Mickey Mouse Essay Research Paper Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse Essay, Research Paper

Mickey Mouse Ni Ugoku (Move over Mickey)

Cartoons are what most children grow up on. Watching the wacky antics of the talking cartoon animals and comically drawn human characters can amuse a child to no end. Yet when a child grows up, cartoons are no longer a socially acceptable and other forms of entertainment have to be found. Cartoons are classified as juvenile. This is just a tiny glimpse of an American view on American cartoons. It is true that cartons are basically made for children, but what about teenagers and adults. To distinguish between the two groups, (children and teens/adults), we ll call children s television cartoons , and teen/adults television animation . According to Webster s dictionary cartoons are satirical drawings whereas animation is described as a motion picture Animation is a form of cartooning that is taken to a more sophisticated level. Plus animation can be enjoyed by a wider variety of audience. Unfortunately, animators in America try to appeal to a younger market such as children and worry not about the older set of people that enjoy cartoons. This is how animation is different because it can be funny and enjoyed by all, but without the wacky and silly hijinks of satirical cartoons. This is where Japanese Animation steps in. According to Dr. Ken O Connell Japanese Animation has more layers, more complex story lines (News). This is what may make Japanese Animation more appealing to an older audience. To make a generality, Japanese Animation is the happy medium between the age gap of children and teens/adults plus it can be enjoyed by both groups. Besides its entertainment value, Japanese Animation has had a great influence on both Japanese and American culture.

Japanese Animation is like no other animation in the world. Its distinct style has never been seen before and that s what sets it apart from all other forms of animation. The Jakarta Post says Japanese characters have heart shaped faces, perfect bodies, small pointed noses, large eyes and a small mouth. Also in their article entitled Japanese animation films grow in popularity. The author, Gotot Prakosa, tells that in order to show emotion, Japanese animation characters usually use their mouth and their eyes. The mouth will tend to become very large in certain situation and the eyes, being big, show more emotion than normal smaller eyes (Post). In order to fully understand the form of Japanese animation, we need to understand the basic knowledge of it.

In Japan, animation is a growing industry like electronic stores in America. There are three different groups that animation can be placed in. The first group is the industrial group. This group of animation and people is very basic. It is done for the money. This group is where the production of the fine products is done. The artists in this category are usually the best and their work is known throughout Japan. They market the image they are trying to sell through television, laser discs, DVD s, VHS cassettes, and video games. This group depends entirely on the market. If they sell the image then they make more money and if they don t sell the image then they lose money. This group of people can be compared to the PR companies and model agencies of America. Up-marketing the image is what it s all about. The second group is the small groups that independently make films. These artists are unlike the group one artists because they are not as productive. Though despite this fact, these artists try to enter the main stream and boost themselves into the first group. This is easily compared to the new directors of Hollywood that hope to direct a hit film. The last group is the minority group. These are experimentalist artists that are using Japanese animation as a form of expression. There is usually not much substance to their works and they are usually short, but they do have transcendental meanings(Post). This minority group can be compared to the artist of America because they don t try to have too much meaning in their works, but just enough to make a point (Post).

However, in America, Japanese animation is different. Since this is obviously not Japan, we have a totally different way of handling Japanese animation. Instead of making Japanese animation a huge deal, we try to mask it by having big corporate companies take over the rights. For example, famed Japanese animator Hayo Miyazaki created to wonderful movies called My Neighbor Totoro and KiKi s Delivery Service . These two works of art were created in his own animation studio, Studio Ghibli. When the two movies were brought over to America, Disney bought out the rights. When the movies were placed on the market, they had the Disney name all over the box and there was a small little logo of Miyazaki s Studio Ghibli. Then on top of this Disney has its own unit of computer animators at Ghibli (Time). Can we say monopoly on animation. As in Japan, anime (Japanese Animation, as it is called in Japan and in America) is up marketed the same way. Television shows such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Gundam Wing display perfect examples of anime. Comic books or as the Japanese call it, manga, can be found in any fine bookstore. The most popular form of up market is video games. Since almost all video games are created and first released in Japan, America is always dying to get their hands on the latest games. Peopl