Jim On Film
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Critical Cannibalism

Once upon a time, there was a daddy, a mommy, and nine children. Each child was different from each other but special in his or her own unique way. Sally, for example, was good at writing but awful at cooking. Teddy was great at playing football but was socially backwards. Nanette was good at math but was very uncoordinated, and so on down the line with each child. Little Georgie was crying one day because he felt like he was worthless. He couldn’t write like Sally, play football like Teddy, do math like Nanette, and so on. After having watched so many hours of sappy sitcoms, Daddy and Mommy sat Little Georgie down and said, "Little Georgie, we love you for who you are. You don’t write like Sally does, but you draw nice pictures. You don’t play football like Teddy, but you still play well. You’re not as good at math as Nanette, but you can dance rings around her, and so on. We love you because you are wonderful."

Too bad animation fans don’t always see life that way.

Before entering into a subject such as this, it must be agreed upon that artistic merit and entertainment value are somewhat subjective topics. Yes, there are general standards of artistic appreciation--which may be character development, music, story structure, among many other things--but in the end, each viewer has a different taste. Not everyone will adore The Emperor’s New Groove, and while one might suggest that they are wrong, the reality is, when it comes to artistic appreciation, there is little that is truly right or wrong.

Unlike with Little Georgie’s family, for some reason, in animation, the main tool for measuring the quality of a film is by measuring it against other animated films. For example, it is not good enough to state that Lilo and Stitch is a great film full of laughs, but Hollywood has taught us that we have to compare it to another film. For example, one might say Lilo and Stitch is the best Disney film since Beauty and the Beast. With a statement such as this, it can often be interpreted in several different ways, such as:

1. The ten films between these two films are inferior. What the person speaking this line might mean is, "I really liked many of those ten films; however, Lilo and Stitch is extra-great." But then, the person may mean, "I really think pretty much anything made since then has been awful, and it’s about time we get something as good as Lilo and Stitch." Either way, ten wonderful films have been dismissed by this statement.

2. It implies a lot about how other people view those films. Everyone has a favorite Disney animated feature. Unless there is common ground between the speaker and the listener, the speaker has very little control over how the listener interprets the statement.

3. Statements such as this are so vague that, without some explanation, its not very easy to full grasp what has been said. Is the animation better? Is the music as good? Is there more action? Are the characters voiced as well?

The reality is that animated films are the only films that, as a general rule, get compared to other films. For example, one would hardly say, "I thought Enough was exciting, better than the Wedding Planner." If someone liked Enough, he or she would probably say, "It was really suspenseful." In fact, to imply a comparison between the two based solely on Jennifer Lopez is ludicrous--one is a lightly amusing romantic comedy and the other a nail-biting suspense film. Furthermore, just because one is better than the other doesn’t mean that they aren’t both enjoyable films.