| I agree with everything you just wrote about influences. =) But, I think we read the article a lot differently. I didn't feel the author meant to claim that anime was the only influence, or even the biggest influence, on western animation. Certainly, I'd agree with you that such a claim would be junk. From the article: Pixar, and by extension Hollywood 3D animation, is
attached to anime at the root.
This is probably the strongest claim and also... kind of the weirdest and most ambiguous.If they said "anime is the root of blahblahblah", that's a pretty unambiguous (and blatantly wrong IMHO) claim. But what does, "western animation is attached to anime at the root" even mean? Are we saying that one grew from the other? Are there also lots of other things attached to these roots? It's sloppy writing. However, taken in context, I think the author has a reasoned and informed view. The influence of anime is darn near universal, although I think that's definitely not to say that it is the biggest or only influence. The author doesn't address all of the things that influence anime, such as western animation. Which is fine. That's a big topic in and of itself. Would have added another zillion words. I think they made the correct choice. None of the 90s directors' films in the article
have that much to do with anime besides The Matrix
I always felt The Matrix borrowed more from John Woo-type HK live action movies than anything else. Second on the list for me would be video games or maybe Neuromancer-style classic hard cyberpunk. Or PK Dick. Or... probably a few more other things before anime. |
I'm sceptical about a lot of the article, but the directors were very explicit about taking inspiration from anime. Ghost in the Shell in particular is a clear direct influence on both the general look and the famous lobby gunfight conclusion.