On the warmer and fuzzier side of home video and animation art, we have the fact that people love these products enough to buy them and bring them into their homes. I own both videos and animation art, only because each specific tape or cel has a special meaning to me. 101 Dalmatians sits in my box of videos at home because I love Cruella deVil with a passion. No matter how bad things get, the sight of her in her roadster, speeding around a snow covered mountain, you know the part, where the flames are coming out of all the exhaust pipes...it just makes me laugh.

The same goes for my animation art. While growing up, The Jetsons were my favorite, so when I saw that shot of Elroy, Astro and Rosie the Maid looking up in wonder - it had to be mine. No matter the cel is from Jetsons, the Movie and not some classic episode of the series, it is those characters that I love. When I was a kid the channel that The Jetsons was on didn't always come in so good. When it did, wow! What a treat. I have other television cels as well because those cels take me back to early Saturday mornings when my brother and I would wander out into the solitude of the family living room to watch television. Spilling milk on the couch from cereal bowls being tipped, getting jam on the carpet, being told to turn down the sound, the agony of Gumby coming to an end for another week...

I also have the limited edition cel "Anchors Aweigh" featuring Gene Kelly and Jerry, from Tom and Jerry fame, dancing together. I had to own a little bit of that 1950s optimism. A little bit of Americana. A little bit of an American icon who is now gone. That is the reason to own animation art. Don't own animation art because someone tells you it is a good investment. Own animation art, and videos for that matter, because you want to, because you love what they represent to you.

Once someone who was directing and producing his own animated show, told me that he didn't think the cels from his show were pieces of "his" art. Since so many hands had touched the characters in-between his desk and the time they ended up on a cel, he felt the cel only belonged to the characters. Cels are what gives a character life, so he felt cels only really represent the character. `They are artwork of the characters but are they art?' he questioned. Well, let's look at that for a minute. Did I love The Jetsons because it was art or because of the characters who made me laugh? As a child, I loved them only because they made me laugh. Today, I can love them because of my childhood memories, my fondness of animation, and I can also appreciate them hanging on my wall as art, animation art ... however murky that definition may be.

Why do you own your favorite videos and cels? Drop us a line...at editor@awn.com.

Until Next Time...
Heather