing consistent with his appearance and psychology; and a body with properly located bones, muscles and joints” (Bendazzi, 2016, p. 100) . I n l ay m a n’s t e rm s c h ar ac t e rs would perform in accordance to natural laws of m o t io n and adhere to physical laws . The figurative performances of old played f as t a n d loose with physical laws and biomechanics , that is to say they did not obey the natural laws of movement . Embodied perfor mances doubled down on the skeletal structures or real anatomy and the effects of gr av i t y and physical laws in an effort to reduce unreal and weightlessness of animation. T hi s i s visible in most of the twelve principles of animation that define Disney’s I l lus i on of L i fe . Lammare highlights this when discussing the representation of weight in Miyazak i’s fi lm s :

I t should be noted that the animation from Disney studios in recent years has gone to great length and expense to generate creatures with locomotion like that of real animals – for instance, the Beast in Beau t y and the Beast – with scientifi c advisors to develop proper skeletons and plausible musculature and so forth. This emphasis on ‘real’ anatomy compensates for the ‘unreal’ weightless ness of animation’s simplified characters. It increases the reality e ffects of the fantasy world (Lamarre, 2002, p. 346) .

In relation to anime however and the works of Studio Ghibli the weight or physical forces a cting upon characters is represented differently. While M iy a za k i’s characters are physiologically driven by the same nat ur al law s an d fo rc e s a s D is ne y ’ s characters i.e. g rav i t y and human anatomy / musculature , their relation to these forces an d t h e de pi c t io n of weight is handled differently . One reason for this is how dynamism is imparted through a n im at io n; the other is believed to be a result of the visual presentation of c ha rac t e r s . Lamarre believes that t he ic o n ic and simplified nature of the characters de picted allows for the potential to dramatically reduce t he v i e w e r s ’ perception of weight and mass of the characters , e v o k in g o n ly t he barest element of implied mass. Animation as a whole is a lawless space and

64 | P a g e various approaches exist for introducing laws and forces into this s p ac e ; Lamarre highlights the approach used by anime . Anime favours approaches in which characters seem to “act from, and to generate, other ‘non -n at ura l’ fo rc e s ” (Lamarre, 2002, p. 346) . T he f ir s t ap p ro ac h , w hi c h is more pronounced in Disney animation, is to introduce a sense of reality through the emphasis of “ im pl ie d m a s s e s , anatomical correctness, gravity and so forth” . T he s e c o nd a p pro a c h “ m o re pronounced in anime, which is to play with non - natural forces and other sciences, to work them directly into characters and stories – a n d t o follow the potential implied by different character designs ” (Lamarre, 2002, p. 3 46). T h us t he de fi ni n g aspect of each approach can be d e l in e at e d as fo llo w s : a p ply in g movement to a character or having movements implied by the character design. This separation c an extend further to incorporat e a difference in focu s and emphasis, on physicality as the root for characterisation on the one hand, and psychology conveyed through t he synthesis of movement and indexical signification on the other . As Stevie Suan s t at e s :

In other words, a bordered body, with an internal and external is produced. In this sense, embodied performance, at its extreme, is locked to the body, localized and specific to the body, particular to that individual body. As such, the limit of embodied acting is the body itself. Embodied acting works producing a sense of emotion in movement, but limiting it to the body, making it appea r personalized, individualized (Suan, 2017, p. 4) .

Graham noted that gestures in animation do not occur spontaneously , t he y a re drawn purposefully and that the immediate acceptance of a scene and gesture i s v it a l for embodiment ; t o that extent three dimensionality and m i s e -en- s c e n e i s essential to e m bo d im e nt . “First each gesture must be clearly staged or presented to the audience. If a gesture, no m atter how subtle, is not grasped by the audience the whole scene and conceivably the whole picture may be lost” (Crafton, 2013, p. 43) . This statement establishes two im po r t a nt n o t io ns , t h e f irs t that there is a relationship between embodied acting and

65 | P a g e t he environment , as the environment define s the embodied characters by providing a setting for their performances . The second notion is that a n im at o r s perform movement to de p ic t e m o t io n within these se t t i ng s (Crafton, 2013, p. 44) .

Part of Graham ’ s approach to action was that natural action should be caricatured to be acting, action in itself would not be sufficient in sustaining the interest of the audience -that is to say that “ w hen action, portrayed graphically, is ordered – caricatured - it becomes a new form of acting” (Graham, 1940, p. 12) . Most if not all of Disney’s animations are caricatured a n d in the even t that they a re not they appear weak as highlighted in the discussion of rotoscoping . Modern animators are taught this form of character animation an d ac t in g . E d Ho o ks instructs students t hat :

H um a ns e m p at hi ze with emotion. The audience is why actors ac t a n d w hy you are animating in the first place. The goal of the animator is to expose emotion through the illusion of movement on screen. What the character is doing on a moment -to- moment basis is vitally important, the points of empathy with the audience involve emotion, how the character feels about what he is doing. Empathy is as essential to dynamic acting as oxygen is to water (Hooks, 2000, p. 16) .

C ha ra c t e r ’ s actions must then be generated by primary thoughts and feelings, this approach or aim within Disney can be s um m ar i ze d o r encapsulated u nde r t he g eneral term of personality a s i n “ a performance that combined emotion and intellect ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 44) .

Emotionally – by arousing human appeal , sympathy or antagonism, by playing on spectator’s feeling of justice or injustice, anxiety, satisfaction, etc. Intellectually – by bolstering the character, with idea - t he m e , re v e a le d in the actions, feelings and attitudes of the characte r. T h us character acquires a deeper all human meaning for all nations and c la s s e s (Crafton, 2013, p. 44) .

Embodiment is a crucial concept in Disneyesque animation , as action is not derived from movement alone or movement of a body in space, the main

66 | P a g e concern of figurative acting , b ut f ro m maintaining the integrity of its “somatic boundaries” (Crafton, 2013, p. 48) . In regards to Disney’s new embodied a p pro a c h , no t a ll c h a r ac t e rs may be presented as embodied and may utilise the figurative mode, this is clear in classic Disney films in the presentation of the Princes in ‘classic’ or formalist Disney films . T hey are often represented according to type and devoid of perso n a lit y a hallmark of Disney animated films and their embodied mode .

