Research Question and Project Rationale

what do you plan to research? how will you research it? & why it is important to research this subject?

This thesis is intended to create a common thread among all the several contributions made for animation in relation to animals. It wants to make a synthesis of all these different aspects of the subject, since their overall view helps to appreciate the interest it has in a critical study of the evolution of animated cinema, also through the differences that can be detected in this regard before and after the advent of computer animation. The animal characters in the stories told by cartoons always have a role that goes beyond their nature, sometimes revealing more strictly human characteristics and behaviours and sometimes reflecting more directly their authentic qualities, depending on their role and the narrative intent of the story in which they act.

Even though animals have been a recurring subject in animation, their role and identity within animations works, in which they played a secondary or primary role, has been not questioned enough, as the effect that these same representations had on the audience, and consequently the consequences on “real” animals have often been the opposite of the intent of the narration. The filter through which we represent animals to better understand them, the way they move and what they feel, acknowledging ourself in the process, is anthropomorphism: the lens through which humans are able to interpret animals in their entirety. Despite the fact that anthropomorphism is a “natural” process, contemplated by the human mind to understand not only animals but the world surrounding us, if misused it can lead to a misinterpretation of the subjects that were anthropomorphised, not taking in consideration their identity, which leads to another important subject closely linked to this, which is anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism can refer to the point of view that humans are the only, or primary, holders of moral standing, which is why, if animals are seen through this process, their integrity can be spoilt.

The new technological advancements in CGI make the distinctions between reality and fictions very thin

At least 5 keywords

anthropomorphism, anthropocentrism, animals, animation, ecological sensibility, anthropomorphising, CGI

Situate your proposal in relation to key texts, issues and debates.

Name and explain authors relevance to your project proposal

The literature offers many examples of critical study of the use of animals in animated films. These include the book “Animated Bestiary: Animals, Cartoons, and Culture” (Wells, 2009), and the articles They Walk! They Talk! A Study of the Anthropomorphisation of Non Human Characters in Animated Films (Collignon, S., 2008), ‘I’m Not a Real Boy, I’m a Puppet’: Computer-Animated Films and Anthropomorphic Subjectivity. (Holliday, 2016), “Ecological Sensibility Versus Anthropocentrism: An Analysis of Film Ratatouille” (Govind, Vani, Pai 2021). In these analyses several aspects of the subject we are dealing with are deepened; all these aspects are equally interesting and deserve to be mentioned because they show that this subject can be investigated from many points of view, starting from considerations of social order up to implications that more directly concern the ethology, that is the science that studies the animal behaviour. This thesis wants to make a synthesis of all these different aspects of the subject, since their overall view helps to appreciate the interest it has in a critical study of the evolution of animated cinema, also through the differences that can be detected in this regard before and after the advent of computer animation.

The research of the described theme provides an important panorama of the motivations and points of view with which animals have been used in animated cinema, also in the light of the latest developments in computer animation. The different observations made by the critics who have examined this topic can in fact make it clear that the animal characters in the stories told by cartoons always have a role that goes beyond their nature, sometimes revealing more strictly human characteristics and behaviours and sometimes reflecting more directly their authentic qualities, depending on their role and the narrative intent of the story in which they act.

Bibliography (not included in word count)

Wells, P., 2009. The animated bestiary. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

Collignon, S., 2008. They Walk! They Talk! A Study of the Anthropomorphisation of Non Human Characters in Animated Films Département des Sciences de l’information et de la communication Section Écriture et Analyses cinématographiques.

Holliday C., 2016. ‘I’m Not a Real Boy, I’m a Puppet’: Computer-Animated Films and Anthropomorphic Subjectivity. Animation,11(3):246-262.

Rohini Govind, Aparna Vani .M, Geetha R. Pai 2021 “Ecological Sensibility Versus Anthropocentrism: An Analysis Of Film Ratatouille”, Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology, pp. 17618–17620. Available at: https://www.annalsofrscb.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/7826 (Accessed: 11March2022).