Scholl Velvet Smooth Express Pedi

While watching TV today, my sister and I watched an advert that was trying to sell the new Scholl Velvet Smooth Express Pedi. When the advert ended, as a joke, I said “imagine if someone was so stupid enough to do this to their feet everyday and run out of skin?” Because the process is that it sands down the dead skin, making feet feel smooth. But what happens when your feet are perfect clean and there’s no dead skin? Does it remove your healthy skin? “What if one day they’re sanding their feet away and suddenly touch bone and are finally relieved.” After a seconds worth of laughter, the both of us paused at the same time and stared at each other, suddenly realising how good a plot this was for my Final Major Project, along with fitting the creepy element very well.

“I rely on professional to do my hair and makeup looking great. And for my feet I rely on a professional too. New Scholl Velvet Smooth Express Pedi’s advanced micro rollers softly remove areas of hard skin so thoroughly that your feet are left luxuriously soft. And for aftercare try Scholl Intense Serum to keep feet feeling silky smooth. Perfect for when your feet need to look their best. The new Scholl Velvet Smooth Pedi; our new effective way to softer feet.”


I think this would be a very effective topic to cover, especially in todays day when everyone, especially girls strive to be perfect in every way. Having the best clothes, the most trendy hair, pouty lips, slim yet hourglass figure, tiny hips, big boob and a big butt, fresh manicures and pedicures. Now, the feeling of the skin is also being advertised and perfection is encouraged yet again.

Therefore I’d like to show people something that could encourage them to not follow these trends and join the race to perfection because it does not exist. Having tiny hips with big boobs and a big butt is illogical and you physically wouldn’t be able to hold yourself up because of that uneven distribution of body mass.

I would like to show people something serious and shocking that does happen today. Not only to the people who have the mental illness, but to everyone else too; on a smaller scale of extreme. I want to give people a positive message, for them to learn something positive and apply it to their lives and tell others about it. I want my work to effect people in a story way and I believe this sudden spur of inspiration can be of real help and fit my brief along with my belief in story morals and animation style.

Story Ideas and Public Views

Story Ideas

Coming up with story ideas isn't the most easiest of tasks, especially when you feel like you have a billion amazing ideas and can't seem to choose one. But because I've taken up the idea of discussing my ideas with people, I managed to narrow down to a few ideas which I can elaborate on and add more to, to give structure. From my initial ideas, I gathered a few [as seen above] that I would discuss in class for our weekly group critiques.

___________

Group crit

• Look at Louis Wein, the artist that paints weird ass cats

- people think he has schizophrenia
- his mental illness is merely a theory

• Look more into the dark [original] version of Alice in Wonderland

- inspired or rather uhm...
- Louis Wein's cats are weird and remind people of the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland

• Look at video game of crazy Alice in Wonderland
• It'll be interesting to see the progression of mental illness developing

- how did he/she get it?
- what do they go through?
- what caused them to get the illness?

• Possibly look at hat Tumblr post about you, the player, being the main character in a video game and while going through the levels of the game it gets darker and darker but you're convinced what you're going is the right thing. At the end of the game you realise you've turned into the villain.

___________

STORY: Idea 1

• Girl stays in her room all her life because if she leaves, she won't be in control of her life. She'd look out of her bedroom window and see people walking around seemingly happy but randomly changing from 2D animation to 3D, black and white, pixels or some sort of stop-motion ect.
• The story breaks the Fourth Wall because only the main character is aware that she's not real and everything is controlled by me, the animator. No one else understands that they're controlled by me and they don't know I exist.
• They think the protagonist has some sort of mental disorder like a type of schizophrenia.
• She'd figured out that I can't get to her when she is in her room so she doesn't ever leave in order to protect herself.
• Hikikamori.
• In order to be free she has to isolate and hide in her room, away from me. This way she choses what kind of animation to be like.

- maybe have physical/human objects to animate, like puppets or hands, stones whatever.
- Maybe this doesn't need a set narrative or storyline, like trying to achieve something. It doesn't have to be a show or film, it could just be an outside view on something happening inside, like documentaries?

