DREAMWORKS, PIXAR AND STUDIO GHIBLI

30/11/2011

Juan Jesús Yborra Golpe

Introduction

The history of animation started much earlier than many people would expect. In fact, the first

examples of animation date from circa the 16th century, when flip-books became quite popular

in Europe, usually depicting sexual acts by its drawings. Then animation started to evolve

through history, being present in optical toys during the 19th century, or working together with

the cinematograph to produce the first animated films in history.

Nowadays, thanks to computer science, animation is constantly developing limitlessly and

every new animation film can boast of using a new animation technique. Among the vast

number of different animation studios existing nowadays, we are going to choose three of

them: DreamWorks Animation, Pixar and Studio Ghibli. The first two work with CGI (Computer

Generated Imagery) animation, whereas Ghiblis’ sign of identity is working with 2-D/cel

animation, even though this is a harder, slower and more expensive kind of work.

The purpose of this essay is to discover how these three studios use animation in order to

depict the preoccupations of society and why animation is capable of achieving this where

other forms cannot.

To achieve this, it is crucial to determine and establish the kind of audiences these studios aim

to reach, as well as to understand each studio’s philosophies.

How is animation used to reflect the preoccupations of society?

Pixar

Audiences

One of Pixar’s main achievements has been to be able to fill the movie theatres with

both children and adults. The way the managed to do that in fact could seem a bit

egoistic but thanks to that, that is why they are so successful. What Pixar does is in

some way to forget about children, they just create films they would like to be able to

see on the theatres, films they think they are funny, interesting and emotive. This is

the reason why such a wide number of adults are eager to see their movies. They are

adults that make films not for children but for themselves, adults too.

“I don't think of my audience as being a particular age, because we try to do what we think is

funny. I don't set out to hook four-year-olds, but it just happens that four-year-olds find it

addictive.” (Rob Gibbs, Pixar animator.)

Obviously, almost everyone working at Pixar has a very unique personality, if not, it would be

impossible for them to have fun in creating the way of films they do.

“We think of it as family entertainment as the label, but honestly we make movies for

ourselves. People get this idea that when they tradition to young adulthood that they have to

get rid of the "kid" part of themselves[...]But I play every day here at work. It's about being

excited about the work, loving it, playing with these amazing tools -- that's play!” (Dylan

Brown, creative director, Pixar Canada.)

Pixar’s view of society

Unlike its parent company, Disney, Pixar does not use fairy tales to depict inspiring values, it

stories reflect the worries and personalities of their creators.

Pixar has been able to develop a new model of masculinity in films, in Toy Story (Lasseter:

1995), Cars (Lasseter: 2006) or The Incredibles (Bird: 2004) an alpha male has to face the limits

of its power and go through a period of solitude and personal development until he finally

finds out that he has to embrace the traditionally feminine virtues of teamwork or cooperation

to be able to achieve its goal. Thus, the finally understand what it means to be a man.

Another theme in Pixar’s films is a warning not to hide or forget your individual or unique gifts

and values and fall in the conformism. This can be seen in either The Incredibles, when the

superhero family is obliged to hide their powers or in Wall·E (Stanton: 2008), when we

discover humanity has fallen into laziness and gets manipulated by a machine. They are

encouraging a non-conformist society. It is also in Wall·E where they warn us about the peril of

infantilised societies in which self-centred indulgence becomes predominant.

This is a good example of what Pixar tries to talk about in its films. Rober Velarde, in his book:

The Wisdom of Pixar: An Animated Look at Virtue, attaches a certain moral value to each Pixar

film, being some of them:

Identity: Toy Story-You are a toy!

Justice: A Bug’s Life (Lasseter: 1998)-For oppressed ants everywhere!

Friendship: Toy Story 2 Lasseter: 1999)-You’ve got a friend in me.

Family: Finding Nemo (Stanton: 2003)-I have to find my son!

Ambition: Ratatouille (Bird: 2007)-I want to make things.

Technology: Wall·E- Everything you need to be happy.

These are good examples of what Pixar tries to highlight in its films.

Dreamworks

Audiences

On this occasion, we find a completely different approach. While in Pixar they make films for

adults who still bear a kid part in themselves, in DreamWorks they create films intended to

reach both adults and the adult that exists in every kid.

“There was this wonderful great mission statement that Walt Disney had ‘I make movies for

children, and the child that exists in all of us’. And 14 years later at DreamWorks I can say ‘We

make movies for adults, and the adult that exists in every child’.”(Jeffrey Katzenberg,

Dreamworks.)

DreamWorks’ Postmodernism

And the way they usually do that is by means of parody, satire and developing characters that

are a little irreverent. That is applying postmodernism to film animation. In postmodernist film

the mainstream conventions of narrative structure and characterization are turned completely

upside-down, creating a work in which a less-recognizable internal logic holds the film

narrative structure.

