Waltz with Bashir: Avant-Garde Animation

I thought of the film Waltz with Bashir while we were discussing The District and the issues that its animated aesthetic brought up. During the discussion, it was mentioned that this film may have been jarring because we have been brought up to think that animation is for kids, as many of us have not been exposed to anything but American animated films, cartoons, or Japanese anime.

This film is one of the few animated films that I am familiar with that is not geared toward children, and furthermore, holds an emotionally tense narrative that revolves entirely around serious cultural and political issues. In this case, the 1982 Lebanon War.

Similar to The District, the aesthetic is unfamiliar for its dissociation from a light, child-geared plot; its story is does not include a touch of mature content, rather the serious, politically-loaded story lies at the opposite end of the spectrum. Furthermore the aesthetic does not resemble typical "glossy" animation, but an foreign, avant-garde look. When looking at this film through a critical lens, I would assume that this style has an effect similar to the animation in The District; the avant-garde style calls attention to itself and does not allow for a passive viewing experience. Personally, I was quite (happily) distracted by the aesthetic because I found the style to be so intriguing and aesthetically pleasing, as the composition of many shots are breathtaking and colored with a dark and gloomy palette matching the temperament.

The creation of the avant-garde look combines classical animation techniques with Adobe Flash cutouts, though many critics mentioned its close proximity to rotoscoping. At the end of the film, the animated style is replaced with live footage of the aftermath of the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut--an interesting conclusion, as Israel's responsibility for this is still debated today.

Waltz with Bashir is one of the most interesting films I've ever seen--I would definitely recommend this film to everyone, especially because it's so relevent to so many of our discussions. I first heard of this film through the Tribeca Film Festival in 2008, since then, I believe it has circulated festival circuits, recieving critical acclaim and several awards or nominations.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J9uoLMhMhs
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185616/