Black and white animation is a special effect, nowadays. It's not inferior, or superior. I guess you could use it if that was your thing, but personally, I think it can be as much of a distraction as any special effect taken seriously on it's own account. If you find yourself mostly defining an animation by the grayscale, rather than a color scheme or the measures of photorealism, then black and white is for you. if you want to pattern something after a film in the past, go for it. It's an easy reference. But is it artistic? That depends. Many filmmakers and Directors of Photography go that way because it presents a challenge. Normally, you can define contrast in color simply by using different hues. In black and white, though, things have to be separated out in the brightness of their tone. That's not easy. The results can be beautiful, granted, but it takes much training to get it right. Besides, As anybody who looks at an old WB or Disney Cartoon can tell you, there are just a greater proportion of color cartoons that the audience has been exposed to. People don't tend to think of black and white as being so artistic in animation as they think of it in film. With film, good black and white is luminous. with animation, unless you are talking a photoreal black and white CG or stop motion piece, black and white looks flatter than color I think black and white in animation is a challenge, and perhaps can be artistic, but I'm not going to put it up on a pedestal.

I experimented with a black and white sequence in my Flash movie "Special Effects" http://mcusiman.tripod.com/animate.html With the ease of using bright colors available in Flash I don't see that many animators will use B&W except for an occasional effect. Economically there is no difference as their is in film. Mick Cusimano

B&W cartoons are not completely dead, even in the CG world. You might take a look at two award-winning shorts, Raf Anzovin's "Java Noir" at www.hypnotic.com or Mitch Butler's "The Smell of Horror" at www.mitchbutler.com. In both cases, B&W is employed as a parodic element, because the original genres--40s noir and early-60s psychokiller flicks--were usually filmed in B&W stock. "Java Noir" is actually about a colorless subject--black coffee.

"for this reason alone The Iron Giant would have been one of the most unique animated films ever produced by an American studio. But after sixty-odd years of color features, no one -- even a talent such as Brad Bird --thinks that way anymore." "Iron Giant" IS one of the most "unique animated films" ever produced by an American studio. It's in color, because the idea to make it in Black and White wasn't NECESSARY. To say Brad Bird (the "talent") doesn't "think" that way anymore is hogwash (not to mention ignorant). Anyone who can make a film as entertaining and moving as "Iron Giant" SURELY could have made it in "black and white" should he have chosen--or should I say "if the film had called for it." But then again, maybe Anderson, Indiana has yet to get "color" projectors.... Carter Cooke Animation Historian

There are actually a few animated b&w films. One which I especially like is "A Noite" by Regina Pessoa. I'm not too sure because I only saw it once, but isn't "Father & Daughter" also b&w? anyway, I can see where you're getting at. I personally prefer b&w photography, and marvel at old "Twilight Zone" episodes, but I'm not quite sure how audiences would handle it. probably that's why only independent (or semi-independent) directors have tried it recently.