The Style of American Animation

There are traditionally two styles of animation in the US, although a third style is coming into play right now in the first part of the twenty-first century.

The first is drawn from the styles of the old short cartoons and is best characterized by the style of Warner Brothers, Tex Avery, or Matt Groening. This style is hyper-dramatic, with bright primary colors and a comedic animation that makes few demands in atmosphere. There is often an insulting treatment of the story or it is parody, a distortion of reality. This style of animation is almost always comedy. Most American animation draws from this tradition, especially short cartoons and television.

The second style of animation draws from the tradition of Disney's full-length films. This is the style of Disney, as well as escapees from The House of Mouse that have founded such studios as Dreamworks, Rich Animation, and Don Bluth Productions. In contrast with the first style, this style is more detailed, more naturalistic in form, and has a larger color palette, utilizing shades and tints in addition to bright primary colors. The animation is serious, and attention is paid to all aspects of the production, including the background, to set the mood and atmosphere. The story is dealt with in a serious way, and the thrust is not always or even mainly comedy, though there are generally interjections of humor. Most American animated films draw from this tradition, as well as some television animation.

The third style of animation is relatively new in America. This style has been called 'amerime' and draws from the traditions of Japanese animation, or anime. While amerime draws its artistic style from anime, especially in the character designs, the stories are still strictly American. Most amerime is being produced for television, in such shows as Teen Titans, Danny Phantom and Megas XLR, though it can also be seen in the character designs of Disney's film Treasure Planet. Only time will show if amerime is anything other than a short-lived fad designed to cash-in on the current popularity of anime.

There should, perhaps, be a fourth style, because certain studios do shop out some of their production into other countries. This can be seen in Rankin-Bass and Sunbow productions, where animation was shopped out to Japanese and Korean studios. Perhaps films and shows like these were early examples of amerime. Perhaps they are something else entirely.