Performance Space [In] the painting that came to us through the Italian Renaissance, we are much more preoccupied with volume and much less with space; and of course volume being more defined , having a true outline – w h ich space has not – we are much more constructive. We deal with weights, with things that the Chinese or Japanese are not preoccupied with. – Jean Charlot, addressing Disney animators (1938).

Animated characters like any performer exist in a time and space , inhabiting an environment in which mo vement and action is either facilitated o r r e s t ra ine d . T hu s p art of performance is the space w it hi n it o c c u rs . T his s pac e allows for alternate worlds to be conjured that define the performance. I n animation there are two l e v e ls of spatial construction, the figures and the s c e n e ry /environment in which they move. U nl ik e no n -an im a t e d fi lm s t he environment is completely constructed. Animation is not defined by the same laws as live action, if one can dream it, it can be animated.

In live action cinema, what is difficult is teasing out the line of the composition from the real material. However we were only able by chance to film the right cloud we needed. We tried fo rt y t im e s b efore that but it was always wrong…But Disney is lucky. He can just draw the outline he wants (Eisenstein, 2010, p. 336) .

T he creation of space in animated films or cartoon space i s no t a pu re ly mechanical process as audience expectations and narrative c o nv e nt io n s ar e taken into account (Crafton, 2013, p. 146) . If one looks at the development of

67 | P a g e animation and performance space , a shift from gr ap h ic s pa c e (comic strip) to camera space o c c ur s ( f ilm ) .

Pictorial design in 1920’s had achieved a happy medium because the dominant style of comic strip art, with its high contrast black and white palette, simplified forms, rounded characters, and inconspicuous backgrounds, contribu ted to an overall impression of f lat n e s s , t he s o called new York style (Crafton, 2013, p. 147) .

I n e s s e nc e , it represented a certain attitude towards s p ac e an d t he s c re e n e v ide nt in most early cartoons as character movement happened laterally across the screen, from right to left or vice versa , ra t he r than into the depth of the environment. C haracter performances did not move into the depth , they were not t h re e -dimensional so to speak, and therefore de pt h a n d perspective was not a necessary requirement. Additionally these animations r e l ie d on the comic strip s pat ia l s t y le that relied on lateral legi b il it y w h ic h would have undoubtedly resulted in a fam i l iar legible spatial s y s t e m fo r v i e w e r s . Plane Crazy (1929), one of Disney’s most spatially innovative cartoons, illustrates most of the “comic strip spatial composition typical of the New York style” (Crafton, 2013, p. 170) . Se e F ig ur e 18 an d F i gu re 19 fo r a n illustration o f the comic strip spatial compositions i n Plane Crazy an d t he comic strip adaption Lost on a Desert Island ( 1930) .

According to Crafton the evolution of space was driven by the increased complexity of characterization or the shift from the figurative to t he embodied mode (Crafton, 2013, p. 150) . Thus for Disney pictorial space and personality were intrinsically linked to one another. It was during this same period (1930’s) in which fundamental concepts such as pictor ial space, colour pallet and performance philosophy changed into what Langer referred to as the West Coast style, marking the shift from the New York style ( Cr aft o n, 2013, p. 150) .

The markedly different visual representation style of the 1930’s eventually replaced the comic strip style [New York style], which had often verged on modernism with its dynamic compositions. The new

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style [West Coast style] emulated anachronistic illus tration styles that were borrowed from popular bourgeois children’s books and from literary classics of Victorian canon (Crafton, 2013, p. 150) .

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F i g u r e 18: Scenes from Mickey Mouse Plane Crazy ( 1 9 2 8 ) displaying lateral scene composition similar to comic strips.

F i g u r e 19: P l a n e Crazy (1928) was t h e f i r s t animated Mickey Mouse cartoon adapted t o a newspaper comic strip titled "Lost on a Desert Island (1930)" . When comparing t h e t w o a clear connection between comic spatial composition and the early Disney a n i m a t i o n s is presented .

T he interest in pictorial performance space developed concurrently w it h embodied performance at the time when Hollywood was considering embodied concepts of personality and character. In addition to his action analysis c la s s e s , Don Graham taught a class on perspective (Crafton, 2013, p. 155). Don Graham saw screen space as a ‘ prerequisite ’ fo r performance an d t hat a n animator is requi red to be proficient in pictorial space to render “ be lie v ab le fantasy worlds ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 155) .

G ra ham wrote that, “It seems reasonable to conclude that as long as action is possible a spacious condition exists. This space may or may not be visible” (Graham, 1970, p. 325) . Graham thought of space a s a medium for action an d therefore space and action are in ‘continuum’ (Graham, 1970, p. 156) . T o Graham the impression of movement starts in the drawing themselves and the unbalance of space in the composition , s u g ge s t s action and move m e nt . A l l t he s e developments aligned with the code s of classical Hollywood and became the dominant s t y le utilizing the ideologies of Chouinard School of Arts , a nd t he aesthetic and personal sensibilities of European artists such as Bill Tytla and Albert Hurter (Crafton, 2013, p. 159) .

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The cell process and its adoption ac cording to Kristin Thompson a ffe c t e d t he aesthetic of the animated image . “ By decade’s end at the major studios there was a new kind of cartoon space that was more accommodating for the characters, more engaging for the viewers, and closer to live action mise -en- s c e n e . T he c ha rac t e r s themselves were more fully rounded, graphicall y a n d psychologically, and needed spaces that…were less slight, flat, and c him e ri c a l ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 160) . The more defined characters needed spaces that could support their new performances . Maureen Furniss de fi nes animated mise -en- scene as the “images, color and line, movement and k ine t i c s ” (Furniss, 2007, p. 62) . Thus to understand the image a more nuanced understanding of the various spaces i n a nim at io n is re q u ire d. Ce l an im at io n separated the foreground from the background , e s s e nt ial l y creating three s pa t i al s y s t e m s , “ the biplanar systems of cel and background and a third, virtual one that was created at the time of projection ” ( C ra ft o n , 2 0 1 3 , p. 160). Cinematic c amera space is created when combing the spatial s y s t e m s , n am e ly the cel and background.

