Animation

Now the concept of abstract and experimental animation is very interesting to me, but I will have to disagree with the author of the article. The author believes that experimental animation veers towards the abstract. That it has no narrative to it. It is all about rhythm and color, just like a painting. There is a feeling that even though the author admires and is amused by things like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, that he thinks of less of it when compared to something like Fischinger. There is something more "artistic" about the abstract modes of animation when compared to Daffy Duck "cussing" or having everything but his beak blown to smithereens. He sees "experimental" animation as liberating, as opposed to the narrative confines of a Loony Toons cartoon. But this very definition of what "experimental" is compared to the rest ultimately confines it as an art form. Why can't a cartoon be just as every bit as artistic as an experimental animation? Certainly Road Runners landscape looks more like a Dali than Disney. Great works of art until the rise of modernism, and postmodernism have always been able to convey a story inside of it's frame. An animator should be able to use all things, narratives and abstractions, to convey a feeling, an emotion, or a story. An artist shouldn't have to chose which "camp" they belong to. The moment that happens, it limits expression.