Are Pixels better then Paint?

The Modern Museum of Art in New York has a new exhibit of the
animation work of Pixar Studios.Being old school, I like the old animation of "cartoons" from the 60's,50's and 40's.I think I like them better because as an artist,I like to work from light to dark when I paint.Just a habit but with that in mind,all
computer generated work seems to work from dark to light.
There always seems to be a dark gloom with most images though they could be in broad daylight.Probably a personal quirk.
I do enjoy the Pixar productions,"Toy Story","Finding Nemo"
and the "Incredibles".The computer has saved many an animator
from bursitis.Consider the thousands of renderings an artist had to do for a Disney movie like "Sleeping Beauty".Still shot by still shot.Yet,there is something about these films and I am speaking primarily about the images, not the stories, that is not as satisfying as old school animation.I think sometimes
it's the slickness of the imagery.Other times I think it is the lack of a distinctive drawing style with it's imperfections
that makes watching computer based animation less satisfying.
A computer can generate the same image faithfully everytime.
I miss the permutations you saw with a cartoon character as he
evolved throught the years.Take a look at the 40's Bugs Bunny and the 60's Bugs.There is humanity in evolving an image,
a character.
Once the character is defined in pixels, it seems dead because all the permutations have been worked out ahead of time and the end result is what it is.As animation matures,especially in video games,there seems to be an ever increasing sophistication
with the imagery.Take a look at the new "King Kong"game.
It is very much like the movie imagery.Video games seem to be headed in a good direction as far as imagery goes, they still seem filled with gloom but they fuse photo and animated imagery very well.For all it's crudeness,I find "SouthPark" very satisfying visually.The animation is very story driven, collage
like in execution but stimulating aesthetically.Maybe I just like bright colors?
I think Warner Bros. found the happy medium of story,character and setting with their cartoons from the fifties and sixties.The technology was not the star.The characters truly surpassed the production values.I believe the "Simpsons" are the last version of this type of animation and why they have had such a long run.
As our culture matures, the visual sophistication of each generation is growing.As time goes by we will have schools of
visual criticism as varied as there are of styles of music.
I look forward to that and hope animators start to work light to dark.

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