The cel is where the action o c c u rs , where the figures come to life through movement and inhabit a proxy space. “ To be fully illusionistic, though, these drawings had to be placed within an environment. This was the function of the b ac k g ro u nd ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 175) . T he background or layout (scenery, s e t t i n g , environment o r s e t ) , us i ng v a nishing points , creates its own s pac e fo r t he c h ara c t e r o r fig u re t o i nh ab it , a nd t he i r actions to occur and further solidify the illusion of movement into depth .

T he relationship between cel and background plays a vital role in the dynamism of movement in animation mimicking the f ig u re / gro u nd relationship of depth and motion perception . This separation between layers and the a b il it y t o move them allows for the creation of a different kind of dynamic movement and forms a vital aspect of both anime and Studio Ghibli’s d y n amis m . Recall the m o v e m e nt s illustrated in the discussion of Yasou Otsuka’s techniques in the previous section .

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A n im at i ons in the 1920 ’s adhered closely to the picture plane and were compositionally uniplanar d ue t o animators focusing “ only on the parts that moved, such as the feet. S o the action tends to take the form of a frontal display, as though on a shallow theatre stage such as a vaudeville chorus line” (Crafton, 2013, p. 169) . This form of performance is clearly visible in T he Skeleton Danc e ( 1 9 2 9 ) an d Plane Crazy ( 1929) ; s e e F i gu re 20, retaining the typical frontal display and presentation format of vaudeville theatre. “Characters perform for the “camera” that represents the point of view of idealized spectator in a t he at r e , and they often acknowledge the viewer ’ s presence through a direct gaze, mimed gestures or speech” (Crafton, 2013, p. 169).

F i g u r e 20: Skeleton in The Skeleton Dance in frontal display representative of vaudeville theatre.

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As pictorial space developed to become more spatially complex, so too did the presentation of figures . A nimators started showing more half figures and facial close - ups consistent with the drive for greater characteriza t io n i n o ppo s it io n to t he t y pic al full figure or from the knees up presentation of f i gu re s that had been the norm in the 1920’s and early 1930’s . Initially close ups were used as a shock device but over t im e the close up developed as a device to portray character intimacy and psychology, c o m po ne nt s essential to the embodied acting style. In contemporary f ilm s the close up is u s e d to gu ide the viewers’ attention to something or someone t h at is significant to the development of the plot . This helps to dis t i n gu is h and highlight m ai n c ha rac t e r s from less important characters in productions (Nelmes, 2003, p. 98). Before the close up gained recognition as a device to enhance drama and the portrayal of a character ’ s emotional s t at e , it had the effect of encroaching on the v i e w e r ’s personal proximity. E ar ly f ilm audiences did not respond well to the cinematic device for this reason especially when utilized in a context to instil fear. An animated example of this o ccurs in Satosh i K o n’ s Paprika (2006) ( S e e F i gu re 21) , in which the close up is used to i ns t il fe ar o r revulsion in viewers as they are forced into close proximity with a character that has been established as vile. Thus while it may allow the v ie w e r s t o e nt e r a character ’ s intimate space revealing certain characteristics and emotions it could have the adverse effect as well.

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F i g u r e 21: E x t r e m e c lose up from Satashi Kon's Paprika (2006)

A t t h is po i nt , it would be be ne f ic i al to introduce anime and Studio Ghibli’s approach to movement into depth and movement within the ir compositions. As established earlier, Miyazaki uses detailed backgrounds in conjunction with simplified iconic characters in the foreground. Seeing simplified characters against detailed backgrounds has two potential outcomes in regard to depth relations, on the one end of the spectrum it can suggest depth if the background colours are more subdued than those of the characters. On the other end of the spectrum however the characters may seem to float and appear disconnected or separated from the background/world. This is not to suggest that depth is not rendered and implied rather that it may appear to remain “incipient if the relation between foregrou nd and background is not smoothed out, not well composited” (Lamarre, 2002, p. 359) . T h us t he v ie w e r is made aware of the separation between background and foreground, rather than constituting a single three dimensional world they are presented as different dimensional layers.

This is to say that a while Cartesian single point perspective and therefore depth is present at the level of bac k gro un d illustration , it is not associated with movement into depth in fi lms of Studio Ghibli. Meaning that backgrounds

74 | P a g e a re drawn with suggestions of depth b ut are not so pronounced as to completely alienate the characters and their subtle shading to impart depth (Lamarre, 2002, p. 362) . L amarre highlights a separation in compositing between traditional compositing and closed compositing . The former exemplified by Disney and the multiplane camera, which allowed movement into depth by mechanically moving layers in proportion to one another a n d the latter by Miyazaki and their animatic approach. R ather than focusing on the movement into depth, his films rely on movement between surfaces and emphasise lateral movements within the composition. This is not to say that there aren’t movements into depth but rather that Miyazaki favours a specific form of movement, particularly lateral movements. Lammare states this is due to Miyazaki’s adherence to the full -limited animation tradition, for embraci n g the dynamism imparted by limited animation and the moving of images.

Miyazaki is often defined as having a closer relationship to live action cinema, while animatic elements are present within his work he is by far the most ‘cinematic’ of anime director s . Lamarre suggests thinking of Miyazaki’s anime as animation that seeks cinematic mobility through manga like drawing s rather than animation that focuses on animating characters, hence stressing the word manga when defining Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki film s as ‘Manga E ig a’ . After all Miyazaki distinguishes his works from anime and their ‘otaku w o r l ds ’ , rejecting the art of limited animation. At it s c o r e , the separation lies in the use of either limited or full animation but beyond this separation both fo rm s seek cinematic mobility through manga like drawings but its where they draw their expressiveness from that differs and converges . Television anime, the kind Miyazaki dislikes adheres closer to the cinematic expressiveness of m a ng a; aft e r al l it was one of Tezuka’s main contributions to m ak e m an ga m o re c i ne m at ic . O n t he o p po s i t e e nd is Miyazaki’s position, which embraces the cinematic expressiveness of animation, based on observation of the natural world rather than otaku worlds but utilises manga like images.

Miyazaki has stated that almost “ all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by

75 | P a g e humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry i s f ul l o f o t a k u 7! ” (Baseel, 2014) . His primary dissatisfaction lies with artists that rely on these conventions to convey action and meaning as he believes artists should rather develop these through observation and then expressed in a n im at io n , rather than relying on these visual s ho r t h an ds (Miyazaki, p. 106) . This is reminiscent of Don Graham ’s v ie w t hat an im at e d m ov e m e nt s ho u ld be based on observation as the goal of animated acting is t he caricature of real m o t io n a n d no t c art o o n , which is based on c o m ic movement and language .

