#ba2brrp

Looking into western animations and articles and papers written on this topic, I found that in a lot of previous research and many of the papers I mention have all cited this one book by David Whitley.

“The Idea of Nature in Disney Animation: From Snow White to WALL-E”

Fortunately, the library has a PDF of this book available to read, and it’s a definite to read the entire book when I’m preparing for my report next year.

Whitley explores Disney and Pixar animations such as WALL-E and Snow White. In the book, Whitley argues for the importance of nature featured in Disney films that have altered his personal understanding of nature and hopes his study will the same for his readers.

Following Lynsey’s advice, I looked for some ecoctritical papers and came across a book titled: That's all folks? : ecocritical readings of American animated features.

This book is about the history of environmental expression in American animated films. It showcases the view that the contemporary environmental movement and the cartoons it influences in the 1960’s.

This book seems like a good read in preparation for my report and may contain evidence and sources to back up my statements.

I think a main contender of film choices to represent western animations is WALL-E due to the extent the film goes to, to show the effects of pollution and consumerism.

'Movements that are drawn': A history of environmental animation from The Lorax to FernGully to Avatar by Nicole Starosielski is another article I found which surveys the history of environmental animation and charts to aesthetic possibilities it offers for environmental representation.

This article in particular is going to help me write out some of my first chapter where I plan to talk about how animation can be a huge platform in the media to convey these messages to a larger audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGOjylUwapQ

This video explains a great view of looking at Pixar as showing humans as ignorant, chaotic and destructive.

A summary of the video:

Across Pixar films they point to how human actions no matter how small have massive consequences across a variety of eco systems.

in finding memo it’s the arrival of humans that comes to fundamentally change the characters relationships, the scuba diver who takes Nemo he is simply taking something to be displayed at a pet store, a sentient object for other humans to look at; in doing so he disturbs a complex eco-system replete with schools, different cultures and its own food-chain, the small action turning the community upside down and the person who has causes this event is never seen again, they are ignorant and never see the fallout from their actions. It is this notion of seemingly the inconsequential having massive ramifications that govern many of the worlds that Pixar introduces us to.

WALL-E exploration of climate change, the main characters entire existent is shaped by the consequences of small human actions and the unwillingness to compromise our lifestyles has left the planet inhabitable and destitute. In WALL-E Pixar not only holds a mirror to humanity but a microscope , demonstrating how the smallest seemingly inconsequential actions can result in chaos for others.

Pixar often broadcasts a broader theme that human being are forces of destruction and chaos.

The video also talks about films such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Ratatouille and makes great points at how eco systems and worlds collide.

For my report I’ve decided to concentrate on Studio Ghibli as the representation for eastern animations.

The choices for this category are:

Princess Mononoke

Spirited Away

My Neighbour Totoro

So far, I’ve found plenty of articles on ‘Research Gate’ where other people have studied similar topics to mine, which is a good source of information and other sources that I can explore.

To start off, I decided to look into searching for studio Ghibli and environmentalism and came across a good few start of sources for information.

In may 2014, Hayao Miyazaki said “I yearned for an earnest and pure world… I could no longer deny the fact that I wanted to make something life affirming”

Princess Mononoke’s main theme focuses on humans interacting with the environment, deforestation and urbanisation. The film highlights mankind consumption and consumerism or natural resources.

“It is a common mythical Japanese belief that if humans are aggressive to the forest, the forest god will return the torment to humans.”

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4841310_The_ecological_and_consumption_themes_of_the_films_of_Hayao_Miyazaki

Spirited Away includes main themes of gluttony and consumerism, environmental issues being subtle but still present. The spirit bath house in the film containing residents that notice the ‘Stink Spirit’ is a spirit of a polluted river, lost to apartment complexes. – Miayzaki explains.

An article titled: Anime Landscapes as a Tool for Analysing the Human–Environment Relationship: Hayao Miyazaki Films, is particularly interesting and a good source for my report as it explores the contrasts between western thinking to the world view that Myazaki reflects in his films, he depicts humans as an inseparable part of nature.

Games Radar made an article- https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/studio-ghibli-netflix-climate-change/

A particular quote that drew me into continue reading was “Studio Ghibli has preached environmentalism with a sense of nuance and grace that’s unlike anything we’ve seen in western cinema.”

I believe looking into this and exploring the article further will benefit my report for next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC9yw7FHGaE

This video on Princess Mononoke, explores how the film teaches environmentalism to children.

It had an interesting quote from Miyazaki “The idea that nature is always gentle and will give birth to something like the Sea of Decay in order to restore an environment polluted by humans is a total lie. And I believe that the idea that we should cling to such a saccharine worldview is a big problem.”

Princess Mononoke focused on this subject as well. It displays conflict of deforestiation through mythological terms and allegory, Myazaki teaches these lessons not through complex environmental science by in ways that even a child could understand.