STORY: Idea 2

• A marionette doll going about living her life. She's a star, a performer. However she's controlled by her puppeteer and made to do whatever he wants. She wants to break free and cut off her strings so she can move on her own.
• She sees all these other people who are free and without strings, they are able to do and move and do as they please.
• She has to deal with the puppeteer's anger issues [agressive behaviour] and obsession with owning her/
• At the end she manages to break free and cut off her strings and dies.

- on the bright side, she's free [Y/N?]

• The puppeteer could have been a good guy all along and wanted to protect her so she wouldn't die.
• Could switch genders to represent the role of women in society [the boss for real]

- could also be a fun and new/interesting switch on character and gender role 

___________

Public View

• Idea one seems like more of a challenge and generally sounds more interesting than the other.
• The different animation styles seem like a challenging concept but would be fun and interesting to do. Something to learn from.
• Idea one requires more skill.
• Idea two sounds a bit cliché, to be honest.
• Idea one is more original and can show a lot more potential.

Initial Plot Ideas

Usually when I start coming up with story ideas I literally just spitball and write down everything that comes to my mind. This shows me how much all my research has influenced me since most of the ideas will be derived from it one way or another. It helps to just start with some words and write them down, eventually you start placing words together and forming sentences, while writ little phrases your mind gradually comes up with different scenarios or scenes that could turn into good story lines.

Hikikamori:

- staying in your forever and developing social anxiety.

Hospital setting:

- mental institute where you hear children's laughter, happy music, see and hear rocking chairs but the hospital is empty

- there could be a little girl [refer to Courage the Cowardly Dog gif]

- she could get a visitor often who comes over and hangs out with her

- draws friends on the wall, even her parents are drawn on the wall

Toys:

- a toy is given to a mentally ill child

- it has to deal with the abuse it gets, like limbs being pulled and replaced, so when the child isn't looking it struggles to move and looks gross when it does

- it cares for the child and wants it to get better so it's fine with the pain that's inflicted on it, because it always accompanies the child to hospital appointments and sees the pain and suffer he/she goes through

- it'll move closer to the child when they need to vent out something, so they don't have to keep it in

Nightmare disorder:

- person prefers dreaming, over real-life because they can do what they want, they can let out frustration

- they could develop insomnia!

- one time someone pisses them off in their dream and they decide to hurt them to let out frustration and kills them in the process. People get shocked.

- the person tries to fall ect. to wake themselves up but it was all real
Trichotillomania:

- a girl lives in a rich household, where everything is perfect

- parents would always be at work; abandonment

- older sibling is someone who she should be like

- she loves her hair, pulls out her eyebrows and is just happy that it's more physically with her in her hand, rather than on her face

- getting at the age where all girls talk about makeup; mascara, eyebrow pencil and make fun of her because she doesn't have any

- she covers her face and progressively it gets worse whens he runs out of eyebrows and eyelashes to pull, turns to the hair on her head

- parents are ashamed "why can't you be like everyone else/your older sibling?" "hiring a psychiatrist will make my name look bad".

Art Styles

Although I only analysed the few of the animated shorts I had watched, I couldn't ignore the ones with particularly amazing art styles or characters designs. Though many of them may be 3D animations, they do still have distinct and very interesting art styles.
A few that a found particularly interesting were:

• Sebastians Voodoo by Joaquin Baldwin
• Behind Closed Doors by Jonathan Button
• Mighty Antlers by une Reinhardt, Mikael Ilnæs, Michael L. Fonsholt, Jouko Keskitalo
• Who's Hungry by David Ochs

A cold splash in the face: characters don't have to be humans. I always seem to forget this, considering it's a very important fact that I mustn't every forget. Just being so used to constantly drawing human figures and characters, I seem to forget that  characters don't always have to be human or even animal. They can be beanbags, a chair or even something that simply doesn't exist. It does not have to be something that exists in real life and that lives or moves in real life. It does't even necessarily need limbs, those are just there to give the object some sort of personification.
An important point I always forget.
The extreme detail in the texture of the voodoo doll is also something that must be praised. Even if it's a puppet used to animate, it's still amazing to get so much emotion of of an object without a face. The heavy breathing of the character is given so much attention since it's one of the only ways of showing how extremely afraid the little doll is of, who we're assuming is, Sebastian.



