As a media form, animation has the unique ability to render immaterial realities and unfamiliar experiences visually in a manner inaccessible to live-action cinema. In this way, animation can represent the unrepresentable, creating a rare opportunity for either the disruption of hegemonic discourses, such as through the visualisation of silenced perspectives, or a repackaged reiteration of them. Animation can provide a vehicle for graphic political criticism, augmenting the way things are represented through artistic means: such as by exaggerating certain characteristic features of a political class or actor through cartoon aesthetics. A prime example of this can be found within the Who is a Refugee? animation featured on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) YouTube channel, which represents the journey of an unnamed family from an unspecified nation as they transition into refugee status.

With animation’s unique ability to penetrate the internal world of a range of living organisms, it can make the invisible visible (Wells 1998, 122). It is undeniable that animation stands out as a powerful medium for exploring human complex emotions and psychological states, and as an animator myself, the most commonly employed and explored framework that I experience throughout my studies and creative practice is the use of metaphor to abstractly depicted the mind. However, unlike metaphors that have been extensively researched and discussed throughout the history of animation studies (see Wells 1998; Uhrig 2018), the concept of metonymy within animated representation, a similar literary device to metaphor, has yet to be extensively talked about.

Hazbin Hotel, a series created and directed by Vivienne Medrano, premiered in 2024.  It follows the story of Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer Morningstar and Lilith, and her efforts to prevent sinners from facing the annual extermination which results in her establishing a hotel that rehabilitates them for entry into heaven. Although the series episodes explore a multitude of themes and topics, the episode that particularly resonated with me was “Episode 4: Masquerade,” which follows the character of Angel Dust as he tries to balance his job’s responsibilities while residing at the hotel.

When arthouse streaming service, MUBI, acquired one of the year’s surprisingly successful films, 6x Oscar-nominated The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024), it was originally being distributed by Universal for barely $18M. However, French writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s refusal to cut certain scenes eventually allowed her to shop the film elsewhere. With Fargeat now satisfied and Universal likely banging their heads against the wall, The Substance has become an absolute hit, going on to make $70M+ at the global box office (D’Alessandro, 2024).

My Neighbor Totoro is one of the most well-known among Studio Ghibli’s works. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 1988, the film tells the story of two girls, Mei and Satsuki, and their dad, Mr. Kusakabe, as they move to the countryside as they wait for Mrs. Kusakabe to recover from a hospital nearby. Now living in an old country home, Mei and Satsuki look in wonder at the countryside and eventually encounter magical creatures that live in the nearby forest (and even within their home), soon meeting the guardian of the forest, Totoro.

Directed by Bibo Bergeron, the computer-animated film A Monster in Paris (2011) follows the story of Francoeur, a chemically mutated flea, as he explores the city of Paris, befriends Lucille and her two friends, and hides from the danger that is the fear of those who do not understand him. Set during the flooding of the Seine River (1910), Bergeron’s film carries various themes of love and friendship, though darker messages hide beneath the surface of this captivating Europe-set narrative.

In recent years, the entertainment industry has begun to delve more deeply into the once taboo topic of mental health and its complexities, expanding the representation of characters with mental illness beyond the two-dimensional caricatures that such screen representations began with. Riot Games’ animated Netflix series Arcane (Christian Linke & Alex Yee, 2021-) stands out as a compelling addition to this discussion, particularly through its creative representation of one character’s increasing mental instability. In this blog, I will analyze how Arcane draws from real-life manifestations of psychosis in order to create a visceral illustrated experience through the psychological deterioration of the innocent Powder into her unstable new identity, Jinx.