Buchan argued the concepts of “a world ” created by animation and “the world” that we lived in. She used the example of puppet animation “street of crocodiles” as one example that puppet animation creates an animated world using physical objects in our world. In this way, puppet animations seems to be in the middle of “a world” and “the world”. I agree with Buchan that the two worlds are not that kind of separate as described by Cavell. Although animation provides movement and life to inanimate objects in real life, but there are always some similar elements within the two worlds. Since the animation world is created by human, our imagination is based on real life, so the connections between two worlds are actually strong, many elements will be projected into animation even without notice.
I thought of the animation “Alita: Battle Angel” when reading the paragraph that Cavell disagreed cartoons as movies. Just like other science fiction movies, “Alita” used much CG and animation. Although the main character is played by a human actress, what we see on the screen is an animated girl. How can the audience decide Alita as a human actress or an animation, she is both. I feel that the boundaries between animation and real human movies are becoming less and less clear. These two categories are merging together to produce films, and one might not be able to regard animation not as movies.
As for the animation world and our real world, just as argued by Buchan that everyone has his or her own “the world”. It might be the case that a little child would think the cartoon she just watched is in the real world. There is no difference between “a world” and “the world” for the little child, or to someone with great imagination.
Reference
“Alita: Battle Angel.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Feb. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwlu7jkYI1A.
Buchan, Suzanne. “The Animated Spectator: The Quay Brothers’ Animated ‘Worlds.’” pp. 15–38., https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt22p7j2j.5.