Animation is Going Through a Creative Resurgence - With More Momentum, It Could be a Creative Renaissance
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is more than a great animated film that honors its franchise’s legacy while still telling a fresh, modern story - it’s proof that animation is still finding new ways to tell inventive stories. Animation needs more financial support than ever before to prove to major distributors that audiences care about the strides being taken in animation. // Image: Ketchup Entertainment
I’m a lifelong admirer of animation and the unique capabilities it presents to storytelling. One of my primary goals on this blog is to help get the word out about the pieces of media that leave the most profound impact on me - often including media that also might not receive the most mainstream levels of attention. Over the past year, some of the most special films I’ve experienced have been ones of animation. As such, it’s given me great pleasure in helping signal boost fantastic films like Robot Dreams, Flow, and The Wild Robot. At the end of the day, though, I’m just a single voice in a muddied sea of people trying to communicate to studios what they like and want to see more of. For what my single voice is worth, I’ve used it to consistently call for animated stories that aren’t afraid to tell nuanced, mature, yet fun stories accessible to all ages. There’s often a stigma around animation in the West as being a “for kids” section of the film and television industries, though any devoted fan of animation can immediately cut through such a flawed perception. Animated stories often create unforgettable experiences that use their unique, expressive visuals to communicate ideas that live action is simply incapable of replicating, and it’s high time that they get a greater level of recognition and appreciation in the West..
Truth be told, though, it’s been difficult for animators to achieve this ideal quality of animation due to factors outside of these films’ control. The tragic reality is that, because they rarely ever become celebrities recognizable to the public, animators don’t get treated as valued filmmakers. After its release in 2023, it became evident that many of the talented artists and animators that worked on the brilliant Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were put under unsustainable working conditions wrought with brutal crunch, unrealistic deadlines, and low-balled salaries. Although this visually stupendous film set a new bar for animation, it’s heartbreaking to see that this was achieved under awful working conditions, and such a thing is tragically not uncommon in this side of the industry. Another issue throughout the industry is that of the lack of risk-taking and diversity in art styles. This has become especially apparent in the post-2000 boom of CG animation that has led to the homogenization of aesthetics for most major studios. While the fidelity of the animation of their films has doubtlessly improved over the decades, Pixar’s films often carry the same art style, as has also been the case for Illumination Entertainment, and much of DreamWorks Animation’s portfolio.
Adding to the lack of style variety for these larger studios is the abandonment of 2D, hand-drawn animation. Disney has not created a 2D animated film since 2009’s The Princess and the Frog, and DreamWorks hasn’t done so since 2003 with Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. I have no doubt that there is desire for creatives to get ambitious and experimental with their animation and art styles, but the corporate restraints through which many of these studios exist simply favors brand synergy and cost effectiveness over creative experimentation and visual diversity. Leadership at studios like Pixar simply care more about their movies being identifiably Pixar in nature than allowing their animators to create something that looks unlike anything they’ve made before. 2D animation in mainstream film projects is a casualty to this as well - creating hand-drawn animation is more expensive, time-consuming, and financially risky, making corporate leadership scared of allowing filmmakers to create such films.
This isn’t to say that animated films have gone down the drain in terms of quality over the last two decades - far from it. What this is to say, though, is that there is definitely a conversation to be had about how the corporate structure has put a stranglehold on the pure creativity that animation is supposed to be the apex of. Cynics may be inclined to claim that animation isn’t what it used to be - but such a claim is one that ignores much of what’s coming out. Indie distributors like GKIDS, NEON, and Ketchup Entertainment have stepped up to the plate to produce, distribute, and market animated films given full creative freedom that wouldn’t have been afforded by larger corporate studios. The results have been an explosion in creativity in animated works - including films that experiment with art styles, return to 2D animation, and create ambitious, thoughtful stories. This creativity and innovation in animated storytelling is proof that animation is far from dead. If anything, we may very well be headed towards a modern renaissance of animation - one that serves as a rejection of the corporate soul-sucking of animated projects and a thorough embrace of the creativity born out of trusting and empowering animators to tell the stories they want to tell and have creative freedom on how to tell them.
