Charlie Sells: To Infinity and Beyond...

From grief-stricken Avatar viewers getting post-movie withdrawal symptoms, to late-night animated TV characters busting taboos that human actors couldn’t, there’s no denying that animated storytelling has the power to push boundaries and emotional buttons and to take us way beyond normal limits. Charlie Sells, founder of production agency jelly London, explores the can-do world of the cartoon.

It’s a dark wintry Sunday afternoon: cold and miserable outside, and I’m lying on the sofa watching Monsters University. I’m excited to be comforted by my animated friends and a warm cosy blanket... In truth, I feel like a kid again.

After all these years, I still draw more comfort from animated movies than from any other kind – but why? The animated form allows you to become immersed in a world that has no limits, it sparks the imagination and allows you to escape the real world. It’s no wonder that as a kid I would sit, mouth agape, way too close to the TV (which is probably why I’m sporting glasses these days.)

Ever since I was first gripped by Toy Story back in 1995, I knew that the animated world was something that I wanted to be involved in. I remember looking at the wood flooring textures and lighting in Andy’s bedroom, and being in awe of how the environment had been created by humans and machines; a lifelike world, but one where toys came alive. Genius. Toy Story was the very first feature-length computer-animated film and it paved the way for more to follow – and I’ve consumed them all passionately.

Although originally these types of animated movies were aimed at kids, it’s now quite normal to see only adults in the cinema. Viewers are drawn in by the high-end production values and great visual storytelling an animated film provides. As the director of Toy Story, John Lasseter, quite rightly said; ‘’Animation is the one type of movie that really does play for the entire audience’’.

Picking out just one favourite animated film is too hard, my list is endless: Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo; they all captured my heart. However, apart from the fact that they are animated, they also share one other fundamental aspect; great storytelling. There is something in the storylines and characters (human or otherwise) that all of us can relate to. They allow us to slip into a world that is magical, but still fulfils our basic need to explore and understand narrative.

Although the worlds created can be far from what we know is real, the actions and emotions recreated within them are all based on reality. This brings us closer to the characters, while the stories explore a huge range of human experiences, from love to loss.

James Cameron’s Avatar is a clear demonstration of how powerful an animated film can be. Pandora, the finely crafted world of the Na’vi people caused some audience members to experience depression following the film. They became so engrossed in the alternative reality, they needed online support networks to help them deal with the awful truth they faced after watching the movie – that Pandora wasn’t real. Obviously there were people who went to see the movie who remained relatively unscathed – despite its somewhat frightening running time.

Geeky as I am, I didn’t need to use Google to realise that there is no dialogue at all used in the first 22 minutes of WALL-E. It’s really quite amazing to think that without a script, the animated actions of the characters were still able to evoke so much emotion. Animation can tackle the most sensitive of issues, and let’s face it, anyone who didn’t cry in the first few scenes of Up must be a little dead inside.

But it’s not just the feature films that have captivated audiences of all ages; there are also plenty of much-loved TV comedy shows, such as The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park. This content is targeted at mature audiences, with scripts that are witty, clever and raw. They can push the boundaries of so many social taboos by using animated characters to say and do things that real actors would struggle to get away with.

Brands are also using animated content to reach the hearts of their consumers and trigger responses. Take last year’s John Lewis Christmas ad, The Bear & the Hare (below), a beautiful animation that transcends generations and backgrounds to play with our emotions.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Imagery and moving imagery have the power, whatever the beholder’s language, to captivate, raise awareness and spark reactions – providing the script is good enough. Why? Because the child that’s in all of us wants to escape occasionally and animation provides that escape. I am very lucky to be a part of every creation at jelly, and as such, my imagination is constantly being encouraged to run wild. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by creative folk in the studio and by my [animation] toys. The possibilities are endless.