How do you evaluate American animated movies?

I saw a comparison on Zhihu between American animated films and Japanese ones: (Author: Mendel)

The most expensive Japanese animation currently is Ghibli Kaguya's Princess is roughly 50 million U.S. dollars, and the second place is Steam Boy, which is more than 20 million U.S. dollars. 10 million is already considered a shocking masterpiece among Japanese animation budgets. Only companies of Ghibli's level can afford it, and the United States Animated movies cost hundreds of millions, and 50 million is considered a small cost. The box office of Japanese animated movies is generally in the million-dollar range, which is less than one percent of the box office of a Disney animation. It is not even as much as the electricity bill Disney spends to make a CG animation. With this kind of box office, the production cost will naturally not increase. If the production cost does not increase, there will be no box office. It is a vicious circle.

High investment means high quality. No matter how young Disney animation is or how pornographic Japan is, the image level is always inferior to that of the United States and Japan. Many people think that Japanese 3D animation is poor, but in fact Japanese 2D animation is even worse. , the gap between Japanese 2D animation and Disney is far greater than the gap between Chinese animation and Japanese animation. Why do the animations have such good graphics? Of course they are meant to make money. For most ordinary people, as long as the animation graphics are strong enough and the content is harmless to humans and animals, that’s enough. Later, everyone discovered that 3D images were cooler and more attractive to illiterate people, so Disney, the founder of 2D animation, was forced to fully switch to 3D animation, which directly led to the decline of 2D animation in the United States.

Although the Japanese animation industry is large in scale, it is dominated by a few high-level masters and a group of migrant workers. Disney’s method of using masters as footwashers is only possible in Disney. Therefore, as big as the United States, it can only afford one Disney. When DreamWorks tried its hand at animation, it lost everything. Pixar suddenly emerged and finally merged with Disney. This is determined by the market rules of American animated films. Of course, if Japan integrates animation masters across the country, it is still possible to create a copycat of Disney. After all, Ghibli was established for this goal. But a few elites must give up the advantages of Japanese animation, which is not worth the gain.

What is the biggest advantage of Japanese animation? Animation theme linkage. Although the highest box office generally belongs to original animations, the main body of the market is a large number of animations adapted from comics that cost millions or even hundreds of thousands, such as Prince Shinobu and Conan. These animations are invested by different publishing groups and TV stations. To create a small number of elites is equivalent to saying It is simply unrealistic for most people in the market to withdraw. Japanese comics have many and wide themes, making the animation market extremely fragmented. If you ask Kindaichi's fans whether it would be better to stop making sequels and save money to make Conan, they will definitely beat you to death. There were still such big differences on exactly the same subject, and a revolution broke out in Japan the next day after a small number of elites were engaged.

The subject matter is even more of a problem. If you want to target the global market, most Japanese animations will die. Pedophilia crimes like Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro", pornographic weeds like "Princess Mononoke", " Can those white Christian parents in the United States who deny the theory of evolution be expected to take their children to watch a militaristic spiritualist film like "The Wind Rises"? Guess what aspect of "The Wind Rises" has been criticized the most? The protagonist serves in the war of aggression? Wrong, because the protagonist smokes frequently and can easily teach underage viewers!

Japanese original animation is mainly made by famous masters who have considerable artistic pursuits. Isao Takada dared to spend 50 million to make watercolor animation that no one would watch. Hayao Miyazaki fully supported him. Disney There can never be such feelings. If you ask a Japanese animation master to make a family portrait movie like Disney's, bury a little bit of political correctness, and win the applause of the petty bourgeoisie, you might as well just shoot them.

Some people always say that Disney’s works are not only suitable for all ages but also have great connotations. Hey, the level of innuendo in Zootopia is called connotative. Isn’t the Japanese animation director the reincarnation of Tolstoy?

From this answer we can see the advantages of American animated films.