Good Animation 

alright let’s try this again

_Animation is not a Genre, It's a _*_MEDIUM_*

Rango is missing on your list. That movie is so interesting in the way they made it. It's almost real but it's not real. It's almost live-action but it's not live-action. (And I know that Tintin kind of fills that role but come ahn).

Good animation depends on how many arm hairs I can see on a character.

Something you should know is that animators don't do everything in animated films. Animators create character's movements, but if a character looks ugly, it's due to either the character designers, or the character modelers. If the environment is unappealing or beautiful, it's the environment modeler's doing. The lighting is done by the lighters and compositers, and textures are done by the texture artists.

I was worried you weren't gonna mention Robots. I am content.

That time when you think a video’s alright, but someone else points out that Karsten didn’t actually say anything, and you realise how impressionable you are that your opinion was swayed by a block of text.

i can’t believe you went an ENTIRE video about animated films and didn’t mention fantastic mr. fox. the self control karsten, i applaud you.

“Uses it’s medium to it’s fullest potential” *Mob Psycho 100 has entered the chat*

Thank you for mentioning Loving Vincent. That movie is way too underrated. It's probably one of the most visually stunning movies I've ever watched

When someone actually working in the animation industry watches and can’t stop cringing at the way “animation” is used as a catch all term for a combination of story telling, visual development, visual effects, cinematography, editing, character design and development, lighting, rendering, tech anim, compositing, directing, and many other disciplines involved in the creation of a feature film, all of which influence the way a movie looks and feels and depend heavily on the creative decisions of a handful of people at the head of the project. Your definition of “good animation” is the definition of “good filmmaking” or “good storytelling” if you will, and has absolutely nothing to do with the discipline of animation. All of your examples in fact, whether you consider them good or bad, have, what we in the industry would call “good animation”. Whether or not the piece speaks to you or represents a significant advancement in the art form / technological advancement in visual story telling is a totally different question, and you’re absolutely welcome and entitled to your opinions. Just please.... don’t confuse animation - the art of believably creating movement and breathe life into characters (among a shitton of other less noticeable things) with the art of filmmaking... I already have a hard enough job trying to explain to non-cinephiles what the hell I do for a living. Ps: this is just side info in case you’re interested but technically the remake of The Lion King is an “Animation movie” and not “live action” because it’s a full cg movie and the characters are key animated by hand. There’s no “live action” (no “live” actors, backgrounds, animals or other) involved. Hence not live action. Though I realise that nowadays the term most commonly is used to refer to what in the end comes down to a stylistic choice: namely “highly realistic”. To make Happy Feet for example a “live action” hybrid they would have had to film either the backgrounds or penguins at a live location, which would be a bit pointless for a movie like this. The dancing penguins would still have to be animated, because real penguins don’t dance (or have facial expressions) the only difference then, would be that they’d look like realistic penguins and not cartoon-ish penguins. And there’s nothing “they could have just” about that... it’s the same amount of work. ..... (And yeah I know, I should know better than to engage in the RU-vid comment section, but this was kinda painful to listen to. I do love how it turned into a love letter to animation at the end though 😏❤️) .... Uh... one more thing tho..... 😅 animation is not a genre..... it’s a medium - which you also call it, but dude, most of the movies you mention are different “genres” but they’re all in the medium of animation.. don’t call it a genre, you clearly know better! 😅

The Lion King looks boring in live action.

Realistic animations is predefined by standards that is constantly getting higher. Stylized animation is subjective. Give it a few years and the "NEW" Lion King would look old and tainted by time.

stop-motion is my favourite animation style, I think it just looks amazing and great and and and, I can't describe it, they just give me a special feeling I don't have when I watch a pixar movie or something like that.

Can we just talk about how Ponyo emotionally ruined me as a child

I'm gonna need to see a video on your thoughts about The Emperor's New Groove sir

honestly, the best use of cgi I've seen recently was how to train your dragon 3. the facial expressions, the lightning, movement, everything had so much detail. i could actually see what the thought process of the characters was

I personally find Kubo and the Two Strings to be the most visually appealing stop motion film.

The entire point of animation is to do things you can't do in real life.

This video seems more like an analysis of how well the animators made the movie rather than the animation itself

“I’ll watch this later” *watches entire video*

I adore Studio Ghibli! It’s beautiful work, and honestly the way you put it is probably the best way to.

Akira is the best imo. 24 fps of handpainted animation with lighting effects that are on par with spiderverse, its the most expensive hand painted movie ever

if i want to watch hyper realistic lions or elephants ill watch documentaries

Thank you for finally mentioning Loving Vincent!!!!! It's not got the attention it deserves.

clearly the sonic the hedgehog 2019 movie should've been on this list

I'm glad you say the animation is more of escapism of art. It's what they manage to make animated films to be creative, intuitive, surrealistic, and imagination. I bet that The Lion King will be unrealistic experience to see on live action. It's nothing spectacular. Look happen to Will Smith as the CG blue genie.