I don't exactly understand what exact animation style this is. Cut out animation? It seems the closes in my eyes at least, with some help from maybe 2D animation. The movement of the characters is so strange, it's freaky on it's own even if the storyline wasn't there. Being something that could easily be either choppy or too slow, it's very smooth and flows brilliantly.
I also love the touch of dark circles on all the characters. A very common thing found on most peoples faces that is just ignored in animations. It also emphasises the distress of each member in the family and the depth indicates their stress levels. Even the small child, our main protagonist, his them at such a young age. It's a simple but amazing touch that gives so much perfective into the characters life.



I wouldn't call it my favourite animation or storyline but I do love the evident skill of understand how lighting work. The shadows and angel of light is perfect in every scene. The contract is high and the facial features/body structure is very sharp, both these elements come together and produce such high quality results when accompanied by the lighting in the animation.
The character designs and scenery aren't bad either. They're rather grimy and rough looking, while being very detailed at the same time.
Altogether it's a very messy looking animation but it seems to fit very well with the scenes we see. Most of which are action and of the two characters fighting. These are emphasised with beautiful sound effects and slow-motion action shots to give the short and quick scenes of action a lot of justice.


Disturbing is a brilliant word to sum it up. Creepy as hell fits very well too.  All the scenes are hand drawn brilliance. The storyline is of an ice-cream who takes kids, locks them in the freezer and grinds their frozen bodies up and eats them.
Everything being hand down in a detailed but scribbly manner and in black and white adds to the feel of uncomforted to the animation. There's a lot of shadows filled in with a very dark black contrasting with some very white areas.
The backgrounds and scenes are generally just very detailed and fills up the whole screen, where as the characters are very simple looking and not very detailed. Round enough heads with small and very 2 diminutional bodies. I really like this method because you can easily differentiate between the character and their surroundings, rather than loosing them in all the detail. It's just a smile method that I think works and looks good to me.

Animated Shorts

As an animator, it's important I watch as many animated shorts as possible. Because they're not full length block buster films they have a different format, something we can learn from and work with. For example the length of the films, they're short and quick to the point, however, they do still have a very well constructed storyline, giving just enough information for the audience to be able to understand everything in a short amount of time. This also means that the animation has to be very precise and mistake proof, because of it's short length of viewing tim there can not be any visual effort for views to stick and poke at.

I watched a long list of animated short which I found interesting by title or just stumbled across when growing the interest. The list contains:

• Who's Hungry by David Ochs
• Emi by Gwendoline Ancelin
• Alma by Rodrigo Blass
• Almighty Antlers by Sune Reinhardt, Mikael Ilnæs, Michael L. Fonsholt, Jouko Keskitalo
• Memoria by Elisabet Yr
• Children by Takuya Odaka
• Caldera by Evan Viera
• Behind Closed Doors by Jonathan Button
• Sebastians Voodoo by Joaquin Baldwin
• The Colours of Evil by Phillip Simon and Alyse Miller
• Just Delicious by Brian Bear

Out of the list I was particularly struck by five of the shorts because of the well constructed story lines, animation styles and the range in art styles. 

Alma is a film that I would think is a work of DreamWorks or maybe even Pixar. I would have though that had it not been the very dark storyline. Because it's a very childlike looking film, with a child as the main protagonist- the only character rather, and it being based on dolls, accompanied by the rather joyful. Although, in todays day and age, dolls do come with very negative and creepy images, this is merely due to their connotations in horror films, it is still without a doubt a child's play thing. Just the imagery on it's own is a PG rated film I would say.
Although nothing deserving a higher rating is necessarily shown in the animation, the storyline is of a very dark kind. A creepy doll appearing out of no where, looking and dressed exactly like the child might I add, and trapping it's soul in itself upon physical contact is no laughing matter.
But I just love that.
I love the juxtaposition of the animation style with the storyline itself. As an animation student I find it hilarious how people would think that because it's an animation it's a kids show, but upon seeing it they realise how incorrect they were but it's too late because the adult, along with the child, are now traumatised. I suppose it's rather sadistic.



