Aesthetics in adult animation: animated documentary

Abstract

The popularity of animation among documentarians has grown steadily over the past decade. Unfortunately, the use of animation is not always successful or even necessary to tell a nonfictional story. This paper aims to explore when and how to use an animation medium to tell nonfictional stories in a cinematic way so that it would enhance the audience experience. Analysis of IMDB comments and reviews revealed that the audience poses different aesthetic needs for the content of animated documentaries than for animated content intended to provide entertainment. In other words, documentary viewers may accept relatively lower animation quality if the animated imagery is perceived as representative of truth. Finally, findings suggest that animation as a medium has a significant advantage over live action in depicting shocking or stressful images. This is because animation has the ability to dampen the shock, and stress that is experienced by seeing horrific or tragic images but without losing the emotional impact of the witnessed event.