The final element of performance space to cover is the use of shadows. “ T he re is no better way to chart how mechanics, form, and content aligned to reconceptualise performance space in the 1930’s than by observing the changing treatment of shadows ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 183) . S ha do w s help ground the performances of c h ar ac t e rs by connecting the cel and background s p ac e and are an es sential element for creating the illusion of unified de pt h (Crafton, 2013, p. 183) . They impart a greater sense of realism or verisimilitude through anchoring characters within their environment.

Early figurative performances in American cartoons used shadows as a stylistic device or as a special effect, which is if shadows were present in the animation at a ll. Animations in the 1920’s treated shadows as an expressive element and not as a w ay t o c r e at e s p ac e . It was another artistic legacy of the comic strip style as cartoonists w e re no t trying to create space or enhance the depth and realism of their work . He nc e , there was no need for shadows r e s ult i ng in the inconsistent use and treatment of shado ws. I n t he a n im at io n s that shadows did occur, the noonday shadow was often utilized; a shadow that doesn’t adhere to the form of the characters bodies and seems to cast un - realistic shadows. One can se e t he treatment of shadows within the same c art o o n i n Fi g ure 22 an d Fi g ure 23. “The noonday shadow doesn’t create much

7 The word Otaku has shifted in register and meaning since its inception in the late1980’s. The word contains both positive and negative connotation in Japan a s well as abroad. At its core the term identifies an individual’s fandom and enthusiasm towards a particular subject matter. The original definition is as follow: “[The word specifies] young, wildly enthusiastic fans of cartoons, comics, video g a m e s e t c . who do not wish to communicate with others who don’t share their i n t e r e s t s ” (Asahi Shimbun, 1990) .

76 | P a g e of an impression of depth, although it does imply that the vertical body has proxy space, density, and contact with the horizontal floor” (Crafton, 2013, p. 184).

When these shadows were re n de re d , they would often be opaque in the tradition of the comic strip . S ha do w s however would prove to be an important agent in Disney’s shift from figurative to embodied performances and would therefore need to shift to something that resembled nature more, some t hi n g m o re ‘naturalistic’ . This shift was achieved with the use of translucent shadows, which o f c o urs e e nt e re d into the “studio ’ s ongoing conversion to be a less cartoony performance program” (Crafton, 2013, p. 188) . In addition to the use of translucent shadows , by use of double exposure, Disney shifted away from the formulaic light sources and noonday shadows that preceded their earlier work and that of o t he r studios in f av o ur o f rendering convincing shadows that better defined a character ’ s volume and their place in that environment.

The shift from graphic space to camera space le d t o t he e v o lu t io n of character d e s ig n , space and shadows. Characters were now more complex not only in design but in their movement capa bilities as well, accessing parts of their environment that w e re once the territory of live action (depth). As a re s u lt , their point of contact in these w o r ld s had evolved along with them becoming more complex in the process and more closely resembled their real world counterparts. These elements are an integral component of Disney’s embodied performance , seeking to reduce the division between the foreground and background. On the one h an d is a representation system entrenched in the comic spatial syste m favouring lateral movements an d on t h e o t he r a fixation with film and camera space , and its movement i nt o t he de pt h. D is ne y an d their embodied performances sought to reduce the division between foreground and background. Anime and Studio Ghibli are less concerned with t he s e div is io ns , actively embracing the gap that exists between them. It m us t be noted that w hile the absence or presence of these elements alone may not be enough to identify w h e t h e r a performance is figurat ive or embodied it does

77 | P a g e allow for greater accuracy in identifying a performance ’ s inclination . It provides more c ri t e ri a w i t h w h ic h t o di s c e rn whether a performance is figurative or embodied in conjunction with o t he r criteria corresponding with each perfor mance mode. With a nuanced understanding of performance space and shadows and the ideologies underpinning their development we can now engage in an analysis of Disney and Studio Ghibli’s character animation a nd performances .

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F i g u r e 22: Mickey’s Steamroller (1934) but with shadows absent. This illustrates the inconsistency in the use of shadows as within the same scene Minnie sprouts a shadow within the same performance as seen in Figure 6.

F i g u r e 23: Mickey's Steamroller (1934) showcasing the use of the formulaic noonday s h a d o w

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Analysis We established the im po rt an c e of movement and the different modes of performance a nd how performance space developed . Animated performances are not binary , animated films tend t o oscillate between t he s e two m o de s . T hat said however , one could argue that studios tend to prioritise a specific performance mode in their productions . Fo r D i s ne y , embodied performances t ak e p re c e de nc e as the studio strove to perfect this method of performance . The question regarding which performance mode Studio Ghibli and the work of Miyazaki’s leans toward still needs to be addressed. For this reason a s am ple o f fi lm s from the 90’s will be used to identify any trends common among the selected studio ’ s o e uv re o f w o rk to the elements that define each performance approach. Films from the 90’s are selected due to Studio Ghibli ’s a s c e n d e n c y during this period and D is ne y ’s return to form after a period of malaise in the 80’s .

Disney and Ghibli Performance If one were to over simplify and generalise the approach to animation us e d by Japan and America it would be t ha t American animation and particularly the work of Disney wanted to show the truth of movement. Emotion is displayed through movement and must emerge through the frame, to render visible everything the character feels. An adherence to realism and Hollywood conventions places on emphasis on the subject and s e e k s t o render the artis t i nv is ib le , to create an illusion and reduce irony in t he performances . W e s t e r n theatrical performances strive towards realism defining characters by individuality and idiosyncrasies specific to a period and setting to enhance believability, which a li g n s w it h Stanislavski ’s method acting .

