WALL-E, Hayao Miyazaki, and the Power of Animated Storytelling
Far too often, animation as a medium gets overlooked. Generally, animated films are thought of merely as kids’ movies, and consequently, they are not taken as seriously. The point of this article is to argue the exact opposite. Animated movies, due to the limitless artistic scope, have the unique ability of transporting our sense of imagination and wonder to places that live-action films simply cannot.
Show Don’t Tell
One thing that good animated movies do remarkably well is they follow a simple rule of show, don’t tell.
The first example in the film WALL-E is the unique opening. There is not a single line of dialogue spoken for the first 30 or so minutes of the movie, yet we as the audience very easily understand everything we need to. The setting, the characters, the stakes, the plot, etc. are all constructed so well in the exposition that no conversation is needed. Though no words are spoken, we care about WALL-E as a character due to his childlike interactions with simple objects. When he meets Eve, his immediate love for her is so pure we want nothing more than for her to love him back.
The theme of love in WALL-E is powerful. One of the best scenes Pixar has ever done is when WALL-E and Eve dance in space. The dialogue is minimal, and what we are seeing is only accompanied by Thomas Newman’s beautiful soundtrack. Eve’s dark blue flight trail and WALL-E’s white trail from his fire extinguisher swirl around each other in a level of simplicity and beauty most films wish they could achieve. Those colors contrasted with the mysteriously beautiful darkness of space create this effect that jumps out of the screen and engages the viewer.
When thinking through this article, it was my intention to dive into a lot of the artistic aspects of animation. The first example we will look at is the shot above. Clearly this shot, as well as the entire scene, is visually pleasing, but why is that? The answer is found in the wide world of color theory. Take a look at the following color wheel:
This wheel is divided into 2 sections: warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors (shades of red, orange, and yellow) have the name “warm” due to the feeling of excitement and energy they provide (think of the sun). If this scene in WALL-E were a fast paced exciting moment in the movie, perhaps the animators would have chosen warmer colors. Cool colors, however, (the blues and purples), evoke feelings of calmness and peace.
Within the context of the film, that is precisely the point Pixar is conveying. WALL-E and Eve have been separated and in this moment, all the noise and chaos of their environment is stripped away. They are able to simply enjoy the time they have with each other, and that emotion is palpable to the audience. The colors chosen to animate this scene only serve to help that purpose.
Another aspect that truly sets this scene apart from anything else I’ve seen an animated film do is when the humans look up from their screens and see what’s happening in space. When John and Mary bump in to each other and notice WALL-E and Eve, it speaks to the state of their current situation. It’s in their appreciation of WALL-E’s love that they begin to grow a love for each other. The moment they turn away from their lifeless existence and they look at something truly beautiful, their world changes. This is all made possible by Pixar’s incredible animation.
The visual of the scene if less spectacular would lose a lot of its significance.
How Color Shows Theme
One concrete example of the way in which Pixar communicates its themes is the film’s color palette. Talented filmmakers have an incredible way of conveying tone through the colors they use throughout their movies, and WALL-E is an excellent example of this.
At the beginning of the film, we see WALL-E go about his day-to-day life. While we are immediately invested in WALL-E as a character due to his loveable childlike curiosity, it is evident he finds himself in a bleak world. There are no vibrant green colors around him, no reds or purples, not even the sky is blue; the only colors we see are muted tones of browns and yellows. The trash that has completely filled the earth takes up 95% of the screen.
We as the audience are supposed to feel a very specific level of gloom about the state of the world. This effect would be lost if the animators decided to have bright blue skies and colorful frames in the midst of the trash.
Contrast that with the scene of WALL-E going to space for the first time. There exists a simplicity in the color, yet it is bright and vibrant. WALL-E is overcome with the deepest sense of wonder he has ever felt, and it is breathtaking.
The light blue contrasted against the blackness of space pops out of the screen in a way that makes us forget about all we’ve seen of the gloomy earth. We’re amazed at the beauty of Creation that has been unspoiled by humanity.
This is the precise point that the makers of this film are trying to convey. WALL-E is a story about love, sacrifice, and many more important ideas, but there also exists a clear message to take care of the environment. A message like that could easily ride the line of becoming an overly preachy environmentalism, however, WALL-E does not have that problem. By cutting the dialogue, therefore removing even the option of overtly presenting a political message, WALL-E simply shows you. Through its colors and remarkable understanding of visual storytelling, WALL-E presents many great themes that other movies struggle to reach.
The Immersion of 2d Hand Drawn Animation
It would be a mistake to discuss visual animated storytelling without spending substantial time interacting with Hayao Miyazaki’s work. He is a legend in the animated world, and his continual devotion to traditional hand drawn animation is spectacular.