I'm not so much into politics and I'm not insisting that this animated short is about the government, but that's just what I get from it. Children is a film seen from the perspective of a non-human child who looks just like every other child in this world and the only thing we can identify him by is the number on his forehead. Everything they do and that happens is absolutely the same leading the days to be on a constant loop in which everything is even and "fair". The children also have zips on all their mouths, where as the adults [teachers] have a mask with a smiley face on.
Everything I see just seems like, us as the public are the students while the government are the teachers trying to control everything, make it all fair by not giving any chances to being with and insisting everything be the way they want while we check to see if what we're doing is correct.
One could say the teachers could represent anyone in the form of higher authority. Whatever it may be is up to the viewer to decide, it's what they get from it because they film is purely symbolic and leaves many open ends which we  can fill by ourselves. Considering the animation only last just over four minutes, it's brilliant how it can arouse such an amazing reaction from the viewers and leave them questioning so much. For example I started question politics when I don't exactly have the slightest bit of interest on the subject.



Although it doesn't particular relate to my them very much, similar to most of the animated shorts honestly, it does however have a particular wonderful storyline conveyed in a matter of six minutes. The thing that kept me watching it was during the first minute when the main character is seen drinking, tipsy, the cursing and gore. Not very common things seen in animation, more common now than it used to. I'm honestly glad a lot of people feel the same way about animated films and cartoons not being aimed at only children.
The intense build up of storyline and character is also amazing. The music and flashbacks do work so well together, alongside the general animation style. It's realistic enough in the sense of body movement, it's very natural. The way the main character get up or walks, especially when he's drunk. It's fluid and life-like.



Here's a film relating very closely to my Final Major Project theme; Caldera. An animated short about a girl. It's very abstract and not easily understandable even if you re-watch it, unless you read the description nothing properly clicks in place. Even after reading the description  I didn't fully grasp the situation, but I wouldn't call myself the sharpest tool in the box to base the complexity of the plot on my judgement. I'm sure there's been a lot of research put into the and that everything would mean something. Through I do understand that the images are a close representation to the ones the directors father has seen in his life.
The animated short is of a girl with a mental illness called schizoaffective disorder. Discovering this led me down the path of research and got me thinking about how expressing personal things in films do go a long way and turn out of be very effective and can have you be very passionate as you pro due your final piece.



I do really have a thing for either psychological or sad films. Not that this film relates to my theme in particular in any way, but researching doesn't mean everything has to connect perfectly; I've learnt that it's good to explore the other realms to broaden my way or thinking and research. After watching this film based on a father and daughters car crash and seeing everything as a seen that would take place when a death god has to take a soul. The father naturally gives his own in place of the daughter so she can live on.
There is no form of dialogue what so ever although a lot would be needed for the animated short to make sense. Everything is convened through boy language. I have no words to express  how absolutely flawless and on point all  the body language is. It would require so much research and experiment to see if the actions don't seem artificial, unnecessary or overdone. It just leaves me speechless how flawless the information is conveyed. My personal favourite is when the guy in the uniform changes his gaze from the child to her father, indicating he will take one or the other. This is shown through the reflection in the glasses and I think it's just such an intelligent idea.

Cartoon

Having really thought about the last question in the questionnaire I had just taken; "Oh yes, I’ve been waiting for this question all my life. I think cartoons generally have changed so much and are mainly targeted at older people, like teenagers or even working adults. The kids are almost an accessory to take with you to the cinema so they can watch the sequel to the film you grew up with. I wouldn't say it’s an excuse because at this point in time, I’m sure everyone’s proudly admitted that they watch and enjoy cartoons no matter what age they are.
I think this, in many ways, links with the generation we were brought up in. Our parents watch it because when we were kids they’ve grown accustom to it always being on TV because of us, that they’ve become addicted to them.
On the other hand, us [late teenagers - people in their late 20s/30s] as people who’ve grown up with watching cartoons on Cartoon Network and such, it’s a lifestyle to us. It’s what we grew up alongside, the characters, the stories and everything. Because it’s practically engraved into our minds as a form of entertainment we enjoy it very much and do not take it for granted.
However, children born in the twenty first century take cartoons for granted and ignore them almost. With the increase of technology and other forms of entertainment, kids have forgotten the old ways of leisure. Though the same could be said for our generation, from running around in fields and climbing trees to sitting at home and watching TV while playing with toys bought from the store. Our parents must have though the same thing we thing of kids now days.
But being the snobby and complacent teenager I am, it really does annoy me that children at the age of 4 have iPads and tablets. What could they possibly need them for when they could have such wonderful things like toys, play good ol’ boardgames and watch some cartoon on Cartoon Network." I managed to stumble across this post while blogging.