In Japanese animation the portrayal of psychological truth takes precedence , focusing on a s i n gle element and its portrayal , pl ac in g emphasis on fo rm in expressing the psyche and emotion of the subject or character . Ja p ane s e theatre and art would fit a more modernist classification as the focus is placed less on realism and more on the impressionistic and expressionistic , o r simply put the graphic nature of things . T he fo c u s is o n capturing a

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distillation of characte r rather than emotional verisimilitude . However as Hu noted in the works of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli realism plays a large role , w hi c h is strange when compared to the classic theatrical traditions of Japan that don’t seek or strive for re a list depictions in performances . To simplify the discussion regarding figurative and embodied performances t he identification of a core aspect s separating the two is required. If one were to summarise t he separation in simple terms it would be ‘realism’ o r rat he r greater believability . T h us , t h e s h if t e x is t s between works that are defined by m o re ‘believable’ performances versus performances t h at are le s s ‘ be l ie v a bl e ’ in terms of visual realism . In most cases more ‘ b e l ie v a ble ’ performances and greater verisimilitude is attached to greater physical and visual realism rat he r than psychological realism . Purely working on this rhetoric and Hu’s account Miyazaki’s work would fall in the realm of embodied performances and yet it s e e m s t hat a nim e favours a more figurative approach.

T a b l e 1 : Basic Summation of Elements that Define Figurative and emb o d i e d P e r f o r m a n c e s

F i g ur at i v e E m b odi e d • Characters less skeletally defined . • S k e l e t a l structure more defined in the • Loose approach to physical laws. way characters move with a more • O ft e n typified by w eightlessness. defined musculature. • Stronger emphasis on physical laws. • Reduction in weightlessness as characters are more ‘grounded’. • Focus on dynamism rather than emo t iv e • Personality driven incorporating personality . intellect and emotion in performances. • Characters display types using stylized • Greater emphasis on rendering the gestures and poses. internal externally. • Extroverted. • Introverted. • Favours lateral m o v e m e nt . • Movement into depth . • Often typified as flat. • Shadows rendered unrealistically, a • Realistic rendering of shad ows, integral s econdary focus . part in displaying depth and • S h ado w s appear in the form of no o n day heightening character performance. s ha do w s . • Seeks to reduce to division between • A form of special effect or dramatic foreground and background convention to emphasise a scene.

• Closer relation to comics. • Closer relation to film.

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T ab le 1 highlights c o m po ne nts that help define whether a performance may or may not be more geared towards the figurative or embodied. In the case of D i s n e y and Studio Ghibli films , bo t h adhere to defining c h a rac t e r m o v e m e n t according to the skeletal structure of the character , meaning that human characters move and behave like human characters and yet at the same time Ghibli refrains from these anatomical guidelines in instances such as f ac i al expressions and the expression of weight on these anatomical bodies . “ He seems content, however, with a certain degree of fluidity, grace and plausibility in movement. But he does not strive for the anatomical and facial precision of movement so imp ortant in other forms of animation” ( L am ar re , 2002, p. 349) . T hi s o ft e n leads to the critique that their a nim at io n l ac ks personality . P ersonality was defined as a performance that combines emotion and intellect. Emotion referring to a character ’ s ability to rouse an emotion such as sympathy, anxiety etc. from viewers, and one cannot argue that characters in both Studio Ghibli and Disney animated films do not resp o nd w it h the appropriate emotional response in a given situation as seen in Fi g ure 24 an d Fi g ure 25.

F i g u r e 24: E m o t i n g T a r z a n ( 1 9 9 9 )

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F i g u r e 25: E m o t i ng Spirited Away (2001)

Intellect refers to im b u in g c h ar ac t e r ’ s performances with a theme , attitude, and feeling . In e s s e n c e , t he s e idiosyncrasies that define the character e m e r ge through movement and are vital to creating embodied performances . D is ne y mobilized the concept in this way . S tudio Ghibli’s c h ar ac t e rs in this regard s e e m le s s ‘energetic’ and idiosyncratic in comparison with those of Disney . This is not say that Studio Ghibli character a re without theme , attitude or f e e l in g as they most definitely are with various characters having defined attitudes and feeling towards something or someone, but rather th an pre s e nt these through the performance itself these ar e registered through other m e a ns . T h e s e performances oscillate from the more subdued to the more overt with characters acting as ciphers. A potential answer may l ie i n t he i de o lo gy i nfo rm i ng performance that Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli share. In a discussion regarding the use of ro t oscoping and live action in animation , M iy a zak i highlighted an important approach governing his animation and that o f St u dio Gh i bl i :

If animators are enslaved by live -action films, the excitement in the animator's work would lessen by half. Though we can also say that we didn't have an acting style after which we could model. Bu nr ak u , k a bu k i , n o h, o r k y og e n are too far apart from our works, and Japanese musicals or ballet which are just borrowed (from the West) didn't interest us. We have been animating with our passion, hunches, and feeling, based on various experiences of movies, manga, and others, as much as time and

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money allowed us. Gestures (of the charac ters) tend to be constructed by symbolizing and breaking characters' feelings down to facial parts (i.e., eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and noses) and reconstructing them. But we tried to overcome the decay of symbolization by animating through "identifying with the character" or "becoming the character (Miyazaki, 1988) .

There are two interesting distinctions in this statement. T he fi rs t i s i n r e g ar ds to the performative model anime adopted or evolved f ro m ; it w o u ld s e e m t h at Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli rejected the perform ance models from Japan and the W e s t . T he s e c o nd point of interest is t he i de n t i f ic at io n o f elements that typify the embodied approach of performance . W hi le it m ay be t rue t ha t an im e d id no t d ire c t ly ado pt or emulate the acting of Bunraku, K ab uk i o r Noh in terms of stylistic e le m e nt s , t he y undoubtedly d id c o nt i nue the tradition of figurative performances in a nim e . Similar to anime the J a pa ne s e t raditional arts are strongly grounded in the figurative mode ne v e r pursing realism; ins t e a d, their art seeks to emphasize “ techniques that capture the essence of the subject in a way that assumes some participation by the audience” (Levi, 1996, p. 21) .

In regards to the second po in t , i t is not clear if Miyazaki is specifically speaking of Japanese animators or animators i n ge ne ral when discussing a n im at o r s ’ a t t e m p t s to overcome the decay of symbolism by pu rs ui ng embodied performances . In either case , both statements would hold up historically as Disney pursued embodied performances through identification with the character and Toei’s early animation pursued Disney - like animation and therefore shared similar goals as D is ne y . M iy a zak i ha d t he re fo re , undoubtedly been exposed to Disney and their hyperrealist e m bo die d a n im at io n . Disney and t heir caricature of life and movement do no t s e e m t o be the goal in Miyazaki’s animation . If one recalls M iy a z ak i f av o u r s t he figurative works of Fleischer Studios and the early Silly Symphonies of Disney . I t s ho ul d n’t c o m e as a surprise th e n t h at he be l ie v e s t hat one should not look down on the use of symbolism , stating that “ if you can capture the true

84 | P a g e essence of what you should express, a picture with a true feeling has power ” (Miyazaki, 1988) . Thus in some sense this perpetuates the ideals of Ja pa ne s e art and drama.