No animator in history could compare with the incredible scope of Miyazaki’s work. You could pause one of his films at any point and still be amazed by the detail and beauty of each frame. Miyazaki, much like Pixar, uses his talent as a visual artist to tell a story. Miyazaki to this day utilizes a hand drawn animation style, and it has proven to be successful time and time again.
Hand drawn animation, though not as flashy as computer generated images, provides a sense of immersion that most modern animated films cannot compare to, but why is that? What is so distinct about a movie being illustrated with actual brushstrokes and pencil lines as opposed to a crisp image generated by a computer?
If you’ve ever watched a Ghibli movie, you know there exists this strange sense of awe and wonder with their films. From the sounds you hear from Joe Hisaishi’s soundtracks to the sights of the wind blowing through the trees, Ghibli has always managed to capture its viewers in their worlds of fantasy.
I fully believe that one of the biggest reasons for this is their devotion to creating their worlds by hand. The fact that, in today’s day and age, artists like Miyazaki would choose to toil and work to create something by hand is an incredible sentiment. Their work is not in vain. Something created by human hands will always be more authentic and more impactful than something generated by a computer, and Ghibli understands that.
The question remains why would these filmmakers choose to tell their stories through animation rather than live action? Does the form in which these movies are presented serve a bigger purpose, or was it merely coincidence?
One simple reasoning is this idea that exists in all visual art; the suspension of disbelief. Suspension of disbelief, simply put, is one’s ability to suspend logic and critique for however long a moment in order to better enjoy and be engaged in a work of art. Whether it be a movie, a painting, or a play, if we as the audience are able to stop thinking that what we see is fake and truly believe that it is real, we will better enjoy and interact with that art.
What does this have to do with animation? Obviously, we don’t see the world in cartoon so why go through the process of making the audience take yet another step in order to be immersed in what they are watching?
To me, one of the clearest answers is that the stories that Ghibli and other animated studios are telling are better suited for animation. With animation, there are no rules binding the director on what he can and cannot do visually. Looking at Ghibli’s filmography, it is clear that they consistently push the bounds of imagination. The worlds of Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Boy and the Heron are remarkably creative and inspiring, and it is in these worlds that characters are able to have their stories told.
With animation, our suspension of disbelief is much more likely to take affect long quicker than in a live action film. Going into an animated movie, we subconsciously are aware that what we are seeing can’t actually happen, and for that reason we are more likely to simply enjoy it. This allows filmmakers to create this fantastical worlds with explosions of color and light. By making the movie animated to begin with, they don’t have to further convince us of what we are seeing. CGI artists in live action movies would have a much more difficult time with this.
My Neighbor Totoro is an excellent example of Ghibli’s genius. On the surface, Totoro is a silly kids movie about two young girls discovering a funny creature. It’s cute, funny, and relatively short. However, underlying that surface is a deep and impactful story about how children interact with grief. The main characters’ mother in in the hospital, and we as an audience know as much about her sickness as her daughters do. Her sickness is not addressed very much, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel something missing from the family with the mom not present.
Totoro was released in 1988, and 36 years later, it still looks incredible. The level of detail in every frame is remarkable, but it also serves a bigger purpose. When there is sadness, and even at times despair in the girls’ world, Miyazaki brilliantly captures the tone. These scenes are often at night and in the quiet, and in the middle of an adorable movie lie these moments of sadness. Yet on the flipside, when the girls are removed from the darkness of their reality and they interact with Totoro, Miyazaki perfectly captures the happiness with expanding colors and light.
Studio Ghibli tells stories quite differently than Western animation. Too often, audiences are so concerned with finding plot holes and heavily critiquing every single line of dialogue that they forget the reason they are watching the movie in the first place. We watch to be entertained but also to feel something. We want to be immersed in a world that isn’t our own, and we love sympathizing with characters that don’t exist. Ghibli understands this simple fact. Studio Ghibli cares deeply about how the audience feels. They aren’t concerned with being bound to reality in order to accomplish this feat. The worlds they create, though fake, contain so much beauty and life that it deserves our attention.
Film is a storytelling medium that relies heavily on the visual. When our imaginations are engaged due to the creativity seen with our eyes, movies’ themes and characters have a way of resonating far deeper than they would have originally. Whether through the mastery of color or the immersive beauty of hand drawn animation, creative storytellers have a way of connecting with us. Colors do more than just look good; they show themes, and they have a way of influencing our interactions with film. Animators at Pixar and Studio Ghibli are some of the best in the world, and their stories are deserving of our appreciation.
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Thank you, Aidan! I enjoyed your article very much, and I learned a lot about animation, artistry, and storytelling.