The 80-Minutes-Or-Less Conundrum

By titling this article with the above words, I was hoping to elicit some confusion. That confusion might turn into curiosity, which would motivate you to click on the link that takes you to these words. (Note to self: Gee, maybe I should've found some different words for the title. . . .)

As you all know well by now, I'm a huge fan and active proponent of animation. Which is why I write a substantial (and, some might say, inordinate) amount of articles about animated films and the way they're made. Often times, producers (or executives, depending on the final destination exhibition of the film) will give the animation directors and key content supervisors a strict set of guidelines to adhere to, thus limiting the scope of the material or bastardizing the narrative. The end result is often mired in juvenility, maximizing certain "kid" elements (child protagonist, over-population of bright primary colors, one-dimensional villains) in the attempt to gain and retain their interest. The trade-off is that they lose the adult. Even more tragically, the adult often dismisses the program as "kiddie" before even trying to detect any sophisticated subtext, winks-at-the-grown-up kind of material.

So when Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel Justice League: The New Frontier was finally adapted into a feature-length animated film, I felt nothing but jubilation. After all, this graphic novel, ala Watchmen (see my extended series of articles on that in my Articles section. . .when you get the time), gave the Justice League something I would like to call the "adult" treatment, taking the literary approach to unveiling the origins of the iconic comic-book superhero characters. Real-life political figures and events make more than cameos in that story. . .they are actually instrumental in shaping the story's impressive and extended finale. Well. . .a little of that is missing in the animated film adaptation. Wait—a lot of it's MIA.

First, credits and plaudits to these animators and animation directors. Dave Bullock did the best he could, Michael Goguen had to draw design flowcharts for the Korean animators because their early pencil tests were extremely off-model (Animation Magazine, March 2008) and Bruce Timm guided the project with a sure hand. Watching it, I sensed his input, the same vibe one gets when you watch other Bat-projects he's been involved in, from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker to Mystery of the Catwoman to even Batman vs. Superman. But Duane Capizzi had a hand in this as well, and. . .let's just say I haven't been able to ditch my grudge against him for his SatAm reboot of the Batman animated franchise.

And now we come to the Marvel/Lionsgate animated comic book movies, with Ultimate Avengers clocking in at an anorexic 71 minutes sans credits. Its sequel is a little extended, but only by a character's chuckle. Maybe. The latest release most fleshed out, Doctor Strange, features a character with the least amount of mainstream exposure and appeal. In fact, the very existence of an animated film based upon the origin of a fairly obscure Marvel creation is a head-scratcher—but you just know that Lionsgate advised Avi Arad to reach as far into the Marvel library as he could dare to. Any way, Doctor Strange comes in at a whopping 95 minutes, which should have been the borderline running length for the other films mentioned in this article. Doctor Strange did not suffer from the same problems that the other animated films mentioned in this article suffered from due to the fact that the creators allowed the story time to unfold properly. Ditto for The Invincible Iron Man although there are continuity issues between the Lionsgate-distributed direct-to-video animated film and the comic (and the ensuing live-action Jon Favreau spectacle); Tony Stark's dad is not supposed to be alive and having these emo-type conflicts with his son. But, oh well—Iron Man won't be the first nor the last comic book property to have its backstory vary from animated interpretation to live-action-slash-video-game interpretation.

All of that is beside the point I'm trying to make, which is character development shoehorned into a skinny run time, and how stories that are well-told, depending on the story, take the time to unfold properly for their audiences. Especially for older audiences, not the MTV demographic, they need to have the time to be, simply be with the characters and watch them go through their motions and routines and tribulations. That takes time, not this music video thing where the transition is rushed into existence and not even vocalized by the characters—just montaged—but just more than 75 minutes. Say 90. Yeah, 90 is enough. 100 will do, a Pixar film, Incredibles-length (that animated film, though, was a little bit of an epic). AMPAS awarded that film with the Oscar for Best Animated Film along with three other nods. Spirited Away—another one, Oscar-winner. Running length? 124 whopping minutes. Happy Feet wasn't a TV commercial either, at 105 minutes. Ratatouille, despite being about a rat who dreams of becoming a Parisian chef, clocks in at 112 minutes and took home another Best Animated Feature Oscar for Pixar. Coincidence?

The awards go to stories that aren't in a rat race to get to the end credits. We know that these direct-to-video films aren't (and can't) shooting for Oscar recognition, but damn--you know, they don't have to be, like, friggin' elongated Adult Swim bumpers either (the ones that flash faster than a PowerPoint presentation on LSD and speed, and contain colorful, loud graphics and annoying digital audio clips downloaded from some sound FX CD or hard drive collection or something). This is not so much a plea for future stories to be longer, as it is an attempt at an illustration as to why they need to be. In order for a property to fully satisfy a fan base, the property--whatever it may be, whether it's the upcoming Totally Spies! film or another straight-to-video G.I. Joe vs. The Cobra Commander Mainframe Animation crank-out cash-in--needs to give its fans the time to see where the character will go, why the character needs to go there and the series of events that will either get the character to the destination or keep the character away from it. The unfolding of these worthy arcs usually take longer than an hour and twenty minutes, Lionsgate. Marvel. 4Kids. You too, RAI/Disney Animation. And you, Sony.