And this is what happens in a great amount of DreamWorks films like: Megamind (McGrath:

2010), Kung Fu Panda (Osborne: 2008), Puss in boots (Miller: 2011) or, its major success, the

Shrek (Adamson: 2001) saga.

In all of these films we are shown a deconstruction of the classical Manichean dualism of

Disneys’ fairy tales. Evil characters are not that bad, they are just because they have no choice,

and a stinky ogre can be a better person than a prince, for instance.

Shrek as an example of DreamWorks’ approach to society

That Shrek has become DreamWorks’ cash cow is widely known. The secret of its success lies,

excellent marketing campaign apart, in the way it approaches postmodernism, covering these

three main topics: intertextuality, self-reflexivity and ironic interfacing. By turning the classical

fairy tale upside down, we get a broader view of reality. Things are not black or white, in real

life things tend to be grey.

“The result of seeing from another’s perspective is generally a broader understanding, a more

balanced judgment, and a kinder heart. Maybe Captain Hook really is misunderstood; perhaps

the hideous step-sisters have some inner beauty; and maybe, just maybe, an ugly ogre is

better served as an analogy for postmodernism than a Broadway musical.”(Fitzgerald: 2009.)

This is the reason why it has become so popular among people (adults and children) that

already knew the fairy tales mentioned in the film. It achieves to twist them and make them

fun by satirising them as much as possible. But that leads to a question. It is true that the film’s

humour works now but that is only because we recognise all the characters that are

mentioned in the film and we know their stories but, what would happen in 10-20 years? Will

they lose their humour if original tales are forgotten?

“I thought Hoodwinked and most of the Shrek series were hilarious[…]. But even if you

ultimately reject their messages, old-school fairy tales are part of our cultural vocabulary.

There’s something a little sad about kids growing up in a culture where their fairy tales come

presatirized, the skepticism, critique and revision having been done for them by the mama

birds in Hollywood. Isn’t irony supposed to derive from having something to rebel against?

Isn’t there a value in learning, for yourself that life doesn’t play out as simply as it does in fairy

tales?” (Poniewozik: 2007)

Ghibli

Audiences

Although Studio Ghibli is composed by a lot of people, we will focus on Miyazaki Hayao, the

most remarkable animator in the studio. For him, children have always been the main

audience, so he differs from both Pixar and DreamWorks about which layer of society should

they aim to. Thus, we could say that his first films were quite naïve, even childish until its way

of making films radically changed.

“I can’t make films that are, you know — slay the villain, everybody’s happy. I can’t make those

kinds of films. I think that when children become three or four years old, they just need to see

Totoro. It’s a very innocent film.” (Miyazaki)

But then, after Porco Rosso (Miyazaki: 1992), something changed. His next movie, Princess

Mononoke (1997) was a really adult movie, full of despair and war. It could be said that most

of Miyazaki’s previous movies’ innocence was gone. This was because even though he did

Porco Rosso thinking about a children audience again, the breakout of Yugoslavian conflicts

influenced the audiences, making adults to go massively to watch the film.

“But then Yugoslavia collapsed and all these conflicts broke out in Dubrovnic, Croatia and the

islands which were my setting. Suddenly in the real world it became a place where battle was

happening. So then Porco Rosso became a more complicated film. It was a very difficult film

and I was so disappointed that I’d made something for middle-aged men, because I’d been

telling my staff always to make films for children.”(Miyazaki)

This led Miyazaki to make a completely different movie, Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki had

experienced war happened and all that feelings made him create the most adult movie he had

ever done, which became a success among adults and children alike.

“It was a huge risk, totally different from when I was making Kiki. I’d had that experience with

Porco Rosso, the war happened (in the former Yugoslavia), and I learned that mankind doesn’t

learn. It felt like children were being born to this world without being blessed. How could we

pretend to them that we’re happy?[…] But when I finished, I didn’t understand it: ‘What did I

make?!’ At first I decided, ‘This is something children shouldn’t see,’ but in the end I realised,

‘No, this is something that children must see.’[…].” (Miyazaki)

His two following films, Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), even though

not as mature as Princess Mononoke, they still remain being more adult than his early works.

However, this changes with his last film, Ponyo by the cliff on the sea (2008), where he decides

to create a film more orientated to children again.

“I also thought maybe we’d travelled too far away from children, that we should go back to the

five-year-olds. But I can’t go back and make the same innocent ‘Totoro’ kind of film. So I put in

more complex things” (Miyazaki).

Apart from Miyazaki, we should at least mention some other Studio Ghibli animators such as

Takahata Isao whose films depict Japanese society in quite a realistic way and which are full of

sensitivity.

Themes and Motifs

According to Collin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc, there is a series of recurrent themes and motifs in Studio Ghibli’s films. Of these, the following ones could be of interest for our investigation:

Enviromentalism

A key theme for Ghibli is how mankind interacts with nature. There is a slight conflict in the

way Ghibli debates the use of technology and machinery. In Castle in the sky (Miyazaki: 1986),

for example, minery is seen as a good thing because it defends a community work ethic

whereas in Princess Mononoke as they are producing weapons in the factory, this places them

in conflict with nature, for the deliberate destruction of the forest in search for fuel.