This seems to be at odds to some degree w it h H u’s as s e rt io n that realis m i s integral to Miyazaki’s and Studio Ghibli ’s w o rk . It i s o dd as figurative performances t e nd towards the symbolic and expressionistic rather than the m o re ‘ re a l is t ’ . He nc e , Miyazaki prefers symbolic performances to correspond with the symbolic elements of his narrative. Miyazaki believes an element of realism is required to create believable fantasy worlds much like Disney, hence the realist backgrounds and movement based on musculature. T he s e p ara t io n then seems to o c c u r ‘ hi g he r u p ’ in the performance , with one studio continuing the embodied approach in pursuit of greater believability and the other shifting more towards the expressionistic and symbolic. A c t i n g is not just movement and consists of subtle changes in shadow, light and a succession of s i g ns ; Miyazaki and D is ne y were both aware of this . If one had to place Miyaza ki’s films in a s pe c t rum , with each performance mode o c c u py i n g the extreme of each polarity , it i s interesting to note that the films become more embodied in regards to character pe r fo rm a nc e with characters displaying more o v e rt idiosyncrasies in the way they move and express themselves. T he be hav io u r of Chihiro (from Spirited Away) in particular f e at u re s a fa r greater range in facial expression an d i diosyncratic movements t hat no t only separates he r f ro m the rest of her cast but also from previous G h ib li protagonists . T h is may explain i t s gre at e r critical and commercial success in the West as opposed to the other highly accomplished Studio Ghibli f i lm s as she can be referred to as a ‘ completed character ’ a c ha rac t e r w e s t e r n a u die nc e s are trained to look for .

O t he r examples of more embodied performances exist in Studio Ghibli films , such as San’s introduction s e q ue nc e a nd he r fight with Lady Eboshi i n P r i nc e s s M o n on ok e . Similar to how C hi h iro ’s performance makes her identifiable in S p ir it e d Aw ay ; Sa n ’ s performance s e p ar at e s her from the rest of the human c ha rac t e r s as she is presented as more fierce and feral . T he treatment o f S an

85 | P a g e h o w e v e r is not consistent as her be h av io u r and movements do not reveal more of her emotional and psychological state , rather they fade away amongst other character movements . In c o m p ar is o n to D is ne y ’s T a r z a n ( 1999 ) fo r i n s t a nc e , w ho is quite easily identifiable from a performance standpoint as a mixture of animal and human be hav io ur s e p ara t es him from the rest of his human and animal c as t . His emotion and psychological development is presented through his physical performance , f ro m an ‘a pe m a n’ walking on all fo ur s t o a hum a n walking upright, yet his identity is in crisis and results in an oscillation b e t w e e n t he two presentations . San in contrast is far more human in her performance and while she identifies more with her wolf family it isn’t necessarily presented through her performance and rather through di alo gu e and emotional symbolism. In c o nt ra s t ho w e v e r , characters like Chihiro presents her character growth t h ro u gh performance; she grows from an u n c e rt ai n an d af rai d c h il d t o a confident ado le s c e nt .

It must be stressed however that even tho ugh Miyazaki may prefer s y m bo lis m i n hi s performances it is not in the same vein as m a n ga or anime , as h is w o r k d o e s no t fe at ur e or features very little of the hallmarks and iconography of manga and anime . Miyazaki refers to these elements as anime expressionism . These anime and m anga elements seem to be reduced in his work in much the same way his performances defer from those of D i s ne y . T hu s , Studio Ghibli’s w o r k could be described as ‘ m a ng a lik e ’ due to its utilization of the visual s t y le in terms of character design but never embracing the more performative elements of the form. If one were to look at these aspects alone , t he la c k o f o v e r t anime expression or iconography could lead one to deduce t hat M iy a za k i and Studio Ghibli’s animation favours a more embodied approach to performances than most anime w i t h t he most embodied of performances found in Spirited Away, but is still more figurative than the work that Disney p ro du c e s .

A particularly strong figurative performance occurs in K ik i ’s D e l ive r y S e r v i ce ( 1989) in which Jiji (Kiki’s pet cat) pretends to be a toy c a t , s o as not to rouse the suspicion of a dog. While the bulk of Jiji’s performances are not overtly

86 | P a g e f i gu rat iv e and adhere to the general depiction of a cat, this particular performance utiliz es manga and comic strip language to depict Jiji’s distress and anxiety in the form of sweat drops materializing all over his body ( See F i gu re 26 a n d F i gur e 27) . S im il ar figurative performances exist for human characters as well as seen in the sequence in which Chihiro first encounters the polluted river spirit an d takes advantage of a highly stylistic pose to represent shock at the sight and stench of the spirit ( Fi g ure 28 an d Fi g ure 29) .

F i g u r e 26: Jiji’s figurative facial gesture. Kiki’s Delivery S e r v i c e

F i g u r e 27: Jiji’s figurative performance Kiki’s Delivery Service

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F i g u r e 28: Chihiro Figurative Performance in Spirited Away

F i g u r e 29: C h i h i r o ’s Figurative Performance Spirited Away

W e ig ht and its representation h as been discussed at great length s a lre ady so without trying to re -tread the same ground it’s important to highlight t he representation of physical forces in both studios . The difference boils down to their approach to animation and which performance mode they s ub s c r i be t o . In g e ne ra l , f igurative performances are defined by a less strict appr o ac h o r a d he re nc e to the representation of weight and physical forces . E m bo die d performances on the other hand are driven by a greater sense of believability through reality and therefore go to greater length s t o ac c u rat e ly po rt r ay

88 | P a g e gravity and t he physical forces acting upon figures . As discussed while Miyazaki holds the notion tha t s o m e f o rm reality is necessary to create believability (as seen in his backgrounds and biomechanical movements ) he prefers a figurative approach when it comes to perfo rm an c e s , which works w e ll with their hybrid approach to animation which favours t he use of moving and tilting cells to impart dynamism and weight . T he us e o f t he aforementioned techniques in conjunction with a higher number of frames (in comparison to other Japanese animation) results in their brand of full l im it e d a n im at io n . As established , Disney’s traditional full animation focuses on d r aw i ng the movement and animating w e ig ht ( F ig u re 30) . This is not to say Studio Ghibli does not animate weight shifts as seen in Fi gur e 31, bu t r at h e r t ha t t he y o s c i ll a te between Yasou Otsuka ’s f ul l lim it e d a n im at io n t e c h ni q ue s and traditional animation.

