Computer-Animated Films and Anthropomorphic Subjectivity

Chapter Four presents new research into animated anthropomorphism, and argues that computer-animated films more readily exploit the non-human element of its characters rather than recourse to the humanlike to manipulate virtual space through anthropomorphic subjectivity. Drawing from Sergei Eisenstein’s notion of “plasmaticness” (1986) and Gilles Deleuze’s writing on “gaseous perception” (1986), this chapter explores the molecular, sporadic contact that the digital anthropomorph has with the surrounding virtual cartography and the manner in which they constantly reframe and deform the action through a highly inventive cinematic eye. These new qualities of the computer-animated film anthropormorph permits a Luxo world to be defined as aesthetically and stylistically anecdotal. In comparison to other forms of animated worlds, computer-animated films present a virtual reality that is visually channelled through the anthropomorph’s individual activities, movements and viewpoints within, through and across digital space.