During the recent Comicon Napoli 26, we had the chance to chat with many professionals from the worlds of film, comics and video games. The Italian fair is a multidisciplinary hub for any pop culture enthusiast, and this year, the poster promoting all these facets of Comicon was designed by the artist Aurélien Predal.
The artist, who has worked on some of the highest-grossing animated films of the last decade (such as Despicable Me, Inside Out 2, the Star Wars: Visions series and the recent live-action film Project Salvation), has a deep understanding of both the current state of the medium and the direction it is heading in.
And contrary to what might have seemed the case a few years ago, animated cinema is moving towards a more traditional approach in its production, yet one that is more diverse in style and subject matter. It is not just a matter of pleasing a contemporary audience with a specific form of consumption, as might be the case with the case of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, but about giving a voice to sensibilities from all corners of the world.
“For a long time, there was a lot of experimentation in animation, but it was confined to short films or student projects. And I think it’s quite new that conventional films are now being made—some big films that explore a more artistic side. I think that’s a huge difference from 10 or 20 years ago. You did have that, but on a small European budget, and now you have it with big budgets and lots of people are watching it.”
Now that mainstream investment is looking more favourably on artistic merit, especially after a long period of betting everything on 3D animation, this “step back” is actually a step towards new paths, different from anything that came before.
“I think it’s a massive opportunity for us artists to put our work directly on screen because normally, especially with CGI films, you work as an artist on a film, you develop the characters, you develop the sets, but then it’s interpreted by a team of CG artists who do everything in 3D.”
“So you have this translation. And I think you still have a bit of translation now, but at least it’s much more direct. And I think you still had that back in the days of 2D films. It was a bit of a shame, but we kind of lost it along the way with 3D. You needed this technical know-how to get things on screen.
But now we’re sort of reconnecting, building that bridge again. Personally, I’m really happy about it.”