T he r e fo re , w eightlessness is a component of figurative performances . D i s ne y tried to shift away from weightlessness in their earlier performances by pursuing their embodied approach defined by gr e at e r re a li s m ; Studio Ghibli on the other hand do es not seem to be as pre -occupied with this notion as weightlessness int e g r at e s seamlessly into their narratives and f i gu rat iv e performances . T he se weightless m o v e m e nt s aren’t restricted to only flying sequences and form a core element of most of the c har ac t e r m o v e m e nt s an d heighten there expressionistic and symbolic elements . It is the control of anime techniques in Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli ’s work that impart a cinematic feel to his work and at its core these anime technique value figurative performances .

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F i g u r e 30: Weight shift and movement out of depth . T a r z a n

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F i g u r e 31: Weight shift in Spirited Away

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Disney and Ghibli Performance Space Performances are not based on movement alone ho w e v e r and rely on m i s e -en- s c e n e to ground the performance in either the figurative or the embodied . Donald Crafton highlighted how important mise -en-scene and staging i s t o a n im at e d performances . The basic separation was that figurative performances tended to rely on lateral movements that u t i li ze d t he c o m ic strip spatial system and a particular t re at m e nt o f s ha do w s . E m bo die d p e r fo rm a nces featured greater movements into depth, shadows became more defined and backgrounds used greater perspective to define depth .

Rather than focus on the movement itself , whether lateral or into depth which has already been discussed in Performance Space s e c t io n , a better use of time will be to engage with the treatment of shadows . Su ff ic e to say the main take aw ay was that Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli favour lateral movements and panoramic establishing shots rather than movements into de p t h; this is not to s ay that their backgrounds do not feature perspective depth and that their animation features no movements into depth but rather that lateral movements work in conjunction with the figurative approach.

Onto shadows t he n , Crafton highlighted s ha do w s as the most obvious element i n t he development of embodied animation performance s p ac e fo r D i s ne y . T he b as ic no t io n is that developments in mechanics, depth and colour can be traced to the treatment of shadows. The use of depth would impart the impression and potential for motion and showcase greater character depth as characters became three dimensional opposed to their two dimensional counter parts. The treatment of shadows in the figurative mode in a sense reduces the importance of shadows oft en utilizing them in various formats that appear inconsistent . When present they would take the form of no o n day s ha do w s and would be opaque as opposed to translucent . U po n inspection, this would seem to be the case in Studio Ghibli’s treatment of shadows a s illustrated in the comparison of shadows between Disney films and Studio G h ib li ( F ig u re 32) . I t i s clear that Stu dio Ghibli utilizes shadows that a li gn more with the c las s ic al figurative mode than that of the embodied. T he

92 | P a g e shadows are opaque and often appear in the no o nd ay format, and often do not appear all that defined and only serve to indicate that the character is anchored to the environment to some degree but not explicitly .

I n m a ny w ay s , the use of shadows in Studio G hibli’s films is reminiscent o f older animated cartoons f ro m t he E ast coast figurative s t y le . If one were to c o m pare t h e treatment of shadows between t he Popeye short V im , V ig or a nd V it al k y ( 1936) from Fleischer Studios and that of Studio Ghibli’s films the similarities are quite striking ( F ig u re 33). Bo t h s t ud io s treat shadow s as n e u t r al o p aq ue noonday shadows , with little i nd ication of a prominent light s o ur c e a n d a re less restricted i n t he i r approach to the shape and volume that t he s ha do w s c as t . T h e treatment of shadows is near identical in this regard , w hat is of gre at e r in t e r e s t ho w e v e r is the treatment of shadows when they are given greater importance for dramatic effect and utilized to create m o re d e p t h an d s p ac e . Crafton highlights this as a special effect and it seems to be present during moments of contemplation in Studio Ghibli’s and Miyazaki’s o e uv re . The astute reader would re m e m be r the discussion re ga rd i ng t he tradition in manga a n d a nim e to improve the illustration and animation of a s e q ue nc e o r im a ge for dramatic effect. The same approach o r c o nc e pt is u t i l ized with the treatment of s ha do w s . As illustrated in F igu re 34, the use of shadows is used to heighten the mood of the scene. Prior to this scene most shadows were presented in the common format as illustrated in Fi gu re 32. T he treatment of shadows changes however as t h is s c e ne in particular utilizes shadows as a special effect to heighten the contemplative mood. T he re is no doubt that this is do ne to enhance the contemplative elements of the protagonist, to render their emotional and psychological state , and for the viewer to engage with the fictional world. T his i s M a m o m e nt , common in Noh. T he s h ado w s a re no t the only element to receive additional de t a il ho w e v e r; the performances t h e m s e lv e s s e e m t o shift towards the embodied as if to create a stronger re lat io n between the character and their world o n ly t o dissipate in the next sequence .

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S h ado w s i n Spirited Away have a higher le v e l o f sophistication than prior Studio Ghibli fi lm s as they appear translucent o p po s e d t o t he o pa q ue r e n de r i ng in prior films. T he r e n de r i ng in terms of form remain s po ra di c w it h v a rio us no o n day s ha do w s appearing throughout the film h o w e v e r t he r e are i n s t a nc e s where these are swapped out in favour of more defined shado ws, such as the aforementioned s e que nc e . In these instances in which the more defined and natural shadows occur they appear to be quite reminiscent of D i s n e y ’s a pp ro ac h , m e a ni n g t he s ha do w s a re translucent and dictated by light sources rather than o pa que a n d ne ut ra l ( no o n day s h ado w s ) . Disney sought to s u bt ly art ic ul at e a be lie v ab le performance space by “ better defining characters volumes and their place in the environment ” (Crafton, 2013, p. 190). It should be no surprise t he n that Studio Ghibli would prefer a looser more figurative approach to the use of shadows and d e pt h w he n hi s animations often utilize the figurative mode and its looser approach to physical forces .

