1. List your three favorite animated works. Why are these important to you?

 

My three favorite animated works are Snow White, Wallace and Gromit, and Totoro. Snow White is important to me because it was my favorite Disney movie as a young child. Still, to this day, I can picture Grumpy the dwarf angrily walking towards the door despite not seeing the movie for many years. Wallace and Gromit are important to me because it inspired me and my brother to start creating animations of our own. After me and my brother watched that animation, we realized that we could start creating animations of our own using stop motion. For many years we created and posted simple animations, using clay and legos, on youtube. Totoro is by far the most important animated work for me because it still inspires me to this day. When I first watched that movie as a child, I felt happy just watching the young kids interact with the spirits of the forest. As I have grown older and continued to rewatch the movie, I am amazed by the subtle details I missed as a child which omit to a sadder story, of a young mother with tuberculosis, who has to leave her two children to a single hardworking father. Whether I have fully realized it or not, animation was a big part of my childhood and still continues to affect my everyday life. 

 

2. Which period of animation history interests you the most and why?

 

 

The period of animation that interests me the most is the 1930s. It interests me because it is the period when animation stopped focusing on being realistic and started focusing on what is perceived to be realistic. When animators started focusing on exaggeration and music it created this explosion of fresh work. It is fun for me to imagine all the studios working against each other to create the newest and best thing.

 

3. What animated work would you like to create someday?

 

An animated work I would like to create someday is something similar to Grave of the Fireflies. Grave of the Fireflies is an animated film created in 1988 which meditates on the human cost of war. In the past, all the war films I had seen showed both glory and loss from one biased side. When I had finished the movie, I usually came out rooting for one side. Grave of the Fireflies did not make me feel happy for anybody, but it did give me a greater understanding of the harsh reality of war. I believe that in many cases, animation is a passageway to telling stories too harsh to be captured on film. Although I do not know exactly what story I want to tell, I do know that I want it to be harsh and shocking. I want to create an animated work that gives both myself and other people a greater understanding of our peers and our shared history.