Some animations (and, for that matter, movies generally) have been criticized for their violence. Some violence is funny - slapstick, and other kinds of physical comedy. Some is gruesomely fascinating. But the deeper question is, why is it? What makes it so? Is it part of our human equipment or is it learned?
CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks took the question on in their April 25, 2009 broadcast with a feature documentary "A History of Violence". I found it fascinating. Here's a direct link to an mp3 file of the documentary:
These ideas are going to inform my animated storytelling. I can never know too much about what we are discovering about ourselves through the brain sciences.
