"The big problem that one has to face is the fact that everybody in the audience is going to be an expert on how humans move. This makes it pointless to attempt to use rotoscope or any other device to imitate human action. I believe the answer lies somewhere in working out a mode of movement that is edited action, just the way that the animals in Bambi and the dwarfs in Snow White were. An audience will accept any convention, any point of view, as long as it is carried out consistently. I think there is less chance of rejection by this approach than by that of stupidly trying to draw animation with all the complexity of live action. In the first place, it can't be done, and in the first place, why try to recreate the approach of the Hudson River School of painting? It fizzled out like a soggy firecracker. After the viewers marveled at a match head that looked as if it could be picked off the canvas or a torn envelope that uncannily simulated real life, they got bored with it."
Imitation of real life is not art, and art is what we are involved with, despite mutters to the contrary from Madison Avenue and the networks."
Imitation of real life is not art, and art is what we are involved with, despite mutters to the contrary from Madison Avenue and the networks."
— Animator Shamus Culhane discouraging the use of the process, quoted from his book Animation: From Script to Screen.
Q: If Flowers of Evil is about realism, why not make it a traditional live action series rather than rotoscoping?
Nagahama: In live action, you are looking at actors. I like Iron Man, but when I first heard about the live action Iron Man movies I knew there was a risk. The person standing in the movie isn't Iron Man, but his actor, Robert Downey Jr. You're watching Robert Downey Jr. act as Tony Stark. It's cool, but he is still depicting a character that only exists in the comic and not in real life. And the same applies to anime and manga. To depict fiction and connect it to our world, I decided rotoscoping was the way to go. Is it ideal? I don't know but I want to find out. I hope this answer is okay for you.
Nagahama: In live action, you are looking at actors. I like Iron Man, but when I first heard about the live action Iron Man movies I knew there was a risk. The person standing in the movie isn't Iron Man, but his actor, Robert Downey Jr. You're watching Robert Downey Jr. act as Tony Stark. It's cool, but he is still depicting a character that only exists in the comic and not in real life. And the same applies to anime and manga. To depict fiction and connect it to our world, I decided rotoscoping was the way to go. Is it ideal? I don't know but I want to find out. I hope this answer is okay for you.
— Director Hiroshi Nagahama on why he chose rotoscoping for the anime version of The Flowers of Evil.