Warner Bros. has rightfully garnered criticism for their poor management of their properties. From video games to film, this media conglomerate has flubbed the utilization of its fantastic collection of IP. Warner Bros. effectively sent The Day the Earth Blew Up out to die, only to be somewhat saved by indie distributor Ketchup Entertainment. Films, animated or otherwise, deserve better than this. Perhaps breaking away from these massive corporations is the best way to make that happen. // Image: Ketchup Entertainment
What made me want to dive into this conversation was my viewing of the recently released The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. Put simply, this film is a miracle. Originally commissioned as a film to be exclusively released on the now-rebranded HBO Max, The Day the Earth Blew Up ended up getting tossed around to different distributors. Indie distributor Ketchup Entertainment ended up acquiring the rights to distribute the film that Warner Bros. clearly had no interest in putting their name on. The film ended up getting a severely limited marketing push given its indie distributor, and has struggled to make a big dent at the box office as a result. The fact that this film got released at all following the disastrous cancellation of the $70 million Coyote vs. Acme, another instance of Warner Bros.’ poor handling of their IP, is a small miracle in and of itself, and is a hopeful sign of similar projects finding life in the indie sector.
More than anything, though, The Day the Earth Blew Up is a good movie. Like…really good. Despite being part of a nearly century-old IP, The Day the Earth Blew Up feels remarkably modern and fresh with its ideas and humor. The commitment to a 2D animation style makes the film accurately honor the legacy of Looney Tunes, making the film feel as much like a glimpse into the past as it does a bold new step towards the future. This film genuinely feels like an unreleased extended Looney Tunes episode that’s been touched up with a modern setting, a tightly-crafted script, and a stupendous edit that makes for a 90-minute film that somehow packs a ton of story content in its runtime. The overall style of the film is fast, frantic, yet methodical in the way it reveals information to the audience. There are various instances where seemingly throwaway information is presented as a quick gag, only for such information to come back later in the plot to become pressing details that advance the story in a meaningful way. All this is achieved with a clean visual aesthetic that is doubtlessly going to age beautifully thanks to vividly detailed artwork and animation.
The Day the Earth Blew Up illustrates how simply trusting a team of animators to make a fully animated movie can yield incredible results. Throughout this franchise’s entirely, it has somehow never gotten a fully animated feature-length film. The only features that Looney Tunes has ever gotten have been live-action hybrids such as Looney Tunes: Back in Action and the Space Jam films. The fact that these were the only films for a franchise as culturally treasured as Looney Tunes is symptomatic of a broader problem within the film industry: animation has historically been viewed in the West as lesser than other forms of storytelling. On its own, animation isn’t good enough to sell movie tickets unless it has a massive name like Disney attached to it.
This isn’t to say that there’s no place for films that meld live-action and animation together, but they illustrate a lack of faith in strong animation being able to justify a large audience and box office return. In the minds of Western executives, animation can only be successful when it combines live-action with recognizable stars at the forefront alongside animated characters, or heavily utilize A-list actors to voice characters in fully animated films.
What makes The Day the Earth Blew Up so special of a film is that it stands in firm opposition of that. There are no massive stars in the film nor are there any live action segments for the film to lean back on - the film simply has faith in the merits of its animation and the story that it tells through said animation. With that comes a confidence that practically bounces off the screen, making for a film that is intoxicatingly fun and engaging to watch. Seeing such creative wonder and intellect realized so strongly is a reminder of what makes watching films such a special experience. Perhaps this sounds like silly praise to give to a Looney Tunes movie of all things, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of why I love movies in the first place when I watched this film. The fact that this movie got passed by Warner Bros. Pictures and had to be picked up by an indie distributor is somewhat fitting given the film’s independent spirit. There’s no cynical cross-marketing that ties this movie to another product nor is it trying to connect to any greater transmedia story being told. This is just an incredibly well-made animated story that seeks to make for a good moviegoing experience in its own right. It succeeds so well at that that it begets a broader conversation about why we don’t get to see more movies like this get theatrically released.
Warner Bros. actually does produce a fair bit of animated films - particularly with their DC properties - but the overwhelming majority of these films get sent to either straight-to-video or straight-to-streaming, limiting their potential impact on broader audiences. The bleak reality is that corporations don’t see the creative storytelling of animation as something that inherently necessitates theatrical releases. This only pushes down the visibility of the creators of these animations’ work and suppresses their talent.