I n s um , t h is s e c t io n sought to situate Studio Ghibli ’s approach to performance space and shadows in regard to whether it is figurative or embodied . It is c le a r t ha t Disney adheres and exemplifies the embodied performance; S t u d io G h ib li ho w e v e r seems less constricted in that regard. Shadows and performance s p ac e s e e m to s hi ft back and forth between highly figurative to more embodied presentations much like the character performances t he m s e lv e s . T h us p erformance s pace and depth is rendered in the realist mode aligning with e m bo di e d performance go a ls but shadows and the utilisation of performance space seem to favour figurative performance s . This distinction adds further proof to Studio Ghibli’s hybridity .

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F i g u r e 32: Shadow comparison between Disney and Studio Ghibli . Indicating the use of more defined translucent shadows in Disney’s work and the more opaque and less defined shadows of Studio Ghibli.

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F i g u r e 33: Comparison of figurative shadows in Kiki’s Delivery Service a n d P o p e y e Vim, Vigor and Vitaliky ( 1 9 3 6 ) . Opaque and loosely defined shadows i n b o t h productions seem to serve the same function of anchoring the characters but only enough to facilitate that they are inf luenced by physical forces .

F i g u r e 34: Defined translucent shadows for dramatic e f f e c t i n T a r z a n a n d S p i r i t e d A w a y

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Conclusion This research paper sough t to investigate the differences and similarities i n character animation and performance in D i s ne y an d Studio Ghibli an im at io n s . It was established that Disney and their hyperrealist school of embodied acting and animation is the de fa c t o do m i na nt performance standard. I n t hat r e g ar d Disney is the quintessential example of e mbodied acting and a n im at io n, i t is their hallmark a nd t he ir contribution to the world of a n im at io n . It is the culmination of decades of work, pursuing the goal of g re at e r ‘ believability ’ through the pursuit of visual and physical re al is m . Reality would become the template for its aspirations, no t a t rue re fle c t io n o f reality, but rather t he caricature of it. These elements would prove vital a s t he im ag in ary w o r l ds an d t he c ha rac t e rs inhabiting these worlds needed to be real enough t o be believable. They needed to be idiosyncratic not only in theme and in attitude but in the way these elements were presented through movement. In s ho rt , t h e y needed personality , they needed to be alive. T h is d o e s no t m e a n that the works by Disney are devoid of figurative performances h o w e v e r , as it i s unlikely any production would subscribe to a singular performance mode a s t he y do not exist in opposition of one another , b ut rather that the fundamental performances a re embodied and are driven by hyperrealist go als . T h is w o ul d t hu s position anime and their strongly figurative animations as an alternative to embodied animation . This extends beyond a difference in animation techniques used i.e . full animation versus l im i t e d an im at io n . T h e differentiation thus does not only l ay in t he techniques used to render the performances but in the performances themsel v e s . Ja pa n ’ s introduction to animation and ea rly pursuits may have been in the school of embodied acting and Disney hyperrealism bu t t he m e di um ’ s e v e nt u al development t u rn ed towards the figurative. This shift was driven by a multitude of factors including the economic and cultural. In m any w ay s , t hi s shift occurred due to the rise and popularisation of a new graphic medium in Japan and its own traditional approach to art and drama that favoured the figurative rather than the embodied. An approach to performance that embraces its constructed nature rather than attempt to conceal it as

97 | P a g e embodied animation does . This is fitting as most anime gains much of its dynamism from limited a nim at io n ’ s ability to expose its constructed nature and embrace those aspects .

Studio Ghibli however exists between these two performance modes a n d somewhere between t he two animation forms (full animation and limited a n im at io n) . Essentially placing them at an intersection between Disney ’s embodied hyperrealism and anime ’s figurative dy n am i s m . In t he p ro c e s s , Studio Ghibli seems to have developed a unique approach to figurative performances. These performances synthesize traditional full animation ambitions with limited animation ingenuity resulting in a hybrid style . I f o ne were to make a rough summation of Studio Ghibli’s approach it w o ul d be t he utilization of figurative facial expressions from a well -established Ja pa ne s e g r ap hi c m e di um a nd t he embodied physical performances based on human observation rendered through a combination of full and limited animation t e c h ni q ue s . Be y o n d t h is , one could also state that Studio Ghibli ac t iv e ly embraces the graphic medium of manga , through the use of manga lik e im age s , a n d t he an im at io n / fi lm medium effectively combining elements f rom e ac h . Steinberg noted the separation betw een the two streams of anime predicated on a relation between animation and film and animation and manga. It would seem ho w e v e r, t hat S t udio Ghibli is a combination of the two as it embraces the relationship between a nim a t io n a nd f i lm , making his work more cinematic than most anime , b ut a ls o e m b rac e s the graphic elements of manga and animation. This hybridity extends to their approach in performance.

Embodied performances function as individual external exp ressions of internal emotions, f ig u rat iv e performances however are not the representation of an inner feeling but t h e e x p re s s io n it s e lf is the feeling . When Studio Ghibli’s performances do extend into the e m bo die d, they maintain a connection to the figurative, as they exist in continuity . He nc e , t he ir characters display personality through codified actions in the form of figurative , facial and bodily movements , but never to the same extreme as the majority of anime.

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T he r e fo re Studio Ghibli’s productions are more embodied than most anime but more figurative than most Disney animation s. Thus, one could conclude that Studio Ghibli’s ide ntity and point of differentiation from other anime and D i s n e y i s i n the balance of how figurative and embodied the performances are in its animation . In e s s e nc e , Studio Ghibli s up e rs e d es the categories of embodied and figurative performances by embracing aspects of each po l ar it y and blending them t o g e t h e r . Their performative w at e rm ar k is driven by one of b a la nc e ; ba la nc e not o nly between the two performative modes but also of its r e l at io n to film and manga.

Thus in summation one studio is defined by its approach to embodied animation and the other by its hybridity of the two performance modes that are reinforced by its hybrid approach to animation.

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