This really had me thinking very deeply about the huge change that's happened in cartoons, a change I would't refer to as positive and good in any way. The image above consist of all the 90s and early 2000s Cartoon Network characters, and in the same seating as above, characters from shows made in the 2010+ era. I found it very interesting to see that the amount of good shows have decreased so much that the cinema is almost empty.

This bothers me in so many ways because cartoons are just gold and the amount of good shows on Cartoon Network have decreased so much that only about four or five shows are actually work watching anymore.

I think cartoons now are mostly aimed at older people like late teenagers and adults in their 20s or 30s. The generation that were brought up with watching cartoons all day/everyday; it's a culture for us.

The 2000s kids not appreciate cartoons as much as we do because they were brought by in the era of technology. Four year olds, today, have iPads and Tablets...what exactly do they need them for? When you could do so much better and watch a good ol' cartoon. Our parents much have seen us in the same way "ugh, all they do is watch TV and cartoons all day. Unlike us; we had to play outdoors in the trees and such."

This is why I think cartoons being aired now are still aimed at our generation while still being appropriate - enough - for kids. The more we grow, the less views Cartoon Network shows gets. Meaning the amount of shows seem to decrease. That means the shows being aired would be argued to have higher age ratings, had the 2000 kids parents had their way.

Shows such as Adventure Time and regular Show really do have many adult jokes, messages and themes - not that I'm complaining.

Knowing that most of the audience watching cartoons are 80s and 90s kids, they're remaking old shows and airing them. Classics such as Power Puff Girls, Teen Titans and Xiaolin Showdown. I wouldn't say that it's a good because because the remake completely ignores the original one and simply "ruins it", I'll be quoting many people when saying that.

All the shows seem to focus on the comedy aspect and ignore all the other genres you should have to make an amazing series, such as: action, suspense, romance and more.

The general storyline just isn't as exciting and intense as it used to be, instead it's far too playful that that's all theres is.

This seems to be a recurring factor with cartoons today. They've dumbed down. However, with new shows like The Amazing World of Gumball, although they're extremely unintelligent seeming, they're very well though out. Cartoons have become more stupid and intelligent at the same time, compared to how simple and easy they used to be. I personally think this is because most of the views are now university students who like "cool, fun and stupid things" to watch, but enjoy a sudden deep moment because everyone should think a little and exercise their mind once in a while.

Questionnaire: Film

1. What kind of ending do you prefer in films?

• Hopeful.
• The kind that leaves me thinking “what the fuck…?”
• Unexplained answers,I want to be able to think about what could happened. I just like the mind boggling feeling.
• I prefer endings that leave the audience questioning what caused it to end that way.
• I like endings that make me say: "that was amazing.”
• I absolutely adore cliff hangers, people often hate them but I just can’t. But I don’t mean like a completely unnecessary one, but something that’s justified and would actually be of sense and impact me is a good reaction to leave a film or story hanging.

2. What genre of film do you prefer and why?

• I like many genres. Comedy because it makes me feel good and I don’t have to use much brain power; easy going films. At the end of the day, my top films are very serious films that impact me lot. And animation and things aimed at kinds because of the messages that are given and how important they can be in life. Musicals.
• Horror, because I like the tension. I like sitting there, hugging a pillow and knowing— or rather, not know when I’ll get scared.
• Psychological thrillers because I like giving movies extra though about what’s happened. It makes them seem more that a movie to me.
• I prefer action or crime films.
• I don't really have a preference with films genres as long as they're enjoyable. But if I had to choose, I guess I like films that make me cry the most and provide good, heart warming messages. I feel that these types of films can really impact your way of living and teach people very important things.
• Ah, I refer to this genre as “brain ticklers” but I’m pretty sure it’s along the lines of thriller or psychological or something. Like Inception, that was one heck of an amazing film.

3. Do you get emotionally invested in films?

• Yes, in every way possible, I get too emotionally invested in films.
• So much….
• No because I know nothing is real. Even so, it’s their life and not mine so I don’t really care as much. Except for The Passion of Christ, that seriously gets to me. Oh and Harry Potter.
• Yes, if the movie itself is made well. If the characters are believable and if the plot is believable.
• Not always.
• Depends on the film.
• Very much, I really do.