There is no shortage of creativity in the animation industry - there is only a shortage of clients that are willing to finance the creative capabilities of animation. For too long, this shortage has caused the animation realm to appear unnecessarily stagnant and limited. As more animated films have been distributed through the indie side of the film industry, however, it’s become clear that if animators are given a chance to make great films, so often have they shown the capability to tell unforgettable stories. A new creative resurgence of animation is potentially upon us, but most of the films part of this potential renaissance aren’t coming from the industry giants that can finance eight or nine-figure budgets. Rather, the films causing a quiet revolution in animation are coming from the indie sector. Through supporting and creating as much visibility for these films coming from indie distributors such as The Day the Earth Blew Up, we can bring forth a greater future for animation - one where animation is given far more respect and creative liberty from all film distributors, not just small, indie ones.
Flow looks unlike any other movie I’ve seen. Despite telling a story with no dialogue, it manages to craft a remarkably emotional, thoughtful narrative that will stick with any viewer. Earning an Academy Award for Best Animation and incredible word-of-mouth, it’s clear that there’s demand for more ambitious works of animation like Flow. // Image: Janus Films
As I look back on the last two years or so, a lot of the films that have made me think the most crucially about why I adore film as much as I do have been animated films. Some of my favorite films of last year included films like Look Back, Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds, The Wild Robot, Mars Express, Flow, and Robot Dreams - all being animated films from different countries that utilize different art styles and techniques of animation. These films all exhibit unique conflicts, characters, and worlds that couldn’t be captured if not for animation. Aside from The Wild Robot, each of these films released courtesy of independent film distributors. In the case of DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, that film exudes similar traits to The Day the Earth Blew Up, in that it exudes a refreshing independent spirit that makes it stand out from most of DreamWorks Animation’s portfolio. The Wild Robot is simply a film that aims to tell a story that is vividly empowered with its animation, making the film become a quick favorite for many of those that watch it. Films like The Wild Robot and The Day the Earth Blew Up show proof that animation teams employed by larger corporations have just as much of the drive to produce thoughtful, imaginative, and independently-spirited works. They just need to be given the trust by these larger corporations to allow their creative vision to command the direction and identity of the film - not arbitrary restrictions on art style or mandates on celebrity voice actors.
My personal favorite film of the last year was Robot Dreams, a film that created an exceptionally heartful tale about friendship and moving forward in life - all done through a non-verbal story. Where Robot Dreams forgoes in leaning on dialogue to reveal what its characters are feeling, Robot Dreams exudes the very best of animation in that it fully trusts its audience to rely on the look of its characters to communicate the overall emotion of the film. I don’t need to hear dialogue that explains the feelings on display as Dog tries to reconnect with his friend Robot - the expressions on his face and the way he carries himself as he tries to reunite with Robot communicate emotions far greater than any word could. Anyone watching Robot Dreams can deeply understand what its characters are thinking and feeling, all while the film presents its story and character in unique, expressive ways that consistently gives the film a distinct identity. It’s a film that feels innovative given the complexity of its narrative combined with the trust it puts in its audience to follow such complexity with no verbal information to assist viewers. The result is a film that feels genuinely revolutionary and beckons that there’s still so much room for innovation in animation. An indie distributor - in this case, NEON - helped bring this unique, creative vision to fruition, and their choice to finance, produce, and distribute this kind of movie - one that a large corporation would unlikely ever touch - made for a film that I will likely unconsciously compare all animated films to in the future.
Other animated films from indie distributors last year such as Flow and Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds showed equal levels of innovation. Like Robot Dreams before it, Flow tells an entirely nonverbal story depicting animals navigating a post-apocalyptic world. Flow is a special film because of how it believably conveys the bond that forms between animals across different species as they navigate an unknown world together. Additionally, Flow’s unique CG animation that uses stylized cel-shading makes for a film that looks unlike anything else. Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds is, in my mind, one of the most overlooked films of 2024 and it told a remarkably well-realized isekai-style story while creating a bizarre world that felt well-realized and whimsical. All of these films made for some of the most immersive moviegoing experiences of the year for me, and they’re films that I often see still get talked about months after their U.S. releases. The indie side of animation is stepping into the ring and making a big impact.