Technology then, is not a bad thing itself, but we have to consider how it is used and to what

extent.

Children

Having a child as a main character gives children a greater identification with the film and it

also enables adults to return to youth. Besides, all the children appearing in Ghibli’s movies

have strong moral values, much better than adults in many occasions.

Worlds Within our Own

The existence of parallel worlds in Ghibli’s movies is quite common. Most times, only children

can enter or understand them because the rationality of adults is not capable of viewing the

magical or spiritual.

In some way, these magical worlds help a society such as the Japanese one, which has suffered

a lot in the last years (nuclear bombs, tsunamis, earthquakes) to escape from reality.

Social Community

Immoral values are often punished, Chihiro’s parents are turned into pigs because of their

consumerism and disrespect, selfishness and pride lead to despair in Grave of the fireflies

(Takahata, 1988), etc. Furthermore we see a preference for the traditional values, living in the

countryside, respecting tradition that could be related to the traditional way in which these

movies are created, approaching animation as a craft.

Japanese Culture

There are many Japanese culture symbols in all Ghibli’s films, themes such as trains or food

that is not very well known in the occidental world, or even Japanese customs and traditions

help to defend and strengthen the culture. Thus they make people in their country of origin

recognize themselves in their own customs and values and of course, they also make it

interesting for foreigners.

Why Animation?Being animation studios, Pixar, Ghibli and Dreamworks choose titles and topics which the best

way to develop them is by use of animation.

In Pixar, for example their main goal is to tell a story. Thus, they try to do photo-realistic films

avoiding depicting reality. They want us to know we are watching a cartoon, but they try to

make this cartoon look as real as possible.

“At Pixar, we like to think we like to think we use our tools to make things look photo-realistic

without trying to reproduce reality. We like to take those tools and make something that the

audience knows does not exist. Every frame they know this is a cartoon. So you get that

wonderful visual entertainment of, ‘I know this isn’t real, but boy it sure looks real’. (Lasseter

in Schaffer, 2004: 83 – 4)

To achieve this, they try to make films adapted to the best and most advanced CGI techniques

in that moment. Thus, in Toy Story it was the use of plastic textures, in Monsters, Inc. (Docter:

2001), the fur texture, In Finding Nemo the water and so forth.

“We pride ourselves in choosing subject matter which lends itself to our medium…Great

animation is where the subject matter matches itself to the medium in which it is made, so

that you can’t imagine it being made in any other medium.” (Lasseter in Schaffer, 2004: 83 – 4)

DreamWorks’ case is similar, they also work with CGI and even though they do not pursuit the

same ideals as Pixar they choose themes that are quite related to 2D animation like

superheroes or fairy tales and convert them into CGI.

And eventually we find Ghibli. One of the few studios that still works (and will keep on

working) with 2D animation. The reason why they choose to do that is, as it was said before,

that they consider animation as a craft, and this sense of nobility of craftsmanship. They work

with traditional animation and spend much more time than any other studio coping with all

the details.

“When building a house, traditional Japanese builders start with the tiniest detail and gradually

expand from there. Western builders are the opposite. They start with the picture of a whole

and add details to it. When Westerners look at old Japanese buildings, they often wonder how

the builders drew the blueprint for such a complex shape. But the secret is that there never

was a blueprint. It is this fundamental difference in approach that makes Japanese buildings

fascinating to their eyes. The same thing can be said about animation. The way we create large

images for movies is similar to that traditional architectural method.” Suzuki explains.

Conclusion

It could be said that even though these three aim to produce their films to different kinds of

audiences, they have managed to gather a huge mass of fans, mesmerising adults and children

alike. The way they manage to do this is by giving their best and pushing themselves beyond

every time they create a new film. Depicting social issues and troubles in a unique way, they

have achieved to reach all layers of society. It is their dedication and their love for animation

what has made them create so many masterpieces.

Thanks to animation they manage to create, new, exciting worlds that would not be possible

for us to find in any live-action films so the less we could do is at least to thank them and

encourage them to go forth in this task.

Bibliography

Cavallaro, D., The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (McFarland: 2006)

Hopkins, J., Shrek: From the Swamp to the Screen (H.N. Abrams: NY: 2004)

Fitzgerald, J., “Postmodernism, The Big Green Ogre”, Curator Magazine, 10 April 2009:

http://www.curatormagazine.com/jonathanfitzgerald/postmodernism-the-big-green-ogre/

Jacobs, T., “Studies That Stretch to Infinity, and Beyond”, Miller-McCune, 17 June 2010:

http://www.miller-mccune.com/media/studies-that-stretch-to-infinity-and-beyond-16570/

Odell, C., Studio Ghibli: The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (kamera books: 2009)

Poniewozik, “Is Shrek bad for kids?”, The Times, 10 May 2007:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1619573-2,00.html

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