“If you take too much from the forest, the Gods begin to die and a curse is upon you”

“If you are not conscientious of our real world environment, there are real world consequences”

https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/epg8pa/studio-ghibli-anime-climate-crisis-hayao-miyazaki

“The studio often infuses complex mythology with a strong environmentalist ethos through its films and, in a world besieged by wildfires and floods, the themes in their films are now more prescient than ever.”

This article by i-D says, Princess Mononoke breaks the complexities of the climate crisis down to a simple cause and effect: when the people of Irontown threaten the environment, nature self-destructs, and everyone suffers. The film’s violence paints a grim picture of nature dying at the hands of an arrogant human army, intent of harvesting its beauty as fuel.

My Neighbour Totoro symbolises the harmony of a balances relationship between people and the environment.

i-D days, throughout the films of Studio Ghibli respect for the planet is fundamental to survival.

“The Princess and the Climate Change: a relationship between nature and man”

https://www.ntnu.no/blogger/menneskets-tidsalder/2019/11/17/the-princess-and-the-climate-change-a-relationship-between-nature-and-man/

Abstract:

This article forms a comparative critical review of two films by director Hayao Miyazaki, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997), examined through an environmentalist lens. The authors employ the concepts of the Anthropocene field using the definitions by Purdy (2015) and Hamilton, Bonneuil and Gemenne (2015), as well as the discussion of agency from Nimmo (2015) to examine the relationship between humans and nature in the two films. Throughout this article, evidence is presented for the argument that in the film universes, nature and humanity do not share a symbiotic relationship, but nature would survive, and indeed thrive, without humanity, but the same is not true in reverse. This realization shares similarities with the current Earth Anthropocene condition.

“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness” - John Muir

I thought this article would be relevant for my research due to the ways it examines relationships between humans and nature and also explores they ways the two films interact with the idea of humans respecting the environment and being able to survive with it, but not without.

An excerpt from the conclusion:

Both films are pleading for a more conscious and balanced dynamic between humans and nature where the responsibility for a more sustainable future for both parties lies in the actions of humanity.

From my previous research I discovered a new topic that could be relevant to my report.

Environmental generation amnesia is described by psychology professor Peter Kahn as “the idea that each generation perceives the environment into which it's born, no matter how developed, urbanised or polluted, as the norm. And so what each generation comes to think of as 'nature' is relative, based on what it's exposed to.”

I discovered Kahn’s book named Children’s affiliations with Nature: Structure, Development, and the Problem of Environmental Generational Amnesia.

Kahn examines how people perceive and impact the environment. Cities are constantly growing and natural spaces shrink rapidly, Kahn argues that enables development to continue relentlessly and each generation inherits a new interpretation of what nature is and what the refer to as ‘normal’ surroundings.

“Meaningful interactions with nature not only can teach, but also help people rejuvenate, reflect and recognise the importance of the outdoors” says the University of Washington.

With this in mind, I think some of these sources will be great evidence to back up my statements made in my report and also give me a wider range of topics to explore and eventually narrow down for my final written piece.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171115124514.htm

Upon searching for some brief history knowledge of environmentalism in animation, I stumbled across an article titled “Historical evidence for nature disconnection in a 70-year time series of Disney animated films” written by Anne-Caroline Prevot, Romain Julliard and Susan Clayton.

This article demonstrates the disconnection between western societies and nature and they examine a 70-year time frame of Disney animated films, what they discovered was that a natural setting is now increasingly less prominent as representation of outdoor environments in these films.

In the article they considered 60 animated feature films ranging from Snow white to Tangled. The article provides some great data collection that I will consider using when writing for my report next year and I believe some of the information could be beneficial.

To summarise the findings, there were three hypotheses that were supported. One being the representation of outdoor settings changed over the 70-years time frame and two being that the way of drawing or depicting settings includes fewer natural elements, based on the knowledge and mental repsresentation of the film makers.

Disney films over the first 40 years the majority of outdoor scenes has green nature as background and then over the past 30 years, one-half of the movies had more than half or their outdoor scenes in places without traces of green nature.

After speaking to Lynsey and being unsure of which direction to take with my report, I decided to choose a topic that I have previous knowledge in and am comfortable writing about. I have decided to explore environmentalism in animations, particularly comparing western and eastern films.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocriticism

This is a topic that upon initial research I’d be able to find many sources and research papers on and is something I personally enjoy looking into and learning about. Lynsey suggested looking into ‘Ecocriticism’ which is defined as the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyse texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various way literature threats the subject of nature.

With my chosen report type being an extended essay, this topic of environmentalism within animation seemed like a perfect fit as it will consist of a lot of secondary research such as looking at texts, films, academic papers and books which this topic seems to have plenty of.

From my personal experience watching films from Disney/Pixar and Studio Ghibli, the portrayal of the environment differs greatly and I decided to look into recourses western and eastern cultures and ethics.

A Problematic in Environmental Ethics: Western and Eastern Styles by Ronald L. Massanari is a book that I found which I will consult further into the research report.

Abstract from the book: