and not to (b) enlighten or (c) exercise artistic creativity in addition to (a) entertaining.

Just look at PTP. People look for the deeper meaning in many live-action films, and hold the best of them up as excellent works of art. Whole posts are dedicated to analyzing single films. When's the last time someone other than me went into depth about an animated feature film in a post ("review" posts for newly-released films notwithstanding).

In America, cartoons are either for kids or for giggles. Very few people take animated properties seriously. Even the ones who appreciate, say, "The Simpsons" and "South Park" on a level above mere entertainment don't always have an appreciation for the (painstaking, expensive, and complicated) _art_ of animation.

On top of all fo that, CGI hasn't fully developed to where companies not named "Pixar" can create believable, full-bodied, well animated humanoids in 3D animation. Yet, when all those Pixar films made money, Hollywood threw the baby out with the bathwater and abandoned *all* American cel animation for CGI*.

I almost forgot to talk about the industry: it is probalby one of the worst entertainment industries to go into. Speaking to animation professionals has almost completely disillusioned me from wanting to go into animation: horror stories about long hours, mandatory unpaid overtime, the presence of hoardes of do-nothing execs who ruin the product with their "input", and the general lack of respect for animators and animation professionals in general.

Worse, animation is the type of industry where it's extremely difficult to survive as an "independent". Animation by nature is expensive and time-consuming, so it almost requires corporate backing (and tampering). Add that to the smaller amount of venues available to an independent animator vs. an independent live-action filmmaker, and you have even more of a problem.

All that shit isn't worth trying to fulfil an 11-year-old kid's pipe dream of working on a movie like "Aladdin". I dunno; maybe I'm just (finally) growing up. I'll always love and appreciate animation, but I don't have any "burning desire" to make cartoons anymore. (and I CERTAINLY don't have any burning desire to think, like an idiot, that I can make a cartoon series in my spare time with my own money. WHat a fucking idiot I've been for thinking that). I still have ideas for my characters, but if I ever get around to doing them (I have a fully involved and stressful full-time job), I want to go the (cheaper, less time consuming, and less idiotic) route of a webcomic. Either that, or live action. No animation.

Maybe this all just a frustrated rant because I'm now entering the third year following the collapse of Walt Disney Feature Animation as I knew it, and the destruction of my dream goal of actually being able to work there. Maybe I'm just tired and worn out from working all the time. Maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe, even, I finally matured enough to realize that (depsite the old Disney adage) dreams don't always come true, even if you put work into them. But whatever it is, it's how I honestly feel.

* For those of you unaware, TV programs are animated in foriegn countries.