Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1021376
D E PA R T M E N T 23 KEYFRAME But, as the Spider-Man cartoons and comics have taught us, with great power comes great responsibility—and great opportunity as well. Specifically, animation offers the opportunity to depict cultural diversity, engage children in the dialogue at a young age and perhaps eventually start bringing down barriers. While there has been significant growth in including people of different races, genders, sexualities, religions, body types and more on screen, the trick is figuring out how to depict all of this without resorting to stereotypes—particularly now, as fans and the media are quick to put any and all character decisions under microscopes. Diego Molano, who created the new Cartoon Network series Victor & Valentino as an ode to "the pre-Columbian mythologies and folklore" he learned as a child, says that stereotyping happens when we "generalize and fill in the blanks when encountered with things that are not within our experience." A perfect example? He says that while Latinx people "have a common history," they also "have the widest diversity of ethnicities" and these cultures don't always perfectly overlap. "For me, it is such a pleasure to research and learn new things about people and culture," Molano says. "I think everyone stereotypes until they learn and grow and eventually replace that incomplete knowledge with real facts. We just have to do that more often. I think if we do, we will find more similarities than differences in our human struggles while still being excited and delighted by the differences that our pasts have left us with." Jess Cuffe, a storyboard artist who has worked on the Marvel Rising projects, says she begged to be part of an undertaking that showed an array of female crime-fighters with various ethnic backgrounds and body shapes. Based on the comic series of the same name, the stories follow inspirational heroes like Miss America/America Chavez, an out and proud Latina whose independent streak is almost as strong as her need for speed, and Doreen Green/Squirrel Girl, a chipper woman who eschews conformity all the way down to her clothing and body type. But these characters aren't simply replicas of what's seen on the printed page. What would be the fun in that? "We've diversified [these characters] not just by their skin tone and the way they've grown up, but how they look apart from each other," Cuffe says of converting them to animation. "It's highlighting how people really look. In all honesty … we want [to celebrate] all kinds of kids and how they like to dress and who they are. " "I think everyone stereotypes until they learn and grow and eventually replace that incomplete knowledge with real facts." - Diego Molano FALL 2018 23