Tuesdays, ANIMATED INSIGHTS BY SHANNON MUIR takes you inside Shannon’s latest reflections on writing, animation, and life in general. To catch up on all posts, check out the Animated Insights portion of the website! This installment shares her thoughts regarding animation adapted from other media.
A lot of animation these days starts out as adapted from another media, such as books or films. It’s got the advantage of already known brand value, and pre-developed characters… or, at least, it seems like this should be an advantage.
However, there can be a wide range of how true the animated adaptation is to the original source material, and the end result. Sometimes, not being fully true to that source material allows the world and characters to flourish in a logical way that strictly following the original medium would have constricted. Sometimes, though, the opposite occurs; I recently saw episodes of a new series I won’t name where the creators so changed the rules of the main character’s world (not only set by the intellectual property, but the very nature of the archetype of the character type, without any explanation!) that it makes it impossible for me to get into the show. I’m watching to see how this show does, since it has competitors that don’t break this expected rule that cater to the same demographic.
Until next time!