Please rename this “Good Animation” so you’ve got two videos about Good and Bad animation Edit: thank you, made my day

"there's nothing I hate more than wasted potential especially with something as exciting and limitless as animation", well said man

Have you checked out love death and robots ?

Don’t forget about the best animated movie of all time, ROBOTS

The Iron Giant, WALL-E and Nightmare Before Christmas. Ah, three of my all-time favorite movies

I think Satoshi Kon once said something about how animation feelt like a dream to him.

The moment the video ended I felt like I only watched an introduction.

the most beautiful animated films i’ve seen are Up and Treasure Planet. Up is so full of colour and still manages to be both funny and emotional without the cringe- especially the design of paradise falls. Treasure Planet is terribly underrated and it’s a beautiful story with beautiful visuals that deserves twice the attention it got.

Been binging Samurai Jack lately, and I am coming to love how diverse the artstyles can be in animation. The visual storytelling is amazing. :)

It can't be a Karsten Runquist video without the best movie ever made - Robots.

This whole video i was just aching for you to put akira in, i love it so much and my only regret is not having seen it sooner. The animation is so fluid and graphic and there's so much detail and action going on in every scene it's great. If you're a teenager or young adult i really reccomend seeing it, it has everything you could want From violence and action packed animation to deep themes and interesting plotlines. And if you enjoy it as much as i did maybe you could even pick up the manga and explore the themes fruther.

Animation is really interesting, then again I find most things I can’t do interesting

Yo, you should really check out the anime film "Redline". A action/scifi/racing film that feels a lot like Star Wars Pod Racing on Acid. And it was animated entirely by hand which took 7 years to make. Absolutely gorgeous film. ... Also, you must see Sword of the Stranger which contains one of if not the greatest fight sequences in all of cinema as a whole.

Good animation are animations that are good

Prince of Egypt tho... By far the one of the best 2D animated movies I know. And Guardians of Ga’hool for 3D.

Fantastic video, as someone who does animation it was so refreshing to hear someone not only touch on the diversity of what animation can offer but also lesser known work which deserves more praise. Nice one 👍

Wreck it ralph is so underrated

Hey fellas, if you enjoy Karsten's content and talking about movies, music, etc. you should definitely join his discord server, we'll receive you with open arms: discord.gg/jcyE6gB

Ever seen Fantastic Planet? Now that’s paving the way. Saw the example in the video but dang thats a great beautiful film.

Loving Vincent! Yes I love that movie. I watched it recently in my ap art history class about a few months ago. And it was extremely impressive. Especially, since they painted an entire canvas for every slide.

I love your videos and animation in general!

It really depends on the person and what they prefer. There's no such thing as good animation or bad animation. It's an art form and it can be judged no matter what company it comes from.

In my opinion, The Best example of good use of animation is Samurai Jack. The thing that makes this cartoon show so great it's storytelling and The thing that makes Samurai Jack's storytelling so great is that Samurai Jack tells the story through animation and that's amazing. The show is really quite and doesn't have much dialogs 'cause it doesn't need it much since most of information comes from animation and Samurai Jack uses this storytelling perfectly like no one. I really enjoyed this video and I hope my example was also good

The fun in animation is making the impossible - possible. With colors, characters, settings ... I am bummed about the new lion king because wow! Thats life, thats realism that people go through and can see and have seen for thousands of years ... Why make realism when you can make anything through comforting animation and art.

I love your videos there honest and you can see the effort in them. Keep grinding brother 💯‼️‼️

Fur in animation: *Exist* Karsten: >:(

yess, Loving Vincent got a shoutout!

How can one NOT respect the medium of animation, I always wonder

I dont have an account on the box thing but i looked at it and all of those are soooo good. There were also a bunch i want to watch now too so im excited. One of my favourite underrated animatied movies was dreamworks Prince of Egypt which was just so beautiful and it gives me goosebumps everytime i watch it. I really hope you include this one!!!

Yeah, I'm also a big fan of good use of color in film in general, and not just animation. If a film's color palette is too dull or too harsh, that'll usually be a big turn off for me. And if it's on tv I might just flip the channel if the plot doesn't make up for it. A great example of good use of color in film is Incredibles 2. While I might still prefer the first film in terms of plot, the sequel is far more visually stunning. At least in terms of color.

Loving Vincent is insane... every frame of that movie is a handdrawn oil painting... took them 8 years to finish it

the editing in your videos is always _on point_

This was very well worded and put similar thoughts and feelings that I have about this subject into a way more eloquent essay than I could ever make, lol. Thank you for loving Animation and the unique worlds it creates.

Karsten grew up with animated fur

Caroline still amazes me to this day

Honestly, 2D animation these days is more interesting than 3D for me. This is because it takes more effort to animate as you need to do frama-by-frame animation (stop motion) in order to get the smooth movement. The only other animation that uses stop motion as well are those claymation films. These days, 3D animation is so easy (well it's still a process) because they can just use and reuse the character models and move them in the animator vs making each movement separately.