4. What kind of music do you like in films?

• Cheesy stuff that makes me want to sing a long, like Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Disney films and my favourite; Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• I like music that’s eery and makes me feel uncomfortable.
• Anything, as long as it fits the scene.
• I like when music doesn’t fit the scene actually, when someone’s dying and there’s happy music playing. I really find that very interesting and confusing and makes me think “what the hell’s going on”. It also makes you feel all twisted and uncomfortable…I like that feeling.
• Soundtracks.
• Music from orchestra mostly.
• I like music that fits well with the scene it's being played in.
• Is this like a trick question only media students can answer correctly? I’m aware that sound controls the whole film and is what produces a reaction from the audience. But what I find interesting is when the music doesn’t by any means match the scene going on, because that can get a completely different reaction from the audience in which they’re disturbed, while finding it amusing and weird. Now that is a reaction you want to receive from your audience.

5. What is your opinion on plot twists?

• I love ‘em. I like it when you don’t expect something to happen it happens.
• The feeling of being proven wrong while watching a film is wonderful; especially in todays day when movies are getting so predictable.
• It makes the film exchanging and makes you want to watch more. Like, you just pause and try and get everything together and maybe even guess what’s going to happen now. Especially if you’ve been predicting the whole film and suddenly because of the plot twist it messes up all your thoughts.
• Everyone starts predicting films as they go along and when the plot twist happens it suddenly becomes so interesting and gets the audience to engage more.
• Now days people get bored with predictable plots and stop liking films. But if theres a good plot twist it can change the opinion of a person watching.
• They’re enjoyable, however when it’s overused it gets annoying.
• Plot twists the best! Especially unforeseen ones like in wreck it ralph. They are mind fuck that turn the cliché and mundane to fucking masterpieces.
• Plot twists can sustain interest to a great extent depending on how they’re implemented. If it leaves too many plot holes and is perhaps too far fetched then it can have the opposite effect. Personally, if a plot twist can make me go “OMFG YOOOOOO” then i’m all for them.
• I literally live for plot twists!
• But plot twists have become a trend so haven’t they just become a paradox? People expect a plot twist but in doing so they know that there’s going to be a twist in the plot, taking away from the original meaning and intention.
• I don’t like when plot twists are unnecessary like just for drama sake.
• I love plot twists. it makes you want more, especially if it's a episode type of animation but if a movie ends with a plot twist, then i don't really like it much because you have to wait for another year or something till the next movie come out.

6. Do you like backstories as intros of a movie? For example; Up.

• Depends on the movie really. If it’s valid then of course it’s important, if it’s not relevant to the rest of the film then it’s very useful. Like you could show an intro based on a girl getting bullied and then the movie ends up being about zombies.
• Yeah I do, because it gives a secure base to a film and helps the viewer to know what to expect. It’s just something to look back on and for you to say “ahh, that explains why that happened in the intro”.
• I prefer figuring out the back story as the film goes on.
• Yes, even though I haven’t seen up, I think backstories are so great but I also like them at the end, y’know like when everything be revealed! 
• They can be pretty cool and help drive character development/story.
• They’re cool, if you want to make a sequel in the near future you know. Like Up could have an amazing sequel with what we know form the intro about their lives, it could be a movie on it’s own had there not been too much detail in the intro show in the film.
• Yes I don’t mind it so long as its useful to the rest of the story.
• Back stories at the intro is good but I kind of prefer back stories like in the middle of films so your like “OH I GET IT NOW, THATS WHY THIS CHARACTER IS LIKE THAT” and so on, if you get me?

7. In animation, what film/show/cartoon, in your opinion, has the best art style?

• Attack on Titan.
• Tim Burton’s films. The characters are weird as heck and it creeps me out.
• Ghibli films.
• Anime.
• My favourite art style would be anime ones (I know there are loads but as a whole genre I love because they are just so beautiful!)
• I’m fond of the animation in Makoto Shinkai’s movies. For shows I like anime art style. I particularly like KyoAni and P.A works. Cartoons, ATLA and Adventure Time.
• I really like the cute chubby kind, where their body types are more realistic and varied like in real life. I also like the little bit of red on the tip of the nose. I’ve noticed it’s a very common trend for online artists that design cartoon characters.
• Chibi, small, squishy looking and cute.
• I don’t know if you’ve seen Yami Shibai, watch it. It creeps you the fuck out so much and it really suits the genre of which the animated shorts are.
• I love animations drawn like Free!/Nisekoi but also I love Avatar styles animation as well.

