07 · 26 · 23

Mexican Cinema in Action: Animation's Background and Catching up

Rafael Aviña

Rafael Aviña

Translator, Andrea Cabrera

In 2002, the animated feature film Wizards and Giants premiered in our country, Andrés Couturier and Eduardo Sprowls's debut film, produced by Ánima Estudios, followed by Imaginum (2005), by Alberto Mar and Isaac Sandoval. Both proposals stood out mainly because in the last 30 years, only six animated features had been made. Back then, it was practically a virgin land into which new digital technologies ventured to make creative processes more viable, and a remarkable interest of a new generation of young filmmakers to explore all kinds of animated techniques arose: from graffiti to clay for stop motion and from carbon pencil to the computer.

Indeed, the two decades of this new millennium have been fundamental for a genre in vogue: animated cinema. Animation in Mexico has demonstrated creativity, talent and skill, as exemplified by the work of Ánima Estudios, who has experimented with both 2D and CGI animation. It stands out for its creative processes and a unique enthusiasm to bet on stories aimed at a mostly children's audience, in reciprocity to the human rights of girls and boys. This is done through stories where friendship, family values, humor, action and fantastic themes prevail.

The fruitful work of Ánima Estudios gave rise to dozens of works for film, television and streaming, either recycling classics or animating famous national characters such as Top Cat or El Chavo: The Animated Series and El Santos vs. la Tetona Mendoza. And in turn, making funny children's films such as: Agent Macaw: Shaken & Stirred or AAA - The Movie, in which the wrestlers La Parka, Octagón, Abismo Negro and Mascarita Sagrada joined the animated cinema in an attempt to save the world. There are more sensitive works such as Ana and Bruno, the first Mexican 3D film, directed by Carlos Carrera, written by Daniel Emil and Flavio González Mello, and produced by Pablo Baksht, which a few days ago the website movieweb.com listed as one of the 20 best international films of the decade 2010-2020, according to the critic Jonah Rice.

The director Alberto "Chino" Rodríguez is responsible for the Legend Quest series, the four animated films that make up the third cycle of the third stage of Mexican Cinema in Action, which will be screened at this time in Michoacán and Mexico City with the support of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). The Legend of La Llorona (2011) and its sequel, The Legend of the Guanajuato Mummies (2014); The Legend of the Chupacabra (2016) and its continuation, The Legend of the Black Charro (2017) take up historical elements of our country such as the War of Independence and traditional places such as Xochimilco, Guanajuato and Puebla, as well as Mexican myths including the underworld, to tell stories of adventures that are entertaining for kids and support family, social and cultural values.