Animation Without Movement

On a valuable paradox.

A still from Castle in the Sky (1986)

Happy Thursday! This issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter is about stillness — the moment when animating stops.

The word animation refers to life, activity and movement. An animated drawing is a drawing that moves. Like Alex Dudok de Wit wrote in his newsletter last month, “To think about the nature of animation is to think about what movement is, how it can be artificially made or manipulated, and how this makes us viewers feel.”

All of this is true. Yet it gets a little complicated. What happens to an animated character if it stops animating?

Across animation history, that question has been surprisingly controversial. An artist’s answer to it can define their style. It’s led to creative feuds and fallings-out. And it’s had a huge impact on the evolution of the medium.

How? Why? That’s what we’re tackling today. Here we go!