8. Do you prefer:

9. Why do you like films that deal with real life issues are so popular?

• Because they’re dealing with things people are aware of that are happening right now.
• Because the person watching it can connect with the character more. Like while watching it the audience can just be like “oh my God, yeah. Yeah. Yeah oh my God YEAH!”
• Because they are relatable, and therefore evoke more of an emotional response from the audience.
• People look towards recreational activity to distract themselves from the reality they’re currently in. But, I feel that films which deal with common issues are able to resonate well with audiences as there are mutual feelings shared between them and the characters within the film. Consequently, this provides a more immersive and emotional experience for the audiences. People dig that shit. I think.
• Hmm, I think they could be really popular amongst parents because children don’t necessarily do things like watch the news or pay attention in school [stereotypically at least], so through watching the cartoons they can lean something, lean about what’s going on around them. For example something so common as bullying can be shown so negatively [as it should because bullying is just so stupid honestly] that it makes the child clear that it’s not something they should adopt in their life. Or something like that.
• I think it's because you sort of can relate to it as well, or there are those real life issue films that are so interesting and you need to watch for you do get a grip on how serious it is and it makes people want to help out in return.

10. Do you think films/cartoons now days are loosing their “magic”?

• I think they are, because it seems like they’re running out of ideas and things to do. It almost seems like they’re forcing it.
• No, I really do not. Because if you still think about it, they’re finding the smallest things to make films about. Like back in the days everything was new so whatever you made would be amazing. But now because every thing’s been done it’s harder to come up with a plot so people try much harder and the films that come out are amazing and different because it would require a lot of though to come up with something new and not done before.
• They seem to be remaking a lot of films lately, for example The Amazing Spider man.
• Disney seem to have started this trend where in they find old stories and such, alter the version a bit to make it their own and make a film out of it.
• There are actually too many sequels now. Film that came out 10 or more years ago are getting sequels now.
• Most film plots have already been done so there’s a lack of what’s fresh.
• NO NO NO no just no….. just…. sigh…
• It all depends on the viewer. I could say that shows today aren’t the same as they were when I was a child because I find the content ridiculous but I could be purely taking in my childhood nostalgia and disregarding current shows without giving them a chance. 
Nevertheless, current shows and previous ones both have their hits and misses. There are still very good films/cartoons that have recently been aired that have given me the same feelings that I felt with my childhood ones so I wouldn’t particularly say that they’re losing their “magic.”
• No man, like they are magical to children. Eye of the beholder and thing.
• In terms of Japanese animation, I don't think they're loosing their magic at all but I don't really watch American animation although I loved Adventure Time and… oh my God, i forgot the title! The Simpsons is good too, in my opinion it gets better and better.
• Oh yes, I’ve been waiting for this question all my life. I think cartoons generally have changed so much and are mainly targeted at older people, like teenagers or even working adults. The kids are almost an accessory to take with you to the cinema so they can watch the sequel to the film you grew up with. I wouldn't say it’s an excuse because at this point in time, I’m sure everyone’s proudly admitted that they watch and enjoy cartoons no matter what age they are.
I think this, in many ways, links with the generation we were brought up in. Our parents watch it because when we were kids they’ve grown accustom to it always being on TV because of us, that they’ve become addicted to them.
On the other hand, us [late teenagers - people in their late 20s/30s] as people who’ve grown up with watching cartoons on Cartoon Network and such, it’s a lifestyle to us. It’s what we grew up alongside, the characters, the stories and everything. Because it’s practically engraved into our minds as a form of entertainment we enjoy it very much and do not take it for granted.
However, children born in the twenty first century take cartoons for granted and ignore them almost. With the increase of technology and other forms of entertainment, kids have forgotten the old ways of leisure. Though the same could be said for our generation, from running around in fields and climbing trees to sitting at home and watching TV while playing with toys bought from the store. Our parents must have though the same thing we thing of kids now days.
But being the snobby and complacent teenager I am, it really does annoy me that children at the age of 4 have iPads and tablets. What could they possibly need them for when they could have such wonderful things like toys, play good ol’ boardgames and watch some cartoon on Cartoon Network.