Animation Observation #1 : Pacing

Since I was little, cartoons have always had a place in my heart. Not only because I enjoyed watching them, but I one day wanted to create my own. I have too many favorites to name, but that is not what this blog post is about. Recently I've become curious on why some cartoons are more popular than others. What elements do they have that makes someone keep coming back for more? With that said, I decided to watch cartoons for pleasure, while paying attention to certain details.

What I noticed was depending on the genre of the animation/cartoon, it is paced to establish the mood and the style. For example, a cartoon such as Futurama, is more about comedy and humor, so there is little need for tension, build up or slowing down. Regarding the camera, there are a lot of jump cuts, and no zoom ins or camera panning. 

In contrast to that, there is the anime such as Naruto, which use a different pacing method. In this show, everything is a lot slower paced. There is a lot of slow camera panning, and zoom ins. This happens often when exposition is happening. It is especially slow when their is tension or suspense happening. I think the reason this kind of show uses this style of pacing, is because its built more around a storyline. Unlike Futurama which is less about story and more about jokes, Naruto easily gets the feel across that it wants to be taken more seriously when it uses pacing like this.

There you have it, the two types of pacing i've noticed so far. There will be more to come on my observation of cartoons.