The third Tuesday of each month, 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!
I got to thinking the other day about the continued ways that animation has reached beyond the episodes, and take the viewer’s ability to interact with the characters they know and care about through so many other environments. Mobile apps and virtual reality games are the ones that are the closest to the original content in look and feel, more often than not. Having grown up in a time where what we did would be to buy dolls of the characters and act out adventures, I find I have mixed feelings (even though I’m a professional in the space) of dictating out all the adventures for the viewership. Even in apps or games, where we can provide multiple goal paths, we still provide a finite set of possibilities.
I also know that with the advent of social media platforms making it easier for fans to interact than ever before, that there seems to have been a surge in them demanding companies make things the way they want. I love to see animation spark the imagination of its (often in this case adult) fans. However, I can see some blurring lines between a fan’s devotion and a fan’s obsession.
That subject can be handled in depth, and likely need to be unpacked another time. For today, I shall just plant the seed.
Until next month,
Shannon