Insightful video essay helping us to learn to think about not only the importance and impact of animation, but also what makes an animated film "well-made", "insightful" or "effective". The choice of style and technique is now more than ever very critical and integral to the story or point of the film. Thank you.

Gasp I saw song of the sea that's my favorite but underrated film

Hmm, I thought you were going to speak about particular animation techniques in these good films that were similar, and I still think I left the video none the wiser on what you think "good animation" is, I'm afraid. I really enjoy Hotel Transylvania's animation, it's so stretchy, bendy, expressive, snappy, almost something Tex Avery would almost certainly have done in the 3D era.

the live action lion king looked like a dubbed documentary

Prince of Egypt! Masterclass animation.

We all know Cory in the house is the best piece of animation.

When will people stop using "animation" when what they really mean is "art style"

You forgot Redline, that is an amazing example of good animation and took over 7 years to complete, definitely worth a watch for any animation fans

Animation is something that i will always love watching and making

Good animation isnt as subjective as you think

That Robots at the end. Saving the best for last, Karsten you sly dog!

I saw a little clip from Song of The Sea. Yes, that movie is a work of *art.*

I knew you’d bring up stop-motion..... we stan a stop-motion stan

Don't mean to be rude but i don't really see the point of this video. Honestly feel like you shouldn't really sway your opinion and just be clear cut about it. Examples i would be dicussing why sequences are enhanced with good animation or just animation in general compared to live action a great example is Isao takahata how he portrays realism or satoshi kon transitions only can work through animation. A sequence that amazed me when i was a child is in robots the famous domino scene, because of its animation its truly limitless opportunities.

I really loved the video! The way you talk make everything flow really nice, nothing is confuse.

I was nervous about this video after your other one but I left feeling "Dang... I love animation".

I got chills for how good this video was! Loooooved it!

I think the CGI Lion King is technically good animation, but a bad use of it

Yeah, these are all great. But I really do miss Disney's old animation. I miss the classics where they took a drawing and made it come to life and move.

God, even 2 seconds of some of those movies gave me goosebumps. The Song of the Sea, I really recomend that movie, so underrated, maybe the most underrated of all theese

Shallow, thats all "video-essays" in youtube

DON BLUTH THO! land before time, secret of nimh all dogs go to heaven anastasia 💕

Great video, but I am disappointed that you didn't put enough Robots

Rip The Missing Link, everyone please go see it if you can

i just adore ur vids

just want to point out you are focusing on the style rather than animation

Good animation is not good writing, it's animation. Animation is just a tool used for extra appeal, not writing or art.

Loved the New Dragon Ball Animation Design and Your Name and the new movie weathering with you that's coming out

I noticed that song of the sea was one of the movies shown, if anyone has seen it and liked it I'd definitely recommend some of cartoon saloons other work like "the book of Kells" and "the breadwinner", both are amazing examples of Irish film making.

My brother has a deep hatred for animation, which immensely saddens me. He rages at me for watching cartoons and anime and says "Cartoons are for kinds, animation is nothing but meaningless colors, animation will always be inferior to film, anime is for stupid people." That is just... sad. He can't experience the great high of awakened imagination, the primal satisfaction of witnessing pure art in changing forms and colors, and he could never see the amount of hard work put into hand-drawn animated masterpieces. How do I convince him not to absolutely hate animation?

In a weird way, I don’t like how boring animation films look. When you look at The Lego Movie or Into The Spider-Verse. It’s constantly visually pleasing and the colours pop out of the screen. It’s a presence Of boldness and vibrance. In a boring animated film. You barely care for anyone and you cannot feel for the characters. At times, you don’t know the characters enough to warrant a second viewing.

THANK YOU for this video. I just love animation to its very core and I'm right there with you even on something like Wreck It Ralph, Tintin, Isle of Dogs, Redline that show very creative ways they made their movies. Bravo on this video and more power to the praise of all "good" animation we can find out there. ^=^

THANK YOU for mentioning Loving Vincent. I feel that a lot of the people discussing animation online (particularly RU-vid) seemed to have forgotten this film. It is the first feature film to be fully made up of individual oil paintings. As a art history fan I had been looking at it's process for like six years until the film finally came out. It deserves acclaim next to Spiderverse and other new great animated films.

And then the sonic trailer came out.

*Karsten Runquist:* What is a "good" animation? *Modern Animators:* _I'm about to end this man's whole career._

I LOVED "Loving Vincent!" It was incredible! Also, I know I mentioned this in another comment, but I think you would really enjoy Klaus. It's spectacular in its animation and furthers the plot. And the plot itself is just so touching too. It's just amazing.

YEAAAAAAAAAh thats why I love animation, just to have a good time telling a great story!