Lauenstein Brothers - Balance

In 1989 a student film won an Academy Award. The Lauenstein brothers are German animators and you might wonder what they have been doing since?

A whole web site of amazing animation : 'The Lauenstein brothers create comic characters, and manufacture the figures in a variety of materials including clay. The special charm of "hand-made" films can offer an interesting alternative to the "clean" atmosphere of computer animations.'

In recent posts there has been discussion about students making short narrative films, experimental animation, how 2D style animation is dominating this year's Academy Award nominations, and the suggested re-introduction of a short stop motion component to the South Bank animation course. So much to comment on!

With such a diverse range of input we need some Balance

Thanks go to Kristi (an ARC friend) whose comment in a previous post put me on to this course of wide-eyed student discovery.

Female Characters in Animation

From Australia: "The criticism (one example) of Pixar over the role of women in their films doesn’t sit well with me. Its a bit like being angry at Martin Luther King because he didn't do enough to help the environment... read more"

From the USA (Cartoon Brew): "As if the animation industry weren’t bad enough with people who don’t know what they’re talking about breathing down the artists necks now THIS? Arggh this is agitating! None of the famous characters were black, Jewish or gay either so why don’t we censor them for THOSE reasons too?"

Regarding Miyazaki: "Yes, the young women are, independent, powerful and instinctively in tune with what is the environmentally correct message."

I think this all started with a newspaper film review of Ratatouille that was pinned on the animation studio noticeboard this year. It focused criticism the lack of female roles/role models in that movie rather than reviewing the animation.

This isn't a Pixar stoning (would anyone dare?). It would, however, be interesting to snapshot opinion on the evolution of female character roles in contemporary animation. So make a comment.

Do animation female characters reflect society? Or is the industry lagging behind real life? Whose princesses do you prefer?