The younger the audience, the more obvious the performance.  Children are adults-in-training, and their parameters for thinking and emotion are much more narrow than that of their parents. Most major animated feature films today are designated “Family” films.  But a family is comprised of a number of individuals of different ages and life experiences.  Is there really such a thing, really, as a “Family” film?  After all, Walt Disney did not make “Family” movies like those we see today.  He made movies for kids, and then charmed the adults into coming also.

Empathy is receiving a lot of academic attention lately. There are 131 books on Amazon.com that have the word “empathy” in the title. There is a website that is dedicated exclusively to discussions about empathy and compassion:  http://cultureofempathy.com/.  The subject is being approached from every possible perspective - psychological, social, political, artistic and neurological.  Since the illusion of life for an animated character is a quest for empathy, Ed Hooks weighs in on this critically important subject.

The Illusion of Life is the New Normal.  Ed Hooks explains why new animators are expected to arrive on the scene able to make a character seem to live.  And he gives some pointers about how to accomplish that.

The artist looks for ways to demonstrate that all people in the world are fundamentally the same. The politician looks for ways to show that one group of people is superior to another.