The best way to ensure that we keep getting more movies like this is to keep such films in the conversation. Keep sharing films that look unlike anything else you’ve seen. Keep giving visibility to overlooked movies that left an impact on you. Only through doing that does the moviegoer get to inform more of what they’d like to see out of the industry. It’s through going to the theater to support these independent animation projects and talking about them online and on this very blog do I have a hand in helping create more of what I want to see in the industry. I want to continue seeing innovative animation because I know that the talent to make such films are out there. I have been convinced over the last few years that animation still has so much room to innovate and craft worlds that are unlike anything live-action movies could capture. With what little visibility my platform has, I try to use as much of my voice as possible to highlight the movies that I want to see more of. It’s through doing that that I can do my part towards making a greater animation industry - and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same. With enough verbose signal boosting of the animation that we love, many of these creative animation projects won’t be relegated to limited releases through working with indie distributors - they’ll get the wide recognition, marketing, and box office results that they deserve but seldom get to realize.
Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron, another Academy Award winner, is another example of why creatives should be empowered to tell the stories that want to tell through animation. Despite arguably being one of the studio’s weaker films, it is still unmistakably a film that has a unique identity and is unlike any other film on the market. To get more films like The Boy and the Heron, audiences need to support all kinds of animation - not just ones from directors or studios with decades of legacy. // Image: GKIDS
Thus far, this conversation has been primarily focused on the Western market. As we look to the East, the animation industry looks very different in that region of the world. Whether arthouse projects or parts of larger franchises, anime films get released fairly consistently in Japan and regularly see modest to great levels of success. Films like Look Back, The Colors Within, and The Boy and the Heron all showcase exactly the types of films I think the overall animation industry deserves to see more of. All of these films come from incredibly talented creators that have been entrusted to tell creative, visually ambitious, and unmistakably emotional stories. Whether large, middle, or small budget - a diverse array of animated works get to make up a significant chunk of the overall film industry, and such is something that I’ve longed to see take place internationally.
The Western film industry has had a broader issue over the last 15 years or so with being conservative with financing creative projects. Larger studios have largely opted to play things safe with sequels, spin-offs, and remakes in previously established franchises. Things clearly don’t need to be this way, though. In the wake of creative expression being suppressed by larger corporations, the indie sphere has exploded, leading to the emergence of studios like A24, NEON, and GKIDS being massive spaces in the Western film industry now. Each of these studios have garnered critical and commercial success in their relatively short lives thus far, and that success has been entirely driven by empowering creatives to tell the stories they want to tell. This includes animation, which has seen success in this sector to such an impressive degree over the past few years.
The success of these indie animation release have been quietly growing - what’s most vital, though, is where things go from here. This momentum can only lead to a greater presence of animation in the overall film industry if moviegoers continue to keep supporting innovative works of animation like The Day the Earth Blew Up. Corporations may want to cast ambitious animated films aside and send them out to die, but an important aspect of any creative medium is that the audience are the ones that ultimately decide the fate of any product that releases. People that go see The Day the Earth Blew Up in a theater or purchase a physical or digital copy of it afterward are the ones ultimately responsible for shaping its legacy. In turn, the audience is ultimately has the power to shape the animation side of the film industry into what they want it to look like.
The Day the Earth Blew Up is but one of many reminders to me that animation deserves greater respect and more room in the overall film industry. I was quickly compelled to write about it to share how much I want to see more movies like it. And so…here I am, writing down all of these thoughts in an effort to convince anyone willing to listen that we’re in the midst of a quiet but powerful revolution in animated filmmaking. Through giving these movies your time and support, we can turn this quiet revolution into a full-blown renaissance - one where the place of animation greatly expands and becomes a widely respected side of the industry that sees consistent innovation, creativity, and reminders of why movies are so special in the first place.
I firmly believe that we, as filmgoers, can keep this momentum going. Not only do I long to see this creative renaissance, but I genuinely think it’s within reach if we continue supporting these films, even when larger corporations don’t have faith in them. So let’s plop our butts down and watch some movies to help inform the industry to become more like what we want it to become. Then and only then will the animation renaissance come. And when that happens, all viewers of animation, enthusiasts of the genre or not, will reap the boundless benefits of such a thing.
Thank you very much for reading! What are your thoughts on the state of the animation industry? Do you think the success of animation from independent distributors should inform how larger distributors treat animated films? As always, join the conversation and let me know what you think in the comments or on Bluesky @DerekExMachina.com.
