TheNMan64's Favorite Scene of Animation
10While the artform of Animation can be zany and wacky whenever you want it to be, it can also be very beautifully subtle when it needs to be. And one of the best subtle aspects of animation is how important the facial animations are. From a talking doorknob to a south seas princess, if one fails to properly animate expressions, the artform fails to do what it's meant to do.
Disney used to be the absolute titans of the medium, but have since become overshadowed by the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks in these regards. While they sometimes do recapture some of the magic in animated form, Disney usually drops the ball with something their lead animators used to always stress to art students.
This scene, right here, encapsulates everything animation is supposed to do in a moment like this. Sure, I could have picked any of the Genie's many transformations in Aladdin, Cinderella's gown being created or even the entire segment of Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia, but for me, this scene is sheer animated perfection. In ten seconds, this scene does everything right that the 2017 Remake failed to do: give us a reason to emotionally empathize with a monster. The Beast has Gaston at his mercy and can very easily drop him to his death, justifiably too. But then he remembers the humanity Belle found within him. With just the dropping of his cheeks, the relaxing of his jaw and the eyes showing the same realization we have, we forget that this isn't real. This isn't an actual monster. It's a series of drawings done by Glen Keane and his animation team.
The Beast remembers all that Belle showed in him. His humanity and mercy, both of which Gaston mocked at the beginning of the battle. A movie today would give a speech about how this "isn't the right thing" or how much the Beast has progressed. This scene, in ten seconds and without a single line of dialogue, manages to show just why Animation is not just a genre, but easily one of the most vital mediums of storytelling out there.
Sheer perfection.